The Invention Of Heterosexuality Katz Analysis

Katz, Jonathon. “The Invention of Heterosexuality: The Debut of the Heterosexual.” The Invention of Heterosexuality. New York: Dutton, 1995. 21-35. iLearn
Jonathan Katz talks about the initial creation of the term “heterosexuality” and how it was used to classify certain groups of people’s way of practicing sex. Along with the negative ideology the term reflected upon society. The author talks about the early definition of the term “heterosexuality”. Katz closely examines the different cultures and what sex meant to them prior to the term and over all labeling of “heterosexual” and what become of them after the fact. Katz illustrates the many faces of the term “heterosexual” starting with the early definition of the word, which was at the

time associated with perversion. The second wave of the term, Katz explains, was redefined by adding a hyphen and deemed the desire to have sex was abnormal. Katz gives many examples to demonstrate what society was like before sex was labeled under “heterosexual”. Katz talks about Ancient Greece to reiterate the point that “Heterosexual”, as the new term that it was, could never be applied to the past. The way they loved back then, particularly the Ancient Greeks would be considered homoerotic or homosexual in today’s society. Katz analysis of the term and overall labeling of “heterosexuality” provides readers with the insight of what labeling does to a society. Before 1892, before the term, sex was just sex. As pointed out by Katz when he used ancient Greece as an example. This work reflects the negative perception the term “heterosexuality” had at one point much like other labels in today’s society.