Word.ws English Dictionary

compulsory heterosexuality

compulsory heterosexuality noun: the idea that heterosexuality is often assumed and forced upon individuals regardless of their own sexual orientation by a patriarchal and heteronormative society.

Noun

compulsory heterosexuality (uncountable)

  1. The idea that heterosexuality is often assumed and forced upon individuals regardless of their own sexual orientation by a patriarchal and heteronormative society.
    • In none of these books, which concern themselves with mothering, sex roles, relationships, and societal prescriptions for women, is compulsory heterosexuality ever examined as an institution powerfully affecting all these; or the idea of "preference" or "innate orientation" even indirectly...1980 Summer, Adrienne Rich, “Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence”, in Signs, volume 5, number 4, →DOI, page 633
    • How could I have missed this milestone of compulsory heterosexuality? Who would teach my daughter whatever girls with fathers learned on these dates and dances, like how to wait for doors to be opened or hold a fork like an unmistakable catch?2019 April 26, Asha French, “A ‘Daddy-Daughter Date,’ Queer Single Mom-Style”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC
    Synonyms:
    comphet

Synonyms of compulsory heterosexuality

Questions about compulsory heterosexuality

What does compulsory heterosexuality mean?
Compulsory heterosexuality means the idea that heterosexuality is often assumed and forced upon individuals regardless of their own sexual orientation by a patriarchal and heteronormative society.
What part of speech is compulsory heterosexuality?
Compulsory heterosexuality is a noun.

Words near compulsory heterosexuality in the dictionary

  1. compulsorily
  2. compulsoriness
  3. compulsory
  4. compulsory acquisition
  5. compulsory education
  6. compulsory heterosexuality
  7. compulsory purchase
  8. compulsory purchase order
  9. compulsory purchase orders
  10. compulsoryness
  11. compunct

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: compulsory heterosexuality (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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