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Keerim Kim completed Assignment 06

In “Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence,” Adrienne Rich explains how compulsory heterosexuality is institutionalized in everyday lives. According to many researches and essays, influential scholars asserted that women are “innately” sexually oriented towards men, and were also subordinated to men in economic context. Women were raised up seeing those fixed form of ideologies widely current in fairy tales, literature, television programs, social sciences, etc. Rich introduces Kathleen Gough’s theory of “eight characteristics of male power.” From Gough’s words, it shows clear sexual inequality between men and women. Women suffer from physical exploitation, as well as psychological abuse. By that, they are convinced that sexual orientation towards men is natural inevitable.

To see this problem in economic context, we can easily find that women are getting low paid jobs compared to men. Also, jobs require sexualization of women that they have to endure any type of sexual harassment at work. Not only being economically disadvantaged, women suffer from sexual slavery within family that it makes them harder to speak up about their experience and also forces them to think that their subordination could be justified.

Therefore, because of social acknowledgement, prejudice and overlooking, women’s preference of women were, in most of the times, disguised or hidden. Comparing their experience to male homosexuals, it was harder for lesbians to achieve their rights and be acknowledged, because only by being women, they had their chances deprived. There was clearly lack of economic privilege among women. Therefore, feminist thoughts were also devoured by compulsory heterosexual orientation.

Some people catalogued lesbian existence under disease. Some assumed it as act of resistance. It could not be acknowledged as a preference or choice. Rather, it was discounted as deviant or apolitical. This explains why marriage was a necessary form for lesbians to survive economically. Rich asserts there is possibility that all women exist on a lesbian continuum. However, majority of women as a whole are still psychologically trapped and institutionalized heterosexuality is prevalent in our society.