heteronormativeadj.
/ˌhɛt(ə)rəʊˈnɔːmətɪv/, U.S. /ˌhɛdəroʊˈnɔrmədɪv/ Of, designating, or based on a world view which regards gender roles as fixed to biological sex and heterosexuality as the normal and preferred sexual orientation.
ΚΠ
1991 M. Warner in Social Text No. 29. 6 Many of the specific environments in which lesbian and gay politics arises have not been adequately theorized and continue to act as unrecognized constraints... Concepts and themes of social theory that might be pressed to this purpose are in fact useless or worse because they embed a heteronormative understanding of society.
1996 Cinema Jrnl. 35 14 These constructions allow the film [sc. Johnny Guitar] to explore gender slippage while still upholding the traditional heteronormative understanding of sexual relationships.
2003 Bitch Fall 65/2 The parents..mouth platitudes that align them with depressing heteronormative myths, such as the belief that a potential parent should feel empty and lonely without a child.
2008 Calgary (Alberta) Herald (Nexis) 26 Sept. (Swerve section) 37 For those who inhabit spaces outside the heteronormative standard, it isn't easy to recognize and explain the impact of the dominant culture's gender binary (male/female) on day-to-day lived experience and on conclusions about one's identity.
This is a new entry (OED Third Edition, March 2011; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.1991