Straight
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Average rating3.7
It's surprising that the term "heterosexuality" is less than 150 years old and that heterosexuality's history has never before been written, given how obsessed we are with it. In Straight, independent scholar Hanne Blank delves deep into the contemporary psyche as well as the historical record to chronicle the realm of heterosexual relations--a subject that is anything but straight and narrow. Consider how Catholic monasticism, the reading of novels, the abolition of slavery, leisure time, divorce, and constipation of the bowels have all at some time been labeled enemies of the heterosexual state. With an extensive historical scope and plenty of juicy details and examples, Straight provides a fascinating look at the vagaries, schisms, and contradictions of what has so often been perceived as an irreducible fact of nature.
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An incisive, entertainingly written book on history of the concept of “heterosexuality”, which, as it turns out, was a term invented in the late 1800s and only picked up for reals in the early part of the 20th century. The author tends to go on tangents a bit and the introduction is a little self-absorbed, but it provides a nice overview of how male-female couplings evolved as they went from being “just the relationships everyone has” to “heterosexuality”. A fairly short book, as it says, it clocks in at slightly over 200 pages, a good third of that is endnotes and bibliography. It's well-researched, and thoughtful– she unpacks the common sense notions that “everyone knows” about the way orientation is talked and thought about, firmly grounding everything she in history and science.
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