The Invention of Heterosexuality

Type

Book

Authors

Jonathan Ned Katz

ISBN 10

0452275423

ISBN 13

9780452275423

Tags

Non-Fiction, Psychology, Sociology, LGBT Studies, Gender Studies, Heterosexuality, Heterosexual, United States, North American

Description

Exploring the startling history of the heterosexual concept, Jonathan Ned Katz reveals that as late as the 1920s, heterosexuality was still defined in a major American dictionary as "morbid sexual passion for one of the opposite sex." It was only through a slow process that heterosexuality became this society's dominant norm. Analyzing the work of such pioneering students of sexuality as Sigmund Freud and Richard von Krafft-Ebing, Katz considers the effects of their ideas about the sacred primacy of heterosexuality on both scientific literature and popular culture. He also examines the varied commentaries on heterosexuality by such contemporary writers as James Baldwin, Betty Friedan, Adrienne Rich, Kate Millett, and Michel Foucault.

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