Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence: A Close Reading

Introduction: Rich's Feminist Perspective

Adrienne Rich is a feminist theorist with clearly defined ideas communicated with sharp yet graceful articulation. Her essay "Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence" earned her well-deserved respect from the community of her peers while simultaneously challenging women, theorists, philosophers, and producers of media and culture to a great task. Her perspective — one that exists outside and arguably independent of Western patriarchal male ideology — is valuable precisely because it occupies a space beyond the mainstream. The declaration and acknowledgement of existence is a crucial theme of "Compulsory Heterosexuality." Her piece is about the lesbian experience, but more broadly it is about the experience of women within a society where men hold power. This power is systematic; it operates within social, political, and familial institutions as well as in the workplace.

Rich composed "Compulsory Heterosexuality" in Massachusetts in 1980. It is a daring and critical piece of writing that demonstrates multiple interlocking themes. Her overarching points concern the female experience within patriarchy around the world. She also argues that there are far too few examples of the female and lesbian experience throughout history, media, literature, and culture. She provides evidence illuminating the systematic and institutional violence against women across history and around the world. This paper summarizes Rich's arguments, applies her proposals to sexuality, and connects her ideas with other women's issues.

Heterosexuality as Institution, Not Instinct

"Compulsory Heterosexuality" begins with Rich expressing her ideas about the lesbian experience and how it is denied in language, with direct effects in the social realm:

"Any theory or cultural/political creation that treats lesbian existence as a marginal or less 'natural' phenomenon, as mere 'sexual preference,' or as the mirror image of either heterosexual or male homosexual relations, is profoundly weakened thereby, whatever its other contributions. Feminist theory can no longer afford merely to voice a toleration of 'lesbianism' as an 'alternative life-style,' or make token allusion to lesbians." (Rich, 1980)

She states how heterosexuality functions as the default norm in patriarchal culture: "The bias of compulsory heterosexuality, through which lesbian experience is perceived on a scale ranging from deviant to abhorrent, or simply rendered invisible" (Rich, 1980). Heterosexuality is never regarded as a choice; it is regarded as innate. The lesbian experience is not acknowledged enough in culture — in fact, it is intentionally destroyed, as is the broader history of women in general. When terms such as preference, orientation, lifestyle, and choice are applied to sexuality, they are invoked in reference to lesbians and not to heterosexual women, revealing an asymmetry that exposes heterosexuality's assumed naturalness as a political construction rather than a biological fact.

Capitalism, Compulsion, and Female Sexuality

Sexuality within capitalism is compulsory and grants men an enormous structural advantage in society. Capitalism engages that which is primal and uncontrollable about humanity, narrows the scope of that experience, and makes it compulsory. Rich draws the parallel directly:

"Yet the failure to examine heterosexuality as an institution is like failing to admit that the economic system called capitalism or the caste system of racism is maintained by a variety of forces, including both physical violence and false consciousness. To take the step of questioning heterosexuality as a 'preference' or 'choice' for women and to do the intellectual and emotional work that follows will call for a special quality of courage in heterosexually identified feminists — but I think the rewards will be great: a freeing-up of thinking, the exploring of new paths, the shattering of another great silence, new clarity in personal relationships." (Rich, 1980)

Challenging social and political convention will be arduous, yet the reward of freeing women from the ever-present restraints of male-prescribed female sexuality in capitalism would be profound. Rich envisions a world of genuine equality and freely expressed sexuality in all its forms: "The extension of this assumption is the frequently heard assertion that in a world of genuine equality, where men were nonoppressive and nurturing, everyone would be bisexual" (Rich, 1980).

Conclusion: Admitting the Problem

This is not a small problem. This is not an overblown issue. The oppression Rich describes is omnipresent in the minds, lives, and experiences of all women around the world throughout the span of human history. Just as an addict at her or his first meeting of a twelve-step program must begin by admitting there is a problem, so too must society reckon honestly with the systemic inequality imposed upon women. That admission, Rich argues, is the necessary and indispensable first step toward genuine liberation.

Reference

Rich, A. (1980). Compulsory heterosexuality and lesbian existence. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 5(4), 631–660. The University of Chicago Press.