Date: Wed, 26 Jan 1994 01:31:15 -0700 (PDT)
From: "Michael B. Clark" <mclark@uofport.edu>
Subject: Heterosexuality

Here is a fun little clip I thought you all might enjoy. In the tradition
of _Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex_, I bring you:

WHAT EXACTLY IS HETEROSEXUALITY AND
WHAT CAUSES IT?


WHAT IT IS:
Heterosexuality is a condition in which people have a driving emotional
and sexual interest in members of the opposite sex. Because of the
anatomical, physiological, social and cultural limitations involved, there
are formidable obstacles to be overcome. However, many heterosexuals look
upon this as a challenge and approach it with ingenuity and energy. Indeed
it can be said that most heterosexuals are obsessed with the gratification
of their curious desires.

WHAT CAUSES IT:
Hormonal imbalance? Economic conditions? Fear of death? Cultural
deprivation? Pathological condition? Social conditioning? Childhood
trauma? Parental program?

HORMONAL IMBALANCE
One theory advanced is that heterosexuals have an imbalance in their sex
hormonesQ instead of the normal mixture of the two, they have an excess of
one or a dearth of the other, resulting in an inability to enjoy full and
satisfying relationships with their own sex.

ECONOMIC CONDITIONING
Our society grants financial and other incentives for exclusively (i.e.
neurotic) heterosexual coupling: from tax concessions to council houses.
To be gay is expensive and many people simply cannot afford it.

FEAR OF DEATH
A terror of mortality lies beneath much heterosexual coupling. Driven to
perpetuate themselves at any cost, most heterosexuals are indifferent to
the prospect of the world-wide famine that will result if the present
population explosion continues unchecked.

CULTURAL DEPRIVATION
Most heterosexuals will be found to have come from a background in which
an appreciation of the beauty of their own bodies has been ruthlessly
suppressed. Heterosexual men in particular think themselves 'ugly', beauty
being ascribed only to women. Many psychic disorders stem from this
self-rejection.

PATHOLOGICAL CONDITION
Many heterosexuals claim that they were just 'born that way'.
Unfortunately this doesn't hold water. All human beings are the result of
the interaction between their substance and their environment and
heterosexuals, like the rest of us, must share the responsibility for
their condition.

SOCIAL CONDITIONING
Many unthinking heterosexuals succumb to the daily bombardment of
conditioning from the mass media and live out their lives trapped in
oppressive stereotypes. We should feel compassion for such people, not
hostility, for their rejection of all those parts of the self that do not
conform to the 'married-couple' ideal, is a measure of their loss of
contact with their own unique sexuality.

CHILDHOOD TRAUMA
A bad experience with a member of the same sex while young may cause
rejection of all members of the same sex through fear. The desire
continues in the subconscious and emerges as a heterosexual neurosis.

PARENTAL PROBLEMS
In most cases of compulsive heterosexual behavior, the parents will be
found to have suffered from similar difficulties.



By Alan Wakeman. Excerpted from the book _Heterosexuality_ by Gillian E.
Hanscombe and Martin Humphries. 1987, GMP Publishers Ltd.



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