Heterosexuality Vs Traditional Gender

Men and women are pressured by society to be either masculine or feminine, respectively, and are confined by these expectations based on the added assumption that heterosexuality is normative and defines people’s identities. Girls grow up wanting to be princesses or nurses or ballerinas while boys are offered more “manly” professions such as doctor or lawyer or astronaut. From an early age, people are forced into either male or female outcomes in life, with women usually being subservient in a way to their male counter part, because that is what has come to be expected in heterosexual couples. Traditional gender roles have come to define not only the budding identities of young people but also the way people are expected to present themselves

Oversexualized Halloween costumes might seem innocent and adventurous escapes from normality, but in truth they are a perpetuation of heterosexuality as the norm in society. Women are expected to be feminine and sexual, especially on Halloween, because men expect this in their female counterparts, while men are expected to be silly and masculine, since this is what men expect of other men. These gendered fashion statements only confine people to traditional gender roles and continue to preserve heterosexuality as the “normal” and

In his work Dude, You’re a Fag: Adolescent Male Homophobia, C.J. Pascoe delves into the gender policing boys and men both deal out and accept in order to avoid the label of “fag” at all costs. In his essay, Pascoe describes a skit done by two boys, Brian and Dan, at River High, where they scare boys into being terrified of the term “fag” and the inherently homophobic picture that accompanies the term (Pascoe, 208). In addition to the homophobia it espouses, the term also serves to police male behavior into being more masculine, as the term “fag” can apply to a heterosexual male based on his behavior, and whether or not he is feminine at all. Since boys are taught from an early age, such as the River High skit, the term is something to be avoided at all costs, and the fact that the term can be used for incompetence or any behavior deemed unfitting of a perfect man, boys are often pressured to be perfect all the time or risk being policed by their own friends and