The Heterosexual Community

[poliphilo]

Some Diddy-biddy on the BBC News channel just asked an interviewee how something or other would affect the heterosexual community.  The what? 

I'm a heterosexual. How come I never heard of this community before? Why don't they send me the newsletter? Why don't I get invited to meetings? Where's my club badge? 

Who's our convenor? Peter Stringfellow?  Katie Price?

I want to get out and meet my fellow-heterosexuals. I want to take tea with them. I want to discuss all the pressing concerns we have in common.

What lazy, nonsenical stuff all this talk of "community" is.  The Muslim community, the Chinese community, the gay community, the black community: none of these really exists.

Comments

The Man Who Would Be King (of All Heteros)

[ryanstrong.livejournal.com]

Re: The Man Who Would Be King (of All Heteros)

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

And I for one have no intention of disputing his claim.

Re: The Man Who Would Be King (of All Heteros)

[sculptruth.livejournal.com]

Dear god, how could you? Just look at him!

Re: The Man Who Would Be King (of All Heteros)

[veronica-milvus.livejournal.com]

yes, but in that hat??? It is SO camp!

[ex-redrain.livejournal.com]

Isn't the "heterosexual community" the dominant one? (Heteronormative, is the word, I think.) I always thought the other communities you mention were attempts to carve out their own spaces within (or against) the dominant one.

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

I think polphilo's argument is that they're not communities. If there is a Muslim community, does that make me a member of the Buddhist community or the female community?

Perhaps the meaning of the word is changing, but I still prefer the original meaning of, "a group of interacting people living in a common location."

[ex-redrain.livejournal.com]

I understand his point about the communities, but I do think they exist, at least to a degree, in our imaginations (pulling from Benedict Anderson, there).

Membership in communities is fluid, so to answer your question, I would say "yes" to all three, though that would depend on your choosing to be parts of those communities and those communities' acceptance of your membership.

I'm also thinking about this idea from a U.S. perspective; cultural theory in the U.K. differs from cultural theory here.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Heterosexuals form the majority, but not a community. Community implies intimacy, closeness. Communities are necessarily small. A community consisting of millions of people is a contradiction in terms.

[richenda.livejournal.com]

Was it asked with tongue in cheek?
Had the interviewee mentioned "the homosexual community"?

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I don't think it was tongue in cheek. The subject was too serious for that. It was in the context of a discussion of AIDS.

[ideealisme.livejournal.com]

It could be that "community" implies shared understandings and common concepts among its members.

For example the question, "Ladies, do you plan to change your name on marriage?" could be said to be primarily aimed at straight women rather than gay women. It would be an understood norm within the heterosexual community.

The fact that heterosexuality is a dominant trope might blind us (there's that tricky word, "us"!) to the understanding that not all these common, shared beliefs are, in fact, common shared beliefs.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Exactly. When I'm told that some community that I might be supposed to belong to thinks this that or the other, my usual response is, "Well, I don't".

I'm an instinctive contrarian.

[veronica-milvus.livejournal.com]

Not any more! The gay ones are getting married too!

[wolfshift.livejournal.com]

The one I loathe is "the international community", which crops up in the news from time to time. I have no idea whom it comprises.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

It's one of those phrases that sounds grand and important, but means absolutely nothing.

[mummm.livejournal.com]

How ridiculous! Don't you just love the people who have the ability to communicate to the public and do so in such an ignorant way?

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I shout at the TV a lot. People in positions of influence say the stupidest things.

[airstrip.livejournal.com]

I am of the opinion that there simply are no heterosexuals in Britain. You have asexuals, homosexuals and closeted homosexuals.

[veronica-milvus.livejournal.com]

ha! s'what YOU think! ;-)

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

It's an intriguing hypothesis.

[nostoi.livejournal.com]

Hahahahaha

You could be right.

[haikujaguar.livejournal.com]

I love this post.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Thanks

[algabal.livejournal.com]

Spot-on as usual!

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Thanks