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

[kutsuwamushi.livejournal.com]

We don't form communities according to skin colour or sexual proclivity

This is different than my experience in the United States.

For example, the Korean immigrants in my town know each other to a much greater extent than the white majority. I can point to local businesses that are popular among Koreans, where they can mingle and speak their own language. There is also a Korean-language church in a nearby town. (The community spans both towns. It began in the other one, but there are more employment and education opportunities here.) Not all of the Koreans are part of this community, I assume, but it's still true that they're much more socially connected to each other than random chance.

At what point does something become a community? Does membership in one community preclude membership in another one?

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

In my view communities are small, intimate things. I reckon most of us belong to several.