Compulsory Bodies: Reflections on Heterosexuality and Able-bodiedness

Abstract

In preparing to write this essay, I stumbled across a 1992 special issue of Feminism and Psychology devoted to the topic of "heterosexuality." The editors had collected seventeen short reflections from heterosexual feminists addressing the question "How does your heterosexuality contribute to your feminist politics (and/or your feminist psychology)?" 1 As the editors acknowledge in their introduction, their project was inspired in part by Adrienne Rich's groundbreaking essay, "Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence." Indeed, the collection serves as an example of what Rich requested from feminist theorists and scholars; as she writes in the 1982 foreword to her article, her intent was "to encourage heterosexual feminists to examine heterosexuality as a political institution." 2