Sitting in a teenage boy’s locker room, it is not uncommon to hear tales of late night hookups and other “sex-capades.” Indeed this is what boys seem to talk about most often – their sex lives, who they have sex with, and who the next hottest girl is. These talks usually take place in very “manly” places like the locker room, the gym, shop class, or while playing sports. This kind of talk is what C.J. Pascoe calls “compulsive heterosexuality.”
When C.J. Pascoe was researching at a high school, she did a study about compulsive heterosexuality to see it actually existed. She met many boys who said that the way you become “the man” on campus is by having sex with many girls. You’re “the man” if you can talk about sex knowledgeably and are seen with the hottest girls. Having a girlfriend seemed to be some sort of rite of passage. And should you happen to be bad at “getting girls,” in order to still be seen as cool, you had to at least act as if you were into girls.
When Pascoe did her study, she gave an interesting example of a popular boy who, for Halloween dressed in a homosexual way, but still achieved masculinity by forcing some girls to kiss him on the cheek. This boy, dressed as an elf, ran around with mistletoe over his head yelling at girls to kiss him until they did. His friends then congratulated him on “getting them to kiss him.” Later, she watched as a boy annoyed a girl with sexual innuendos about how when they went to college the next year they would room together. As he joked about this, he thrusted his hips into her butt and continued to do that even when she told him to stop.
These displays, Pascoe said, shows that compulsive heterosexuality as a ritual not only includes needing to prove your masculinity but also a semi-predatory aspect. It is as if, in order to be considered heterosexual, you must never be turned down by a girl. If a girl does turn you down, she automatically is called a “whore” or a “slut.”
Who cares if you are seen as manly or not? Apparently most men in high school do. This sense of having to be seen as someone who is manly or masculine is part of this compulsive heterosexuality phenomenon. Guys are terrified of being seen as a “fag.” I say, who cares? But to them it is so important to be seen as heterosexual and as a result, they end up forcing themselves on girls and making idiots of themselves. Most girls don’t care, but to these guys, how you are seen and what girls your having sex with is really all that matters. It’s part of their need to be heterosexual at all times.
This need probably comes from another thing that Pascoe studied which was how most boys in high school are homophobic. Boys see how other boys who are not seemingly masculine and heterosexual are treated (they are called fag, beat up, and made fun of) and realize that in order to avoid that type of bullying they have to “get with girls” and prove that they are not even close to being a “fag.” Pascoe studies the word “fag” and how heterosexual boys use it to peer pressure other boys into doing heterosexual things. If a guy is not getting with girls, or isn’t into girls, he is a “fag.” This forces the other boys who are getting called a “fag” to over-assert their masculinity.
It’s interesting that so many guys feel like they have to be heterosexual to be accepted. It doesn’t seem like girls feel the pressure to as heterosexual. The word fag and the fear of being seen as anything other than heterosexual pushes these boys to do things and even sometimes lie about things, that maybe they just didn’t want to do. That seems crazy to me. Who cares what you’re seen “as?” Compulsive heterosexuality is the name sociologists use to say that boys feel as if they have to be straight in order to fit in. In my opinion, that sucks.

Shop Talk


http://www.shorpy.com/node/3502


Locker Room Talk