Is any Woman actually Heterosexual?
Alexis Graham
Is any woman actually and willingly heterosexual? This seems to be the primary source of controversy in Adrienne Rich’s “Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence.” Although Rich addresses several different topics about sexuality and the issues that have arisen from a lesbian perspective, the topic that most intrigued me was her insistence throughout the piece that no woman could be heterosexual if she didn’t live in a society where that was the norm and lesbians were “othered.” My confusion was cleared up in her conclusion when she finally conceded that one could never know their true sexual identity in the way heterosexuality is dominant and enforced now, yet there are several parts in which I felt Rich wrote herself into a tangent instead of focusing on women, particularly lesbians, in literature. Such as when she discussed rape and even consented sex in a heterosexual situation. Rape, to Rich, constituted all sex for man-woman couples. Not only does her argument seem like more of a personal biased statement than fact, but it is a hefty assumption to attempt to fight and seems nearly irrelevant. I also think it is interesting that Rich finds it so necessary to separate the lesbian cause from nearly every connection it has to the two leading movements that it is associated. With feminism, she believes that since it is not mentioned enough in feminist pieces that the entirety of the feminist movement is against lesbians. As far as the gay movement, Rich seems to illustrate that gay men would have no way of understanding the problems and pains that lesbians experience, and therefore also do not share a similar cause. It was hard to follow the piece in a coherent and linear way of thought since I found myself on several occasions thinking of several objections that Adrienne Rich does not take into account in her essay, as well as the fact that instead of just one clear purpose, she seemed to be just listing all of the institutions she hated and why lesbianism was the only "clear" solution.