In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

103 7 Heterosexuality Exposed Some Feminist Sociological Reflections on Heterosexual Sex and Romance in U.S. Latina/o Communities GLOR IA GONZÁLEZ-LÓPEZ “Why aren’t you in a relationship? Haven’t you found the right man?” I have been asked these questions countless times by some of my relatives, some close friends on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border, and a few self-identified progressive women and men colleagues studying gender and romantic relationships across disciplines. As I have spent extended periods of my adult life without a romantic partner, others have additionally inquired with a tone of sadness, “Don’t you trust men? Are you divorced? Hmmm . . . Maybe you are, and I do not know about it! For a Mexican woman, isn’t it kind of odd that you have never been married?” While engaging in these conversations with complete honesty, I have always enjoyed the endless curiosity both parties experience as these exchanges unfold. At the same time, these dialogues have transformed my persona into a kind of “Latina sex and romance Rorschach” that stimulates emotional reactions, opinions, and questions exploring Latin American cultures and societies; Mexican beliefs and practices with regard to love, dating, and sex; and what U.S. Latina/os may expect from their romantic exchanges. My conversations with relatives and friends about my relationship history reflect in part some of the concerns the average person may eventually express if she or he were to engage in a dialogue with a childless, never-married Mexican immigrant woman who is already in her forties. And while to my various interlocutors I have at times identified myself as “historically heterosexual,” they have rarely explored what I might mean by this expression as they lead the conversation back to heterosexual dating and marriage (at a certain age) as the avenue promising happiness, personal stability, and emotional wellbeing . In these dialogues, it is even more fascinating to observe that some who criticize social norms and regulations still do not escape from reproducing the very idealized expectations and stereotypes illustrated above and reproduced in contemporary society. 104 GLORIA GONZÁLEZ-LÓPEZ This essay offers some feminist sociological reflections with regard to the social and cultural ways in which U.S. Latina/o communities have reproduced and maintain heterosexuality as the norm controlling the sexual and romantic lives of their members. In this essay I present 1. a reflection of the dominant paradigms in the literature with regard to U.S. Latinas and their experiences of heterosexual love and sex; 2. an analysis of the ways in which coming-of-age passages represent social rituals of heterosexual initiation; and 3. an examination of the ways in which race relations and heterosexuality have interacted to promote both white racial and heterosexual supremacy in U.S. Latina/o communities. Finally, I submit some reflections for future research and policy implications with regard to these populations’ experiences of heterosexual love and sex. Latina/o Cultures, Heterosexual Love, and Sex In U.S. Latina/o popular and academic publications, different dimensions of heterosexual relationships have been examined from two contrasting and opposing perspectives. The first perspective is the oldest and traditional tendency in the literature. Machos, virgins, and whores; machismo and marianismo; Catholic guilt and religion; familismo and personalism; and acculturation (among other overused concepts and paradigms) all have become rigid and monolithic categories of analysis in this body of research and theory.1 In these publications, a so-called Latino culture (or Hispanic culture) has similarly become an emblematic and problematic concept. In recent years, this concept has promoted a pan-Latina/o identity and inspired political organizing that is informed by identity politics in the United States.2 When not used carefully, however, this concept has become a theoretical fiction that overlooks the heterogeneity and multiplicity of Latina/o cultures, and inter- and intragroup diversity of expressions , national and ethnic identities, and communities within both the United States and Latin America.3 These concepts and paradigms have dominated the prolific literature in the behavioral sciences, epidemiology and public health disciplines, and scholarship on Latinas and Latinos and HIV/AIDS. Culture-based concepts and paradigms were introduced decades ago in order to examine different aspects of the sexual experiences of these populations (assumed in general to be heterosexual) from—ironically—“culturally sensitive” perspectives. They have become highly respected, and in my first publication I could not escape...

Share