Compulsory Heterosexuality and lesbian existance by adrienne rich

FIRST I'd like to Define compulsory

compulsory-required by law or rule; obligated

AND Define heterosexuality

heterosexuality-a sexual attraction to persons of the opposite sex

According to these online definitions compulsory heterosexuality is being obligated or forced to be sexually attracted to persons of the opposite sex.

And according to adrienne rich heterosexuality is a political institute which disempowers women and enforces that women are emotional and sexual property of man. Heterosexualiy is therefore enforced because autonomy and equality of women threaten family, religion, and state. Heterosexuality in society today is compulsory through physical and subconscious controls forced through legislation, religion, society, and media.

SECOND I will define lesbian existance

these words are a little easier to define..

lesbian- a homosexual woman

existance- the fact or state of living or having objective reality

what I got out of Adrienne Rich's piece was that lesbian existence is the awareness and openness of women's attraction to women and  our society has a hard time/ does not acknowledging it, due to cumpulsory heterosexuality.

This article was interesting because it brings up a lot of points that I'm not sure many people would come up with; like the fact that women are drawn to women because they want a mother-daughter bond. The fact that girls are raised to want to be with boys, and like boys, and follow boys, early on prevents women from realizing that they can bond emotionally better with women. I'm not sure how much i agree with Rich's theory, but I am interested to see how the class reacts to this and what every one has to say about it.