Heteronormativity

Heteronormativity, the ubiquitously held belief that heterosexuality is natural, and thus normal, is a useful concept for investigating embodied sociospatial configurations of gender, sex, and sexuality. It has been introduced into the study of geography by both feminist and queer geographers who have shown how space becomes heterosexualized (or not) through analyses of gendered, racialized, and sexualized practices, encounters, and relations in specific sites and locales. Over time, geographers of sexuality and space have moved from their initial exploration of those identities that fall outside of heteronormativity, such as those of gays and lesbians and those designated queer, to exploring the range of desires and bodies that are considered heteronormative. Since the mid‐1990s, research on heternormativity has most commonly taken place in social and cultural geography, although it has implications for all subfields of human geography.