These powerful constructs of how to be ‘man’, ‘woman’,
‘gay/lesbian’ or ‘straight’ come with socially prescribed roles
and expectations which provide us with ‘socially appropriate’
ways of feeling, thinking and doing. But these ‘conditions of
gender’ are not fixed; they are shaped by history, culture and
language. Heterosexuality, more specifically, is presented as
part of the natural ‘fit’ between male and female bodies. But
sex is only a relatively recent theory about human beings which
divides them into two biologically based categories. The outcry
over athlete Caster Semenya shows how heavily invested people
are in this male-female binary sociologist, Melissa Steyn,
reminds us, however, that “nature does not come in binaries”.
The notion of inherent differences between the sexes loads up
physiological difference as a signifier that is far greater than
what the body looks like or how it functions. It is fundamental
to the functioning of power - social, economic or sexual. This
system of power is called het