Talk:Heterosexuality

I understand that it might be polite towards trans sexuals to add "opposite gender"; but it's in the very definition of hetero-sexual that it refers to actual opposite sex. 0 on the Kinsley scale. -- 18:27, 17 June 2021 Haavarl -- Preceding unsigned comment added by Haavarl (talk o contribs)

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There's been a trend in recent decades to avoid the word "sex" in reference to what used to be called "the sexes" and replace it with "gender" (except in narrow biological uses), but I'm not sure that this has much to do with transgenders (the shift from "transsexual" to "transgender" is a result of this change, not a cause of it, as far as I know). I'm not sure that I care which word is used, as long as the word "opposite" is retained (there were some objections to "opposite" in the past, as you can read in the archives of this page. AnonMoos (talk) 02:18, 19 June 2021 (UTC)Reply

We use both to satisfy those who advocate for each. Biological sources tend to use sex, while sociological sources sometimes use gender. Crossroads ^-talk- 23:40, 19 June 2021 (UTC)Reply

And that was okay when 'opposite/same gender' meant the same thing as 'opposite/same sex.' And here it really matters only indirectly - heterosexual people aren't at any great risk of being oppressed - but naturally, the hetero- and homo- articles must needs use the same phrasings in their ledes lest our coverage of the topics be non-neutral, and redefining sexual orientation as relating to attraction toward a particular gender effectively redefines homosexuals out of existence. I know homosexuality is not this article's subject, but the way one article lede is framed affects how the other is, and in theory the issue pertains to both orientations likewise (even if in reality it is unlikely to jeopardise hetero folk). 2600:1702:4960:1DE0:100A:126F:9258:FBB8 (talk) 10:23, 7 November 2021 (UTC)Reply

It's not obvious to me that uniformity between the "Heterosexuality" and "Homosexuality" articles is required by any Wikipedia policy, but I would have no objection to the "sex or gender" wording. AnonMoos (talk) 23:00, 7 November 2021 (UTC)Reply

The use of "sex" and "gender" as synonyms began in the early 19th century, but was not wide spread and was more along the lines of idiom or slang. It was the early 20th century where the use caused it to become an actual synonym due to it's wide spread use in common language, which is how language evolves. Currently, due to the open existence (as opposed to them normally keeping in hiding) of transgenders, the trend has been towards separating the two words again, with sex referring to the biological body, and gender referring to the psychological identity. Maquiscat (talk) 11:28, 13 October 2022 (UTC)Reply

There is also an issue with statistics, as a reader i don't understand whether heteresexuality included "opposite gender" or it was only "opposite sex" in 1992? If there was a change of meaning, it would be really helpfull to know when the meaning was changed. 112.134.188.95 (talk) 18:16, 18 May 2023 (UTC)Reply

I really don't think this has a place in an article about heterosexuality, especially because, as written, it implies that being in heterosexual gender roles is itself a form of discrimination... and that really contributes nothing to what heterosexuality is and ultimately implies that heterosexuality only exists to oppress 2601:246:5680:E670:14BD:C0A9:CC57:A9EE (talk) 01:12, 22 June 2021 (UTC)Reply

It's contained in section 4.4 of the article, the last subsection before the "see also" links, so it's not dominating the article. I'm not sure that the idea is that heterosexuality is inherently bad, as that enforced conformity in the name of heterosexuality can be as pernicious as any other kind of enforced conformity. In the English-speaking developed countries in the 1950s, if you weren't heterosexual (or sometimes even if you were heterosexual, but practiced any form of sex other than between a married couple in the missionary position) you could receive condescending long lectures from orthodox Freudian psychiatrists in elegant abstruse jargon sprinkled with Latin words which basically boiled down to the fact that you were a disgusting pervert -- and sometimes more directly repressive actions were taken. AnonMoos (talk) 19:54, 22 June 2021 (UTC)Reply

Gender is a choice these days so heterosexuals are attracted to the opposite sex not the opposite gender because you can't choose your sex and heterosexuality isn't a choice it's for cismales to be attracted to cisfemales and vice versa. The term straight can be for attraction to opposite gender 192.139.153.114 (talk) 19:14, 24 November 2021 (UTC)Reply

I really don't think that any such vocabulary distinction is widely known. If it exists at all, then there needs to be a reliable source for it... AnonMoos (talk) 08:12, 26 November 2021 (UTC)Reply

While there is some rumblings of this, it is not something that is yet in common use, not even among the transgender community. Unlike the terms "sex" and "gender" and the corresponding labels of "man" and "male" and that of "woman" and "female", "straight" and "heterosexual" and "gay" and "homosexual" are still synonymous in the common language. That is not to say that such a separation would not be a good thing. Simply that it has not entered into the mainstream language yet, like the others have. Maquiscat (talk) 11:34, 13 October 2022 (UTC)Reply

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Under the term hetorsexual the line opposite sex or gender should be changed to opposite sex and gender (or gender removed completely) to gitt the offisial definition of hetorsexual that you can see in all dictionarys TheModernViking (talk) 11:40, 3 December 2021 (UTC)Reply

  Not done for now: please establish a consensus for this alteration before using the {{edit semi-protected}} template. ScottishFinnishRadish (talk) 12:10, 3 December 2021 (UTC)Reply

Dictionaries lag actual language use. Gay became a synonym of homosexual long before the dictionaries published it as such. One reason is to ensure that such use has become a fixed use in common language. So the use of dictionaries strictly should not be the criteria in determining this. Current studies should also be a factor and probably a more weighted one. Maquiscat (talk) 11:38, 13 October 2022 (UTC)Reply

The wiki says that heterosexuality is attracted to the opposite sex or gender. I just want to say that sex isnt important here ( of course if you preffer cis people is ok, but thats preffering, not heterosexuality). A trans woman and a cis man are heterosexual, but an trans man and a man not Frostbyteonce (talk) 20:50, 5 February 2024 (UTC)Reply

The current definition reflects common long-standing tradition and attraction to trans women is a relatively recent notion bordering WP:OR. Also, it's unclear what proportion of cismen (out of sizeable cohort) would actually be attracted to transwomen. Brandmeister^talk 22:04, 5 February 2024 (UTC)Reply

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