heteronormative

[ het-er-uh-nawr-muh-tiv ]

adjective

1. noting or relating to behavior or attitudes consistent with traditional male or female gender roles and the assumption of heterosexuality as the norm:

   our heteronormative culture.

Other Words From

• het·er·o·nor·ma·tiv·i·ty [het-er-, uh, -nawr-m, uh, -, tiv, -i-tee], noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of heteronormative¹

First recorded in 1990–95; hetero(sexual) ( def ) + normative ( def )

Example Sentences

Whether a couple makes it to “I do” at all depends on what brings each man and woman in this heteronormative marriage market together in the first place, which is truthful communication.

From Salon

It says a lot about the staid state of masculinity that men want the same heteronormative version of handsome that has defined male beauty standards for years.

From Slate

According to Afsaneh Najmabadi in “Women with Mustaches and Men without Beards,” the introduction of heteronormative standards from globally dominant Europe ensured that a woman’s mustache, which made them look like Europe's idea of a man, was by 1920 "in danger of becoming a sign of pastness, of out-of-dateness and was beginning to mark the figure against which Iranian modern woman was defining herself, the so-called traditional old-fashioned woman."

From Salon

"There's such an imbalance. How many films do we need to make about - and I can say this as a half-white man - privileged, white, middle-class, cis, heteronormative men? Do we need any more of those? No, we don't."

From BBC

Flipping comedy and heteronormative superhero tropes like two cheap tables at a bar, Vera Drew's delivery as Joker calls to mind Ezra Miller's acting style.

From Salon