Compulsory heterosexuality is a concept developed by Adrienne Rich in “Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence” (1980). Rich argued that heterosexuality is not a natural preference or orientation but a political institution — enforced through economic dependence, ideological pressure, erasure of alternatives, and violence — that organizes women’s labor, sexuality, and relational life for men’s benefit.
Rich’s intervention was directed at feminist theory itself, which had tended to treat heterosexuality as a given and lesbianism as an aberration requiring explanation. She reversed the question: what requires explanation is not why some women are lesbians but how the institution of heterosexuality is maintained — through what mechanisms of force, ideology, and economic compulsion women are channeled into heterosexual relationships and domesticity. The concept of the “lesbian continuum” extended the analysis beyond sexual practice to include all forms of women’s solidarity and resistance to male control.
The concept matters for queer theory because it established that heterosexuality is not a natural baseline against which other sexualities deviate but a normative institution actively maintained through power. This insight laid groundwork for the broader analysis of heteronormativity. It also connects feminist analysis to queer critique: the enforcement of heterosexuality is inseparable from the organization of gendered labor, social reproduction, and property.
Related terms
- Heteronormativity — the broader normative framework Rich’s analysis anticipates
- Social reproduction — the labor organized through compulsory heterosexuality
- Adrienne Rich — who develops the concept
- Feminist queer theory — the tradition this concept grounds