In sociology, heterosociality describes with persons of the opposite sex or a preference for such relations, often excluding relationships of a romantic and sexual nature.
At an institutional level, the spread of heterosociality, epitomized by the entrance of women into public life and space, is closely associated with the progress of modernization.[Ben Singer, Melodrama and Modernity (2001) p. 21]
Terminology
The term
heterosocial can refer to either:
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an individual who prefers to befriend or socialize with the opposite sex, as opposed to homosocial (preferring same-sex social relations) or bisocial (enjoying social relations with both sexes)
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a social relationship between two people who are of different sexes, as opposed to homosocial (of the same sex).
Whether the term can be applied to groups of three or more people has been disputed. One possible argument is that such a group is homosocial if composed of people of a single sex, and bisocial if composed of people of both sexes, since in the latter case each member will be interacting with people of both sexes. On the other hand, Collins English Dictionary
Historical developments
The pervasiveness of heterosociality in contemporary life can lead to the obscuring of its social construction as a late development in Western history. Writing of early society,
Freud considered that there was "an unmistakable tendency to keep the sexes apart. Women live with women, men with men".
[Sigmund Freud, On Sexuality (PFL 7) p. 271] Durkheim associated sexual
totemism, binding men and women into two separate totemic corporations, with such a social division of the sexes.
[Emile Durkheim, The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life (1971) p. 165-6] Even in the twentieth century, rules of etiquette in some traditional villages dictated that men and women do not greet each other when passing in public.
[Erving Goffman, Relations in Public (1971) p. 122]
Urbanization and modernization have seen a gradual erosion of the barriers to male/female socialising, not without significant along the way over each particular new arena. Thus, for example, part of the hostility to the Elizabethan theatre lay in the fact that men and women freely intermingled in its audience;[Stephen Greenblatt, Will in the World (2005) p. 186] while dance halls and cabarets later offered similarly controversial new areas for heterosocial interaction,[Mark P. Holt, Alcohol: A Social and Cultural History (2006) p. 152] as too did amusement parks.[Kathy Peiss, Cheap Amusements (1987) p. 136]
In the 21st century, the challenge presented to traditional societies by the way the discourse of modernity encourages heterosociality over an older homosociality continues to be a live issue.[N. Naghibi, Rethinking Global Sisterhood (2007) p. 110]
Impact on feminism
The 20th century opening up of the public sphere to women
[Jennifer Craig, The Face of Fashion (1994) p. 178]—work, politics, culture, education—was both fueled and fed by the feminist movement, but the increase in heterosociality which accompanied it was seen as double-edged by many feminists. On the one hand, it served to undercut older feminist homosocial bonds and support systems;
[Susan Layleff, Wash and be Healed (1991) p. 162] on the other, it split the new feminist movement, as calls for separatist feminism challenged heterosociality, let alone heterosexuality,
[Sylvia Walby, The Future of Feminism (2011) p. 3] in ways many found unacceptable.
Post-feminism has generally accepted heterosociality, along with a new strategy of gender mainstreaming, but not without reservations as to the exploitative aspects of (for example) raunch culture within the new 21st century public gender regime.[Walby, p. 20 and p. 88]
Adolescence
Acquiring heterosocial competence is a key adolescent task.
[R. J. R. Levesque, Encyclopedia of Adolescence (2011) p. 1302] Other-sex friendships, even more than romances, can play a key role in this process.
[Levesque, p. 1297-9]
Different societies and different place varying restrictions upon adolescent heterosocial roles and opportunities.[Erving Goffman, Relations in Public (1972) p. 269–70] American youth culture in particular has been seen as aggressively promoting heterosociality over homosociality.[R. Wilson/D. Lavery, Fighting the Forces (2002) p. 49–51]
Culture
The advancement of culture was seen by
Henry James as linked to heterosociality.
[Beverly Havilland, Henry James's Last Romance (1997) p. 168] Similarly,
Kenneth Clark saw the flourishing of 18th-century French culture as rooted in the heterosociality of the salon.
[Kenneth Clark, Civilisation (1969) p. 251-8]
Artistic conflicts
Postfeminist criticism of
Buffy Summers as a powerful female
role model has centred on the heterosocial nature of her particular universe of social networks.
[Lorna Jowett, Sex and The Slayer (2005) p. 50] Cross-sex relationships play a predominant part in the Buffy world, foreclosing more politicised readings
[Wilcox, p. 49 and p. 60] from a feminist viewpoint.
See also
