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WHAT EXACTLY IS HETEROSEXUALITY? 
WHAT CAUSES IT?
 
From Heterosexuality.  
Edited by 
Dillain E. Hanscombe
and
Martin Humphries
 

Heterosexuality is a condition in which people have a 
driving emotional and sexual interest in members of the 
opposite sex.  Because of the anatomical, physiological,  
social and cultural differences involved,  there are 
formidable obstacles to be overcome.  However, many 
heterosexuals look upon this as a challenge and approach it 
with ingenuity and energy.  Indeed it can be said that most 
heterosexuals are obsessed with the gratification of their 
curious desires.
 
 
                       Hormonal Imbalance?
 
One theory advanced is that heterosexuals have an imbalance 
in their sex hormones - instead of the normal mixture of the 
two, they have an excess of one or a dearth of the other, 
resulting in an inability to enjoy full and satisfying 
relationships with their own sex.
 
 
                     Economic Conditioning?
 
Our society grants financial and other incentives for 
exclusively (i.e. neurotic) heterosexual coupling:  from tax 
concessions to family benefits.  To be gay is expensive and 
many people simply cannot afford it.
 
 
                          Fear of Death?
 
A terror of mortality lies beneath much heterosexual 
coupling. Driven to perpetuate themselves at any cost,  most 
heterosexuals are indifferent to the prospect of the world-
wide famine that will result if the present population 
explosion continues unchecked.
 
 
                      Cultural Deprivation?
 
Most heterosexual will be found to have come from a 
background in which an appreciation of the beauty of their 
own bodies has been ruthlessly suppressed.  Heterosexual men 
in particular think themselves "ugly", beauty being ascribed 
only to women.  Many psychic disorders stem from this self-
rejection.
 

                     Pathological Condition?

Many heterosexuals claim that they were just "born that 
way".  Unfortunately this doesn't hold water.  All human 
beings are the result of the interaction between their 
substance and their environment and heterosexuals,  like the 
rest of us, must share in the responsibility for their 
condition.
 
 
                       Social Conditioning?
 
Many unthinking heterosexuals succumb to the daily 
bombardment of conditioning from the mass media and live out 
their lives trapped in oppressive stereotypes.  We should 
feel compassion for such people, Not hostility,  for their 
rejection of all those parts of the self that do not conform 
to the "married-couple" ideal, is a measure of their loss of 
contact with their own unique sexuality.
 
 
                        Childhood Trauma?
 
A bad experience with a member of the same sex while young 
may cause rejection of all members of the same sex through 
fear.  The desire continues in the subconscious and emerges 
as a heterosexual neurosis.
 
 
                        Parental Problem?
 
In most cases of compulsive heterosexual behavior,  the 
parents will be found to have suffered from similar 
difficulties.