Heterosexism

The discussion involved many points of view, some that I didn't even know were there. The discussion did, at times, leave me speechless and lost in my own thoughts as to how a person could be so simple or even so complex in terms of sexuality and gender identity. There are categories that I have never even heard that were brought up, but that only made me learn so much more. The world is cruel, when you get the short end of the stick of course. For us, heterosexuals, our "taste" is the norm, we can kiss females in public, we can hold hands with a female in public, we can grab a girl in public, even show some public display of affection (PDA) without having people yelling "ew go somewhere else with that gay sh*t" (as I've heard before on the streets of Newark). Heterosexism privilege is very much alive just like the privilege a man has over a woman or like that of a white man over a black man. We never did anything to gain the privilege and they never did anything to lose it, yet it's so frequent in our lives but we're so blinded to it that it's scary! A simple word as "fag" for heterosexuals can be a simple joke while for a man who identifies as gay, it can bring back dark memories of their time when they were mocked, scared, or even lost in their personalities trying to fight to be "normal". The discussion allowed me to take a step  back and really see how scary it is to know you're not "normal" or that you're "ill" because you like people that don't fit what society thinks you should like. I also noticed that many of our speakers first dropped subtle comments before they were willing to completely expose themselves and that alone speaks greatly on fear of being ridiculed and feeling distant.