Queering relationships: toward a paradigmatic shift

This article exposes, and is critical of, the blatant and insidious ways in which a specific brand of heterosexual relationship has been promoted as the ultimate relational form at the expense of others who neither believe in nor practice such idealized relationships. To uncover this multilayered and deeply imbedded ideology, this piece turns to a description and analysis of how various institutions (e.g., organized religion, medicine, education, law, politics, and the family) perpetuate heteronormative practices in general. Next, specific traits considered to constitute the best and most respectable relationship style are identified. Then, notions of how heteronormativity is marketed and reproduced to create a sexual relationship hierarchy--with a certain form of heterosexuality elevated to the top, as the most revered and cherished relational form--are described and analyzed. Turning to the results of such a well-established and entrenched "marketing campaign," the author offers some notes regarding attitudes about sexual relationships gleaned from teaching a course, "Sex and Relationships," for over a decade. Finally, the author explores the merits and potential drawbacks of a paradigmatic shift toward queering relationships and possible directions for theoretical interventions.