Defining Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Experience through the view of Adrienne Rich

I believe that Rich was trying to define the concept of Compulsory Heterosexuality through descriptions of some of the social forces that enforce it.  It would seem that Compulsory Heterosexuality is created by social forces that make many women feel as if they have to engage in the male view of heterosexuality in order to gain acceptance and survival in society.  These forces create a situation in which women feel a compulsion to be heterosexual.  One of the impacting forces is the idea that heterosexuality is an innate and fundamentally biological characteristic of women.  Only heterosexual women are normal.  This idea also creates a separation between lesbian women and heterosexual women.  This idea of what is normal means that lesbian women are not treated as normal; they are tolerated, but not truly accepted.  This separation of normal and other compels women to play the role of heterosexuality in order to be accepted.  Rich uses the example of the workplace.  Women are required to play the role of being feminine and heterosexual in order to maintain ownership of a job.  Compulsive heterosexuality also implies a separation of power between males and females.  The way in which our patriarchal society defines heterosexual behavior places men about women.  Women are the object of the lust of men and fulfill a need.  Women are also taught that they must pair with a male in marriage in order fulfill their societal roles. 

Rich also talks about the lesbian experience.  The experience of most lesbians is of being made invisible in mainstream history.  Rich talks about how lesbians are mostly neglected from film, mainstream text, and also by feminist literature.  They are usually cast of as separate from normal women and mostly made invisible through the media. 

 I am not sure if I completely understood what Rich was trying to say.  I found that in her writing it was difficult to extract her exact meaning and that she need to be more clear and straight forward.  I look forward to discussing the topic in class.