Editor's Letter: Why we decided our latest issue should explore heterosexuality

Words: Megan Wallace

Welcome to the Straight Issue! But first, an explanation: for a queer publication to embark upon a dissection of cis-het culture seems off-brand, I’ll admit. However, we’re witnessing a large-scale movement – from algorithms, to legislators – which seeks to reassert the centrality of straight, cis identity. Whether it’s deplorable denials of trans womanhood in the UK or malicious attacks on trans healthcare and equal marriage in the US, cultural and social forces are hellbent on erasing queer and trans people from public life. 

"We’ve decided to give straight culture the tabloid treatment, turning the bombastic, dehumanising cis-het gaze back onto itself"

With this in mind, it’s time to flip the script and turn the magnifying glass on the very norms which seek to oppress and diminish us. Cis, heterosexual culture often positions itself as innate, the product of common-sense or some natural order, but this could not be further from the truth. Gender roles, heterosexual privilege, compulsory monogamy and the social, medical and legal subjugation of all those who trespass norms – be they trans people or sex workers – is a result of fiercely defended ideals which are carefully conditioned into being. 

We’ve decided to give straight culture the tabloid treatment, turning the bombastic, dehumanising cis-het gaze back onto itself. First up, we examine the pinnacle of straight culture: the big, white wedding. To interrogate this patriarchal charade of capitalistic spending, ritualised drinking and pretenses of never-ending monogamous love – which often ends up making divorce lawyers richer but not enriching the central couple’s lives – we tapped internet personality Tiara Skye and broadcaster Shivani Dave. On our cover, they cosplay as a bridezilla and her emotionally avoidant groom, all while looking more glamorous than any cis-het couple could dream of. 

"Heterosexuality cannot be banished like an illiberal Bogeyman – it touches and shapes our lives in so many unexpected ways"

Elsewhere, June Bellebono delves into the time-tested tradition of the British music festival and delivers a first-person account of a fling with a ‘man in finance’ which began and ended at Glastonbury, exploring the Somerset institution as a liminal space for sexual experimentation among those normally content with fulfilling socially expected guises of heterosexuality. We also have Asa Seresin, the heterosexuality scholar and author of a certain viral 2019 essay on heterofatalism, exploring his own fascination with straightness and compelling queer readers to explore the fact that heterosexuality cannot be banished like an illiberal Bogeyman – it touches and shapes our lives in so many unexpected ways.

On that note, Jake Hall writes on the phenomenon of ‘homonormativity’ and the ways in which queer folks may be internalising cis-het culture by pandering to respectability politics, explaining how this impulse hinders queer progression. Turning to the digital world, P. Eldridge explores the trend of cis creators pretending to be trans online – whether for clout, shock factor, or something more sinister – and unpacks the real-world consequences of these social media caricatures. Lastly, Chanté Joseph ventures into the world of polyamory, going past the low-hanging fruit of polyphobic memes to unpack her own internalised biases against non-monogamy. 

While you read these features, we have one message we wish to impart: as queer and trans people, we’re (regrettably) used to being the butt of the joke – let’s make it heteronormativity’s turn.