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A troubling account of heterosexual desire in the era of #MeToo
Heterosexuality is in crisis. Reports of sexual harassment, misconduct, and rape saturate the news in the era of #MeToo. Straight men and women spend thousands of dollars every day on relationship coaches, seduction boot camps, and couple’s therapy in a search for happiness.
In The Tragedy of Heterosexuality, Jane Ward smartly explores what, exactly, is wrong with heterosexuality in the twenty-first century, and what straight people can do to fix it for good. She shows how straight women, and to a lesser extent straight men, have tried to mend a fraught patriarchal system in which intimacy, sexual fulfillment, and mutual respect are expected to coexist alongside enduring forms of inequality, alienation, and violence in straight relationships.
Ward also takes an intriguing look at the multi-billion-dollar self-help industry, which markets goods and services to help heterosexual couples without addressing the root of their problems. Ultimately, she encourages straight men and women to take a page out of queer culture, reminding them “about the human capacity to desire, fuck, and show respect at the same time.”
Author: Jane Ward
Hardback Published September 2020 216 pages
Read and Recommended by Hendri:
"Contrary to the common belief about the allyship, queer people actually need to become allies of straight people. Why is that so? Jane Ward's The Tragedy of Heterosexuality details how heterosexual culture, the pinnacle of normality, is rife with dull sex, disrespectful attitudes, and obsession with outdated norms, consequently leading to monotonous erotic life and equally, heterosexual suffering. However, as Hans Christian Andersen's famous tale, The Emperor's New Clothes, the heterosexuals tragically are not yet aware of it, or perhaps, if they are, the straight people would not dare to admit it. Such ignorance, Ward details, is evident in 'the heterosexual-repair industry', in which popular books and coaching companies continue flourishing by giving out temporary solutions to the long-standing problem, which are deeply rooted in the foundation of the straight culture itself. With her unapologetic, witty, and provocative style, Ward illuminates myriad ways of heterosexual culture perpetuates gender stereotypes, the resentment between men and women fueled by sexist science and norms, and super-sadly, the prescripted sexual relation. To save the heterosexuals from their soon-to-be doomsday, Ward turns to the 1970s lesbian feminist texts to teach what straight men and women can do to be better and wilder in bed (and in romantic life, too!). This includes how to think differently about 'penetrative sex' beyond just a give-and-take action. This is a "Queer Eye for the Straight Couple" book to guide them for a more meaningful and loving life."
"This book needed to be written and who better to plunge into the murky mysteries and sad dramas of heterosexuality than Jane Ward? The Tragedy of Heterosexuality offers a map of the complex and shifting landscape of heterosexual desire in the era of #MeToo, sexual harassment, and Title IX....[A]n immensely readable, fairly controversial and surely relevant book." ~Jack Halberstam, author of Wild Things: The Disorder of Desire
"The intelligent generosity of spirit of Jane Ward’s bullseye critique of heterosexual culture is the icing on the cake of its timeliness, necessity, and page-turning readability. I lost track of the number of times I wrote “fuck YES!” in the margins as I read this book." ~Hanne Blank, author of Fat