According to Rich, social science and literature perpetuate the societal belief that women in every culture are believed to have an innate preference for romantic and sexual relationships with men.
Lorde's definition of the erotic removes it from the sexual context it has been placed in and brings it closer to the origins of the word eros, love in all its aspects.
Due to this, Sandra Lipsitz Bem argues that sexual minorities have a greater "global identity development" from individuals investigating their experiences and senses of self in contrast to society.
[7] Katerina Deliovsky argues that the Western structure not only compels women's sexuality towards the opposite sex but also to the same race, adjusting the term to compulsory "white" heterosexuality.
The origins of upholding comphet is not only for the comfort of men but also to maintain whiteness societally and institutionally, as can be seen in how interracial marriage was illegal.
There was an exclusion of lesbian identities as a viable and natural option for women in feminist literature in Rich's time.
Abuse in lesbian relationships is often overlooked by health professionals due to preconceived notions about women's 'temperaments' stemming from the gender binary.
She also brings up the criticisms of stereotypical lesbian characters, stating that audience members tend to want more authenticity within female relationships.
The most common example of this is the belief that straight men find lesbians as a turn-on or obstacle rather than a genuine sexual choice.
[21] This basic understanding of biology is then taken steps further, implicating heterosexuality as the "natural" form and therefore making homosexuality specifically, as well as any minority sexuality, "abnormal".
Though evolutionary arguments have implications for minority sexualities, they also directly impact the stereotypes of heterosexual relationships and especially masculinity concepts.
[23] Much of religion invokes a binary model for sexuality,[24] for example, the Bible's inclusion of Adam and Eve as the beginning of humanity.
"[25] Religious institutions throughout history have had strict moral guidelines when it came to marriage and what is deemed acceptable in the eyes of God.
This directly translates to compulsory heterosexuality in society through the influence of leaders of the church, as well as in devout followers of this belief.
According to this article, empirical testing indicates that religious belief and heteronormativity in government policies have a significant relationship to levels of tolerance.
[28] University of Oklahoma Sociology professors Kara Snawder and Samuel Perry also claim that evidence from past studies shows that there is often a link between the religious beliefs of American citizens and homophobic behavior.
"[30] Rich argues for compulsory heterosexuality in the workplace, to which end she references Catharine MacKinnon's Sexual Harassment of Working Women: A Case of Sex Discrimination.
According to Rich, women accept the male sex drive and regard themselves as sexual prey, and this influences compulsory heterosexuality.
[33] Moreover, hegemonic masculinity mirrors Rich's construct of compulsory heterosexuality by pointing out the social intuitions that demand specific behaviors from males; she says, "these norms demand that men deny most emotions, save for anger; be hard at all times and in all ways; engage in objectification of women and sex itself; and participate in the continuum of violence against women".
[33] Compulsory heterosexuality also negatively affects gay and bisexual men by teaching them from a young age that straightness is "normal" and therefore anything that deviates from that is abnormal.
[34] Hellen Lenskyj has further suggested in her article "Combating homophobia in sport and physical education" that heterosexuality is enforced in males through intimidation and violence against those who deviate.
To understand the complexity of compulsory heterosexuality, several scholars have pointed out the importance of the impact of this construct on the differential effects on all populations, including minorities.
Udora Richardson points out that, "Any divergences from the social norms of marriage, domesticity, and the nuclear family have brought serious accusations of savagery, pathology, and deviance upon Black people.
Stallings and her piece, "SBF seeks Miss Afrekete: Authenticity, erasure, and same-sex desire in the personals"[38] documents the ways black lesbians often had to pursue other avenues to date or make friends as a result of discrimination in lesbian bars and spaces due to racist property owners.
[11] Institutions such as Human Rights Campaign and Lambda Legal believe that compulsory heterosexuality is upheld by individuals and organizations, not society-wide beliefs.
[1] The concept of compulsory heterosexuality and being able to reject this notion became a core component of the lesbian separatist movement that began in the 1970s and continued into the 1980s.
[41] The concept has also been used within asexual studies to develop the theory of compulsory sexuality which argues that in addition to being subjected to the pressures of heterosexual conformity in a heteronormative society, individuals also face the assumption that everyone necessarily experiences sexual attraction unless they are "sick, dead, or lying", leading to the erasure of asexual identities.