A Discussion on Compulsory Heterosexuality and Field of Opposition in Turkey

Heterosexism emerges as a historical and social system that determines the norms of desire, sexual practices and gender. In the social world organized under compulsory heterosexuality, only the heterosexual desire and sexuality between bodies that are gendered as “female” or “male” are accepted as “natural” and “normal”, whereas all other sexual practices, feelings and desire are marked as “abnormal”, “deviant” or “an exception”. However, heterosexism is neither an abstraction, nor deprived of social agents that operate it. As a system of oppression, domination and exclusion, heterosexism operates and is reproduced in social fields, through cyclical rhythms and different mechanisms. This study, based on my master s thesis which I completed in August 2013, aims to discuss the relationship between compulsory heterosexuality and the field of opposition in Turkey, described on the basis of Pierre Bourdieu s field theory. This discussion includes the questions; “which mechanisms organize the field of opposition as heterosexual?”, “what is the relationship between heterosexism, homophobia, transphobia, conservatism and public moral, and the sexual regime experienced in the field?”, and “how and in conjunction with which strategies L/G/B/T/I people exist in the field?” In addition, in view of the fact that the field of opposition is not a monolithic and constant structure, this study aims to discuss the relationship between different positions in the field and transformations of the field.