media and gender

Introduction

This essay provides the critical review of the article The Invention of Heterosexuality ' by Jonathan Ned Katz . Mr . Katz is a writer and historian , the editor of Gay American History (1976 , the Gay /Lesbian Almanac (1994 , and The Invention of Heterosexuality (1995 . The last one was initially written as an article , and later it was broadened to the book . The author makes his contribution to the recent debates on homosexuality researching the history of the term heterosexuality its invention and formation as the reflection of social attitude to the issue

of human sexuality

The reason for choosing this article

The issue of norm and perversion in the human sexuality is always under debate in the society . The recent social trends have a significant influence on the attitude to the sexuality in society at least it was recognized that humans aren 't simply divided into homosexual and heterosexual ' The research of Jonathan Katz provides the analysis of the heterosexuality as a term which can be considered as the significant impact on the debates on sexuality

Abstract

The author points out on the fact that the very term heterosexuality appeared in the medical studies in 1901 and at that time it didn 't mean the sexual norm but the abnormal sexual hunger to the opposite sex . The medical term homosexuality ' appeared at the same way in 1909 to define the "morbid sexual passion for one of the same sex (Katz , 1995 However , the American pop-culture of 1920th made heterosexuality a dominant...