History of "heterosexual"

In yesterday's post I shared that the word "heterosexual" once referred to individuals who are attracted to both men and women. I wanted to know when and where it had this meaning, and how it changed. I said I might want to track down the references in the back of the book I read it in to find out more details.

I have done so, and here is what I found.

It turns out that our modern ideas of gender identity are modern, and "past Americans and other peoples named, perceived, and socially organized the bodies, lusts, and intercourse of the sexes in ways radically different from the way we do." Things started to change in the Victorian era.

I won't get into how they changed, if you're interested you can read the article. But, in 1892, Dr. James G. Kiernan published a journal in which he used the word "heterosexual" to refer to individuals who have relationships with men and women. Yes I put that in italics. Because it answers the "when and where" part of my question. It doesn't answer my whole question though.

It turns out that in the same year, German Dr. Krafft-Ebing published an article where he also used the word "heterosexual." He, however, used it to refer to attraction to the opposite gender.

(Incidentally, Kiernan was the first American to use the word "heterosexual" in a journal, and he also introduced "homosexual" in that same article.)

Over time Krafft-Ebing's definition became the accepted one, and the words "homosexual" and "heterosexual" came into regular usage. It took a bit of time though, and the words were not yet in the Oxford English Dictionary by 1901. They were, however, used in The New York Times Book Review in 1930.

And in the spirit of discussing the word "heterosexual," below is a (presumably) heterosexual couple. Hey, for all we know they could both be bisexual. Or even pansexual.

A Couple In Love by Peter Griffin

The above info was found in the article "The Invention of Heterosexuality" by Jonathan Ned Katz, published in 1990 in Socialist Review. I found the article by Googling "The Invention of Heterosexuality 1990." It was later expanded into a book.

Some bi history

Book cover

I just got ahold of the book Bisexuality in the United States by Paula C. Rodríguez Rust. I'm hardly into it at all, but I found a couple very interesting tidbits in the very first chapter.

• "In the early 1980s several scholars urged their colleagues in sexology to acknowledge the existence of bisexuality as an authentic form of sexuality" (5). This is the very first sentence in the first chapter. The author goes on to explain that before this time, research had not acknowledged that people could be really bisexual, instead treating us "a as a lesser degree of" homosexuality.

It seems that people have been really stuck on needing to stick sexual orientation into two neat little pigeon holes of straight and gay for some time. No wonder I see other bisexuals complaining about people saying they have to pick one gender or the other, and/or insisting that we're all confused. Even research acknowledging that we exist is relatively new, it seems. And not much older than me.

• Rust says that the word heterosexual was once used to describe people who are attracted to both genders (7).

She doesn't provide any explanations. I'll probably have to look up the works Rust cites in her bibliography to find out more details for myself. I want to know the when and where, and how the word changed its meaning.

This book is really big, and I doubt I'll read all of it. It contains writings by historians, psychologists, etc. with some chapters (introductions to new sections?) by Rust. I'll probably pick and choose the bits that look most interesting and read those. If I find anything really interesting I may write more about it.

And yes I know I also have a book blog, but this is more abut bisexuality and less about the book itself, so I'm choosing to stick this post here.