The Straight World Order

Hey everyone!

I just wanted to share this TEDx talk with you called "Ending the straight world order" by Mads Ananda Lodahl from Copenhagen, Denmark.

Lodahl talks about being a gay male in Denmark, the implications this has had on his life and the daily threats of violence he faces.  He also discusses how heteronormativity or as he calls it 'the straight world order' is so deeply engrained in society.

Lodahl describes the straight world order as "a place that puts heterosexuality, traditional gender roles and men at the top" and anyone who does not fit into these boxes is subsequently labelled as deviant or outside of the norm. Jolly (2009) describes the history of heteronormativity and she uses a similar definition to describe how this issue is not just for the LGTBQ.

Although Lodahl's talk does not discuss this issue in relation to international development work and he only discusses his western experience with heteronormativity, I think some of what he speaks about relates to our current readings and also our readings about power and knowledge creation (McEwan 2001).   At one point, Lodahl questions how heterosexuality became the norm and how anything outside of this is considered deviant.  He says that it is not "about asking why someone chose to be gay, but rather asking why someone is 'normal' and truly questioning where these terms came from."

Jolly (2009) describes how development work can both reinforce and challenge inequalities and how heteronormativity is an interesting frame to understand this dichotomy.  Similarly, Lodahl asks who are the victims and perpetrators of the first world order? He answers his own question by saying that everyone is: "we are all being terribly limited by the first world order but at the same time we also all contribute to the upholding of it."

Here is another video that explains how gender and sexual norms are present in everyday situations.  Like the character in the video, I have definitely been guilty of making similar assumptions.  Additionally, I did not realize the impacts of assuming heterosexualty as the 'norm' can have on development practice, especially issues described by Jolly (2009) such as HIV/AIDS, violence against women and household models and family forms. 

Of course, there are different norms across cultures, hierarchies of race, class ethnicities, age, citizenship and whether someone has a disability, so the experience with heteronormativity in everyday life and among development can be drastically different for each person.