Unpacking Hetero-Patriarchy: Tracing the Conflation of Sex, Gender & Sexual Orientation to Its Origins

This Article traces and critiques the early formalization of the Euro-American sex/gender system) It seeks to illuminate the evolution of historical biases in American law and society that continue to dominate and destabilize sex/gender relations. As such, this Article is a prequel-it provides the origins of a story already partially told elsewhere. The earlier account investigated the ways in which modern law and society cross-construct and cross-associate "queers" and "sissies," as well as "dykes" and "tomboys." The present account thus explains how and why "sex," "gender," and "sexual orientation" have historically been conflated, something that I argue has worked for the good of the few and to the detriment of the many. By studying the origins of the contemporary sex/gender status quo, this Article documents the path toward the union of androsexism and heterosexism in Euro-American culture and this union's culmination in hetero-patriarchy.