Sexuality in Landscape: A Lifetime of Influence

Throughout the span of our life, we are constantly exposed to hetero-normativity as seen in our landscape. In fact, it is possible that the landscape itself contributes to perpetuating a heterosexually dominant society. In this sense, the dominance of heterosexual relationships is reinforced at every stage in one’s life by the landscape itself. It is always interesting to think about something as private as sexuality in the context of something as public as landscape. Don Mitchel says that sex and sexuality are more public than we may think. Mitchel says “take the very public marriage ceremony with its various ritual fertility rites, for example, or the simple acceptability of straight couples kissing in public”. Even these actions are an overt display of a heterosexually dominant culture. The fact however remains that heterosexual trends are entrenched in our culture and landscape. Often times, we fail to notice the presence of heterosexuality in our surroundings. Perhaps we don’t typically notice that our surroundings are so heterosexually dominant simply because there is a lack of visible homosexual trends in the landscape to challenge our thoughts about heterosexuality. The first thoughts that come to mind in discussing a hetero-normative culture revolve around the advertisement business. It is fairly uncommon to see evidence of homosexual relationships in advertising. Upon further inspection of our landscape, however, we were able to spot examples of how sexuality as a whole is exhibited in the landscape starting from birth, throughout one’s life, and even through death. Even down to family bumper stickers on “mom vans” there is an apparent trend of heterosexuality. While conducting our research we found it difficult to find any overt images of homosexual trends exhibited in the landscape. We believe that the difficulty we had spotting such trends in the landscape is further proof that our landscape in Newport News is heavily hetero-normative.

The advertisements shown only depict relationships between heterosexuals because that is the "norm."  

A family bathroom sign clearly shows that a family is a bond between only a father, mother and a child.

Stickers on the back of a van show that this is a heterosexual couple with children.  There is no evidence of homosexuality in the landscape, heterosexuality is being made more and more normal.

CNU professors occasionally have these "safe zone" papers up on their office door.  This is evidence that the gay community is being recognized.

Virginia Beach homosexual and heterosexual couples all enjoy a day out, the beach will bring out most any kind of person.

An advertisement on the back of a bus assumes that relationships that "require planning" are only relationships between heterosexuals.

This much smaller beach off the James River offers more privacy for homosexual couples allowing them to express affection in public more comfortably.

Couples and families looking for apartments will find that the advertisements are geared more towards heterosexual couples.

Many photos displaying heterosexual marriages are found outside jewelry stores.

A homosexual couple takes a walk in seclusion at Virginia Beach.

A public message for a heterosexual couple is displayed for everybody to see, it is not likely that this would ever be done for a homosexual couple.

At a hotel right next to the main street, a heterosexual couple has no problem displaying their interest in each other.

It is difficult to find a tombstone for a gay or lesbian couple, however straight couples have many headstones together.