Tragedy of Heterosexuality

Jane Ward is Professor of Feminist Studies at University of California Santa Barbara. She is the author of The Tragedy of Heterosexuality, Not Gay: Sex Between Straight White Men, and Respectably Queer: Diversity Culture in LGBT Activist Organizations.

"The Tragedy of Heterosexuality wastes absolutely no time getting to the point...it is at heart a somber, urgent academic examination of the many ways in which opposite-sex coupling can hurt the very individuals who cling to it most....[The book] might be just the thing to rescue heterosexuality from its unearned hegemony in our shared cultural imagination." (New York Times Book Review) "Ward approaches her subject through a mix of historical research, current cultural analysis, light ethnography (she's observed classes for male pickup artists), and a heavy dose of personal reflection as a queer woman who spent some time on the other side. She finds that straight relationships are full of contradictions, antagonism, and boredom ... Her work seeks first to locate the root of the problem: Is it in the customs and rituals of heterosexuality? The way that it's been marketed and sold in particular cultures? Is it in individual choices, ones we can control? She also hopes her work can somehow lead the way to a better future." (New York Magazine, The Cut) "A great read for LGBTQ+ and straight readers, Jane Ward's non-fiction book tackles compulsory heterosexuality, heteronormativity, patriarchy, and how they impact us all." (Cosmopolitan UK's "Best Books by LGBTQ+ Authors") "A gender and sexuality professor has written a book explaining the secret to straight people having happier relationships — be more like queer couples. Jane Ward, a gender and sexuality studies professor at University of California, Riverside, studied tips from marriage manuals, self-help books, dating coaches and marriage therapists while writing The Tragedy of Heterosexuality." (Pink News) "This book is a loving lesbian intervention, a defamiliarized look at what we've come to expect from heterosexuality." (Bitch Magazine) "The intelligent generosity of spirit of Jane Ward's bullseye critique of heterosexual culture is the icing on the cake of its timeliness, necessity, and page-turning readability. I lost track of the number of times I wrote 'fuck YES!' in the margins as I read this book." - Hanne Blank, author of Fat "This book needed to be written and who better to plunge into the murky mysteries and sad dramas of heterosexuality than Jane Ward? The Tragedy of Heterosexuality offers a map of the complex and shifting landscape of heterosexual desire in the era of #MeToo, sexual harassment, and Title IX ... An immensely readable, fairly controversial and surely relevant book." - Jack Halberstam, author of Wild Things: The Disorder of Desire "Sharp, witty, provocative, informed, and feeling, The Tragedy of Heterosexuality flips the scripts of queer suffering and heterosexual happiness. Jane Ward details the harms and disappointments of heterosexual culture for straight women, analyzes the 'misogyny paradox' at its heart, and points toward a deeper love." - Joshua Gamson, author of The Fabulous Sylvester: The Legend, The Music, the Seventies in San Francisco