Hmm, as someone relatively deep into lgbtq issues (though particularly trans issues), I’d say the term itself is perhaps a bit misleading. The way I understand it and see it used is that it’s about heterosexuality and also gender norms within that traditional heterosexual relationship (so some people think that even in a homosexual relationship there’s always “a man” (dominant) and “a woman” (submissive)).
In that sense (to directly relate to the post) a dominant woman in a relationship with a submissive man would actually go against heteronormativity a bit.
On second thought I guess I can see the relation though, in the sense that the traditional “man is dominant in a hetero relationship” combined with the fact that by default most men probably mostly top could make someone see “topping is considered dominant” as reinforcing those traditional relationship norms. Still feels very overreactive by the original commenter but eh.
Thanks for taking the time to walk through your thoughts - I appreciate the conversation.
I think the particularly egregious problem with interpreting the comment as referring to the association of man=top=dom is that the meme has a gal as the dom, as you’ve pointed out, which does go against heteronormativity.
Hmm, as someone relatively deep into lgbtq issues (though particularly trans issues), I’d say the term itself is perhaps a bit misleading. The way I understand it and see it used is that it’s about heterosexuality and also gender norms within that traditional heterosexual relationship (so some people think that even in a homosexual relationship there’s always “a man” (dominant) and “a woman” (submissive)).
In that sense (to directly relate to the post) a dominant woman in a relationship with a submissive man would actually go against heteronormativity a bit.
On second thought I guess I can see the relation though, in the sense that the traditional “man is dominant in a hetero relationship” combined with the fact that by default most men probably mostly top could make someone see “topping is considered dominant” as reinforcing those traditional relationship norms. Still feels very overreactive by the original commenter but eh.
Thanks for taking the time to walk through your thoughts - I appreciate the conversation.
I think the particularly egregious problem with interpreting the comment as referring to the association of man=top=dom is that the meme has a gal as the dom, as you’ve pointed out, which does go against heteronormativity.
Your second thought was my first thought tbh