ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the supposed dividing line between heterosexual and homosexual within the cultural imaginary and the assumption even demand that it map onto success versus failure by examining gossip magazines and real life television programmes. Focusing on the sexual stories allows turning the tables and placing heterosexuality under scrutiny. Freud heterosexuality was the end result of a ghastly drama of envy, patricide, guilt, castration fears and trauma. The chapter is based on material that includes the Swedish magazines Se & Hr, Hnt Extra, Veckans Nu!, Hnt bild and Svensk Damtidning consulted during the period September 2003 to January 2004. It includes watched hours of television programmes devoted to heterosexual pairing alongside the magazines. The chapter comments on the Scandinavian version of Temptation Island. The message in the magazines seems to be that all attempts to build heterosexual relationships, even within a heteronormative socio-cultural order, lead to frustration and disappointment.
