ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the quest for sexual normality is both paradoxical and anxiety ridden, since it requires that individuals seek to align their behaviors, desires, relationships, and identities with norms which are constantly shifting and often contradictory. This leads to a practice of self-interpretation in which individuals interrogate their own sexual behaviors and measure them against norms which may seem egalitarian, but actually mask structures of power that render many people constitutionally deviant. I begin by tracing the evolution of the concept of normality, then argue that its current configuration is animated by a eugenic logic, which originally sought to “improve” the white race—read as both superior and “normal”—through the exclusion of groups deemed regressive, pathological, and deviant. The second half of the chapter examines the rationale and strategies that drive groups deemed deviant to attempt to assimilate into mainstream society through normalizing their sexual practices and desires. The chapter concludes by outlining three perspectives in queer theory and sexuality studies that challenge the uncritical acceptance of normality.
