Heteronormativity And Narcissism

Heteronormativity and narcissism correlate negatively due to the tendency for narcissistic people to become overconfident in their own beliefs, causing issues to grow between different sexualities. This correlation comes from narcissism’s root in the self-esteem education program, where children are treated with unconditional positive regard, where they are taught to consider themselves “special” no matter their actual achievements (Twenge 765). After being taught that their own ideas are already praiseworthy and have no need to listen to anyone else’s ideas, children constantly pick out other perspective’s faults while defending their own. Instead of attempting to find reason in one another’s beliefs and find common ground, each group strives
Twenge defines the beginning of the roots of narcissism with the self-focus movement of baby boomers in the 60’s before self-focus “blossomed in the 1970’s” (Twenge 760). At the same time, although the LGBTQ movement was already in motion long before the 70s, a much more radical movement began in 1969 when a group of lesbians and drag queens resisted a police raid. Police raids on gay bars may have been commonplace at the time, but the people actually resisting these raids were not (Arriola 60). While tension between the LGBTQ community and the rest of society grew in the 60’s, society continued to explore the concept of self-esteem. Encouraged through repeated frustration and their growing self-esteem, the LGBTQ community began the 1969 Stonewall Riots, marking the beginning of an increasingly radical fight against discrimination caused by heteronormativity. Yet, after the conflict became even more radical between the two parties, tension continued to rise due to increased conflict and the self-focus “becoming more mundane” (Twenge 760). The constant rise of both conflict and narcissism creates a loop that will cause conflict between heterosexuals and the LGBTQ community to continue to rise to an extraordinary level. As narcissism continues to be encouraged in Generation Me, conflicts between heteronormativity and the LGBTQ community have also only continued to rise. The way the time frames for the emergence of narcissism and the beginning of a more radical LGBTQ movement coincide at the start of the 70’s and each seem to influence each other seems to indicate correlation.

Issues between heteronormativity and the LGBTQ community continue to occur today in the form of both macro and micro aggressions. Macro aggressions continue to