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8 Yale J.L. & Human. 161 (1996)
Unpacking Hetero-Patriarchy: Tracing the Conflation of Sex, Gender & (and) Sexual Orientation to Its Origins

handle is hein.journals/yallh8 and id is 169 raw text is: Unpacking Hetero-Patriarchy: Tracing the Conflation of Sex, Gender & Sexual Orientation to Its Origins Francisco Valdes* This Article traces and critiques the early formalization of the Euro-American sex/gender system) It seeks to illuminate the evolution of historical biases in American law and society that continue to dominate and destabilize sex/gender relations. As such, this Article is a prequel-it provides the origins of a story already partially told elsewhere. The earlier account investigated the ways in which modern law and society cross-construct and cross-associate queers and sissies, as well as dykes and tomboys.2 The present account thus explains how and why sex, gender, and sexual orientation have historically been conflated, something that * Visiting Professor, University of Miami School of Law, 1995-96; Professor, California Western School of Law. J.S.D. Stanford Law School 1994; J.S.M. Stanford Law School 1991; J.D., with Honors, University of Florida College of Law 1984; B.A. University of California- Berkeley 1978. This article includes the final portion of my J.S.D. dissertation, and I therefore begin by thanking my J.S.D. Committee: Barbara Fried, Lawrence Friedman, and Robert Weisberg. I also thank Paul Brest for early advice and support, and Miguel Mendez for a continuous supply of encouragement and mentoring. In addition, I thank Tom Barton, Michal Belknap, Robert Bohrer, Barbara Cox, Anne Goldstein, Angela Harris, Linda Morton, and John Noyes, for useful feedback and unflagging friendship. Finally, I thank the other contributors, as well as Michael O'Hear, Amy Vernick, and the editors of this Journal, who together made this Symposium possible. The errors below are mine alone. 1. Gayle Rubin coined the term sex/gender system in her article The Traffic in Women: Notes on the Political Economy of Sex, in TOWARD AN ANTHROPOLOGY OF WOMEN 157,159 (Rayna R. Reiter ed., 1975). The term denotes the various means through which society regulates sexuality, gender, and procreation. See id. at 157-210. 2. See Francisco Valdes, Queers, Sissies, Dykes, and Tomboys: Deconstructing the Conflation of Sex, Gender, and Sexual Orientation in Euro-American Law and Culture, 83 CAL. L. REV. 1 (1995). As with its predecessor, this Article addresses both the mechanics and the ideology of this conflation. Accordingly, the difference between this Article and its predecessor lies mainly in the cultural terrains and time periods covered: Whereas the earlier project documented and deconstructed the conflation of sex, gender, and sexual orientation in contemporary American law and modern Euro-American societies, this prequel focuses on the conception and application of these three constructs in ancient Greece. This Article thus traces the conflation to its origins. In so doing, this Article, in combination with its predecessor, shows why and how the conflation came to be. This union originated so long ago that it has become pervasive, resilient, and seemingly natural.

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