The terminology is confusing, so here’s an easy way to remember it: List all men in one column, and all women in another column. If you can draw a relationship diagram using only straight lines between the columns, the relationship is “straight”; otherwise, it is probably gay (but might be straight, or something else, due to category boundary errors).
(NB: a relationship being “straight” does not imply that the relationship’s participants are straight.)
At first glance, it might seem weird that we have special terminology for such an arbitrary subset of relationships, especially when it fails to line up with other senses of the word. However, “straight” relationships hold special ritual significance in many cultures, including the dominant cultures of most current and former colonial powers.
Yeah, that’s right.
The terminology is confusing, so here’s an easy way to remember it: List all men in one column, and all women in another column. If you can draw a relationship diagram using only straight lines between the columns, the relationship is “straight”; otherwise, it is probably gay (but might be straight, or something else, due to category boundary errors).
(NB: a relationship being “straight” does not imply that the relationship’s participants are straight.)
At first glance, it might seem weird that we have special terminology for such an arbitrary subset of relationships, especially when it fails to line up with other senses of the word. However, “straight” relationships hold special ritual significance in many cultures, including the dominant cultures of most current and former colonial powers.