Are heterosexuals OK? The query is within the ether, with the New York Instances interrogating the phenomenon of “heteropessimism” and even “heterofatalism” – ladies, particularly, viewing their heterosexuality as a misfortune and lifelong disappointment, given the flakiness and obvious commitment-phobia of the lads they encounter. Girls on-line have additionally been deploring the quantity of “mankeeping” (shouldering the “structural burden of males’s declining social networks” because the analysis staff who coined the time period put it) of their lives.But it surely has being posed most entertainingly by the French Instagram account @le_trema, created by Maël Coutand. Posts observe a regular format: in faux-reportage fashion, Coutand says: “Right this moment we’re asking: are heterosexuals OK? (Est-ce que les hétérosexuels vont bien?)” Then there’s a horribly catchy jingle and a clip of some egregious on-line machismo or manosphere discourse that makes Sinitta’s So Macho look subtle – assume males thumping one another with tyres, or shaving their eyelashes to look extra manly; one checks his “self-control” by trapping his fingers in mousetraps; one other crawls alongside railings to keep away from stepping on a rainbow-painted staircase. Girls aren’t spared: there’s a mom and daughter proudly pregnant by the identical man concurrently, and a mind-bogglingly OTT gender reveal ceremony. The conclusion is inevitably: “Non!”In fact, larger image, heterosexuals are effective. Many people are in joyful relationships with sane members of the alternative intercourse. However extra importantly, it’s not straights who are suffering important bodily and psychological well being inequalities and poorer housing outcomes, who face discrimination and violence for his or her sexual identification or whose existence remains to be criminalised in disgracefully massive swathes of the world.Teasingly interrogating the wilder, weirder corners of heteronormativity is a enjoyable corrective; talking to the radio station France Inter, Coutant stated folks have informed him the account has been a place to begin to debate the absurd expectations round masculinity with their teenage sons. It’s additionally very humorous and doesn’t require a lot French, however beware that earworm of a jingle: the subsequent time you skirt a bare-chested punch-up exterior a ’Spoons, examine Gregg Wallace’s new “males solely” chat room or catch 5 minutes of Love Island, it can play, unbidden, in your head. Emma Beddington is a Guardian columnist
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