Heterosexuality means preference as sexual partners of the opposite sex. The word is derived from two Greek roots: "heteros" means other, and "sexus" means gender.
Heterosexuality and orientation
In the modern world, heterosexuality has additional semantic shades. First of all, this term means attraction to people of the opposite sex (here and in what follows, we will focus on human beings, although hetero-orientation is also characteristic of many animals). This is an erotic, sexual and even platonic attraction.
The second point in the interpretation of heterosexuality is the preference of persons of the opposite sex precisely as a sexual partner.
It is important to understand that these attraction to people of the opposite sex and their preference as sexual partners do not necessarily coincide.
In total, there are three types of sexual orientation. The first of them is heterosexual, it is characteristic of most people. The second type is homosexual, characteristic of people who are attracted to representatives of their own sex, they form pairs consisting of two women or two men. And the third type is bisexual. For such people, representatives of both sexes seem to be equally attractive.
Hetero orientation and society
In traditional types of society, as a rule, it is customary to condemn any type of sexual orientation, except for heterosexuals. The freer a society is, the higher the level of tolerance there is to any form of sexual addiction, if only they are realized by mutual consent.
In Russia in 1999, the Order of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation No. 331 was issued, according to which heterosexuality is recognized as the norm, and any other forms of sexual preferences are deviations.
Research into hetero-orientation by scientists
It seems obvious that the majority of the world's population is heterosexual. Richard Kraft-Ebing, who first considered this issue from a scientific point of view (this happened in the 19th century), suggested that heterosexuality is a natural instinct for living beings, since it is this that leads to procreation.
Thanks to the research of Kinsey, an American biologist, sexual orientation began to be divided into subtypes: behavior, sexuality in general, attraction, and others.
In the past, it was believed that only heterosexual orientation was the norm, there was even an additional name for it - natural - but modern science believes that all three types of orientation are not deviations for a person, they are recognized as so-called positive norms. Scientists have focused on understanding exactly what causes a person's sexual orientation.
