What do you think?
Rate this book
The Heart of Whiteness: Normal Sexuality and Race in America, 1880-1940
In this groundbreaking study, Julian Carter demonstrates that between 1880 and 1940, cultural discourses of whiteness and heterosexuality fused to form a new concept of the “normal” American. Gilded Age elites defined white civilization as the triumphant achievement of exceptional people hewing to a relational ethic of strict self-discipline for the common good. During the early twentieth century, that racial and relational ideal was reconceived in more inclusive terms as “normality,” something toward which everyone should strive. The appearance of inclusiveness helped make “normality” appear consistent with the self-image of a racially diverse republic; nonetheless, “normality” was gauged largely in terms of adherence to erotic and emotional conventions that gained cultural significance through their association with arguments for the legitimacy of white political and social dominance. At the same time, the affectionate, reproductive heterosexuality of “normal” married couples became increasingly central to legitimate membership in the nation.
Carter builds his intricate argument from detailed readings of an array of popular texts, focusing on how sex education for children and marital advice for adults provided significant venues for the dissemination of the new ideal of normality. He concludes that because its overt concerns were love, marriage, and babies, normality discourse facilitated white evasiveness about racial inequality. The ostensible focus of “normality” on matters of sexuality provided a superficially race-neutral conceptual structure that whites could and did use to evade engagement with the unequal relations of power that continue to shape American life today.
Carter builds his intricate argument from detailed readings of an array of popular texts, focusing on how sex education for children and marital advice for adults provided significant venues for the dissemination of the new ideal of normality. He concludes that because its overt concerns were love, marriage, and babies, normality discourse facilitated white evasiveness about racial inequality. The ostensible focus of “normality” on matters of sexuality provided a superficially race-neutral conceptual structure that whites could and did use to evade engagement with the unequal relations of power that continue to shape American life today.
232 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2007
12 people are currently reading
1387 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
January 21, 2021
The language of “normal” has historically been used to disguise racist values as beningn and politically neutral. In the context of the U.S., normal was infused by eugenics (a racist pseudoscientific strategy to “improve the race”). Normality is not about objective facts, rather it makes specific claims about the superiority of particular traits.
Take for example the construction of the two statues “Normann” and “Norma” designed in 1939 to represent the average US-American male and female, despite the fact that almost no one embodied these proportions. A contest was held to find the ideal woman who most closely resembled this sculpture. Eugenicists deployed the language of “normal” to cultivate the white race and discipline people into particular appearances and ways of living in order to become the most “advanced” civilization on Earth. They cared more about presumed perfection than the poetry (hairiness, fatness, gender non-conformity) of actual bodies.
In particular, “normal” became a code word to describe “sexual fitness,” or the ability to align one’s sexual practices with the interests of the race. Racist evolutionary thought regarded reproduction as the primary mode for racial development. In the early 20th century, monogamous, heterosexual, intra-racial marriage was upheld as the only legitimate mode of sexuality specifically to foster the growth of the white population. White people were taught that they were responsible for civilization and that practicing sexual self-restraint would ensure the continued progression and advancement of the next generation.
This self-restraint was in contrast to the alleged sexual decadence of “savage” peoples who were depicted as merely motivated by primal sexual urges, incapable of “civilized” romance and family structures. During this time, we see white anxieties coalesce around the figure of the “degenerate” “queer” who was seen as a remnant of weakness and primitivism in the white race. Queer people were pathologized as having a form of “sexual disability,” preventing them from evolving into appropriate “modern” heterosexuality.
Exclusive heterosexuality was marketed as essential for national stability and racial progress. This normative standard conferred legitimacy and status such that later in the century one of the primary ways that (Irish, Italian, Jewish, etc.) immigrants were able to assimilate into the nation was by adopting heteronormativity (assuming traditional gender roles and family structures). As Carter argues, “aligning oneself with normal heterosexuality ahd the effect of performing one’s alignment with ideal whiteness” (98).
Despite the fact that no one can actually achieve this illusive idea of “normal,” perceived proximity to normality awards legitimacy and power. This is why racialized people might respond to loss of status from racism by reinforcing traditional gender norms. This is also why gender non-conforming people experience such profound cruelty.
Take for example the construction of the two statues “Normann” and “Norma” designed in 1939 to represent the average US-American male and female, despite the fact that almost no one embodied these proportions. A contest was held to find the ideal woman who most closely resembled this sculpture. Eugenicists deployed the language of “normal” to cultivate the white race and discipline people into particular appearances and ways of living in order to become the most “advanced” civilization on Earth. They cared more about presumed perfection than the poetry (hairiness, fatness, gender non-conformity) of actual bodies.
In particular, “normal” became a code word to describe “sexual fitness,” or the ability to align one’s sexual practices with the interests of the race. Racist evolutionary thought regarded reproduction as the primary mode for racial development. In the early 20th century, monogamous, heterosexual, intra-racial marriage was upheld as the only legitimate mode of sexuality specifically to foster the growth of the white population. White people were taught that they were responsible for civilization and that practicing sexual self-restraint would ensure the continued progression and advancement of the next generation.
This self-restraint was in contrast to the alleged sexual decadence of “savage” peoples who were depicted as merely motivated by primal sexual urges, incapable of “civilized” romance and family structures. During this time, we see white anxieties coalesce around the figure of the “degenerate” “queer” who was seen as a remnant of weakness and primitivism in the white race. Queer people were pathologized as having a form of “sexual disability,” preventing them from evolving into appropriate “modern” heterosexuality.
Exclusive heterosexuality was marketed as essential for national stability and racial progress. This normative standard conferred legitimacy and status such that later in the century one of the primary ways that (Irish, Italian, Jewish, etc.) immigrants were able to assimilate into the nation was by adopting heteronormativity (assuming traditional gender roles and family structures). As Carter argues, “aligning oneself with normal heterosexuality ahd the effect of performing one’s alignment with ideal whiteness” (98).
Despite the fact that no one can actually achieve this illusive idea of “normal,” perceived proximity to normality awards legitimacy and power. This is why racialized people might respond to loss of status from racism by reinforcing traditional gender norms. This is also why gender non-conforming people experience such profound cruelty.
December 19, 2014
While a very well-researched book about a topic that, in my opinion, has been significantly unexplored (ie "normal" race and sexuality and how the population was indoctrinated into these definitions of normalcy), the book seems overly repetitive and it seems as though there are much deeper stories to be told. If some of the repetitiveness was removed, these stories could have been told. A very good introduction for anyone new to racial or sexual history in the late 19th and early 20th century.
March 4, 2018
This book is incredible. I've always felt an inherent discomfort around the idea of "normalcy," the privilege it conferred and took away solely based on the what felt like the subjective reasoning of peers. This work put into words far better than I ever could the deeper origins of that discomfort. In Carter's own words, "..'normality' has a long history as a covertly political phenomenon. Despite its superficial neutrality, the concept has worked to justify and further white racial dominance." Carter does an amazing job guiding the reader from the sexual frigidity of the Victorians and the Gilded Age into the interwar years where the conflation of whiteness, heterosexuality as the only true expression of love and normalcy came together as a foundation for bolstering white superiority, while eliding race from the conversation completely, leaving whiteness as innocent and blameless in its evolutionary inheritance.
My greatest sadness is how academic the writing is (out of necessity) but that will surely limit its readership. It was slow going but well worth the work for the many "aha" moments that punctuated my journey through this work.
My greatest sadness is how academic the writing is (out of necessity) but that will surely limit its readership. It was slow going but well worth the work for the many "aha" moments that punctuated my journey through this work.
December 31, 2023
One of the densest books I’ve ever read.
Want to read
December 13, 2007I read parts of the several drafts of this book and it was really fascinating. Track down and purchase.
February 23, 2011
What we learn here is that the word "normal" is in fact a gross distortion. Now we need volume 2 for 1941-2011.
June 10, 2013
This book is an amazingly well thought out discourse on whiteness. I found Dr. Carter's nuanced explanation of whiteness as an intersectionaly oppressive social force - quite elucidating.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews