Heterosexual

Heterosexual means being emotionally and sexually attracted to a different gender; hetero- is Greek for “different.” The Chinese term is 异性恋 (yixinglian, “different-sex love”). A neat piece of linguistic borrowing: colloquial Chinese calls straight people 直人 (zhiren) — 直 literally means “straight,” a direct calque of the English metaphor, giving us 直男 (“straight guy”) and 直女 (“straight girl”).

The point this entry exists to make: heterosexuality is one orientation on the spectrum, not a synonym for “normal.” Treating it as the unexamined default — and everything else as deviation — is what heteronormativity means. It hides in questions like “what kind of wife will you marry someday?” asked of every small boy, teaching children there is only one way a life can go. Tellingly, “heterosexual” and homosexual were coined in the same era as a matched pair: even the majority orientation needed naming and describing — which is exactly what shows it to be one orientation among several, not a self-evident backdrop.

Register note: neutral standard term in both languages; “straight” and 直人 are the relaxed colloquial forms, used inside and outside the community.

Common misuse: “I’m not gay, I’m normal” — the counterpart of “homosexual” is “heterosexual,” not “normal.” For the full picture of orientation, see Orientation basics.