Heterosexual love is not just an affective institution. It is, above all, a device that constructs social narratives of control.
Many married men, perceived as heterosexual, repress their desire for other men in order to maintain their place within that order. On queer dating apps, a recurring phrase appears: “Married. Discreet.” That “discretion” hides much more than privacy. It defines the politics of secrecy: a space historically assigned to diverse desires.
“Borrowed rooms, public restrooms, parks, apps, straight weddings. Disparate spaces, yet all marked by surveillance, secrecy, urgency."
In these digital environments, certain protocols shape how sexual encounters unfold. One of the most telling is the question of place.
“Place or no place” is not just a logistical detail, it is a coordinate within a geography of desire. In both cases,
the encounter is brief and conditioned by power structures that determine where, how, and under what terms sexuality can be inhabited.
This project considers heterosexual marriage as a postcard of affect and performance within heteronormative love.
A site of binary operations and ideological constructs that define the fate of bodies in order to sustain the narrative
of a reproductive society. I have always been interested in celebrating our dissident bodies, but also in interrogating the position we’ve
been systemically assigned: that of the observed, analyzed, and pathologized body. In my work, I seek to shift that focus toward
the heterosexual body, which has rarely been examined. This gesture reveals that gender binarism
and heterosexual ideology are constructions — not natural truths. They function as dogmas, uphold violence,
and produce aesthetics of control.
