Sustaining Heteronormativity in Marriage: How Chinese Newspapers Frame Heterosexual Marriage Undertaken by Chinese Queer People

ABSTRACT Family members often cite broader societal discourses and norms when forcing Chinese queer people to engage in heterosexual marriage (referred to as HMQ; heterosexual marriage undertaken by Chinese queer people). It is unclear what these social norms entail and how the norms are maintained. This paper examines 89 Chinese newspaper articles to uncover the societal discourses driving families to pressure queer people into heterosexual marriage. We identified three framings: (1) Highlighting problems of formality marriage (the marriage between two queer people) and gay’s wife marriage (the marriage between a queer man and a heterosexual woman); (2) portraying people involved in formality marriage and gay’s wife marriage as suffering from heteronormative pressure to engage in marriage; and (3) presenting formality marriage in a collaboration frame and gay’s wife marriage in a deception frame. These framings suggest heteronormativity in marriage is upheld in societal discourses about HMQ and sustained by two hierarchies created in Chinese newspaper articles: one degrading queer marriage practices, which made heterosexual marriage undertaken by queer people inferior to ideal heterosexual marriage; another stratifying queer marriage practices, which made the marriage between a queer man and a heterosexual woman less acceptable than the marriage between two queer people.