Abstract A prevailing understanding of realism, chiefly among its critics, casts realists as those who seek a ‘distinctively political normativity’, where this is interpreted meaning nonmoral in kind. Moralists, on account, are reject and believe that normativity remains moral. Critics have then focused much their attention demonstrating the search for doomed to fail which, if right, would seem...

Gay men and heterosexual women may share some common interests in critiquing heteropatriarchy. However feminism and gay liberationist politics do not always coincide and the role of individual subjectivities in recognising oppressive discourses of normativity remains debated. Interviews were conducted with seven friendship dyads of heterosexual women and gay men. Transcripts were subjected to d...