title: Girls Get Free Drinks: Undergraduates' Misunderstandings of Heterosexual Privilege.
abstract: Heterosexual privilege is a challenging concept to teach in undergraduate courses. Using data from self-reflection essays on the first and last days of the semester, we present students' learning and growth in their understanding of heterosexual privilege and their ability to distinguish it from cisgender privilege. The majority of students accurately identified an instance of heterosexual privilege in their lives and discussed the counterpart to privilege: the marginalization and/or disenfranchisement experienced by individuals who hold other sexual identities. This article highlights the two most common misunderstandings of heterosexual privilege that emerged in students' writing. On the first day of class, 18.2% outright denied that heterosexual privilege exists, and 17.6% conflated gender with sexuality. It reduced to 11.9% and 11.3%, respectively, on the last day of class. We saw growth in students' sophistication of perspective even for some students who demonstrated these misunderstandings at the end of the term.
authors: a Department of Sociology , University of San Diego , San Diego , California , USA.
authors: Lisa M
authors: LM
authors: Nunn
authors: b Department of Psychological Sciences and the Center for Educational Excellence , University of San Diego , San Diego , California , USA.
authors: Sandra
authors: S
authors: Sgoutas-Emch
authors: c Department of Economics , University of San Diego , San Diego , California , USA.
authors: Steven
authors: S
authors: Sumner
authors: d Department of Theology and Religious Studies , University of San Diego , San Diego , California , USA.
authors: Evelyn
authors: E
authors: Kirkley
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D005260:Female; D020010:Heterosexuality; D006608:Hierarchy, Social; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D000072339:Sexual and Gender Minorities; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Bisexual; and queer/questioning (LGBTQ); cisgender privilege; gay; gender; heterosexual privilege; higher education; lesbian; transgender; undergraduate teaching and learning