Chapter 2: Men, heterosexuality and the changing family.

This chapter seeks to explore the discursive construction of the heterosexual family in crisis, focusing on the reconceptualization of fatherhood which has taken place within the family law policy in Great Britain. What follows is, in a sense, about the unspoken heterosexuality of fatherhood itself. It is the aim of this chapter to seek clarity regarding the assumptions surrounding the relationship between male heterosexuality and fatherhood. The first section of this chapter outlines the associations being made around the relationship between male heterosexuality and fatherhood. The discursive production of male heterosexuality in the context of family law policy in Britain is explored in the second section of this chapter, focusing on the ways in which a particular correlation has been made between a crisis of fatherhood and a crisis of the family. Inherent contradictions within the new fatherhood idea are suggested in this chapter. Finally, this chapter addresses some of the implications of the rethinking of heterosexuality presented for developing an understanding of the production of the heterosexual subject in the context of more general debates around the legal regulating of the changing family.