Flirting and ‘normative’ sexualities

In this article I explore the effects of heteronormative assumptions on the interpretation of interaction. I consider two pieces of data that, based on the kinds of alignments shown, might be seen as flirting. However, through both perception experiments and discourse analysis, I show that these are rarely considered to be flirting if they take place for ‘same-gender’ interactions. These results demonstrate the power and effect of ‘background knowledge’ about sexualities on the interpretation of talk.