straightwash

Etymology

From straight + wash, by analogy with pinkwash.

Why this word is great

STRAIGHTWASH — [Verb] To interpret or present a queer figure, relationship, or situation as exclusively heterosexual. From straight (denoting heterosexuality) + wash (as in whitewash or pinkwash), by analogy with pinkwash. Unlike "heteronormalize" (which nudges queerness toward broader conformity) or "pinkwash" (which commodifies rainbow aesthetics without substance), straightwash is the deliberate sanding-down of queer edges until they fit a palatable, straight mold. It is the biographer insisting a poet’s love letters to a man were merely platonic, the film adaptation scrubbing a protagonist’s same-sex romance into a chaste friendship, or the history textbook framing two women who shared a bed for forty years as "lifelong companions"—a quiet violence of omission, where absence speaks louder than truth.

verb

To interpret or present a queer figure, relationship, or situation as exclusively heterosexual.“Rather than focus on ostensibly queer games, I want to show how doing a queer analysis of mainstream games provides critical ways to demonstrate how most video games strategically deploy and ultimately recuperate and straightwash queer possibilities.”