Homosociality

Homosociality is the practice of socializing within gender-segregated groups; socializing with members of one's own sex. Part of queer theory, the concept addresses same-sex subcultures, such as have often existed in the military, girls' schools, and convents. Homosociality is a necessary result from any gender-segregated society. Homosociality can lead to homosexuality, sometimes described as situational homosexuality, as in prisons which are generally gender-segregated, or the Navy (turned into a "floating joke" by queers, according to Homer Simpson).

Examples in SF:

• Sheri Tepper's The Gates to Women's Country portrays a sex-segregated world in which most men live in a militarized environment outside the walls of the cities; almost all women and a few men live within the cities. The sex ratios created homosociality for day-to-day life for most people. Tepper's society purportedly eliminated homosexuality as a (presumably undesirable) hormonal and genetic variant, so this society shows homosociality without homosexuality.
• Suzette Haden Elgin's Native Tongue examined the creation of subcultures within homosocial cultures of women.

See also:

• List of works featuring separatist societies