Playing with straight lines and queer times: Children engaging with romantic love within and beyond heteronormative temporalities

Abstract

This article explores how life schedules and life courses that are organized chronologically become part of normalized heterosexuality in children’s conversations and play. The analysis draws on ethnographic data from a Swedish preschool, focusing on situations where children engage with themes such as romantic love, kisses and weddings. Queer temporal perspectives are applied to challenge how normativity and norm-challenging are perceived, not least in relation to how desirable futures for children are displayed. The article shows that children engage with love discourses in ways that both reproduce and challenge heteronormativity and linear temporalities in normative life course and life schedules.