Refusing Compulsory Sexuality

A Black Asexual Lens on Our Sex-Obsessed Culture

eBook, 226 pages

English language

Published Sept. 13, 2022 by North Atlantic Books.

ISBN:
978-1-62317-711-9
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ASIN:
B09NLPTC4R

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4 stars (1 review)

Everything you know about sex and asexuality is (probably) wrong.

The notion that everyone wants sex—and that we all have to have it—is false. It's intertwined with our ideas about capitalism, race, gender, and queerness. And it impacts the most marginalized among us. For asexual folks, it means that ace and A-spec identity is often defined by a queerness that's not queer enough, seen through a lens of perceived lack of pleasure, connection, joy, maturity, and even humanity.

In this exploration of what it means to be Black and asexual in America today, Sherronda J. Brown offers new perspectives on asexuality. She takes an incisive look at how anti-Blackness, white supremacy, patriarchy, heteronormativity, and capitalism enact harm against asexual people, contextualizing acephobia within a racial framework in the first book of its kind. Brown advocates for the "A" in LGBTQIA+, affirming that to be asexual is to be queer—despite the …

1 edition

Call for Space for Aces

4 stars

Navigating this is new to me, so it's great to read something advocating so fiercely for a while and complete space for aces of all types. Also wild to learn that Langston Hughes and Octavia Butler are mostly assumed to be gay despite avoiding that label and romance in their lives. In a more accepting world perhaps they would identify as ace or aro, but we should resist labeling them to suit our needs.

Subjects

  • Education
  • Asexuality
  • LGBTQ+
  • Non Fiction