Reviews with content warning for Colonisation - Refusing Compulsory Sexuality: A Black Asexual Lens on Our Sex-Obsessed Culture

Reviews tagging 'Colonisation'

Refusing Compulsory Sexuality: A Black Asexual Lens on Our Sex-Obsessed Culture by Sherronda J. Brown

13 reviews

peggy_racham's review against another edition

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4.75

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ghosthermione's review against another edition

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5.0

I read this back in 2022 as an ARC. I had big plans to review it, as it absolutely blew my mind and I highlighted about 500 sentences that were either impactful or resonated with me.
And then i put so much pressure on myself about doing the book justice that I ended up never writing that review.
The gyst of it is, this book should be compulsory reading. Especially for anyone interested in sexuality, race, gender, and the intersection of the three. It felt like it was articulating things I somehow knew but hadn't quite been able to put words to. And then went deeper than that into aspects I'd not even begun to consider.

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workingdaley's review against another edition

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challenging hopeful informative reflective slow-paced

5.0

I feel like this is a deeply important read for every queer person, especially Black asexuals. It's deeply important for us to be able to understand asexuality in general, as it's a very misunderstood orientation, but I feel it's especially important to understand asexuality through a Black lens. This book managed to not only speak to some of the thoughts about my asexuality as a Black person that I was only partially able to articulate before reading this, but also speaks a lot to my disconnect with gender and my disconnect with the "human experience" as someone who is Black, asexual, aromantic, agender, and autistic. It also manages to speak to my frustrations with the realization that I've fallen out of the chrononormative structure that's been set out for me. And while my hesitations around marriage and children were going to cause this for me eventually, having it happen so early in my life forces me to really reflect on why life is structured in the way that it is, and what it means for me and my future that I've decidedly fallen off of my pre-determined path. This book has also given me tools to help better navigate consent and trying to work towards a world where we can break free of the allonormative assumption that we should all be desiring sex, and the racist assumption that as a Black person, I am always consenting to sex by my mere existence. I cannot recommend this book to enough people. I really do think that our understanding of queerness is improved when we can acknowledge and analyze the Black asexual lens.

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maddramaqueen's review against another edition

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challenging emotional informative reflective medium-paced

3.5

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cedence's review against another edition

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challenging informative inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

Each chapter of the book has its own trigger warnings for content as it deal with mistreatment of black people, esp. black women and black (a)sexuality, and generally is informative on what constitutes acephobia and the narration of asexuality as "abnormal" and an illness thoughout history. I added some of them below.

The book focuses in on asexual people who do not experience sexual attraction at all.

The book focuses on US history and context.

This book will show you the clear ties between white supremacy, the patriarchy and capitalism to racism, queerphobia, and compulsory sexuality. It will share with you how black sexuality has been forced, shaped and willfully misinterpreted by white supremacy agendas. It will also contain testimonies of lived black asexual experiences. And it will end on a positive note on the futures of asexual people.

Loved it.

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