Reviews tagging 'Sexism'

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

10 reviews

chamomiledaydreams's review against another edition

informative medium-paced

5.0

This book is a fantastic read!  It highlights historical equivalents of asexuality (such as frigidity) and explains how they were often conflated with other non-heterosexual identities such as lesbianism.  It addresses the many ways in which compulsory sexuality harms everyone, asexual and allosexual alike, and reaffirms the inherent queerness of asexuality (and by extension, aromanticism).  

Additionally, it explains the concept of chrononormativity to demonstrate how society expects everyone to reach certain milestones at specific points in their lives.  Queer people challenge this concept for many reasons.  For instance, a closeted lesbian might not be able to date and explore her sexuality until well into her twenties, while her straight peers have likely been at this for over a decade.  Similarly, but even more queerly, asexual people often never hit these milestones at all, especially if they are averse to sex and romance.

Sherronda J. Brown also discusses the conflicting sexual stereotypes that apply to Black aces.  They talk about the history of anti-Black racism and how hypersexuality remains a Black stereotype to this day, which can make it especially difficult for Black aces to be believed or for their asexual identities to be legible to others.  

I have identified as ace for over a decade now, and I am thrilled that ace scholarship such as this book exists.  It validates many of my own experiences at the same time that it opens my mind to concepts and trends that I was not previously aware of.  I would recommend this book to anyone interested in thinking more critically about asexuality and treating it like you would any other identity in queer studies.  I wish I had been assigned texts like this when I was in school! 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexism, Colonisation, Racism, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Acephobia/Arophobia, Slavery, and Rape

Minor: Police brutality

peggy_racham's review against another edition

4.75

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Content Warnings

Minor: Sexual harassment, Slavery, Biphobia, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Outing, Forced institutionalization, Acephobia/Arophobia, Body shaming, Medical trauma, Addiction, Racism, Violence, Bullying, Child abuse, Classism, Hate crime, Rape, Colonisation, Domestic abuse, Dysphoria, Lesbophobia, Homophobia, Sexism, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, and Transphobia

cogowno's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective slow-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexism, Acephobia/Arophobia, Racism, and Misogyny

workingdaley's review

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Rape, Acephobia/Arophobia, and Racism

Moderate: Sexual assault, Sexism, Fatphobia, Medical trauma, Sexual violence, Slavery, Sexual harassment, and Domestic abuse

Minor: Biphobia, Homophobia, Religious bigotry, Violence, Death, Emotional abuse, Lesbophobia, Suicidal thoughts, Ableism, Hate crime, Body shaming, Physical abuse, Colonisation, and Transphobia

maddramaqueen's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective medium-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Racism, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Sexism, Rape, Acephobia/Arophobia, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Body shaming, Homophobia, Slavery, Outing, Physical abuse, and Colonisation

Minor: Dysphoria, Fatphobia, Toxic relationship, Domestic abuse, Ableism, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Biphobia, Classism, Bullying, Cultural appropriation, Lesbophobia, Alcohol, Pandemic/Epidemic, Abortion, Panic attacks/disorders, Police brutality, Religious bigotry, and Transphobia

jugglingcoder's review against another edition

challenging informative inspiring medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Acephobia/Arophobia, Homophobia, Misogyny, Rape, Racism, Sexism, and Sexual assault

beals's review against another edition

informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Misogyny, Mental illness, Rape, Xenophobia, Slavery, Sexual content, Lesbophobia, Homophobia, Violence, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Pregnancy, and Genocide

mfrisk's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

4.0

This was an excellent read for those wanting to delve into the intersections of asexuality, race, gender, and a multitude of other identities which impact our lives and how we view ourselves and others. I highly recommend folks pick this up and use it as a pathway to keep learning. 

The only reason I’m knocking off a star is it can at times get to be hard to digest all the information as a vast number of topics are covered here and at times it feels more like a research paper than a book. However, I can only hope the author will continue to write and give more space to these topics in further depth. All the topics discussed are worthwhile but some could constitute their own books so it can be hard to absorb all we are learning. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Ableism, Lesbophobia, Homophobia, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Slavery, Police brutality, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Hate crime, Forced institutionalization, and Acephobia/Arophobia

Moderate: Sexual violence, Medical trauma, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Domestic abuse, Transphobia, and Toxic relationship

literarycryptid's review against another edition

challenging hopeful informative inspiring reflective tense slow-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Sexism, Homophobia, Colonisation, Slavery, Sexual harassment, and Acephobia/Arophobia

mmccombs's review against another edition

informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

This was both a personal and scholarly exploration of not only asexuality, but human sexuality as a whole. This book covers compulsory heterosexuality, anti-Blackness and it’s intersections/similarities/differences with acephobia, how capitalism demands our sexuality to be “productive,” and how this harms us all. I felt that this book was very strong in the beginning, offering very compelling and thoughtful examinations on incredibly complex social structures. After about the halfway point, I began to feel like things started to slide out of focus. I thought the chapter on Octavia E. Butler and other possible ace ancestors was interesting but entirely out of place, it almost felt like it’s own thing. I guess I liked the more academic/ lit review aspect of this book, though I imagine others will be more drawn to the historical connections and stories! All in all I think this is essential reading that goes beyond “Ace 101” (which is largely white and geared towards allo folks). This book left me feeling a lot less lonely and much more valid in my asexuality in a way other works haven’t, and has challenged a lot of my own internalized white cisheteropatriarchal ideas about sexuality, so for that I will be forever grateful.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Acephobia/Arophobia and Racism

Moderate: Rape, Sexual harassment, and Sexism