Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

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

19 reviews

jackieines's review against another edition

informative inspiring reflective fast-paced

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Acephobia/Arophobia, Slavery, Racism, and Sexual assault

kylieqrada's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative inspiring sad slow-paced

5.0

I am undoubtedly not grasping all that is offered here, both due to my brain capacity and my whiteness. However, I really loved this book!!!! Sherronda's research and arguments were so well-constructed and resonated so strongly. I will never get tired of learning more about the beautiful multi-faceted experience that is asexuality. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Slavery, and Acephobia/Arophobia

Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

Minor: Homophobia, Lesbophobia, and Biphobia

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

alexxcp's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Acephobia/Arophobia, Racism, and Violence

Moderate: Misogyny, Classism, Medical trauma, Sexual assault, Rape, Police brutality, and Colonisation

pipn_t's review against another edition

challenging informative inspiring medium-paced

5.0

This was a really good book, highly recommend to anyone.  It was a bit of a tough read but worth the effort. I appreciate that it included a land acknowledgement.  It included. Historical timeline of a sexuality mentions, which was really interesting, and had a really unique perspective that I hope other people check out.  I appreciate also the trigger warning headers at the beginning of sections that warrant it.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, and Acephobia/Arophobia

kirstenf's review against another edition

challenging informative inspiring medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual violence, Sexual content, Rape, Acephobia/Arophobia, Racism, Violence, Homophobia, Biphobia, Transphobia, Lesbophobia, Hate crime, Colonisation, and Sexual assault

nightnurselit's review against another edition

informative reflective slow-paced

3.75

Sherronda J Brown explores the oppression of asexuals through the eyes of a black cis female. She describes in depth the history of injustice asexuals have faced, while coinciding the fetishization and hypersexualization of black bodies since colonial times. Black female identifying ACEs as they often call themselves are faced with living in a heteropatriarchial society and are victim to both misogyny and misogynoir. America has historically simultaneously pleasured and profited from the sexualization of black bodies. This book gives examples from the plantation era Jezebel to modern trends on Pornhub. Black women have been demonized and seen as promiscuous to protect the real sexual predators, men. 
           Being asexual and black is not considered normative or natural. ACE women face being infantilized and dehumanized by acephobics who are not actually afraid, just disgusted by things not seen as normal to them. Research has gone into the psychological issues of not desiring sex until recently and have gone as far as individuals deciding corrective r*** was a solution. SA whether coerced or forced is common in ACE women to remedy their “problem”. Many ACEs even have sex to maintain relationships although it is not pleasurable to them. ACEs are neither fully accepted by the straight or LGBTQ communities which are both largely based on sexuality, although some ACEs identify as queer. 
        As a cis hetero black woman I found this work fascinating. I was intrigued to explore an internalized biases and ignorances I had about asexuality. I felt while the ideas aren’t revolutionary, they were ideas I had never considered before. In an oversexed society a woman’s worth can be based on her sexual desirability. I can’t imagine trying to navigate the world with my sexuality being constantly infantilized and dehumanized. I have a new found respect for the perils of living authentically asexual in a heteropatriarchial society. 
At times this book could be wordy or drag but it it easily consumable. I would not recommend this work to anyone sensitive to SA, r*** culture or racism. This book gives fair trigger warnings but if you are sensitive to those subjects this book was not written for you.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Acephobia/Arophobia, Colonisation, Misogyny, and Rape