In this exploration of what it means to be Black and asexual in America today, Sherronda J.

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: lack of pleasure, connection, joy, maturity, and even humanity. And it impacts the most marginalized among us. It’s intertwined with our ideas about capitalism, race, gender, and queerness. The notion that everyone wants sex-and that we all have to have it-is false. It centers the Black asexual experience–and demands visibility in a world that pathologizes and denies asexuality, denigrates queerness, and specifically sexualizes Black people.Ī necessary and unapologetic reclamation, Refusing Compulsory Sexuality is smart, timely, and an essential read for asexuals, aromantics, queer readers, and anyone looking to better understand sexual politics in America.A Black Asexual Lens on Our Sex-Obsessed Cultureįor readers of Ace and Belly of the Beast: A Black queer feminist exploration of asexuality-and an incisive interrogation of the sex-obsessed culture that invisibilizes and ignores asexual and A-spec identity.Įverything you know about sex and asexuality is (probably) wrong. With chapters on desire, f*ckability, utility, refusal, and possibilities, Refusing Compulsory Sexuality discusses topics of deep relevance to ace and a-spec communities. Brown advocates for the “A” in LGBTQIA+, affirming that to be asexual is to be queer–despite the gatekeeping and denial that often says otherwise. 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 offers new perspectives on asexuality. The notion that everyone wants sex–and that we all have to have it–is false. For readers of Ace and Belly of the Beast: A Black queer feminist exploration of asexuality–and an incisive interrogation of the sex-obsessed culture that invisibilizes and ignores asexual and A-spec identity.Įverything you know about sex and asexuality is (probably) wrong.

Sherronda j brown book