num_pages: 240
description: 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.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. Its 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 thats 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 gatekeeping and denial that often says otherwise.With chapters on desire f*ckability utility refusal and possibilities Refusing Compulsory Sexuality discusses topics of deep relevance to ace and a-spec communities. It centers the Black asexual experience--and demands visibility in a world that pathologizes and denies asexuality denigrates queerness and specifically sexualizes Black people.A 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.
language: English
title: Refusing Compulsory Sexuality: A Black Asexual Lens on Our Sex-Obsessed Culture
publisher: North Atlantic Books