A Taste for Brown Sugar boldly takes on representations of
black women's sexuality in the porn industry. It is based on Mireille
Miller-Young's extensive archival research and her interviews with
dozens of women who have worked in the adult entertainment industry
since the 1980s. The women share their thoughts about desire and
eroticism, black women's sexuality and representation, and ambition
and the need to make ends meet. Miller-Young documents their
interventions into the complicated history of black women's
sexuality, looking at individual choices, however small-a costume, a
gesture, an improvised line-as small acts of resistance, of what she
calls "illicit eroticism." Building on the work of other
black feminist theorists, and contributing to the field of sex work
studies, she seeks to expand discussion of black women's sexuality to
include their eroticism and desires, as well as their participation
and representation in the adult entertainment industry. Miller-Young
wants the voices of black women sex workers heard, and the decisions
they make, albeit often within material and industrial constraints,
recognized as their own.