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. It’s 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 that’s not queer enough,
seen through a lens of perceived lack: 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.