Refusing Compulsory Sexuality

Reviews

“Highly educational, expertly researched, and easy to digest, Refusing Compulsory Sexuality eloquently reframes our understanding of asexuality, Blackness, and how the two intersect, providing an essential contribution to a discussion that is often dominated by white voices and perspectives.”
—Yasmin Benoit, asexual activist and model

“Sherronda’s writings continue to be a gift to the reader. With Refusing Compulsory Sexuality, they expand our understanding of gender, sexuality, and (anti-) Blackness with deftness and precision while also pushing us to rethink our understanding of asexuality and our relationships with ourselves and others. Without any doubt, people will find themselves in this book after spending years trying to find themselves elsewhere, and for those readers, this book will be home.”
—Lara Witt, writer and editorial director of Prism

“With Refusing Compulsory Sexuality, Sherronda continues to introduce us all to a new and/or deeper perspective on (a)sexuality, queerness, and desire with razor-sharp racial analysis, limpid prose, and incredible research. She is keenly aware of the ways that Black folks have often been removed from conversations specific to asexuality; the ways that the hypersexualization of queer identity has played a significant role in the subjugation of folks on (and outside of) the ace spectrum; and the ways that the hypersexualization of Black flesh is a particular form of anti-Blackness that has been employed by white and non-Black people for centuries—across political lines—to hurt, harm, and abuse Black(ened) subjects…. Sherronda proves with Refusing Compulsory Sexuality that they are a leading thinker in asexuality scholarship; gender and sexuality studies will never be the same.”
—Da’Shaun L. Harrison, author of Belly of the Beast

“A gloriously honest examination of asexual history and Blackness. Brown’s words traverse binaries, exude care, and act as radical archive for those marked by the violence of cisheteropatriarchy. Rarely is a book this rich with history this capable of integrity. It captures the gaps and lives of those deemed unworthy of remembering. Refusing Compulsory Sexuality will change you and encourage you to reignite a world worthy of it.”
—Amber Butts, author, editor, and organizer

“Refusing Compulsory Sexuality is an accessible primer for anyone in the general public looking to understand asexuality; Sherronda J. Brown illustrates the intellectual and lived ramifications for Black asexual possibility by synthesizing a wide range of personal experiences, academic, and activist sources for a sustained and loving look at this critical intersection. The deeper into the book you move, the more grateful you become that they have taken on this project and shared it with us, the world.”
—Ianna Hawkins Owen, assistant professor of English and African American studies, Boston University

“Brown’s work of nonfiction explores asexuality with a focus on white supremacy, anti-Blackness, capitalism, heteronormativity, and patriarchy as they connect with acephobia.”
—Autostraddle Expand reviews