[Trigger warning: This article mentions sexual abuse, verbal sexual harassment, attempted sexual assault, and threats of sexual assault.] I find most discussions about black female sexuality strange. On the one hand, there seems to be little discussion of male sexuality. Men are not called upon to feel empowered by “embracing” their sexuality. On the other hand, so much of … [Read more...]
Bisexual and Black: Navigating Heteronormativity and Religious Homophobia in the Dating World
Editor's Note: This article was originally published on Postmodern Woman under the title "Learning to Love Without Filter: The Many Contortions in the World of Bisexuality" and is republished with permission. “I want you to myself,” she whispered to me as her soft fingers curled through the baby hair growing on my neck. She twirled a few strands around her fingers and tugged, … [Read more...]
The Myth of the Super Black Woman
I like to write, because I can state my opinion without using my voice. It's got a slight tremble at times, my voice; slurred, a certain softness due to illness that gives me away. In my mind it has and will always indicate imperfection, vulnerability. A strangeness that has always meant I immediately and inevitably fall below a threshold of normalcy, fall below gendered … [Read more...]
“We Stand With Cosby”: Rape Culture and Victim-Blaming Among America’s Heroes
It's an easy thing to say: just tell the truth. Tell it immediately, without bias, lacking emotionality, to everyone. Easy, right? Even in our daily interactions, we do not always tell the truth. Often in fear of hurting others, being hurt, getting fired, being told your truth was never worth sharing. However, when it comes to people in the public eye, it has become all too … [Read more...]
How Rage Is Radical
There’s so much in this world to be enraged about. Everyday there’s another video, another story, another harmful policy, another tweet, another lived experience, another injustice ... What are we supposed to do with all of it? Where are we supposed to put it? How do we breathe with all of it in our chest? This constant state of rage can leave folk feeling powerless, … [Read more...]
In Solidarity: How Non-Black Women of Color Stand Upon the Shoulders of Black Women
I am a woman of color, and I am an intersectional feminist. These terms of identity were both coined by black women. “Intersectionality theory” is a concept named by scholar and professor Kimberlé Crenshaw, first discussed in her 1989 treatise “Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and … [Read more...]
Fat Black Queer Femmes Are the Fetishized Backbones of Our Communities — But Who Takes Care of Us?
This article was originally published on Rest for Resistance as "Labor, Chaotic Desire & Belonging: On Blackness, Femininity, and Queerness" and is republished with permission. This is for the queer fat Black femmes. As children, we learn that we never occupy just one, but all, of our identities. Not a fat girl or a Black girl, but a fat Black girl. In elementary school, … [Read more...]
5 Ways to Respond to Racism While Online Dating
Online dating has become less of a taboo in recent years. With society’s rising dependence on technology and social media, it was only a matter of time before we collectively became more comfortable with the idea of meeting our potential soulmates and "friends with benefits" online. For some of us, it’s even become fun. There are bars that dedicate nights for people to come in … [Read more...]
Afro-Latina: 6 Women Open Up About Being Black and Latina
Editor's Note: This article was originally published by Vibe.com and is republished with permission. “We got a little bit of Black in us!” This is what the Puerto Ricans I grew up around in the South Bronx used to joke. The idea that Blackness was something beyond skin color never made much sense back then. But the older I got, the more I realized how prevalent those African … [Read more...]
