The Rise of Sex Negative Feminism Among Young Black Women

[IwantToRetire]

There is a growing subculture of young women (and girls) who identify as sex-negative feminists, taking to the likes of Twitter and TikTok to express candidly negative views on phenomena deemed the offshoots of a male-centric and hyper-sexualised society, such as porn and hookup culture. This movement stands at odds with the sex positive legacy of the mainly millennial-heralded 2010s, which paved the way for ‘slut pride’ and a heightened consciousness of kink and BDSM within the mainstream. Such generational differences have become apparent through ongoing discourse on popular youth programming providing unrealistic and inappropriately graphic depictions of female teens and young adults.

For example, Sam Levinson’s upcoming , which stars a 23-year-old Lily-Rose Depp, has been dubbed a toxic man’s ‘rape fantasy’ for its supposed glamourisation of sexual violence and exploitation of women. And since its 2019 debut, Euphoria (another Levinson-HBO project) has been under constant scrutiny for its on and off-screen antics concerning the adultifying and sexually explicit storylines involving 20-something-year-old actresses playing teenage girls.

More specifically, women from online Black communities are also speaking out against the narrow dimensions of sexual expression that young Black women in the spotlight seem to be able to explore. Stars like Chloe Bailey and Normani are at the centre of these conversations, with many young Black women and girls expressing frustration over their perceived public portrayals as zealously raunchy beings.

The roots of sex negativity as an organised, feminist ideal can be traced back to the works of white second-wave scholars like Andrea Dworkin and Catherine Mackinnon, who have written extensively about the sex industry (termed the ‘sex trade’) as an inherently violent arena for women that only serves to reinforce male hegemony. These views have often been dismissed as essentialist and puritanical in the face of the ‘free love’ movement that characterised the 1960s and 70s.

Prominent Black feminists of the same time period weren’t so explicit in labelling themselves ‘sex negative’ in their perspectives of female sexuality and its relation to the male gaze. The more layered conditions of racism and colonialism for Black women often deprived attention away from this topic to focus on issues like media representation, marriage and motherhood. Nonetheless, Angela Davis offered a retrospective analysis of sex negative politics in a 1999 interview with fellow Black American sociologist Siobhan Brooks, noting its utility. “The definition of pornography as assaultive, objectifying and violative of women's autonomy and self-determination was strategically important because it allowed for a distinction between what was exploitative and violative on the one hand, and what was an expression of agency on the other,” she said. Also discoursing in the 90s was Patricia Hill Collins, who identified a link between the oppressive sexual realities of Black and white womanhood through pornography, writing, “the profitability of Black women's sexual exploitation for white 'gentlemen' parallels pornography's financially lucrative benefits for pornographers” in her seminal work Black Feminist Thought.

"I think the goal of sex negative feminism is really protection. Sex negative feminists view pleasure-centred sexuality as a Trojan horse or another way for men to exploit women. Sex positive feminism is radical freedom.

https://www.refinery29.com/en-gb/2023/05/11329778/sex-negative-feminists-gen-z-millennial

Please note the quotes above are just selections that I have made and dont necessarily reflect the article as a whole.

Just thought it interesting, although difficult to absorb because of the language (ie does she speak like this or is this just a writing style) as it references 1970s radical feminism.

(Sorry for random video link popping up - a distraction - but a result of mumsnet re-design including live links which may work for product placement articles, but really interfere when trying to following thoughts expressed through words)

This isn’t new, though, like the author thinks. Black women have been talking for ages about how Slut Walks are for privileged women who don’t actually suffer the stigma of being hypersexualized like Black women and girls or how stuff like “free the nipple” is peak irrelevant liberal feminism. White women can spend their 20s being “pro sex feminism” and then turn around in their 30s and get married, have kids, and start talking about how they moved out of NY to the suburbs and are now conservative. Black women are already assumed to be single mothers, promiscuous, welfare queens, etc. so no one thinks a Black woman is edgy or cool or so liberated if she acts the same way. We’re told we’re unmarriagable, that no one wants to date us on dating apps, we’re angry, unfeminine, Black girls are treated as adults and their rapes are excused because “their bodies look so mature,” we are seen as unrapeable and masculine, not respectable - Black women have always talked about this. Most Black women are a) terfy and b) against liberal feminism. Black feminists have serious issues like Black women being in prison for killing their abusers, Black women having high rates of domestic violence, Black women going missing and not being looked for, Black girls being over disciplined in schools, poverty around the world, getting access to education - not calling ourselves sluts or letting men into change rooms.

This makes me so sad and so angry. I am absolutely an intersectional feminist in understanding that feminism should include and focus on the marginalised female communities. I wish I knew what I could do to help more 😕

None of it is new. It is not just black women. Women have been calling out sexual violence and shaming for decades. Calling is 'Sex Negative' is a new take on an old issue, though.

We never seem to learn as human beings; each generation seems destined to repeat the same processes and make the same mistakes as the last one. The nature of youth is to think you are the only one to have experienced something, or had a certain type of thought about something. All that is different is that each generation comes up with a slightly different set of terminologies and expressions.

Andrea Dworkin was great; utterly uncompromising; but when you get into Dworkin it tends to elicit a very extreme emotional response - one that cannot be sustained long term because it tends to be separative and divisive and too rage inducing for good mental health.

Turning yourself into a powerless apologiser won't help.

This isnt just about black women, the majority of what you say there (and is fact) is applied to all women

And although she got a lot of things wrong, Mary Whitehouse (who I admit I hated at the time) was right about a lot of things that have now contributed to all this.

Yes! I’ve noticed this in the last five years or so. Sex positivity is peak white privilege. I’ve also noticed lots of young black women ‘desexing’ themselves in their dress, hoodies, short boxer braids, baggy sweatpants - not from a desire to be male but for safety.

Women are going to have to start picking up the negative, derogatory labelling that is intended to shame and discourage resisting the male centric/male sexual freedoms agenda, and stop being afraid of it. It's used a lot, in the same way that women wanting equality and to retain their legal protections are called 'anti trans'.

So yes, you bet we're sex negative.

Being black just adds another layer to the problems a woman will have. Why are you trying to minimise what that poster has just taken the time to write? That is part of the problem. How about taking on board what she has just said!

It's sad that modesty and taking ownership of your own body has to be called 'sex-negativity.

In my opinion, it's more 'positive' than pandering to male gaze and media deceptions like 'girl power' and 'slut' empowerment.

I had the interesting experience of wearing hijab for a decade. The hostility towards an ordinary white woman choosing modesty was amazing.

@bellac11 wow.

Totally agree with this. I suppose it is to pitch it as opposed to the sex positive movement but really, I think sex positive is a misnomer too.

It is not about "minimisation"; more that when you focus on what separates and divides women more than on what unites all women you lose power and effectiveness. There was not that much that was unique to black women in what was being described. Andrea Dworkin wrote extensively about the experiences of Jewish women and women in Israel - especially regarding the existence of 'Holocaust porn', for example.

Many poor white or asian women of whatever race or colour are more marginalised than many weathy black women because the privileges of social class, level of education, and material wealth also matters.

Great thread. When I saw the title I thought a) good, and b) I bet this is Iwant@LadyKenya@IwantToRetire

• • lady Kenya No idea how that happened. Thanks for the thread, @IwantToRetire

What was being described is what is called Misogynoir , which is unique to black women@NotHavingIt .

I'm a white, straight, middle-class woman. Any attempt to help in the way I would want to risks centring the white, Liberal feminism being rebelled against.

That just sounds like academic text book feminism. What's the point in apologising for yourself; how does it help anything? It certainly won't change the way that women are sexualised and shamed.

That's just a an academic term to describe the elemet of shaming thast is particular to black women; but there are elements of shaming which are unique to many different sorts or groups of women. My point is that there is more that unites and is common to all women than there is that divides them.

So black women shouldn't talk about particular issues that affect them because it's divisive?

Well said, @CountryStore

This. Black women speak up about what is happening to them, and are basically told to be quiet, stop being divisive. I should not be surprised to be honest.

A powerful post op, I completely agree.

All women suffer oppression, but there is definitely an extra dimension to what is applied to black women in particular. White (and brown) women are sexualised through virginity/purity lenses and then (as they age or are deemed 'experienced') through the universally misogynistic patriarchal sexualisation. As the op points out, black women aren't afforded even the (vague and weak) shield of virginity/purity as they are deemed prematurely sexually experienced based on rascist stereotypes.

I hate the term 'sex negative', because it sounds judgemental and as if women arguing for sexual expression different to that which is culturally sanctioned are celibate killjoys, which is an obtuse way to minimise and exclude what they're saying. Although its use does expose how 'sex positive' as a term shows there is only one way to be sex positive, and that is as we are culturally permitted by the patriarchy.

I'm not apologising for who I am, I am stating it. I am also stating that I understand that women like me have ignored the specific concerns of black women in the past and I don't want to continue that. Unfortunately, that leaves me confused as to how best to proceed! I wouldn't dream of joining a Black Women's Equality network, for example! Although would happily and wholeheartedly support their work.