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.

That is good to hear@ZeldaFighter .

It sounds like a healthy point of view. I have been aghast at the extremely violent abuse portrayed routinely in tv shows.
Can’t watch them at all. It spills out into real life.

To me it is not about being negative to sex, though I understand why they call it that. It is being negative to abuse, rape, violence, coercion. Rightly so!

I am glad the young are taking a stand. Well done them!

That's not what I said.

Personally I think it would be more effective if women all talked together about what they have in common. Lots of what was described as unique to black women could also as easily be attrributed to different classes of women and girls. Women of all different groupings have been discussing the sorts of experineces and attitudes that have now led to this new 'Sex Negative' movement, for a long time - which is why Andrea Dworkin has been referenced. Indeed, Dworkin talked about the particular experiences of black women in her work, as well as that of other groups of women.

For example, the under-privileged white girls targeted and abused by gangs of asian men were seen and referred to in quite specific ways on account of their lowly status.

On Ru Paul's Drag race there was a 'queen' called Baga chipz - wo was portrayed as a promiscuous, trashy, working class slapper. Working class white girls are also portrayed as being cheap and desperate.

I just don't see how helpful it is for one group to claim some sort of unique victimisation that no other women could possibly share in.

Although it is important to be able to talk about your experience relevant to who you are.. I agree that all women need to come together and unite, otherwise we are less effective.

Otherwise we are left with too many offshoots which have less power than the collective.....

Working class white women sex negativity

Jewish women sex negativity

Indian women sex negativity

Black women sex negativity

Upper class women sex negativity

Nordic women sex negativity....

Surely just 'sex negative women' is enough, with our own individual experiences of the matter included, but a focus on what unites us.

This is not to take away from the original article, it was good. Just as an addition to the previous conversation.

NotHavingIt so black women are ok to discuss issues that affect them, as long as they make sure they add a disclaimer each time? Not trying to be a dick, just trying to understand what you mean properly

Thanks for sharing OP. IMO sex-positive 'feminism' has always been about affirming a male-driven view of women and sex (porn is great, BDSM is the norm, sex work is work etc) and convincing a generation of women and girls that this is empowerment. It is heartening to see push back against this, and especially to hear the voices of women from Black communities, who have a whole additional range of racist sexual stereotypes heaped upon them via sex positivity.

Sex positive feminism is 100% rooted in privilege (as @Misstache states). When I've questioned the 'sex work is work' take of white, middle class young feminists though (with my second wave/Dworkian perspective of the sex industry), the response is that being 'sex negative'/against the selling of female bodies is my 'white feminism/white privilege' talking and so is a totally invalid perspective. I'm curious as to how the voices of these 'sex negative' Black women land within that mental paradigm.

Are black women seen as not pure? When I think of African women, I think that they're seen as very anti-casual sex, don't know how others get the impression that they're promiscuous?

Absolutely, women need to stand up and say loudly NO!
No to porn, no to men who watch porn, no to sex that doesn't focus on a woman's pleasure.

I'm a lesbian but in the 70s men were expected to be skilled in foreplay and to please women!

So Ladies put on your Boudicca britches and say NO! Loud and Proud.

@Misstache I read over on Lipstick Alley to understand your problems and support you my Black Sisters 100%

Redebs · Today 08:56
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

It is sad that girls feel ‘empowered’ if a young man comes after them sexually. What an illusion.

Their little finger has more power than is required for a young man to say yes to instant sex openly offered.

I am sure that it has been a white girls’ luxury over all, even though all girls and women have been affected.

Also, though I am not sure of any statistics, black girls and women may be subject to a form of racist expectation that it would be ok to sexually harass them and expect sex from them.

Maybe black men are targeted by ‘sex- positive’ racism too, like the black gay man in “I Am Going to Destroy You.”

Pro sex feminisim always struck me as absolute bollocks - a re run of the 60s and a way to get women to behave the way men want them to behave.

I never understood any of this - 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. until I lived in NYC for a few years and had my children in a public school there. I saw the way teachers reacted to my white children vs the black children. There was a lot of presumption - always. In our school there were no black teachers even though half the student body was black.

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.

I wonder about this.

I think that men keep trying it on! We sort it for a while then they start again.

Most Television, film, music writters and producers are men and in their 30s. A lot of female performers are very young.

Beyonce is on stage in a leather g string, and thigh high leather boots - Jay Z in sneakers, lose comfy jeans and a baggy t-shirt.

That principal is across the board.

I view sex positivity as peek Stockholm Syndrome.

I see those women as groomed.

Then they wake up...

This is so interesting.

My personal struggle with feminism has always been the fake narrative around “empowerment”. Such bollocks like being a stripper is empowering, you’re owning your sexuality by getting your tits out online etc.

It took me years to really see the problem with the sex positive movement, only really since I passed into mid30s did I start to see how damaging it actually all was.

I totally appreciate the additional complexities that black women will face around this.

Very enlightening. Thank you for sharing OP.

Black African women have a different to black American and Caribbean women. For example, how they interpret religious scriptures - church is taken more seriously with Africans from my experience growing up.

Basically, as an outsider, people may not see these nuances but they do exist.

I am sure that it has been a white girls’ luxury over all, even though all girls and women have been affected.

That very much depends on where you live. My friend is in Pakistan - her dds cannot leave the house.

They get groped, flashed at, called a slut/whore/bitch, men mastubrate at them. Extreme, consistent, terrifying behaviour.

She reckons that a lot is because of porn - white western women being abused is the most commonly watched there.

Sex positive feminism is 100% rooted in privilege

I really think sex positive feminists have been groomed.

Not sure what people are meaning re white women not experiencing this. White women make up huge numbers in the sex trafficking side of the modern day slave trade. Many cultures view white women as prostitutes because of the porn they're exposed to.

All women experience abuse and sexism. But the history of enslavement adds specific stereotypes to Black women’s experiences - we are seen as masculine, bad and neglectful mothers, and hyper sexual. This justified raping us, taking our children, and forcing us to labour. These images are still around today - Black girls are seen as 3-4 years older than their actual ages which justifies harsh discipline and blaming them for being sexualized. Black mothers are blamed for the problems in the Black community. Black women are seen as angry and therefore we can’t be vulnerable or victims. The strong Black woman stereotype prevents us from seeking therapy.

We see these stereotypes in the way TRAs talk about Black women. They say that if Black women “get” to be women then men can be women. This relies on the idea that Black women are not feminine or real women. When they talk about allowing men in sports they will say “sports allow Black women” as though we aren’t women. They justify DSD males in sports by claiming African women “naturally” have more testosterone as though we are different from any other women, again, claiming we are really men. This idea of masculinizing us traces back to the forced labour of slavery, and it’s extremely racist and sexist and is applied to us as a group.

Wow. I am 50 and the sentence ‘ my struggle with feminism has been around empowerment, stripping being empowering’.

That shows how much feminism has changed in such a short space of time. Not me, nor anyone in my uni women’s group ( do these even exist now?!) would have associated stripping with feminism, except in that feminism would have regarded stripping this as exploitative and degrading to women.

4plusthehound · Today 12:38
I really think sex positive feminists have been groomed
Yes.

Remeber all that bollocks in the 90s?

Pole dancing. Swinging around the pole, g string and platforms.

They considered that freedom, emancipation, performance art.

She reckons that a lot is because of porn - white western women being abused is the most commonly watched there

Are they white girls living in Pakistan?
White /British/American/Scandinavian girls abroad even in the 60s ‘70s were seen as ‘easy’ prey compared to local girls partly due to ‘Make Love not War’ and early sex positivism. You don’t need porn to convey that when you think of general release films etc. British habits of dressing in a less covered way would influence that view too.

I do think Pakistan is an extreme example though. I had thought we were speaking about what happens within our culture here.

In my experience, white women are seen as whores in many countries. I've been countries where if you're white, you're seen as a prostitute. Crazy world.

Misstache
We see these stereotypes in the way TRAs talk about Black women. They say that if Black women “get” to be women then men can be women. This relies on the idea that Black women are not feminine or real women

I had not realised that tras make those outrageous claims.

JamSandle · Today 12:46
Not sure what people are meaning re white women not experiencing this. White women make up huge numbers in the sex trafficking side of the modern day slave trade. Many cultures view white women as prostitutes because of the porn they're exposed to

No one is saying white women don’t experience this they absolutely do. But there is an additional undercurrent for black women I think.