ABSTRACT
In understanding these Black feminist contextualizations, it may be more appropriate to speak of the sexual politics of Black womanhood, namely, how sexuality and power become linked in constructing Black women’s sexualities. For Black women, ceding control over self-definitions of Black women’s sexualities upholds multiple oppressions. Whereas sexuality is part of intersecting oppressions, the ways in which it can be conceptualized differ. One important outcome of social movements advanced by lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transgendered individuals has been the recognition of heterosexism as a system of power. Sexuality can be conceptualized as a freestanding system of oppression similar to oppressions of race, class, nation, and gender, as well as part of each of these distinctive systems of oppression. Within this larger endeavor, Black women’s experiences with pornography, prostitution, and rape constitute specific cases of how more powerful groups have aimed to regulate Black women’s bodies.
