As a continuation of the Roundtable discussion ‘African Women on Sex and Sexuality’ featured in Issue 4, The Reverie Issue, we have curated a selection of book recommendations for further reading on themes of pleasure and sexual agency as women of colour. These titles expand upon our dialogue to include not only African and African diasporic narratives but also the stories of Middle Eastern and Asian women exploring similar topics.
BLACK SEXUAL POLITICS: AFRICAN AMERICANS, GENDER AND THE NEW RACISM
by Patricia Hill Collins
/non-fiction/
In Black Sexual Politics: African Americans, Gender and the New Racism, Philadelphia-born academic and Professor of Sociology Patricia Hill Collins highlights critical intersections of race, sexuality and politics and how they affect Black experience in America. Using theories from popular culture, Hill examines representations of Black men and women within media to create a “progressive sexual Black politics” and provide Black readers with messages of liberation.
SEX AND LIES: TRUE STORIES OF WOMEN’S INTIMATE LIVES IN THE ARAB WORLD
by Leïla Slimani
/autobiography/
A collection of powerful first-person testimonials curated and exposed by award-winning novelist Leïla Slimani, Sex and Lies: True Stories of Women’s Intimate Lives in the Arab World explores conservative Arab culture in Morocco and its impact on young Moroccan women. In a country where sex outside of marriage, homosexuality and prostitution are all illegal and vehemently punished, women’s sexual agency is limited to two options: virgin or wife.
QUIRKY QUICK GUIDE TO HAVING GREAT SEX
by Tiffany Kagure Mugo
/self-help/
The self-help book you didn’t know you needed, Quirky Quick Guide To Having Great Sex considers the intricacies of sex and sexuality in accessible bite-sized bits. Written by Tiffany Kagure Mugo, co-founder and curator of HOLAA!, a Pan Africanist hub tackling issues surrounding female sexuality, this book covers topics from condom use to the kink world and everything in between to make sex less daunting and elevate readers’ pleasure.
PLEASURE ACTIVISM: THE POLITICS OF FEELING GOOD
by Adrienne Maree Brown
/non-fiction/
Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good examines the role of pleasure under the weight of oppression, what that pleasure looks like and how marginalised folks can reclaim it. Writer and Black liberation activist Adrienne Maree Brown defines ‘pleasure activism’ as having two objectives: to make organization/activism as pleasurable as possible and to advocate for historically oppressed groups to reclaim pleasure in their daily lives.
UNVEILING DESIRE
by Devaleena Das and Colette Morrow
/non-fiction/
Unveiling Desire is an anthology exploring representations of Asian women as passive, abject or sexually exotic in Western culture, literature and film. Authors Devaleena Das and Colette Morrow—both Professors of Gender Studies—resist the temptation to focus on such oppression without first examining Eastern women’s sexuality beyond these social and cultural constraints.
AFRICAN SEXUALITIES: A READER
edited by Sylvia Tamale
/non-fiction/
Ugandan academic and human rights activist Sylvia Tamale considers the complexities of sex and sexuality within African cultures in a curated volume of essays, case studies, poetry, fiction and more written by African activists themselves. African Sexualities: A Reader provides a scholarly approach to variety of themes including desire, fantasy, identity, pleasure, consent and autonomy.
Find more reading recommendations in our recently updated Library section.