Project MUSE®: Journal of Black Sexuality and Relationships - Latest Articles
https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/671
Project MUSE®: Latest articles in Journal of Black Sexuality and Relationships.daily12026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00text/htmlen-USVol. 1 (2014) through current issueLatest Articles: Journal of Black Sexuality and RelationshipsTWOProject MUSE®Journal of Black Sexuality and Relationships2376-75102334-2668Latest articles in Journal of Black Sexuality and Relationships. Feed provided by Project MUSE®Millie Jackson: A Priestess of Black Vulgarity and Pleasure
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/987568
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In fearing the black body, strings (2019) historicizes the origins of fatness and blackness being intertwined. Strings (2019) finds that the rise of the Atlantic Slave Trade as well as ideologies of ascetic comportment in England, France, and the US in the long 18th century underwrote new and proliferating ideas about Black Africans as having a predilection to pleasure in all areas of life, but especially sex and food. With race science and a growing disdain for obesity, Black people— especially Black women— became markers of all things terrible, gross, lacking discipline, and monstrous. Black women, due to ongoing legalized rape and White fictive representations of their bodies, continued to be associated with the
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/671/image/coversmallMillie Jackson: A Priestess of Black Vulgarity and Pleasure2026-04-08text/htmlen-USMillie Jackson: A Priestess of Black Vulgarity and Pleasure2026-04-082026TWOProject MUSE®458482026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002026-04-08Transcending the “Scepter”: Advancing Nonconforming Black Male Sexuality and Genre
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/987569
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The phallus, symbolized as the “scepter,” represents complex power dynamics shaping discourses on Black masculinity and sexuality. Operating at multiple levels, this symbol reinforces patriarchal authority, sexual potency, and masculine dominance, equating legitimate masculinity with heteronormative dominance (Butler, 1999a). Western intellectual traditions naturalize phallocentric power through frameworks like Freud’s (1923) “penis envy” and Lacan’s (1994) “phallus as master signifier.” For nonconforming Black males, however, the scepter symbolizes exclusion rather than empowerment, a burden rooted in colonial constructions of Black male sexuality as excessive and dangerous (Fanon, 1967).Phallic symbolism’s
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/671/image/coversmallTranscending the “Scepter”: Advancing Nonconforming Black Male Sexuality and Genre2026-04-08text/htmlen-USTranscending the “Scepter”: Advancing Nonconforming Black Male Sexuality and Genre2026-04-082026TWOProject MUSE®663282026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002026-04-08Sexual Panic as Ritualized Performance in Bluefields, Nicaragua
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/987570
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As dusk settles over Bluefields, Nicaragua, each September and October the streets in Creole (Afro-Caribbean) barrios (neighborhoods) transform into a theater of cultural contradictions. Each evening the celebration erupts with intense energy: Masked 20-something Creole men costumed as elderly Black women—viejas nalgonas—sway provocatively as they parade down the street to the rhythm of an accompanying brass ensemble. As they proceed, they periodically strike young women with their hand fans and occasionally grope them. Meanwhile, these provocatively dressed young women dart back and forth among the viejas, dancing with provocative defiance as they evade the blows. Onlookers alternate between enthusiastic
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/671/image/coversmallSexual Panic as Ritualized Performance in Bluefields, Nicaragua2026-04-08text/htmlen-USSexual Panic as Ritualized Performance in Bluefields, Nicaragua2026-04-082026TWOProject MUSE®707592026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002026-04-08Perceptions of Sexual Openness and Sexual Behavior in Black WLW
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/987571
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Though LGBTQIA+ studies scholarship aims to be inclusive of various demographics with marginalized gender and sexual identities, a specific exploration of Black women-loving women’s (Black WLW) sexual experiences is largely underrepresented. Most of the research on Black WLW’s sexual behavior focuses primarily on how they use heteronormative influences to inform their relationships and sexual behavior (Brooks, 2017; Everett et al., 2019; Glass, 2014; Gray, 2018; Lane-Steel, 2011; Lassiter et al., 2022; Lewis, 2017; McGuire et al., 2017; Moore, 2011a; Reed et al., 2011b; Walker et al., 2012; Wilson, 2009). However, recent work by Canty (2024) and Thorpe et al. (2022a) intentionally considers and highlights Black
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/671/image/coversmallPerceptions of Sexual Openness and Sexual Behavior in Black WLW2026-04-08text/htmlen-USPerceptions of Sexual Openness and Sexual Behavior in Black WLW2026-04-082026TWOProject MUSE®1761152026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002026-04-08The Impact of Colorist Dating Experiences on Black Women’s Mental Health
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/987572
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Colorism, or discrimination based on skin tone, disproportionately affects Black women due to the intersection of race and gender (Crenshaw, 1989; Jones et al., 2024; Walker, 1983). Colorism has been linked to general indicators of psychological distress among Black women (e.g., Hall & Crutchfield, 2018), and specifically undermines women’s self-esteem, body satisfaction, and perceptions of attractiveness (Abrams et al., 2020; Hall, 2017; Falconer & Neville, 2000). These outcomes can significantly impact Black women’s interpersonal functioning (Cosbert et al., 2021), particularly in dating—a critical aspect of psychosocial development (Erikson, 1950) and key to the establishment of romantic relationships. For Black
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/671/image/coversmallThe Impact of Colorist Dating Experiences on Black Women’s Mental Health2026-04-08text/htmlen-USThe Impact of Colorist Dating Experiences on Black Women’s Mental Health2026-04-082026TWOProject MUSE®1533752026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002026-04-08Coloniality, Capitalism, and Patriarchy: Childfree, Never-Married Black Women and Women of Color on the Rise
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/987573
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The number of never-married women is on the rise and the percentage of childfree women in the United States has been on the rise in the last 40 years. This increase was more prevalent for women aged 40–44, and by the 1990s, 20% of women 65 and older were childfree (Stahnke et al., 2023). However, fewer studies include the number of women who have remained childfree, never-married, and single all in one category (Mandujano-Salazar, 2019). This absence demonstrates the limitations of the current research (Harrington, 2019). In this qualitative study, childfree, never-married, and single women, Black women, and women of color (WOC) are combined as one group.In the context of patriarchal, heteronormative social
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/671/image/coversmallColoniality, Capitalism, and Patriarchy: Childfree, Never-Married Black Women and Women of Color on the Rise2026-04-08text/htmlen-USColoniality, Capitalism, and Patriarchy: Childfree, Never-Married Black Women and Women of Color on the Rise2026-04-082026TWOProject MUSE®1375662026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002026-04-08