The Sensual Scholar

According to the newest General Social Survey taken in 2018, 23% of Black women ages 18-34 now identify as bisexual. This is a significant finding, as the number of self-identifying bisexual Black women is three times the number that it was only ten years ago. Many groups including young progressives, LGBTQIA advocacy groups, Christian and conservative organizations, feminists critics, and social scientists have taken notice of this sharp increase and what it might mean for the future of sexuality and the American family. For some social critics, this increase marks a critical moment in the development of Black women’s understanding and relationship with sexuality including Black gender dynamics more broadly.

I have a feeling that the increase in bisexuality among Black women in the United States is indicative of something more than an increase in visibility or more variation in sexuality. It can also be an act of resistance against racist and sexist views of Black sexuality. This speaks to the very foundation of the Black feminist movement itself, which is self-definition and autonomy.

What is Black Feminist Theory?

When I say Black feminist theory, I am referring to an intellectual tradition that is distinct in its centering of the Black woman’s experience. This is not just a group of feminists who theorize around issues affecting Black women, or Black women who use feminist theoretical approaches. Black feminists are critical of feminism that leaves out the experiences of Black women. As expressed in a statement made by the Combahee River Collective, an organization of Black lesbian feminists revolutionaries of the 1970s  and 1980s, Black women’s participation in feminists movements were limited by racist feminist organizing and ideology: “Contemporary Black feminism is the outgrowth of countless generations of personal sacrifice, militancy, and work by our mothers and sisters…Black, other Third World, and working women have been involved in the feminist movement from its start, but both outside reactionary forces and racism and elitism within the movement itself have served to obscure our participation” (Combahee River Collective 1986). In many ways, this is a movement of rediscovering theories of Black womanhood that have been suppressed throughout history and a continuation of an intellectual tradition that privileges the voices of Black women and their contributions to the world of general knowledge.Taken into consideration the historical defining of Black womanhood through white supremacy ideology and the silencing of Black woman intellect, one major goal of Black feminism is self-definition and resistance against all forms of coercive powers. Coercion takes form in various aspects of life, including in the regulation of one of the most intimate social activities and the topic of this post: sexuality.

Black feminist theorists and activists brought attention to the specific oppression faced by Black women in regards to our sexuality:

“ We believe that sexual politics under patriarchy is as pervasive in Black women’s lives as are the politics of class and race. We also often find it difficult to separate race from class from sex oppression because in our lives they are most often experienced simultaneously. We know that there is such a thing as racial-sexual oppression which is neither solely racial nor solely sexual, e.g., the history of rape of Black women by white men as a weapon of political repression”

(Combahee River Collective 1974)

This statement is referencing the exploitation of Black women’s bodies during slavery as a tool of repression, emphasizing the importance of understanding sexual politics as a power structure for the liberation of Black women. This sexual repression is not limited to the institution of slavery. Racist narratives around Black women’s sexuality continue to affect meanings of sexuality currently.  

Because of this history, the increase in bisexuality among Black women is meaningful phenomenon. For Black women, sexual expression can also be a reclamation of the body from these racist influences. This is not to say that same-sex sexuality or women-centric relationships did not exist among Black women previous to our current categorization of sexual identities, including bisexuality. However, the self-defined aspect of it gives the the current trend in bisexuality significant historical meaning.

Black feminist theorist bell hooks summarizes the importance of self-identification for Black women: “As subjects, people have the right to define their own reality, establish their own identities, name their history…as objects, one’s reality is defined by others, one’s identity created by others, one’s history named only in ways that define one’s relationship to those who are subject…Oppressed people resist by identifying themselves as subjects, by defining their own reality, shaping their new identity, naming their history, telling their story” (hooks, 1989). The increase in Black women identifying as bisexual is a shaping of a new identity, challenging the history of regulation of Black women’s sexuality. As said by Angela Davis, “Racism has always nourished itself by encouraging sexual coercion” (Davis 1978). This is what makes implications of increasing numbers of sexually self-identifying Black women so powerful. This is a reclamation of a sexual self denied over centuries of rape, abuse, and erasure. This is revolutionary.