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Black Sexuality in the U.S.: Presentations as Non-normative

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Abstract

Does current sex research in which people of African descent in the United States are the subjects present black sexuality as non-normative? If so, what is the impact of these presentations? The methodology used in this study included a qualitative review of research on sex and sexuality in which black people in the U.S. were research subjects. The study concludes that contemporary research on sexuality is dominated by research related to sexually transmitted infections, particularly AIDS and HIV. In the efforts to address this health crisis that has affected people of African descent in the U.S. disproportionately, some articles, perhaps inadvertently, present black sexuality in the U.S. as non-normative. This pathologizing of black sexuality occurs because some researchers studying aspects of sexuality in which the focus is on subjects of African descent in the United States, fail to either consider or describe possible systemic influences (poverty, racial discrimination, etc.) that affect the sexual behaviors of black people.

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    Kevin McGruder

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McGruder, K. Black Sexuality in the U.S.: Presentations as Non-normative. J Afr Am St 13, 251–262 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12111-008-9070-5

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