<b>For readers of <i>Ace</i> and <i>Belly of the Beast</i>: A Black queer feminist exploration of asexuality--and an incisive interrogation of the sex-obsessed culture that invisibilizes and ignores asexual and A-spec identity.</b><br><br>Everything you know about sex and asexuality is (probably) wrong.<br><br>The notion that everyone wants sex--and that we all have to have it--is false. It’s intertwined with our ideas about capitalism, race, gender, and queerness. And it impacts the most marginalized among us. For asexual folks, it means that ace and A-spec identity is often defined by a queerness that’s not queer <i>enough</i>, seen through a lens of perceived lack: lack of pleasure, connection, joy, maturity, and even humanity.<br><br>In this exploration of what it means to be Black and asexual in America today, Sherronda J. Brown offers new perspectives on asexuality. She takes an incisive look at how anti-Blackness, white supremacy, patriarchy, heteronormativity, and capitalism enact harm against asexual people, contextualizing acephobia within a racial framework in the first book of its kind. Brown advocates for the “A” in LGBTQIA+, affirming that to be asexual is to be queer--despite the gatekeeping and denial that often says otherwise.<br><br>With chapters on desire, f*ckability, utility, refusal, and possibilities, <b><i>Refusing Compulsory Sexuality </i></b>discusses topics of deep relevance to ace and a-spec communities. It centers the Black asexual experience--and demands visibility in a world that pathologizes and denies asexuality, denigrates queerness, and specifically sexualizes Black people.<br><br>A necessary and unapologetic reclamation, <b><i>Refusing Compulsory Sexuality</i></b> is smart, timely, and an essential read for asexuals, aromantics, queer readers, and anyone looking to better understand sexual politics in America.