Hyper Sexual, Hyper Masculine?

This book provides critical insights into the many, often overlooked, challenges and societal issues that face contemporary black men, focusing in particular on the ways in which governing societal expectations result in internal and external constraints on black male identity formation, sexuality and black ’masculine’ expression. Presenting new interview and auto-ethnographic data, and drawing on an array of theoretical approaches methodologies, Hyper Sexual, Hyper Masculine? explores the formation of gendered and sexual identity in the lives of black men, shedding light on the manner in which these are affected by class and social structure. It examines the intersecting oppressions of race, gender and class, while acknowledging and discussing the extent to which black men’s social lives differ as a result of their varying degrees of cumulative disadvantage. A wide-ranging and empirically grounded exploration of the intersecting roles of race, masculinity, and sexuality on the lives of black men, this volume will appeal to scholars across the social sciences with interests in race and ethnicity, gender and sexuality, social stratification and intersectionality.

’The editors of this collection have impressively gathered a variety of voices - men, women, gay, straight, from graduate students to full professors, as well as those from outside of the academy - to investigate the variety of intersections of race, gender, and sexuality through the experiences of black men. Potent in its breadth and impactful in its import, this collection brilliantly empowers and does not pathologize understandings of black male identity.’ Juan Battle, Graduate Center, CUNY, USA ... this book is an important intervention into race and gender studies literature, and in particular its emphasis on intersectional identities is a refreshing and interesting contribution. It would serve well as an introduction to those interested in the problem of intersectionality, specifically with respect to race and masculinity. ... Hyper Sexual, Hyper Masculine? does the important work of addressing some of the myths and stereotypes that plague black men, and recognises the danger inherent in black men’s alterity... LSE Review of Books

Brittany C. Slatton is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Texas Southern University, USA and author of Mythologizing Black Women: Unveiling White Men’s Racist and Sexist Deep Frame. Kamesha Spates is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Kent State University, USA and author of What Don't Kill Us Makes Us Stronger: African American Women and Suicide.