Follow Up: Responding to Julia

After reading the assignment for class, I began to think about the power that one’s sexuality holds. The act of expressing one’s sexuality is extremely powerful, and I don’t think that people realize how important it is to be free to do so. Inhibiting one’s sexual behaviors, is limiting ourselves of our natural desires that lie within all of us, no matter which form they come in. I think that Rebecca Walker’s, “Lusting For Freedom”, accentuates this idea. She does a good job of showing readers that although she began having sex at an unusually young age, 11, she still believes that this expression of sexuality allowed her to learn and grow in a way that many, who are sexually oppressed, do not get to. She expresses how she gained much self-knowledge and that sexual experiences “can either kill us or help us to know and protect ourselves better” (Walker, 19). It is clear that she agrees with the latter part of that statement, as she continues to elaborate on how she learned and grew up from this display of sexuality. I strongly agreed with Walker in that sex, and a great understanding of it, is critical in the much-needed formation of an individual’s identity.

Going along with all of Walker’s ideas is Patricia Hill Collin’s ideas about black sexuality as well as society as a whole and the way it limits individuals’ expression and understanding of sexuality. I think that it is extremely important that individuals, especially teenagers, no matter what race they may be, should be free to discuss sex. Unfortunately, in our society there is a limited form of sexuality, but it is displayed everywhere. How can we expect people to constantly be surrounded by sex, but then not support an open dialogue about it? Censorship is causing us to have gaps in our understanding of sexuality. This limited discussion of sexuality is worse for blacks though because it simply reinforces the stereotypes that are in place, such as the idea that black sexuality is violent and wild, thus in need of restraint, rather than debunking them. I believe that it is important that we as a society do not have skewed perceptions of sexuality, black or white. Labeling, in any sense, whether it be about sexual practices or anything else for that matter, is totally wrong, especially if you can resolve the issue but simply being more knowledgeable about a topic. I think that in schools, children need to be more educated in terms of sexuality and sexual practices and I also believe that our society needs to not place limitations on what is acceptable to discuss in a public forum and what isn’t. In doing so, we can hopefully resolve many of the issues that Walker poses in her article.

Finally, I think that all of this would resolve two particular problems that seemed to stand out to me as I read. The first one would be the problem of blacks feeling that they need to suppress their sexuality or be more private about it, which is unfair because whites seem to be held to a different standard. The other problem is the idea that sexuality equals heterosexuality, which is completely untrue for many people. By creating a more open forum for the discussion of sexuality, people will feel more comfortable knowing that they can express their sexuality whether it is hetero, homo, black, white, or purple for that matter.