This is Misogynoir

What happened to Jourdin Pauline is what every Black asexual person's been saying since day & a horrifying viral example of what we've been going through for years. Antiblackness & compulsory sexuality have always been linked. It's time to wake the fuck up, ace or not. The core of ace discourse was/is about reinforcing compulsory sexuality not education. 'Not understanding' asexuality, good or bad faith, is used to justify its erasure. It's a classic conservative idea that what doesn't instantly make sense has no right to exist.

The reactionary idea that human sexuality that isn't cisheterosexuality shouldn't exist is tied to anti-victim/survivor rhetoric. When an asexual person is sexually assaulted, the viewer focuses on their 'confusing' nature as the problem instead of the violation + violator.

The idea that Jourdain Pauline deserved to be assaulted for not being cisheterosexual is a chilling but common anti-queer rape culture talking point. Her SA is being justified because she's asexual.

Jourdin Pauline isn't the first Black asexual woman to be sexualised and sexually humiliated due to conservatism. The eroticisation of Yasmin Benoit and Matt Walsh's harassment of Latoya Raveneau come to mind. Most Black ace women know this sexualisation too well.

Most if not all women under patriarchy have faced some form of sexual violence. But because asexuality specifically is seen as going against human nature, it's believed that it needs to be corrected with forced sex/sexual acts. And this belief is commonly shared, even with 'progressives'

What else is left to say really? When you centre whiteness in queerness & support rape culture out of spite for queers you hate, you create the perfect condition for antiblack sexual violence like these to thrive. No one listened to us. The Black asexual is always collateral damage.

The Black asexual is always collateral damage, of white allosexual queers who erase us under the guise of 'progressive' acephobia, white asexuals who engage in puritanism for their own benefit & Black cishet people who believe their sexuality will give them approval from white society.

With the rebrand of fascism, more and more asexual people especially women are gonna come out with being (correctively) SA'd & only very few leftist leaning people will do anything about the rape culture in front of our fucking eyes. It's disgusting.

And I absolutely expect the white asexual/aspec community will ignore Jourdain Pauline's assault & sexualisation like they ignored Latoya Raveneau & Yasmin Benoit. Or give out shallow 'support POC' posts like usual. We're only sexual perpetrators to them, never victims.

I'm gonna encourage other Black aspec figures to help boost this story & support one of our own: @gentlegiantace93 @blkaroculture @asexual-goddessss

Tag for visibility: @avenpt

Image Source: The Brown Girls Project

In a statement posted on social media, the American College of Nurse-Midwives called Dr. Green Smith’s death a “profound failure of the systems meant to protect birthing people.”

“That a Black midwife and maternal health expert died after giving birth in the United States is both heartbreaking and unacceptable,” the statement said. “Her death underscores the persistent and well-documented reality that Black women—regardless of education, income, or professional expertise—face disproportionate risks during pregnancy and childbirth due to systemic racism and failures in care.”

this is fucking insane. two different cases in Florida where pregnant Black women were forced into video call court proceedings, in the middle of labor, laying in their hospital beds, because their doctors chose to go after them for refusing cesarean sections.

the first woman was able to convince them to let her continue laboring unless it became medically necessary, and ultimately chose to go through with the C-section of her own accord later.

the second woman was completely denied autonomy and the C-section was performed against her will.

the white man who prosecuted them defends the decision, stating on the record "I'm real comfortable with what we did here. I hate that she's upset about it."

edit: the two women mentioned here, Cherise and Brianna, are calling on supporters to sign their petition to the hospitals they were forced into C-sections at.

nonblack contestants can cry, lash out, manipulate, lie, or be openly messy af and still be given the benefit of the doubt, chances at redemption arcs, and given sympathy edits. black women don't get that luxury. one mistake is a character flaw. one reaction is proof of a stereotype. there's no room for grace and no room to be human, just constant surveillance and punishment disguised as "opinions"