Racist sexualisation and sexualised

Abstract

In an effort to disentangle the threads of the complex, interwoven fabric of apartheid sexualities, this paper draws on narratives of the Apartheid Archive Project to explore the sexualizing force of racism and the racialising force of gendered sexuality. We do this by isolating three key dynamics operating on both the material and the psychical terrains of apartheid: the construction of the black male body as physically and sexually dangerous; the white ‘neurotic’ desire for the black ‘other’, a desire shaped by the historical conditions of apartheid; and white masculine power and entitlement. Our analysis suggests that it is the very demonization of the black male body that facilitates in white females a desire for that which is terrifying and forbidden and that both dynamics are ultimately in the service of entrenching and rationalizing white male power and privilege.