Concepts and Practices of Sexuality in 18th Century Euro-North America

2.REPLY TO FOLLOWING POST : There are many lingering aspects of colonial and Puritan customs and beliefs that permeate modern American culture today. One that stood out for me this week was the way in which Bronski (Chapter 2 pg 24) describes the ways "in which [a] dominant culture's sexual fantasies were projected onto the sexuality of the enslaved Africans," as well as other minority groups at the time, such as Native Americans.  This seems to be reflected and continued today in the ways in which some white people currently marginalize persons of color through the sexual fetishization of such people.  Without generalizing (that is to say that not all white people partake in this behavior) I have noticed examples of this phenomenon in how some heterosexual appearing white men fetishize asian women, or in how some homosexual appearing white men fetishize black men.  This seems to be indicative of the same problem, the "projection" of a sexual desire onto a group of people simply because of the color of their skin or the prejudiced stereotypes that are presumed about those groups of people.  It could be said that a damagine and generalized stereotype of asian women is that they are subservient and submissive and thus hyper-feminine in the stereotypical male interpretation of what it means to be female.  This misinterpretation of asian culture by white culture could be part of that fetishization.  It could also be said that a damaging and generalized stereotype of black males is to hyper-masculinize them, which may be an attractive stereotype to some gay males who suffer from internalized homophobia leading to an attraction to toxic masculinity that they then project onto black men as a result of their stereotypical interpretation of them.  This is in line with the stereotypical colonial "idea that all African men were capable of sexual violence and rape" (Bronski Chapter 2 pg 24).  This is further damaging to the already wide racial schisms that persist in our society as it reinforces the othering of persons of color due to the stereotypical interpretation of them by some white people, and the sexual fetishization of such racial stereotypes.  It also seems to be part of a cycle, as the fetishization not only further marginalizes othered groups, but stems from that same othering.  Bronski states that "the othering of a behavior or identity as dangerous may, under certain ambiguous conditions, make it more desired," (Bronski Chapter 2 pg 25).  This demonstrates the fact that the ethnocentric fear one might feel from a group that is marginalized due to stereotypes and othering may cause some kind of taboo sexual desire, which then further marginalizes and those groups.