encounters. 10 In colonial imagination, native bodies were tainted with sin and,
consequently, considered sexually violable. This perspective was rooted in
patriarchal thinking, which believed that only ‘pure’ bodies could be violated. As a
result, black women were ren dered ‘un - rapeable’ across a number of geographical contexts, due to the perception of their supposed lack of sexual control and purity. 11
Furthermore, enslaved African women’s sense of self remained unacknowledged
and much less respected, where African women’s sexuality was diminished down to simply the re-production of slaves. 12
This supposed moral inferiority and hyper-sexualisation of black women,
ultimately impacted the construction of ideas surrounding white sexuality and
whiteness. Black women frequently portrayed as sexually promiscuous reinforced
the idea of white women as pure and chaste. This dichotomy between black and
white created ideologies of white women as the epitome of desired feminine identity
while black women faced dehumanisation due to their supposed sexual deviance
and inferior morality, which would infiltrate and re-affirm other racial stereotypes. For
example, following the abolition of slavery, African American men were increasingly
portrayed as threats to white women and their pure sexuality due to the continuation
of the belief that white women’s sexuality was pure and virtuous. This often resulted in the lynching of African American men. 13
These European discourses of native hyper-sexuality were employed in
colonial justifications, that native sexuality needed to be controlled and civilised. In
nearly all cases imperialists viewed their actions and interventions in sexuality as
part of a broader mission to civilise colonised subjects by introducing them to European and Christian models of behaviour. 14 Ronald Hyam argues this was
extended to sexuality and that the construction of ‘native’ sexualities was a crucial
aspect of the imperialist enterprise, as it served to sustain men in difficult and
10 Sanya Osha, ‘Unravelling the silences of Black Sexualities’, Agenda: Empowering Women for Gender Equity, 62.2/1 (2004), 92 – 98, pp. 96. 11 Robert M. Buffington, Donna J. Guy, and Eithne Luibheid, pp. 67. 12 Vidal-Ortiz Salvador, and A., Robinson, Brandon, and Cristina Khan, Race and Sexuality (Cambridge: University of Cambridge Press, 2018), pp. 11. 13 Vidal-Ortiz Salvador, and A., Robinson, Brandon, and Cristina Khan, pp. 11. 14 Robert M. Buffington, Donna J. Guy, and Eithne Luibheid, pp. 76.
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