This dissertation argues that the Black church deters Black women’s identity and their ability to understand and seek what sexuality means to them. Specifically, through a book club conducted with a group of Black women who grapples with exploring their sexuality because of their upbringing in the church, I investigate how the experiences in the church affect how these women viewed sex through a shameful and sinful lens. I engage with scholars such as Brittney Cooper, Candice Benbow, and Patricia Hill Collins to investigate the history of sexual neglect of Black women and find ways for them to (re)negotiate what sexuality means to them. I introduce testimonial storytelling as a means of instruction for Black women on navigating the world in three distinct ways—through the act of vocally sharing one’s story, through the process of self-writing of one’s experiences, and through the presentation of Black women’s stories in literature. I contend that this practice contributes to the promotion of sexual justice, which seeks to redefine and elevate the understanding of what it means to live in a Black female body. This research is significant as scholarship that recognizes the theorizing of pleasure through Black feminist theology, and the need to find the themes of this framework in Black women’s literature.
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