348 Search results for "pressure"

Black asexuals are not unicorns, there are more of us than we know
This essay contains discussions of sexual violence as well as racist violence and fetishization I personally know of fewer than five Black people who identify as asexual, and I’ve only met two of them in person. The others remain virtual friends for now, but I hope to meet them someday. Of course, these are just […]
Black youth suicide is increasing. We can’t wait to create space to talk about mental health
Editor’s Note: This essay contains discussion of suicide By Carlett Spike The thought of killing myself has crossed my mind before. I was depressed as a teen — overwhelmed by the pressures to succeed in high school, keep up with way too many activities and ultimately get into a good college.
I don’t find PIV sex pleasurable, and that’s okay
by Joyline Maenzanise In my late teens, I became aware that there were some cis women who I tended to admire in a rather intense way. I never acted on this because I assumed the feelings were nothing more than fleeting admiration—albeit intense—and, frankly, I didn’t know that I could act on them. Growing up […]
Tips, resources, and affirmations for Black students in higher education
by Jamara Wakefield Let’s keep it real, there are few radical resources available for Black students when experiencing oppression on campus. It manifests in a variety of forms: from explicit aggression to microaggressions to institutional policies to interactions that feel “off” but aren’t easily quantifiable, in part because the campus environment justifies these actions. The […]
Black women speak to being socialized to fear their own pleasure, & what we can do about it
By Caroline Colvin For a subset of society whose bodies are so sexualized, so desired, and so sought-after, Black women and femmes as a whole feel a substantial amount of shame when it comes to our sexuality. When you’re a Black woman or femme, pop culture encourages you to be the video vixen — or, […]
LGBTQ+ youth are disproportionately vulnerable to homelessness and survival sex work
by Maximillian Matthews This essay contains discussions of racialized sexual violence and mentions r/pe “There is probably no greater (or more misleading) body of sexual myths in the world today than those which proliferated around the figure of the American Negro. This means that he is penalized for the guilty imagination of the white people […]
Reframing “sex positivity” by centering consent
This essay discusses sexual coercion and manipulation I used to feel bad for getting “90% vanilla” whenever I took one of those online BDSM or kink tests (and answered the questions honestly), or whenever I tried to talk to a potential sex partner about my boundaries and they called me some variation of “boring.” […]
Mental Health Awareness Month shouldn’t be the only time I can talk openly about my mental health
Editor’s Note: May is Mental Health Awareness Month and National Masturbation Month. This is also the month that we celebrate Mother’s Day. At BYP, we will be exploring these topics alongside the theme of Imagination and the Arts, and we are interested in publishing works that address these topics and the things surrounding them. By […]
Morehouse’s new policy accepting trans men misses the point by clinging to the gender binary
By Ramon Johnson The Morehouse community has long had difficulties facilitating an inclusive campus environment for marginalized gender identities. This is particularly troubling given the high standards, goals, and ideals expressed as the foundational principles of the institution.
Theon never betrayed the Starks: How ‘Game of Thrones’ minimizes forced captivity & slavery
This essay contains spoilers for HBO’s Game of Thrones and mentions rape. We have finally reached the moment when the war between the Night King’s army of the dead and the Westerosi resistance begins, the cataclysmic event to which 8 seasons of one of the most groundbreaking television series have been leading up. Along the […]
Comic: No, you did not turn out “just fine”
by JeCorey Holder How many times have we tried to discuss the realities and impact of child abuse and trauma, often thinly-veiled as “discipline” from our parents, only to have someone jump in insisting that they “turned out just fine” despite these things happening to them as kids? Someone who claims that being beaten or […]
How targeting Ilhan Omar instead of white supremacy furthered both anti-Semitism & Islamophobia
By Su’ad Abdul Khabeer, Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, Margari Hill, Rakel Joseph, Asha Noor, and Rebecca Pierce Last week, House Democrats passed a resolution condemning anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and white supremacy. As Black women, Muslim and Jewish, we agree that anti-Black racism, anti-Semitism, sexism and Islamophobia must be condemned. Reports of anti-Semitism are on the rise: according to the FBI, […]