The North-American-Black-Womxn who participated in my study define sexual liberation as an evolutionary process of continuous growth towards one’s desired direction of freedom.
The motion is non-linear (i.e., not following a linear progression and involving unpredictable changes), upward-spiraling (i.e., evolving and expanding over time), cyclical (i.e., repeating) developmental process toward a common aim: the freedom to just be.
At the core, sexual liberation is about having the freedom to self-author the meaning and practice of one’s sexuality, free from external influences.
Being an internal process rooted in self-definition, awareness, and accountability, with external influences, sexual liberation has significance beyond our sexual and romantic interactions; it is intersectional liberation.
As a cultural phenomenon, sexual liberation extends deep into the intersectional layers of our identities and the associated internalized cultural ideologies.
Rather than living with unexamined internalized messages, the process of sexual liberation is defined as having freedom from false consciousness.
As a process that takes time, multiple opportunities will arise to overcome barriers and continuously choose the desired direction of liberation.
Although sexual liberation is an internal process with external influences, it extends beyond the self and into how we relate to one another.
Additionally, playing a significant role in social justice and advocacy efforts, sexual liberation provides a path for us to experience freedom in, with, and on behalf of one another.
As such, sexual liberation is a cultural-relational phenomenon that is grounded in an ethic of care and responsibility (Collins, 2009).
