Use of Grounded Theory in the Establishment of Black Sexual Epistemology

• In Event: 2242 - Let's Talk About Sex

Abstract

The normative lived experience of sexuality among African Americans has been, to date, highly theorized, yet scarcely examined. When African Americans are included in sexological research they are persistently problematized, both in theory and intervention development. This does not appear arbitrary in light of known theoretical perspectives regarding linkages between racial and sexual conceptualization in the United States; as such, analysis that can effectively clarify and articulate the nature of this relationship and its implications is necessary.

In the present study, Grounded Theory Method was utilized as a strategy for identifying cognitive structures and schemas involved in the normative lived experience of sexuality among African American people in the United States, including but not limited to those related to race. Specifically, it employed the notion of “sexiness” to identify organizing principles utilized in present-day African American sexual conceptualization. A national sample of 95 in-person qualitative interviews was collected and analyzed; themes within the emergent concepts of Sexiness, Sexuality, External Influence, and the Erotic Self were established from the data. Evidence for an African American-centered sexological model, Black Sexual Epistemology, was also established.

Author

• Tracie Q. Gilbert, Widener University