Sexual Perceptions, Culture and the Law

Sexual Perceptions, Culture and the Law is a power-packed collection presenting cultural expectations and the reality of sex in an interesting way, with cruel irony at its best. It highlights the moralizing nature of sex, explores the power of sex as a negotiating tool that gives and takes away power, and boldly attempts to dare a contestation of heteronormativity. With an amazingly balanced buildup of tension and climax, it presents some horrific experiences of forcefulness, challenges the excesses and entitlements of patriarchy, contestations against tradition, traumatizing first sexual experiences, and helplessness and vulnerability. The revealing images invoke the horrendous nature of sex, while the questions raised lead to many thought provoking results. The subject of sex is presented not only just as the act, but also the whole treatment of it from tradition and how it transits into the present as an interestingly messed up part of society’s fabric. This is a dark subject; one of betrayal of trust and a refusal to resign to lies and fate, reminding the reader of the realities of broken love and promises, and how one struggles to loose themselves from this prison regarding love and being used. On a whole, this collection exposes harmful cultural practices, and vividly and beautifully paints fresh ways of thinking about sex and men, and the so-called passive women in light of sexual memory and reality, as well as power and subverted power, very interestingly highlighting man’s sexual struggles and frustrations, and how he pays back, plays back and plays into female sexual power.

“Rich, traumatic, bold, and therapeutic at the same time. I love it for its fluidity between sexuality and national politics. Within it are strong and loud sexual and political images, repetitions and parallelisms tuned for both the political and sexual, and how sex is experienced in both arenas. Besides, the satirical elements herein are interestingly curved out.” Isaac Tibasiima Kiiza, Literature Department, Makerere University, Kampala.