“A Taste for Brown Sugar is a game changer, a courageous and bold book that shifts the discourse on the contested history of race and porn. Mireille Miller-Young’s rigorous historical and ethnographic research disrupts the ‘good versus bad’ binary that has dogged debates about pornography for decades.”
(E. Patrick Johnson, author of Appropriating Blackness: Performance and the Politics of Authenticity)
“A Taste for Brown Sugar is a thorough and compelling look at a subject steeped in society’s anxiety and imagination: black women in pornography. Mireille Miller-Young dives head first into a thorny topic with clear, nuanced thinking. This book tackles complicated issues of race, seex work, feminism, pleasure, and representation in a rigorous, thoughtful way. Finally: scholarship that centers black women’s labor and ideas in both academia and the seex industries and gives crucial voice to underrepresented workers and feminist thinkers. Miller-Young’s approach is intersectional, engaging, and, above all, accessible to scholars and general readers alike. This book will enrage you, enlighten you, and make you rethink everything you know about race and seex.”
(Tristan Taormino, author of True Lust: Adventures in Seex, Porn and Perversion)
“This much-needed volume reminds scholars of the need to deepen porn studies and strengthen its interdisciplinary possibilities through various theoretical lenses and critical approaches. Supporting her book with abundant images, Miller-Young thoughtfully exposes readers to concepts both visually and intellectually. … A necessary volume for academics as well as those interested in popular culture studies that have a dialogue with race and/or women. Essential. Graduate students/faculty.”
(M. Martinez Choice)
“Reading A Taste for Brown Sugar: Black Women in Pornography on a New York subway train will earn you some very interesting looks. Adorned with a cover photo featuring the beautiful porn star Jeannie Pepper topless in a white fur like something out of Superfly, and the customary wall of text that comes with academic books on the back, it brings out New York’s best double takes. … A Taste for Brown Sugar offers fine scholarship, done with the utmost respect of the subject and the workers chronicled.”
(Sydette Harry make/shift)
“Through meticulous research and a masterly melding of the best of theoretical, conceptual, and empirical work in black women’s seexuality, A Taste for Brown Sugar analyzes African American women’s agency within the adult entertainment industry…. If A Taste for Brown Sugar can produce a solid analysis of such a difficult, controversial topic, Miller-Young has set a high bar for similar projects that study oppositional knowledge.”
(Patricia Hill Collins The Journal of American History 2015-12-01)
“[E]ssential reading for anyone seeking to understand new work on feminism, critical race studies, pornography, and film history.”
(Svati P. Shah Women’s Review of Books 2015-09-01)
“A Taste for Brown Sugar is a necessary, long overdue text that should interest scholars and students of various fields and backgrounds, particularly those interested in feminist theory, media studies, histories of black women, seex work, and of course porn studies…. The book is impressive, cultivating a rich and diverse tapestry of urgent voices and images, revealing the complicated interplay between labor and representation.”
(Laura Helen Marks Feminist Media Studies 2016-03-16)
“Everyone interested in understanding the industry and the people, especially the Black women involved, in front of and behind the cameras, should read this book cover to cover…. There is a wide audience for this well-researched and well-produced book…. The general public as well as researchers from film and media studies, history, seexuality studies, African American studies, labor studies, critical race studies, sociology, and anthropology will appreciate A Taste for Brown Sugar.”
(Sherri L. Barnes Feminist Collections 2015-08-01)
