AfroerotiK is . . .

I welcome critiques because it makes me hone my skills and it makes me a better artist.  That’s what I am, an artist.  I use words as my canvas to paint pictures of people of African descent as whole, emotionally-mature, sexually-evolved, sentient, complex human beings.  I have gotten quite a bit of critique that is unwarranted and I’m here to dismantle the misperceptions.  Thank you for the opportunity for me to define again what AfroerotiK is, its purpose, goals, objectives, and mission. 

AfroerotiK was created to show people of African descent in a healthy, erotic, mature sexual light.  We are a beautiful people but our sexual and emotional maturity is painfully stagnated.  We are wallowing in dysfunction and quite content with it.  We are using sex, we are using other human beings to fulfill our lusts without regard to the consequences in our lives, the feelings of our partners, or even our heirs we are creating without planning.  We are ashamed of our sex, living in denial of our sexuality and going behind closed doors driven to act out in ways that are detrimental to our identities not only as human beings but as descendent of one of the worst crimes against humanity.  Sex is wonderful, fun, exciting, and pleasurable.  We should not be ashamed of our sexuality, we should not hold on to Victorian and tyrannical rules that tell us that our sexuality is bad NOR should we be thinking that we can fuck anyone and everyone without repercussions.  Cheating is immature.  Manipulating and lying to people for sex is evil.  Sex in exchange for money devalues women as a whole and desensitizes the men who pay for it to not respect the humanity of the women they pay for.  (Please note I didn’t say sex that workers were bad people.)  HIV, the virus that causes AIDS is deadly and having a child with a person you barely know, or having to choose to terminate an unwanted pregnancy are things sexually mature individuals shouldn’t have to do because they have should have already communicated the essentials of STD status, protection, and birth control and emotional requirements long before hitting the sheets. 

AfroerotiK was created to show ALL people of African descent in a healthy light.  That does not just include heterosexual people, but includes the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered communities (I’m painfully aware that I am lacking in images of the trans community.  I am working to rectify that soon so that trans women can see themselves as loved, appreciated, and sensual.  I will make a sincere effort to show trans men of African descent in a positive, healthy, erotic light as well one day but my priority is trans women because they are sooooooooooo objectified by society and the adult industry overall.)  It also includes people of African descent who choose to date across color lines because it is my very strong belief that people who choose to date interracially should have an outlet that allows them to love their Blackness and their partner without having to feel shamed.  What AfroerotiK is not about is white people, validating them, reinforcing their racist beliefs.  If you read an interracial AfroerotiK story, you can be assured that the Black characters are not toys for the white person to play with but they are intelligent, informed, autonomous and enlightened.  And while not every interracial story is about domination, many are about love, you can bet your bottom dollar that I’m going to unapologetically show white people’s racism for what it is in every interracial tale I tell.  I created AfroerotiK to show women with dark skin, nappy hair, and fuller figures as beautiful and sensual and erotic as well.  In the adult arena, larger women are most often not shown artistically and erotically but merely as “meatier” objects of lust.  I want to show larger women not as a fetish but as divinely coveted human beings.  I have made concerted efforts to make sure that light skinned women are not exalted in AfroerotiK as more beautiful and they do not get special recognition as most coveted.  I have images of light skinned women but they are not paired with darker men to reinforce the colorism that plagues our community.  AfroerotiK is not only for people 35 and under.  AfroerotiK covers all people of African descent under the umbrella of acceptance and eroticism. 

AfroerotiK does not demonize safe, sane, consensual acts of intimacy and asserts that while not all sexual behavior is psychologically healthy, there is a whole lot that falls under the auspices of healthy sexuality that is dismissed by the African American community that we should be embracing.  Anal is not a sin, rimming is not yucky, BDSM isn’t freaky, and male anal arousal does NOT indicate a man’s sexual orientation.  I could go on and on and on.  Our sexual menus must be expanded past oral and vaginal sex as the only acceptable forms of sex and we can’t blindly say that as long as two people enjoy it, that there’s nothing wrong with it.  I’m not the sex police and I’m not going to tell anyone what is bad or wrong but I will say that the systematic abuse, degradation, and objectification of Black women is unquestionably unhealthy. I have written about almost every sexual act known to man and shown Black people as empowered in each instance.  I will not write about rape and I will not use negative or derogatory words to describe Black women.  I will not use the word nigger or any phonetic spelling thereof (other than an academic discussion to highlight the impact of the word, not to justify or rationalize its use) in any of my work because it’s offensive and not at all acceptable or erotic.  I do give space for Black women and men to be submissive and explore their dominant and submissive sides but it is not based on humiliation and degradation but rather intimacy and sharing, respect and pleasure.  I’m principled with my shit.   I will not demonize black bisexual or gay men while touting Black bisexual women as sexy.  That is inherently flawed and heterosexism is as problematic as the racism I fight against on a daily basis.  While I can’t say that every sexual act is healthy, because that simply isn’t true, I can work to make people not so ashamed of their sexuality that they are driven to act out in unhealthy ways behind closed doors because they are so at odds and conflict with their own desires. 

AfroerotiK works to address the dysfunction in our community and provide a model that is healthy.  Decidedly feminist, I do not male bash, I show Black men the error of their ways, shaped by a society that allows them to remain emotionally immature and I try my best to provide them with a way to view their sexuality and their identity in the world that is infinitely healthier than what is being perpetuated now.  I have never said, “Black men ain’t shit, they are all dogs.”  That is male bashing.  I will point out how Black men self-sabotage their relationships and their lives with behaviors reinforced in a society that raises emotionally immature black boys to never truly become men.  Conversely, I do not give women a pass simply because they share the same chromosomal makeup as I do.  I will call out unhealthy behaviors regardless of gender so that we might heal from the constant barrage of unhealthy messages and brainwashing we have been subjected to for centuries.  Our sexuality is not in a vacuum so it is affected by politics and current events and our perception by the majority and the media.  I can’t try to effectively bring about social change without addressing those issues and our role in a society that hates us and our heritage, identity, and culture because we are the descendants of those who were deemed inferior. 

I do not create porn and I take serious issue with the people who call my images thusly.  I create erotica.  Erotica is art or literature created to arouse the senses.  Porn is images created to arouse one’s genitals.  There are those who pretend to be sexually conservative who malign my work as porn because anything that isn’t G rated is too sexual for them.  Then, on the other side of the spectrum are those who can’t differentiate between my art and the proverbial Big Booty Bitches genre that is Black porn.  AfroerotiK creates art.  Every image is about intimacy, connection, emotion, about the lust one feels with a person they are connected with.  It’s not about sex with the lights out in the missionary position nor is it shots of fallopian tubes and meat sticks.  There are some images that are more explicit than others but there I have never, not once, taken a pornographic image.  The lighting, the composition, the models everything has been meticulously crafted to look at if you are peeking in a room with a couple in the throes of intense passion.  I don’t just hire models to fuck and click pictures while they are doing it.  I painstakingly create erotic images to show Black people that we can be erotic and sensual and own it without shame. 

Lots of people take offense with me, my work, and my mission for some reason.  Fine.  There’s tons of content on the net that will fill your desires.  As long as I have breath in my lungs, I will FIGHT for my people, to remove the chains of complacency and misogyny and slave mentality that plague us.  That rubs a lot of people the wrong way and that’s is truly their prerogative.  There are others out there, others like me, who want to find some sort of balance.  We want to be sexual without absurd limits, we want to explore and expand our sexual repertoires, and we want to be more comfortable in our own sexual identities without having to accept that sleeping with anyone and everyone is some sign of empowerment.  The rampant objectification of Black women isn’t fine.  The perpetuation of the hyper-masculine male as the ideal is not fine either.  The compartmentalizing of our sex and the public shaming and feigned indignation of anything even remotely mature let alone sexual is equally as unhealthy as the people who are lying and cheating and sleeping with anyone who will let them just to get a nut.  Not every encounter has to be with someone you love but it should be with someone with whom you are open, honest, and connected to. 

Most importantly, AfroerotiK is about forming relationships.  Those relationships can be poly or open or monogamous or some self-determined definition that is personal specifically to you but it’s about connection and love and intimacy and all that stuff that makes sex amazing.  The strength of our race depends on our ability to communicate effectively, to apologize when we are wrong, to own up to our mistakes, and to WORK to form bonds that are not casual.  Relationships take effort and work and commitment.  They require people to put aside their own selfish needs and desires and compromise.  That takes emotional maturity.  So many people want to ridicule and disparage me for saying that sex should be about relationships and love because they don’t know what love is, they can’t understand the concept but sex with someone you love, who loves you, is the best fucking you’ll ever get.  It’s that space where you feel accepted, where you don’t have to hide who you are, where you are free to be yourself and know that you are appreciated and to have an intense connection where you wake the neighbors and fuck the sheets off the bed.  Because we are so jaded as a community, because we have never seen love nor do we understand it, respect it, or covet it, we shun anyone who mentions love and commitment and relationships as being oppressive or old-fashioned because we have never had that feeling of safety and security that comes after the mind blowing orgasm where you know that who you are as a person is valued and cherished.  I am not saying that casual sex is bad.  I’m saying that sex with a person with whom you’ve nurtured a very intimate bond is amazing.  Conversely, I’m not saying that the only valid sex is married sex.  I’m saying that until we can be vulnerable and connected to another human being so much that their very presence is arousing to us, that their feelings are more important to us than just the nut we are going to get, we are missing out on what makes sex mind-blowing. 

Detractors, I may have many.  But, I am fighting to restore a sexuality to us as a people that is healthy and mature and I will not be deterred. 

Sincerely,

Scottie Lowe