On Brian McKnight: Nothing Wrong With Being Sex Positive

"If You're Ready to Learn" is controversial (and probably a parody), but women could certainly stand to learn how their bodies work when it comes to pleasure, Ebony's Josie Pickens writes. Suggested Reading Three Friends Were Headed To A Beyoncรฉ Concert, But One Dies On the Way. Guess What The Other Two Did Next? Our…

"If You're Ready to Learn" is controversial (and probably a parody), but women could certainly stand to learn how their bodies work when it comes to pleasure, Ebony's Josie Pickens writes.

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Trump’s Tariffs Might Stick Around. What Should We Buy Now?
Trump’s Tariffs Might Stick Around. What Should We Buy Now?

In a sex positive world where women arenโ€™t considered Jezebels for having any sexual desire at all, instead of Brian McKnight instructing a woman on what her vagina can do, he would ask her how to make it โ€œdo what it do.โ€ย  โ€ฆ

The catch: communicating those wants and needs releases the role of women โ€œsuccumbing to sexโ€, which many men and women rely on to establish โ€œworthโ€. Men and women are taught, after all, that good girls donโ€™t give โ€œitโ€ up and if they do it has to be pried from a tight grip.ย ย  Willingly having sex and even directing how she wants to be sexed, sits those tropes right on down- and honestly, some women (and men) simply arenโ€™t prepared, emotionally or mentally, to face those tumbling walls.

Enough with the double entendre, I know. But the questions are: Fellas, are you (really) prepared to let women instruct you on what โ€œitโ€ do?ย  Ladies, are you empowered enough to give those lessons?ย  I hope all answer yes and we can allow this Brian McKnight song be just another random internet meme.

Read Josie Pickens' entire piece at Ebony.

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Josie Pickens is an educator, culture critic and griot whose work focuses primarily on race and gender. Follow her musings on Twitter.ย 

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