{"id":53839,"date":"2017-05-06T01:40:47","date_gmt":"2017-05-06T01:40:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=53839"},"modified":"2019-07-23T13:45:06","modified_gmt":"2019-07-23T13:45:06","slug":"lets-talk-about-sex-and-race-and-gender-and-intersectionality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=53839","title":{"rendered":"Let\u2019s talk about sex (and race, and gender, and intersectionality)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Let\u2019s talk about sex (and race, and gender, and intersectionality)<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Open City<\/a>
\n2015-03-23<\/p>\n

Esther Wang<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

N\u2019jaila Rhee<\/a> is many things \u2014 a writer; a phone sex<\/a> operator, web cam girl<\/a>, and former exotic dancer<\/a>; a nerd; and a self-described \u201cBlasian <\/a>bitch.\u201d<\/p>\n

A native of New Jersey<\/a> and a Rutgers University alumna, she\u2019s carved out a niche for herself as a vocal critic and commentator on issues ranging from sex workers\u2019 rights to favorite toys to racism in the porn industry. She uses her blog, social media, and \u201cAfter Dark<\/a>,\u201d the popular podcast she co-hosts on the \u201cThis Week in Blackness<\/a>\u201d network, as platforms to voice her provocative positions.<\/p>\n

N\u2019jaila\u2019s mission, it seems, is to get us all to bring our private desires out from the bedroom and into the open. Do this, and \u201cwe\u2019re all going to be a little more healthy,\u201d she explained on a recent evening in a Brooklyn<\/a> coffee shop.<\/p>\n

We chatted about the need for more Asian American porn, her thoughts on 50 Shades of Grey<\/em><\/a>, and what it\u2019s like to, as she put it, be constantly \u201cdancing at the intersections of race, sex, and identity.\u201d,,,<\/p>\n

You became a stripper in college. Why did you decide to become a dancer?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sex is the most natural way that I can relate to other people. And it\u2019s always something that just felt innately right. So because it was so easy for me to express myself sexually, it was something that I felt very comfortable with…<\/p>\n

…Did being Blasian impact the kind of work you got?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Certain promoters would want to highlight that I was mixed race, and they\u2019d want me to say that I was like, Southeast Asian, or not Black. Or one guy wanted me to not speak English. I was uncomfortable with a lot, obviously.<\/p>\n

I was told I couldn\u2019t have my hair natural. It\u2019s not like I have the curliest of \u2018fros. But they didn\u2019t want me to have natural hair, so I would wear a hair weave because you couldn\u2019t be a mixed Blasian if you didn\u2019t have silky straight hair.<\/p>\n

I had to buy my identity for $220 a pop…<\/p>\n

Read the entire interview here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

N\u2019jaila Rhee is many things \u2014 a writer; a phone sex operator, web cam girl, and former exotic dancer; a nerd; and a self-described \u201cBlasian bitch.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,24,16,13743,8,20,25],"tags":[26958,26956,5366,26957,23065],"class_list":["post-53839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-arts","category-asia","category-interviews","category-media-archive","category-usa","category-women","tag-after-dark","tag-esther-wang","tag-new-jersey","tag-njaila-rhee","tag-open-city"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=53839"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53839\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54872,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53839\/revisions\/54872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=53839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=53839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=53839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}