GLOSSARY

Aesthetic sexualities. The ability to use the eyes as a primary sex organ. Aesthetic sexuals can experience visuals as sexuoerotic. This can include voyeuristic activities but the object of one’s desire/arousal remains open to panerotism and subjectivity. John Money (1998) refers to this phenomenon as visual sexuality (p. 93).  aesthetic sexualities include morphoeroticism. “Morphoerotic (from Greek morpho-, “form,” + Eros, the god of love) means genitoerotic stimulation and response related to the image, depiction, or appearance of a particular shape or form” (Money, 1998, p. 169). 

Androcentric. Centered or focused on men, often to the neglect or exclusion of women (The American Heritage Dictionary, 2000). 

Autoethnography. Autoethnography or “auto meaning self; ethno- meaning culture(s) or people(s); and -graphy meaning a representation, description, or showing” (Ellis & Bochner, 2006, p. 112) is a process and product, text and method (Ellis, 2004; Reed-Danahay 1997). The emergence of autoethnography as a method of inquiry moves the researcher’s “use of self-observation as part of the situation studied to self-introspection or self-ethnography as a legitimate focus of study in and of itself” (Ellis 1991, p. 30). New epistemologies (such as autoethnography) from previously silenced groups reduce the risks inherent in the representation of others, allow for the production of new knowledge by a unique and uniquely situated researcher, and offer small-scale knowledge that can inform specific problems and situations (Denzin & Lincoln, 1994). 

Autosexuality. The love of self; including autoeroticsm or the self satisfaction of sexual desire (American Heritage Dictionary, 2011). 

 Auto-sexual-decolonization. A process that utilizes autosexuality to undo negative effects of colonialism while actively participating in decolonizing one’s sexualities. Grounded in intersectional and anti-colonial frameworks, this work dismantles internalized forms of oppression with self-love, unconditional self-acceptance, and non-judgmental attitudes. The process values self-determination, self-knowledge, self-reflexivity, and self-identification. The challenging process is not linear but moves through different stages including: recognition of sexual colonialism including internalized oppression, deconstruction/reconstruction, sexual decolonization (including sexual conscientization and sexual equifinality), sexual praxis, empowerment, rebirth and spiritualities.

Candomblé. “[A] Brazilian religion of partly African origin, most widely practiced in the city of Salvador, Bahia” (Wafer, 1991, p. 197). Music and dance are important parts of Candomblé, the word connotes “dance in honor of the gods” (BBC, 2009, p. 1). “There is no concept of good or bad in Candomblé. Each person is only required to fulfil his or her destiny to the fullest, regardless of what that is. This is not a free ticket to do whatever you want through. Candomblé teaches that any evil you cause to people will return to you eventually” (BBC, 2007, p. 1). 

Cisheteropatriarchy. The dominance of cisgender, heterosexual, males in society. This system of oppression perpetuates sexism, misogyny, cissexism, genderism, cisgenderism, heterosexism, and homonegativity.

Cissexism. Cissexism oppresses gender variant, gender non-conforming, non-binary and trans identities. Cissexism appeals to the norms that reinforce the gender binary and gender essentialism. Cissexist ideas support transphobia and transmisogyny. 

Colonization. Defined as the subjugation of one group by another (Young, 2001), colonization is a brutal process through which two-thirds of the world experiences invasion and loss of territory accompanied by the destruction of political, social, and economic systems, leading to external political control and economic dependence on the West: Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Russia, Spain, The Netherlands, and the United States. It also involved the “loss of control and ownership of their knowledge systems, beliefs, and behaviors and subjection to overt racism, resulting in the captive or colonized mind” (Chilisa, 2012, p. 9). Colonial policies has supported numerous oppressions, including genocide (deliberate destruction of people), ethnocide (deliberate destruction of the culture rather than the people themselves), ecocide (destruction of their natural environment) and linguicide (destruction of Indigenous languages) (Maybury-Lewis, 2002).

Conscientization.  Conscientization (Friere, 1970), or critical thinking includes the following: (1) being unafraid to engage with unfamiliar ideas, worldviews, theoretical perspectives, people and cultural contexts; (2) willing to enter into dialogue and encounter ideas, knowledge, and experiences that challenge their preconceived notions of the world; (3) understands that the world is not a static, closed system; that existing problems and challenges have multiple solutions; (4) understands the principle of equifinality, which is the state of allowing, producing, or having the same effect or results from different events (Wilson & Yellow Bird, 2005, p. 21). Conscientization is an essential process of self-understanding directed at uncovering and challenging internalized notions of inferiority (Freire, 1970).

Cultural Hegemony. Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci, “investigated why the ruling class was so successful in promoting its own interests in society. Fundamentally, hegemony is the power of the ruling class to convince other classes that their interests are the interest of all” (Ashcroft, Griffiths &Tiffin, 2013, p. 134). The term is used for describing the success of imperial power over a colonized people whose “self-determination has been suppressed by a hegemonic notion of the greater good, often couched in terms of social order, stability and advancement, all of which are defined by the colonizing power. Hegemony is important because the capacity to influence the thought of the colonized is by far the most sustained and potent operation of imperial power in colonized regions” (Ashcroft, Griffiths &Tiffin, 2013, p. 134). Cultural hegemony implies the cultural domination of oppressed and colonized peoples, including the definition of reality and world view, by the dominant classes. 

Decolonization. Undoing the negative effects of colonialism is an act of decolonization. “Decolonization is a process of centering the concerns and worldviews of the colonized Other so that they may understand themselves through their own assumptions and perspectives” (Chilisa, 2012, p. 13). Chilisa (2012) describes it as an event and process that involves: creating “and consciously using various strategies to liberate the ‘captive mind’ from oppressive conditions that continue to silence and marginalize the voices of subordinated, colonized non-western societies that encountered European colonization” (p. 14); and restoring and developing cultural practices, thinking patterns, beliefs, and values that were suppressed but are still relevant and necessary to the birth and survival of new ideas, techniques, and lifestyles that contribute to the advancement and empowerment of the historically oppressed and formerly colonized non-Western societies (Smith, 1999, 2008). 

Equifinality. “The state of allowing, producing, or having the same effect or result from different events” (Wilson & Yellow Bird, 2005, p. 29).

Foodie sexualities. The ability to use the mouth as a primary sex organ. Sexuoerotic experiences derived through the tastescape. Foodie sexuals include those that have been classified as cibophilic and or stiphiliac or those who love food and have the ability to derive sexual pleasure from food. Foodie sexuals also include those who can experience euphoric-like gustatory pleasures and paraphilias such as lachanophilia (love of vegetables), oenophilia (love of wine), etc.

Genderism. Is the cultural belief that gender is a binary, or that that they are, or should be, only two genders—man and woman—and that the aspects of one’s gender are inherently linked to the sex they were assigned at birth.  This is one of the strong messages that was perpetuated through colonialism and Western philosophy, despite the presence within indigenous cultures of greater gender diversity, or third genders. 

Multiepistemic. A theory of knowledge that acknowledges the existence of more than one way of understanding knowledge, even if it is understood to be contradictory.

Mindfulness. The practice of maintaining a nonjudgmental state of heightened or complete awareness of one's thoughts, emotions, or experiences on a moment-to-moment basis (Merriam-Webster online dictionary, 2015). 

Misogynoir. Grounded in the theory of intersectionality, Moya Bailey coined the term in 2010 to refer to anti-black misogyny. The hatred or ingrained prejudice against black women was articulated through the Crunk Feminist Collective. 

Musical sexualities. When the ears are used as a primary sex organ or the ability to have sexuoerotic experiences through the soundscape. Musical sexuals include those capable of having “eargasm” or orgasm through the ears and sound, or those who have been classified as having melolagnia or the ability to derive sexual arousal from music, acousticophilia or arousal from sounds. 

Olfactosexualities. Olfactosexualities are those who have the ability to use the nose as a sex organ or the ability to have sexuoerotic experiences through the soundscape.  Olfactosexualities include olfactoeroticism (Money, 1998) or erotic stimulation through smell, olfactophilias or arousal from odors including osmolagnia, osmophilia, ozolagnia as well as antholagnia (arousal from smelling flowers),  barosmia (arousal from smell) (Love, 1992).

Orisha. Orishas are deities in the Yoruba religious pantheon associated with forces of nature (Edwards & Mason, 1985).  “As a summarizing symbol, the orisha represents a personality archetype, a divinity, a force of nature, an aspect of God, or an energy matrix” (Love, 2012, p. 9-10). There are hundreds of orishas, and they are celebrated and worshiped throughout different religions in the African Diaspora including Ifá of Nigeria, Santeria and Lucumí of Cuba and Puerto Rico, Shango Baptist of Trinidad, Oyotunji of USA, and Candomblé of Brazil among others. Orisha (Yoruba) are similar to the Abosom (Akan) Neteru (KMT/Ancient Egypt) Vodun (Fon and Ewe,), Lwa/loa (Haiti) and Kami (Japan).

Ọ̀ṣunality. Ọ̀ṣunality is a term coined by Nzegwu (2010) that “affirms the normality of sexual pleasure and the erotic” (Nzegwu, 2010, p. 258). 

Pluralism. Pluralism is a theory that there are more than one or more than two kinds of ultimate reality (Merriam-Webster's online dictionary, 2015).   

Panerotism. Virtually anything can have erotic value (Stayton, 1992).

Paraphilia. A paraphilia is a condition in which a person's sexual arousal and gratification depend on fantasizing about and engaging in sexual behavior that is atypical. Paraphilias include sexual behaviors that society may view as distasteful, unusual or abnormal (Psychology Today, 2015). 

Pluriverse. The world as conceived according to a theory of pluralism (Merriam-Webster's online dictionary, 2015).  

Praxis. Brazilian libratory educator Paulo Freire (1970) defined praxis as reflection and action upon the world in order to transform it.

Sankofa.  Sankofa comes from three Akan (of Ghana) words: san (return), ko (go), and fa (take) which literally means, “go back to reclaim.” The Akan believe that the past illuminates the present and that the search for success is a lifelong process (Quan-Baffour, 2012). “This indigenous philosophy intimates that humans cannot know where they are going unless they know where they are coming from. People’s pasts are as important as their presents and futures so, to make the best out of the present and plan for the future, Africans must ‘gaze backward’ to the past for appropriate guidance to ensure future success” (Quan-Baffour, 2012, p. 3). 

Sankofa sexualities. A term that describes how sexualities were constructed in the past by precolonial Africans, in order to better understand present-day and future sexualities. 

Sexual schemas.  Cognitive generalizations about the sexual aspects of the self which are derived from past experience, manifested in current experience, influential in the processing of sexually relevant social information, and gives guidance for sexual behavior (Anderson & Cyranowski, 1994). “Sexual self-schemas represent basic or core beliefs regarding sexual aspect of the self” (Andersen, 1999, p. 21). 

Sexosophy. The body of knowledge that comprises the philosophy, principles, and knowledge that people have about their own personally experienced eroticism and sexuality, and that of other people, singly and collectively. It includes values, personal and shared, and it encompasses culturally transmitted value systems. Its subdivisions are historical, regional, ethnic, religious, and developmental or lifespan (Money, 1982). 

Sexuoerotic. The sexual and the erotic experienced as a unity, with more emphasis on sexual behavior than erotic imagery (Money, 1986).

Sleeping sexualities. The love of sleeping and or those who can have sexuoerotic experiences while sleeping. These include those who experience sommus orgasm or those who orgasm while sleeping, or who have somniphilia or the love of sleeping, clinophilia or the love of going to bed. 

Subaltern. In postcolonial theory, the term subaltern describes the lower classes and the social groups who are at the margins of a society—a subaltern is a person rendered without agency due to his or her social statue (Young, 2003). “Everybody thinks the subaltern is just a classy word for oppressed, for Other, for somebody who’s not getting a piece of the pie…[In post-colonial terms] everything that has limited or no access to the cultural imperialism is subaltern-a space of difference” (de Kock, 1992, p. 45). 

 Theasexualities. The love of Goddess, God, orisha or other spiritual entities. Theasexualities include people who are willing to engage sexually with a spiritual entity through an intimate relationship. Theasexuals have sexuoerotic feelings for a spiritual entity. Although “thea” traditionally refers to feminine or female aspect, theasexualities is an inclusive term that may include love of any spiritual entity regardless of perceived gender, including masculine, androgynous or genderless deities. Theasexuals include theophila (love of God), theologophilia (love of theology or religious studies) as well as hagiophila (love of saints or holy things), daimonphilia (love of ghosts or demons) or spectrophilia defined as “either coitus with spirits or arousal from image in mirrors” (Love, 1992, p. 312).

Traveling sexualities. The love of traveling and/or when traveling can cause sexuoerotic experiences. Those who experience traveling sexuality can include those with tropophilia or the love of moving, aviophila or the love of flying, cenophilia or the love of new things or ideas, ecdemolagnia or arousal from traveling or being away from home, hodophilia or arousal from traveling, nomavalent or arousal from traveling or new places, usually impotent at home (Love, 1992).