In addition to the over-sexualization and adulitification of Black women and girls, Black women’s tendency to minimize their efforts and talents is hyper-visible in Luster. Edie repeatedly does this during her time at the publishing firm, and more importantly, every time a discussion her artistry arises. Akila’s Blackness gives her a physical ‘advantage’ of being bigger and stronger than the white children. The parent does not consider Akila’s precision during the spar or that the opponent is the same age and holds the same belt as Akila. Look at her.”The parent effectively attributes Akila’s win to her being Black. After Akila wins, a white parent observing the class says, “That pairing seems a little unfair. A case in point is a scene from Akila’s tae kwon do class, where she spars with another classmate. Through Edie, Leilani recounts the ascribed adulthood of Black girls dispassionately, mirroring the way in which the harmful effects of adultification on Black girls are often dismissed in society. Over-sexualization of Black women goes hand in hand with the age-long act of ascribing adulthood to young Black girls. Luster opens with an attention-grabbing first sentence that sets the stage for the theme of over-sexualization of Black girls and women seen throughout the book. The damaging effects of over-sexualization are seen by the sadness in which Edie recounts anecdotes of her life. Naturally, Edie shares commentaries on race, class, and Black hair with the reader but with an unsettling detached nature that only a person who understands being a Black woman can write convincingly. The Over-sexualization and Adultification of Black Women and Girls
From here, the prose departs from its character-driven aura.
Eric is a middle-aged white man who engages Edie in a problematic relationship while in an open marriage to Rebecca, a coroner, and raising Akila, their adopted Black daughter.
Edie bares her thoughts to the reader until Eric, Edie’s love interest, and his family come into the picture. Luster by Raven Leilani tells the story of Edie, a twenty-three-year-old Black woman who works an administrative job in an almost all-white publishing firm and is trying to survive. Luster by Raven Leilani | Contemporary Fiction | Farrar, Straus and Giroux | 240 pages | Review by Aisha Yusuff When it comes to this, I cannot help feeling that I am at the end of a fluctuation … I am good, but not good enough, which is worse than simply being bad.
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