Disentangling Shadows: A Critical Appraisal of Sexual Capital.

Bernadine Marie Hernández's book, "Border Bodies: Racialized Sexuality, Sexual Capital, and Violence in the Nineteenth-Century Borderlands," explores the concept of sexual capital and its role in the exploitation of poor Mexican women living in the southwestern borderlands during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Hernández argues that sexual capital, which refers to the accumulation of capital through sexual violence, worked alongside racialization to oppress these women. The book examines various forms of sexual capital, including prostitution, household labor, lynching, marriage arrangements, and debt bondage. Hernández's work sheds light on the intersection of race, gender, and power in the borderlands and raises important questions about women's sexual freedom and violence in the context of U.S. imperialism and border control. [Extracted from the article]