“…To this end, the #HotGirlScience paradigm invites sexologists to study the fun, "messy, sticky, and joyous" (Morgan, 2015, p. 39) sex-positive aspects of Black sexual lives as a necessary contribution to the current sexology canon that all too frequently presents a deficit view of Black sexualities. Sexologists studying Black people are encouraged to read critical sexuality studies to reduce their ignorance (Bowleg et al, 2017;Lassiter et al, 2021), but move beyond them toward sex-positive, liberation-focused inquiry (Hargons et al, 2020), where pleasure is central (Thorpe et al, 2021;2022). In this paper, we outline the criteria by which one can determine if they are conducting real #HotGirlScience, and we establish this paradigm's four elements: epistemology, ontology, methodology, and axiology (Kivunja & Kuyini, 2017).…”