The pleasure imperative? Reflecting on sexual pleasure’s inclusion in sex education and sexual health settings.
Affiliation
University of Chester, Sheffield Hallam UniversityPublication Date
2018-04-30
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This article offers an empirically grounded contribution to scholarship exploring the ways in which pleasure is ‘put to work’ in sex and sexuality education. Such research has cautioned against framing pleasure as a normative requirement of sexual activity and hence reproducing a ‘pleasure imperative’. This paper draws on interviews with sexual health and education practitioners who engaged with Pleasure Project resources and training between 2007 and 2016. Findings suggest that practitioners tend to understand pleasure within critical frameworks that allow them to avoid normalising and (re)enforcing a pleasure imperative. Accounts also show negotiations with, and strategic deployments of, values surrounding sexual pleasure in society and culture. While some accounts suggest that a pleasure imperative does run the risk of being reproduced by practitioners, notably this is when discussing more ‘contentious’ sexual practices. Interviews also demonstrate that practitioners attempting to implement a pleasure agenda are faced with a range of challenges. While some positive, holistic, and inclusive practice has been afforded by a pleasure approach, we argue that the importance of a critical framework needs to be (re)emphasised. The paper concludes by highlighting areas for further empirical research.Citation
Wood, R., Hirst, J., Wilson, L. & Burns-O'Connell, G. (2019). The pleasure imperative? Reflecting on sexual pleasure’s inclusion in sex education and sexual health. Sex Education, 19(1), 1-14.Publisher
Taylor and FrancisJournal
Sex EducationAdditional Links
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14681811.2018.1468318Type
ArticleLanguage
enDescription
This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Sex Education on 30-04-18, available online: https://doi.org/10.1080/14681811.2018.1468318ISSN
1468-1811EISSN
1472-0825ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1080/14681811.2018.1468318
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Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/