globalmappingofpleasure

Sex is the most common way people contract HIV
worldwide, yet frank discussion and information about
how to have sex and stay healthy (much less enjoy
yourself or give pleasure to others) are largely missing
from health resources and HIV prevention campaigns.
At the same time, sexually explicit and mainstream
media, along with moralistic institutions and political
figures, are the loudest voices telling people how
and what kind of sex they should (or should not) be
having. This usually boils down to a narrow list of sexual
practices reserved for the young, the healthy, the
married and the heterosexual among us, and rarely
involves safer-sex practices, such as condom use or
non-penetrative sex, except for abstinence.
On the racier side of things, most sexually explicit
media also present a narrow view of who has (or
should be having) sex, and very rarely feature
condoms or non-penetrative sex as something
normal and sexy. Add to this the dominant fear- and
disease-based messages about sex and safer sex
coming from the HIV prevention and health sectors,
and it is not surprising that few people find safer sex
appealing, and even fewer have the information
they need to pursue their own or their partners’ sexual
pleasure without risking their health.
There is an enormous gap between people’s desires
and sexual behaviours, and the information they
have access to about how to act on those desires
in a healthy way. The health and HIV prevention
sectors have a great opportunity to fill that gap with
information about safer sex which reflects people’s
real sex lives and desires. For this to happen, those of
us in the health world have to face the erotophobia 1
that plagues much of our work. Why are so many
people and organizations who want to improve
sexual health and well-being afraid to talk about
or create programmes to address people’s desires
and real sex lives? And if ‘sex sells’ everything from
toothpaste to cars, why are we not mobilizing the
power of sex and desire to promote safer sex as a
force for good?
These are key questions for the health sector as we
mark a quarter century of the AIDS pandemic; but if
we wait to find the answers and for a paradigm shift
to occur, many more people will have been harmed.
In the meantime, we can explore and learn from the
ways that people are using the power of pleasure and
eroticism to promote safer sex and well-being. This can
become a basis from which to explore what works
with different populations, and how we might adapt
existing approaches to meet people’s real needs.
Background
The Global Mapping of Pleasure was first published
in 2004, with the support of CARE International/
CARE Cambodia, as a training tool for sexual health
educators in Cambodia. It was researched and
written on a shoestring, in just ten days, yet has been
widely referenced in the media and health sector 2 .
To date, it is the only resource available that explores
pleasure-focused approaches to safer sex worldwide.
As The Pleasure Project has worked to promote and
advocate for a more sex-positive, erotic approach
to safer sex and HIV prevention over the past
four years, we realized the need to update The
Global Mapping to include the many pioneering
organizations and individuals we have met since
that first edition was published. With support
and funding from the Realising Rights Research
Programme Consortium, we were able to widen our
search for organizations that eroticize safer sex, and
to produce this updated edition.
1
Erotophobia is a psychology term that describes sexuality on a personality scale. Erotophobes score high on the end of the scale characterized
by expressions of guilt and fear about sex. Erotophobes are less likely to talk about sex, have more negative reactions to sexually explicit material,
and have sex less frequently and with fewer partners over time. In contrast, erotophiles score high on the opposite end of the scale. Erotophilia is
characterized by expressing less guilt about sex, talking about sex more openly, and holding more positive attitudes toward sexually explicit material.
8