‘I tell them that sex is sweet at the right time’ – A qualitative review of ‘pleasure gaps and opportunities’ in sexuality education programmes in Ghana and Kenya

Abstract

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The contested global politics of pleasure and danger: Sexuality, gender, health and human rights

“…There was less attention overall to sexual pleasure and choice in the special issue articles, despite this being explicitly emphasised in the call for papers. One article (Singh et al, 2020) explicitly focused on strategies for integrating pleasure into comprehensive sexuality education, while other authors offered an analytic lens that showed the ways that persons can experience sexual pleasure and have agency for sexual consent even in contexts of sexual rights constraints.…”

“…The predominant focus of sexual health research with displaced persons focuses on fear and dangersexual and gender-based violence, sexually transmitted infections (STIs), unmet reproductive health needs that span contraception to safe abortion access, and maternal and children's mortality. Singh et al (2020) discuss in "'I tell them that sex is sweet at the right time' -A qualitative review of 'pleasure gaps and opportunities' in sexuality education programmes in Ghana and Kenya" the importance of recognising that sexual pleasure stimulates sexual behaviour. Their article underscores sexual pleasure, alongside sexual satisfaction and uptake of safer sex practices, as core components of sexual rights.…”

“…Youth in Bangladesh accessed online environments to learn about sexual pleasure and consent in the face of silence from parents (Camellia et al, 2020), and youth in Kenya and Ghana looked for sexual pleasure information online from porn and other sites because of the dearth of sex-positive education. These examples signal the need to celebrate youth's agency and desire to learn about sex, to integrate the erotic into sexual education (Singh et al, 2020), and to create online spaces that make acquiring information on sexual liberation possible in otherwise sexually conservative environments.…”

“…There is a continued need to think critically and reflexively about Western hegemony in relation to much research, writing and conceptual work on sexual rights, and the need to build truly multicultural frameworks and literatures within this field. This is also true in the field of sexual pleasure, where the Global South has been underrepresented (Singh et al, 2020). Indeed, exploring how sexual rights are understood by diverse groups of people mobilising through grassroots activism can help us to address these knowledge gaps and understand the intersection of the personalexperiences of marginalisation and denial of rightsand the political, including an understanding of sexual rights and engagement in activism (Correa et al, 2008).…”

A Rapid Review of Sexual Pleasure in First Sexual Experience(s)

“…More recently, there is evidence that sexual pleasure plays a significant role in promoting contraceptive and pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) use (Higgins, 2018). Moreover, there is growing evidence to suggest that pleasure-focused sex education can improve self-esteem and health behaviors (Hanbury & Eastham, 2016;Schalet, 2009;Scott-Sheldon & Johnson, 2006;Singh et al, 2020). Yet what we know about pleasure in first sexual experiences and our understanding of what shapes it has yet to be brought together.…”