Dear Pleasure Seekers, here is our round up of good.safe.sex in 2011. Let us know if we missed anything…Happy New Year, The Pleasure Project xx
January – Sexy Texts
So we started off bright and breezy in the new and interviewed many authors at Jaipur Literature festival on why there is just not enough good safe sex in the texts and how to write “that condom” moment. We loved what Candice Bushnall, Jerry Pinto and Abha Dawesar had to say.
And how we also thought about how we need to get more good safe sex into Indian Pulp Fiction.
February – Crown Jewel Condoms
We were most pleased that sexuality and pleasure got a mention at an important UK Department for International Development event when Professor Lawrence Haddad, from IDS, spoke about our work and the need to include and address romance to deliver better sexual health programmes.
We finished off the month getting outraged because we loved the launch of “Crown Jewel Condoms” with the strap line “Truly a King amongst Condoms” in time for the UK Royal Wedding. But excitement turned to outrage when we realised that they did not actually work. I suppose we are meant to just put them on our mantelpiece and admire them?
March – Can Public Health learn from Porn?
The fabulous Tehelka magazine quoted us in March, right chuffed we were, because we told them that the Pill needs to ne sexed up and the health world needs to learn more from the Porn world.
Alongside having that rant we also had a go on the UK Guardian website about how pleasure and development should not be strangers.We said that development professionals needed to look beyond all the negative consequences of poverty or poor people as always victims; to see a possible positive vision of good sex, as empowering, raising of self esteem and joyful.
April – A festival on the art of lust
April was our art ‘n’ crafts month. We went to an exhibition that showed us what orgasms looked like and we featured in an Indian Express article about using the arts to promote good safe sex.
And we got lucky. Really lucky. Traveled to Sydney to learn all at the festival for the art of lust t. It was certainly mind-blowing and the bits that we could comfortable blog about, we did; ethical sluthood, naked yoga, play fighting and a novice orgy workshop. We were exploring lusty safe sex on the frontline of lust; and it wasn’t like the usual sexual health conferences we attend. Oh no sir ree.
May – We came, we read we shared our pleasure
We were full of the joys of spring celebrating national wanking month and whilst we were at it (conveniently) also learnt LOTS more about what Delhiites fantasise about.
We organised a “Share your Pleasure” fantasy evening in the wonderful many many cold fantasies including; cool garden sprinklers, cold showers, BDSM in a chillyJacuzzi but there were also a few tasty surprises (Cheeki Dilli, Cheeki Dilli).
Delhiites also fantasised about “men in top hats, making names in jam on bellies and clits, the falling petals of the jacaranda tree“ and last and not least (surprise surprise) some mutual self arousal in a dark small bookstore in Haus Kaus village !
Hurrah for sharing our fantasies and expanding the global fantasy bank for us all to enjoy. Let more hot Delhi fantasies rain on us cooly this summer.
June – diging deeper into delhi’s fantasies
We got a little deeper into the fantasies of Haus Kaus Village in steamy June. We collected 150 fantasies during the Haus Kaus Village event, and man, were they hot. We thought the Delhi heat might knock back the collective
libido a little; but we were wrong.
Oh Delhi, you are a sexy, kinki, imaginative bunch. We ranked your fantasies according to popularity and there are a few surprises I can tell you. Read them here. Our personal favorite (today) is the “salt touched breast” of the mermaid lover and whose tail you would “love every fishy scale”.
We were also quite chuffed to get our sexy article published in a quite serious posh journal. Read about how we think there should be more pillow talk between academics and porn film makers here.
July- orgasm prizes, play doh porn and ethical condoms
In July our wonderful pleasure propagandist Arushi braved the weather of Glasgow to report back from the frontline of the World Sexual Health Congress and did she find out stuff. 
Wowzer. Did we learn. We learnt that orgasms should be part of the journey not the station we get off at (well we kind of knew that already) , we heard about soggy saos, play doh porn and if we are the high desire or low desire partners in our bedrooms.
We also loved the new ethical condoms and decided to wrap with care and save the polar bear…
August – desperately seeking pleasure in Korea
Another brave pleasure propagandist ventured forth to report back from the AIDS conference in Busan, Korea. Revati found little pleasure we are sad to report. Although she reported later on a couple of brave souls who mentioned the need to recognise pleasure in sex in HIV prevention.
But we consoled ourselves by discovering that men who wank more also use condoms more. Another plus point for the boy wankers then.
September – Condom use still a distant dream in porn
On we got on our old hobby horse again this month, safer sex in porn….but then got onto that tricky ride bareback sex.
How to replace the intimacy of it with something that feels equally as exciting and as intimate. And we loved the creative ideas you pleasure propagandists had. Keep them coming.
October – demos in London (sexy female condom ones)
On a quick trip to London we loved talking at the offices, in the very funky Shoreditch, of Plan International and Interact Worldwide, two international NGOs. We loved them and they kind of liked the pleasure approach and want to include it in their work internationally. Sadly, but coincidently, that week a big news story in the UK was how dissatisfied young people were with the sex education they get.
November – Coffee flavoured condoms
On my goodness in November we got really busy, we rocked for the Right to Romance whomsoever we wanted whilst also reminding those who attended this brilliant concert that followed Queer Pride that playing with themselves was their right.
But we also popped over to Ethiopia and savoured the delights of condom flavoured condoms.
December – ranting again about group lust fests
We finished the year by having a good old rant in Man’s World Magazine about group lust fests, porn and pleasure. The usual stuff.
We finished the year with a tirade about women loving sex.
So there.
Happy New Year to all your pleasure seekers out there.
Keep safe and see you in 2012.
The Pleasure Project’s very own Anne Philpott will be part of a panel this week in Delhi. Nandita Das, Onir, Mithu Sen, Poorna Jagannathan, Rosalyn D’ Mello will be having a conversation on the changing visual landscape of intimacies and desire in Indian Cinema, image & contemporary art.
