Our research with adult women in Brazil suggested that programmes which focus on gender equity and sexual well-being can increase women’s consciousness and capacity to learn about and experience sexual pleasure.

The women felt free to:

• Talk, learn and educate others about sex, sexuality, pleasure and the body.
• Reflect on and resist gender and sexual norms relating to sex, pleasure and masturbation.
• Imagine alternative, more inclusive, equitable and joyous sexual and gender norms.
• Recognize the right of all people to experience sexual pleasure without shame or harm to others, or themselves.
• Explore and develop the knowledge, confidence and skills needed to give themselves pleasure, if they choose to.
• Explore and develop the knowledge, confidence and skills needed to give pleasure to a partner, if they choose to.
• Explore, identify and express what matters to them when it comes to sex, pleasure and sexuality.
• Communicate their own sexual desires and limits in a relationship and have these desires and limits respected.

In addition to focusing on these outcomes, health-care providers and community organizations have used a variety of methods to prioritize sexual joy and pleasure in service delivery. This includes education programmes, advocacy campaigns and health-care service delivery.

This can be seen in action in the Ana Autoestima sexuality information and education programme, run by Brazilian organization Tabu Tabu.

This activity aims to open up conversations about sexual joy and explore what it means to the group.  

Time: 1 hour 

Materials: 

• Flipchart 
• Marker pens  

Step 1: Creating a persona 

Invite the group to imagine a woman who experiences sexual joy. You can give her a name or ask participants to choose a name (in Brazil we called her Fulanita). Invite participants to describe her and/or to help draw her on a flipchart that all the participants can see.  

Step 2: Infusing the persona with sexual joy 

Then, prompt conversation about sexual joy by asking some of the following questions – make your own notes about the responses, encourage discussion and diverse opinions without judgement:

This activity is meant to explore what the project/programme means for participants’ everyday lives and relationships, with a focus on the positive changes it may bring, while recognizing that some unintended effects may also exist. 

Time: 1 hour 

Materials: 

• Index cards or pieces of paper taken from a notebook / A4 sheets torn in half  

Preparation: 

Create a series of flashcards using index cards or bits of paper. Write a sentence starter on each card, choosing from these examples or create your own to suit your programme/setting.  

While it’s important to provide sex-positive sentences, it’s also vital to include sentences that can capture less positive, negative or ambivalent feelings and experiences. 

You can choose to have one sentence started per participant or have repeats of each.  

Step 1: Introducing the activity 

Spread the cards out on a table, or place them in a bowl. Invite participants to choose one and tell them that they will be asked to read it out loud and answer the question if they feel able to. 

Step 2: Listening to each other 

Once everyone has selected a card, stand in a circle and explain that we will now all listen to each other and appreciate the change being shared. This could be a positive or a negative change – we must respect each person’s personal experience of the project / programme.  

Ask the person on your right to start. You can choose to go around the circle in sequence, or ask the person who has just finished, to choose the next person to speak.  

Take your own notes or ask a co-facilitator to take notes of key points raised so they can be summarised in the end. Finish by pulling out key themes identified and thank the participants for sharing.