Putting the Sexy Back into Safer Sex: The Pleasure Project

  • Wendy Knerr
  • Anne Philpott
Volume 37 Number 5
Published: October 1, 2006
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1759-5436.2006.tb00310.x
Pleasure – and even sex itself – have been noticeably absent from much of the dialogue surrounding sexually transmitted infections and the spread of HIV/AIDS. Safer sex and good sex are not mutually exclusive, yet most established educational programmes give the impression that they are, by using only fear of risk and disease to motivate their audience to practise safer sex. Yet evidence suggests that positive incentives provide the most effective way to get people to want to have safer sex. The Pleasure Project works with these incentives – pleasure and desire – to build bridges between the vi Sexuality Matters pleasure/sex industry and the safer sex world. It avoids negativity, ensuring that erotic materials include examples of safer sex and that sexual health and training materials take account of pleasure. In this article, the authors give a brief account of some of the Pleasure Project’s work and reflect on how a more sex-positive approach to safer sex can help promote greater sexual well-being.

Keywords:

  • Gender
  • Sexuality
From Issue: Vol. 37 No. 5 (2006) | Sexuality Matters