3.2 Who’s talking?

Talking about sexual pleasure can be easier or harder depending on who is doing the talking… and who is listening. In this section, we explore how things like our age and our gender influence how we talk about sexual pleasure.

Activity 3.2: Who’s talking? Talking about sexual pleasure in a sexuality education context

Timing: Allow about 10 minutes to do this activity
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Figure 3.2 Talking about condoms
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This photograph shows two women at a CSE session. They are both laughing and one is demonstrating to the other the best way of opening a condom sachet.

Figure 3.2 Talking about condoms
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Further thoughts

If you are interested in more information about how societal expectations and norms influence how we understand pleasure and how individual expectations for pleasure are formed, you can watch this TED Talk with scientist Peggy Orenstein [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] on young women’s experiences of pleasure. It is 17 minutes long:

3.1 Why is it difficult to talk about sexual pleasure?

3.3 Our own experiences