Sexual Pleasure, Sexuality, and Rights
Subtopic 3: Sexual Pleasure and Rights – An Introduction 

Greetings and welcome to the introduction to the discussion on Subtopic 3: Sexual Pleasure and Rights. We are excited to continue this discussion further and hope to build on previous subtopic discussions. As always, looking forward to your comments! (Note: The Summary for Subtopic 2: The Regulation and Freedom of Pleasure will be sent out shortly. Thank you for your patience.)

When people use the term ‘sexual rights,’ it encompasses many aspects: the right to information, choice, well-being, pleasure, access, treatment, and services with regards to sexuality. But when we break it down and talk about the part of sexual rights that includes pleasure, it becomes even more difficult for us to discuss and define how to go about providing for its freedom/regulation. So, should we at all consider sexual pleasure as a “right” given that in doing so, it will fall under the purview of the state?

The contentions around sexual pleasure become even more complicated when we talk about pleasure in terms of particular groups. For example, when we talk about how young people’s sexual rights, we include that to mean that they have rights to information. But we have to ask ourselves why we think they have a right to information – is it so they can make their own choices, or are they to make the ones that others want? If we say that people with disabilities have the right to sexual pleasure, then how do we work around issues such as assisted sex and the ability to negotiate it? In another example, when sex workers assign different rates for acts that vary in pleasure, how does throwing in money complicate the issue? It would be very interesting to hear about examples that people have encountered which highlight these issues and provide some guidance as to how we might begin dealing with many of these contentions on a practical level.

Feminists engagements with sexual pleasure have expanded the debates, but have also raised troubling questions about “appropriateness.” For example, seeking sexual pleasure in a monogamous relationship with your partner is fine; seeking it in the form of viewing or participating in pornography is not. Enhancing sexual pleasure by becoming comfortable with one’s body is acceptable; becoming comfortable by changing your body (i.e. breast implants, etc.) is not. Do we want to become so specific, that we inevitably end up regulating pleasure even further? 

In thinking about this topic, here are a few questions to help guide the discussion:

1. What does it mean to have a “right” to sexual pleasure? What are the implications of claiming sexual pleasure as a right? 
2. What are some examples of government policies and regulations that affect sexual pleasure in different cultural and country contexts? 
3. Should we define sexual pleasure differently when examining different groups and if so, how? (example: young people, people with disabilities, and sex workers, etc.)
4. What does feminism bring to discussions on sexual pleasure? And how does it restrict these debates?

Please feel free to write in your analyses, observations, thoughts, comments, and examples addressing any, one, or all of the issues and questions raised above. Alternatively, you can also pose new questions you feel are relevant for this sub-topic. 

We look forward to an exciting and lively discussion!

Regards,

Neha Patel (Moderator)
The South and Southeast Asia Resource Centre on Sexuality