CNN
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In the city of love message In preparation Olympic: Performance isn’t always the priority. Rather, sex is about pleasure.
As Paris begins to welcome athletes, Olympic Village Organizers of the 2024 Olympics are due to launch a comprehensive sexual health campaign in the coming days that will champion pleasure and consent, in addition to the usual emphasis on safety.
This is an important message backed up by research, but one that is rarely championed in an influential arena with global attention like the Olympics.
Prioritizing pleasure in sexual health refers to an approach that celebrates physical and mental pleasure. advantage Aiming to promote diversity in sexual experiences and minimize risks, and to rewrite the narratives of fear and shame that make sex taboo, sexual health organisations promote sex-affirming approaches as fundamental to unlocking greater agency over sexual rights and wellbeing.
a Systematic review A study by the World Health Organization and the advocacy group The Pleasure Project found that pleasure-inclusive sex education was a more effective sexual health intervention strategy than abstinence programs and risk-focused messages. The study found that pleasure-inclusive sex education: condom Understanding how to use them will increase your knowledge and self-esteem, which is important to promote safer choices in the bedroom.
The decision to focus on pleasure-inclusive messaging at the Olympics is particularly significant at a time when sex education is increasingly under attack in many countries. In the United States alone, 2024 is seeing a surge in restrictive sex education at the state level. suggestion They seek to restrict what can be taught in classrooms, such as by removing instruction on contraception or encouraging abstinence.
Paris’ focus on pleasure and consent is part of the Olympics’ long history of promoting safe sex, and at the 1988 Seoul Games, organizers made a first major effort to distribute condoms to athletes to raise awareness of HIV and AIDS.
Since then, the International Olympic Committee has encouraged host cities to implement condom distribution initiatives at all Summer and Winter Games. 2016 Rio Olympics – Equivalent to 42 per player – To uphold the tradition 2022 Beijing Olympics Despite COVID-19 social distancing rules.
Buda Mendes/Getty Images/File
A condom vending machine installed in the Olympic and Paralympic Village at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
This year, the organizers were in charge of first aid. Announced Around 14,500 athletes will be taking part in the Paris Olympic Village, which will have 200,000 male condoms, 20,000 female condoms and 10,000 dental dams on hand, and will also feature sexual health awareness messaging and a number of sexual health testing centres for athletes.
Terence Higgins Trust/Wellcome Collection
Advertisement promoting safer sex, circa 1998, for the Terrence Higgins Trust for people affected by HIV/AIDS.
One athlete (a gold medalist) once said that sex is “Part of the Olympic spirit “…Why do you think they’re handing out so many condoms?” The sheer number of condoms being distributed doesn’t just reflect the athletes’ off-competitive activities. Rather, the initiative is intended to be used as a catalyst for sex education.
Anne Philpott, founder of the Pleasure Project, an international organization that has advocated for pleasure-inclusive sex education for the past 20 years, praised Paris’ decision to combine a condom initiative with a message of pleasure and consent.
“The public health community has not done a very good job of promoting safe sex,” Philpott said, explaining that promoting condoms “simply to avoid adverse reactions” is not effective.
Rather, the most effective way to encourage safe sex is to flip the script right from the start: Why do people have sex?.
“People think of pleasure as a frivolous thing, or a bonus, but we now know that if pleasure had been included in sexual health interventions from the early days of the AIDS epidemic, many more lives would have been saved,” Philpott explained.
Philpott told CNN that the need to change the tone of the conversation around safe sex is more urgent than ever – if we don’t, she says, people may end up forming their opinions based on the misinformation and harmful explicit content that is rampant online.
“We’ve seen a huge increase in choking being seen as a normal part of sexual activity, when in fact it’s very dangerous,” Philpott said, urging sex-ed curricula to catch up with what people are accessing online.
The need to know your sexual preferences desireDiscussions about sex, needs and boundaries are a constantly evolving process, and the spotlight on safer sex at the Olympics also highlighted an opportunity for the broader sporting community to be a trusted space for such conversations.
In the Kenyan coastal town of Kilifi, Deogratia Okoko sees the value in expansion. sex education Outside the classroom, he uses football to teach boys about issues like consent and contraception, and an initiative he contributes to called “Moving The Goalposts” works directly with community leaders, fathers and boys to provide resources on sexual health, sexual rights, gender and positive masculinity.
“We found that one of the places they spend a lot of time is the football field,” Okoko said.
“We started designing sessions based on football practices to explain certain issues,” Okoko said, adding: “We would sometimes notice that players would get so wrapped up in the debriefing discussions that they would forget that they were actually supposed to be training and playing games.”
Moving the Goal Posts
Moving The Goalposts is a sex education initiative in Kenya that uses football practice to teach boys and men about sexual health, sexual rights, gender and positive masculinity.
Moving the Goal Posts
Moving The Goalposts creates safe spaces where young boys and men can access condoms and HIV testing kits.
Okoko explained that the initiative also provides a safe space for boys to access condoms and HIV testing kits, as social stigma often prevents them from purchasing these products directly from stores.
“No longer are they just places to play football, practice or go out, these spaces have become communities to talk about issues that we normally wouldn’t talk about,” Okoko said.
“One of the things that’s really become clear to me is how much using this strategy helps their mental health,” Okoko told CNN. “The players feel they can talk about anything. If they’re having difficulties, they come onto the pitch.”
Reflecting on the Paris organizers’ decision to include pleasure and consent in their sexual health messaging, Okoko said it was “essential” for high-profile platforms to lead by example.
“This is fundamental. This is important. Hopefully we can put our best foot forward and find great ways to get that message across,” Okoko said.
