The power of pleasure

The need to recognise women’s desires in the response to AIDS

By: Jolly S & Cornwall S
Published by: Institute of Development Studies (IDS), Sussex, UK , 2004
Via: Eldis

This article, published by the Institute of Development Studies, explores the way that women’s sexuality is represented in the context of development programmes and AIDS prevention. It claims that, although much sex takes place in encounters where women are unable to control what they want, the tendency to represent women as victims can undermine the power that women have to exercise control over their lives and their sexuality. Treating women as victims also gives the impression that they only have unsafe sex because they lack power to negotiate with male partners, ignoring the possibility of women feeling and acting upon their own desires.