Female pleasure and body: discourses in the context of institutionalized sex education in Medellín

Abstract

The present investigation intended to explore and analyze the conceptions on pleasure and the body enunciated by professionals executing sex education programs in Medellin. The implicit conceptions of sexuality, body and pleasure that are used by the participants in order to teach on these sex education programs were identified using qualitative research through semi standardized interview with 9 participants, and critical discourse data analysis. The results demonstrate a differential treatment on body and female sexuality, anchored on a conception of the body and pleasure on three main categories: body as a temple and pleasure as a hazard; body as a machine and pleasure as an evolution mechanism; and body as an object of care and pleasure as an object of control. The critical discourse analysis is based on Foucault’s sexuality device (1977), Butler´s conception of the body (2002) and Haraway’s feminist social psychology (1991), and reveals contradictions and dilemmas in the discourses, as well as the body and pleasure conceptions regarding the female body and their implications on institutionalized sex education.