The City of Love has a message as it prepares for the Olympics: Performance is not always the priority. Rather, when it comes to sex, pleasure takes first place.
As Paris starts welcoming athletes to the Olympic Village in the coming days, organizers of the 2024 Games are set to launch a comprehensive sexual health campaign that champions pleasure and consent as well as the traditional emphasis on safety.
It is an important message, backed by research, that is rarely endorsed on a stage with a global spotlight as influential as the Olympics.
It is an important message, backed by research, that is rarely endorsed on a stage with a global spotlight as influential as the Olympics.／Flickr
Prioritizing pleasure in sexual health refers to the approach of celebrating the physical and mental benefits of sexual experiences as well as minimizing the risks. It aims to rewrite fear and shame narratives that cast sex as taboo, with sexual health organizations promoting the sex-positive method as fundamental for unlocking greater agency over sexual rights and well-being.
Okoko explained that the initiative also provides a safe space for boys to access condoms and HIV testing kits, with societal shame often creating barriers for boys to buy these products directly from the shops.
“It’s no longer just let’s play football, let’s practice and go away … these spaces are now a community used by them to talk about issues that they’d not normally talk about,” Okoko said.
“One of the things that really came clearly to me was how using this strategy helped in mental health,” Okoko told CNN. “They feel like they can talk about anything, if there’s a challenge that they’re going through, they come to the pitch.”
Reflecting on the Paris organizers’ decision to include pleasure and consent in their sexual health messaging, Okoko says it is “imperative” to have high-profile platforms set the example.
“It’s fundamental. It’s important. It’s good if we, to the best of our abilities, find great ways of passing that message across,” Okoko said.
