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Are sex-positive parties, workshops, and pornographic art exhibitions changing how we talk about sexuality?
“Here is the bondage chair – if you want, you can be tied up here at the party.” What sounds new and crazy to some is already familiar territory for Zona. She leads through the bar and explains all the installations for the so-called “Sweat and Glitter Party”, a sex-positive event.
A lot is possible here, but nothing is mandatory. In addition to the bondage chair, there is a “fumble column”, cages or a dark room – all forms of consensual sex are expressly permitted here.
growing interest
Consensus is important at such an event. “Just because someone bought a ticket doesn’t mean they have the right to sex. Only yes means yes, »explains Zona. There is an awareness concept for this – rules of the game that all participants must know. Anyone who doesn’t comply will be kicked out.
The sex-positive party is part of the pornographic film art festival “Porny Days”. An event that is becoming more and more established in the mainstream. When it was founded ten years ago, there were almost 100 visitors – now there are several thousand. “I see a tendency that more and more people want to deal with the topic,” says David Suivez from Serratus, an association that is also involved in the “Porny Days”.
Forgotten clitoris
The sex-positive scene stands for more than parties and films. Educational work is carried out in workshops and a lot is done to raise awareness of one’s own sexuality, such as in the Serratus vulva workshop.
This educational work is sorely needed, says course leader Beatrice Bast: “Female anatomy has been neglected for a long time. Very many participants do not know what a clitoris actually looks like.» This gap in knowledge is no coincidence: the clitoris is still misrepresented in many medical and school textbooks.
Pleasurable language
Angie Walti works at a specialist center for sexual health and works there as a sex educator and sex counselor. For her it is clear: “We certainly don’t talk too little about sex, we just talk far too little about our own sexuality.”
That’s where the shame comes from, because we don’t deal enough with ourselves. For her, «sexpositivity» also means that she has positive and pleasurable connotations for all body parts and actions associated with sexuality.
Legend:
The sex educator Angie Walti is in favor of promoting sexual freedom.
SRF
Angie Walti cannot answer whether large parts of society will develop a sex-positive attitude in the future. But the sex educator would think it would be a shame if this were only reserved for certain groups, “because if we all had a sex-positive attitude, everyone could live a more self-determined and freer sexuality.”