Abstract

Situated in the postcolonial modernizing discourse of development, empowerment narratives tend to present sexuality as a secondary issue and a private affair one in which ‘development should keep an appropriate distance’ with the exception of helping to reduce unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. This work is presented as a series of journal entries. Through the use of prose and creative writing my participants and I begin to complicate our own understandings of sexuality and empowerment in context. I conclude that the insistence to complicate and situate such messy understandings in specific contexts is important for adult educators to move discussions around empowerment and sexuality forward.

Keywords

Sexuality; Empowerment; Community Development Workers; Pakistan

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License

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Jun 10th, 1:55 PM

‘Log’ KyaKahenGey?! (What will ‘people’ say?!): Complicating Sexuality and Empowerment with Community Development Workers in Pakistan

Situated in the postcolonial modernizing discourse of development, empowerment narratives tend to present sexuality as a secondary issue and a private affair one in which ‘development should keep an appropriate distance’ with the exception of helping to reduce unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. This work is presented as a series of journal entries. Through the use of prose and creative writing my participants and I begin to complicate our own understandings of sexuality and empowerment in context. I conclude that the insistence to complicate and situate such messy understandings in specific contexts is important for adult educators to move discussions around empowerment and sexuality forward.