The destig­ma­tiza­tion of female sexua­lity – a desi­gner’s approach

A goWo*Man guest article by Lisa Amann & Nikola John (7^th-semester commu­ni­ca­tion design).

One of the core compe­ten­cies of commu­ni­ca­tion desi­gners is to present complex issues in a user-specific way in order to make them more under­stan­dable and even more visible. One of these complex issues is the social accep­tance of female sexua­lity. Even if we have been able to make some achie­ve­ments with the help of femi­nist work, we are still a long way from being able to say that women and people who are read as women can deal with their sexua­lity without shame – or live it out.

Most people exist because two other people had sex before them. Since we are constantly confronted with sexua­lized depic­tions in our ever­yday lives, it seems as if sex and nudity is an unavo­idable topic that people are used to. Unfort­u­na­tely, the reality is diffe­rent. Even in the 21^st century, sex is still a poli­tical issue, a shameful act that falls prefe­ren­ti­ally into the realm of the private and thus has a stig­ma­tizing effect, espe­ci­ally for people of the female spec­trum. In socio­logy, stig­ma­tiza­tion refers to a process in which certain indi­vi­duals are assi­gned to certain cate­go­ries by other indi­vi­duals. In this process, the actual or presumed charac­te­ristics of a person are nega­tively evaluated. In the context of female sexua­lity, we can thus speak of ​„stig­ma­tiza­tion,“ since the narra­tive ​„women have no sense of plea­sure“ or ​„women do not need orgasms to enjoy sex“ has been estab­lished over millennia. Through sexual mora­lity, mono­the­i­stic reli­gions, and the rela­ti­onship model of marriage, the female body, and female sexua­lity has become a shameful taboo subject. Histo­ri­cally, women who deviated from this narra­tive were and still are soci­ally ostra­cized, despised, and in the worst cases even killed.

What can coun­teract stig­ma­tiza­tion is the norma­liza­tion of the affected subject. In terms of design, norma­liza­tion can be made possible with the help of various aspects. By impar­ting know­ledge, promo­ting open commu­ni­ca­tion, and crea­ting the frame­work for an emotional confron­ta­tion, we enable women and people who are read as females to deal with their sexua­lity without shame. Infor­ma­tion design, commu­ni­ca­tion concepts, and expe­ri­ence design are design disci­plines that can be tackled by desi­gners without being over­whelmed by the size of the target group or the explo­si­ve­ness of the topic. Know­ledge gaps and taboo topics some­times have the grea­test impact on the percep­tion of female sexua­lity. Patri­ar­chal struc­tures are soci­ally mani­fested in such a way that inter­na­lized thought patterns must be ques­tioned and expe­ri­ences reflected upon.

By impar­ting know­ledge that covers aspects such as anatomy, sexual iden­tity, plea­sure, and assault, unas­hamed access to one’s own and others“ sexua­lity can be faci­li­tated. Encou­ra­ging open conver­sa­tions that moti­vate personal explo­ra­tion of the topic helps to break down both lingu­i­stic and emotional inhi­bi­tions and norma­lize the topic.

Here you can find our approach in detail:

v*aire in the virtual exhibition