“My belly tickles! And my vulva too!”: Children's conversations about pleasure in Catalonia (Spain)

Abstract

AbstractIn Spain, children's sexuality is a sensitive topic, and pleasure is its most controversial aspect, contradicting the notion of children's innocence. Through a new feminist materialist approach, I analyse the narratives of primary school children (aged 9–11) about pleasant bodily sensations to explore their capacity for pleasure and the assemblage of elements that facilitate it. Additionally, I describe the forces that stabilise these assemblages and those that destabilise them. The findings suggest that leaving pleasure out of relationships and sex education reproduces gender and age inequalities, making visible the need to recognise children as subjects of sexuality and pleasure.