Is development work still so straight? Heteronormativity in the development sector over a decade on

ABSTRACT

Eleven years ago, I published an article in this journal detailing the ways that international development work was heteronormative, assuming heterosexual gender stereotyped household models and framing sexuality as a problem of ill-health or violence, rather than a potentially pleasurable contributor to well-being. Over a decade later, while the sector is largely still heteronormative, LGBTI and sexual pleasure have now made an entry into development discourses. However, they have both been co-opted at least to some degree to reinforce other intersecting axes of inequality. A more productive frame for addressing sexuality would be an integrated sexual rights and sexuality politics approach.

KEYWORDS:

• Sex
• gender
• pleasure
• LGBTI
• sexuality
• sexual rights
• queering development

Acknowledgements

Thank you to Hongwei Bao, Andrea Cornwall, and Jerker Edstrom for invaluable feedback during the writing of this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 These included Dorothy Aken’ova, Liz Ercevik Amado, Camilo Antillon Najlis, Henry Armas, Bibi Bakare-Yusuf, Sumit Baudh, Deevia Bhana, Nandinee Bandhopadyay, Giuseppe Campuzano, Sonia Correa, Jelena Djordjevic, Sabina Faiz Rashid, Ana Francis Mor, Anupam Hazra, Xiaopei He, Shireen Huq, Pinar Ilkkaracan, Shivananda Khan, Cephas Kojwang, Nancy A. Opiyo, Nelson J. Otwoma, Rob Pattman, Charmaine Pereira, Roger Raupp Rios, Meena Seshu, Jaya Sharma, Gulsah Seral Aksakal, Jose Fernando Serrano Amaya, Sylvia Tamale, Isatou Touray (now Vice President of the Gambia) and Chi Chi Undie.

2 I do not want to lend credence to these trends by attacking the whole sector, which is in any case extremely diverse. I am shifting from using the terminology “development industry” to the more neutral “development sector”.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Susie Jolly

Susie Jolly is an Honorary Associate at the Institute of Development Studies, UK and a freelance consultant on sexuality and gender in international development. From 2010-2017, Susie Jolly led the Ford Foundation sexuality education grant making program in China, totalling US$2 million/year, with the strategy 'the marginalised educate the mainstream'. She also supported development of Chinese philanthropy, and research on gender and sexuality dimensions of China’s global South relations. Before joining Ford, she co-founded and led the IDS Sexuality and Development Programme, which made visible previously unseen connections between sexuality and international development. Susie has completed numerous consultancies on gender, sexuality education, LGBTI, SRHR, HIV and social development, in China, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Sweden and Norway. She has published widely on gender, sexuality and international development.