Positive Sexuality as a Guide for Leisure Research and Practice Addressing Sexual Interests and Behaviors

Abstract

There is a growing interest among leisure scholars to investigate a wide range of diverse sexual topics from a leisure science perspective. However, leisure experts sometimes struggle with issues surrounding their topics that are firmly rooted in broader socio-historical controversies. Indeed, these controversies continue to play out in fierce academic and professional battles, referred to as the “sex wars,” that began several decades ago. Recently, there has been a call among some sexologists and health experts to move toward a much more positive approach to sexuality, which acknowledges well-known risks and dangers of sexual behavior, yet also emphasizes the importance of sexual pleasure and potential benefits of sexual behavior and expression. This paper summarizes current academic literature on the need for positive approaches to sexuality and outlines a multidisciplinary eight-dimensional positive sexuality framework. Existing connections between positive sexuality and leisure scholarship are illustrated.

Keywords:

• ethics
• leisure
• positive sexuality
• sexual behavior
• sex-positive