Sexuality and the Development Industry: Reflections Six Years On

Abstract

Six years ago we published the piece on sexuality and the development industry reproduced here, coming out of a workshop in 2008. We argued that the development industry makes sexuality invisible, and subjects it to implicit assumptions, even in such areas that obviously intersect with sexuality, such as population, gender and HIV and AIDS. We described the heteronormativity and gender stereotypes in development, with people being assumed to all fit into two categories — men and women — with women being portrayed as powerless victims and men as brutish predators. We spoke of how the narratives of empowerment and subordination assume a heterosexual subject, and privilege normative models of family founded on the heterosexual married couple.