{"id":10819,"date":"2019-09-12T09:31:15","date_gmt":"2019-09-12T07:31:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rnw.media\/?post_type=news&p=10819"},"modified":"2019-09-12T09:31:15","modified_gmt":"2019-09-12T07:31:15","slug":"the-power-of-pleasure","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.rnw.media\/index.php\/news\/the-power-of-pleasure\/","title":{"rendered":"The power of pleasure"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Love Matters Arabic team recently designed and implemented a campaign around sexual pleasure which generated the highest reach and engagement they\u2019ve seen since the platform launched in 2014. The topic is a highly sensitive one in the conservative Egyptian context \u2013 but the team was determined to tackle it because, \u201cWe believe a sexually satisfied, pleased and happy person will have a better personal life and will be able to better contribute in social change.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

The work of Love Matters Arabic has always been ground-breaking \u2013 addressing the many taboos and stigmas around the sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) of young people that prevail in Egypt and other MENA countries. It\u2019s the only Arabic language platform to take a ‘pleasure positive’ approach to sexuality, and it felt like a natural step for the team to take to take on the challenge of starting such a controversial conversation with their online community. Project Coordinator Dr Ramy Metwali and Social Media Editor May Elhosseiny explain:<\/p>\n

We believe our ultimate role is to work on social change to make people\u2019s lives better and to promote that sexuality is a normal part of the human wellbeing, so it is not shameful! We are trying to help people be educated about their sexuality and to know that \u201cpleasure\u201d is the main motive and aim when having sex.<\/em><\/p>\n

Monitoring feedback<\/strong>
\nIn total, the content created for the week-long campaign reached more than 7.7 million people and generated more than 1.1 million interactions (likes, comments, shares). While reactions were overwhelmingly positive there was also criticism from some users. When designing the campaign, the team had in-depth discussions about how they would deal with negative reactions and ways in which moderators might be able to encourage positive conversations. Once the campaign started, audience feedback was carefully monitored and sometimes content planning was modified to reduce risk. Anal sex, for instance, was highly controversial so the visual content around this topic was adjusted to be less challenging for conservative followers. But, say Metwali and Elhosseiny:<\/p>\n

We understand that \u201cchange\u201d never comes smoothly or without a cost, but we believe that keeping the communication channel with our audience open is a priority. No communication, no messages, means no change.<\/em><\/p>\n

In the end, there was much less negative feedback than the team had been expecting. The number of new \u2018Likes\u2019 for the LM Arabic Facebook page was three times greater than \u2018Unlikes\u2019 and the page attracted 41.5k new followers while only 16.8k people Un-followed. The website attracted more than half a million extra page views during the campaign period. The team were also pleasantly surprised by the very positive feedback they received from partners as they had expected that the content might be considered too \u2018shocking\u2019 for some of the organisations they work with.<\/p>\n

Greatest hits<\/strong>
\nThe most popular post on the FaceBook page was a \u2018painted\u2019 animated video created collaboratively by the whole team<\/p>\n