Almaz Ohene
sex+ Front Line brings you the people and groups on the front line of sexuality, doing what they love and changing the world for the better. This edition features Almaz Ohene, founder of Kayleigh Daniels Dated, who we video-called to hear about her work.
Who are you?
Ok, so I’m a kind of chameleon. To most people, I’m a creative copywriter and a freelance journalist but within the community I am a sexuality, intimacy and pleasure professional. I do a lot of work with Decolonising Contraception and The School of Sexuality Education. At the moment we’re not going into schools that much because of the pandemic but we’re doing other things such as making intersectional topics accessible for young people. In September I was working on scripts for some educational films about feminism, intersectionality and sexuality which will be launched by The School of Sexuality Education at some point in 2021.
What are you doing?
At the moment Kayleigh Daniels Dated is on hiatus, so I am currently riding on the wave of KDD in that we aren’t putting out any fresh content at the moment but the platform is still live and fans of Kayleigh’s exploits can still read the existing stories in pdf format via our Big Cartel shop. Kayleigh Daniels is a fictional character, based in London, whose writing explores the intersection of fiction, fantasy and the function of contemporary sexual fixations. I’ve got ‘sexperts’, who are mainly women of colour, to talk about some of issues that come up in the stories in a really fun and accessible way on my platform.
Why does it matter?
I started Kayleigh Daniels Dated with the protagonist as you see her. She’s a dark skinned woman of colour because up to that point I hadn’t really seen anyone like that engaging in fun casual sex. But then there is also a serious side to it in that, in the UK Women of Colour experience negative reproductive and sexual health outcomes in addition to barriers accessing sexual health and reproductive health care. Some of these include difficulty negotiating condom use, increased rates of domestic violence, language barriers and concerns about confidentiality and cultural stigmas.
What is your secret weapon?
I always say that my secret weapon is actually my English degree. I know where all the raunchy bits are in many classical works but also, in terms of my personality, I’m always naturally very curious and explorative and that’s really useful in this type of work. I’m not judgemental of what people want to try in terms of sex or anything like that.
What has been your biggest takeaway from the work that you do?
The biggest takeaway is that sex is still a highly stigmatised topic, especially in the UK, and that internalised shame is the cause of so much more than just bad sex. Internalised shame also stops people from being able to communicate effectively and truthfully. It kind of stops people from being vulnerable enough to allow other people to understand what their sexual needs and wants are. At the moment the scene for me is that, during these covid times, the UK government especially, hasn’t really acknowledged that lots of people don’t live in a monogamous or nuclear family. What I find really frustrating is that the Government have put all these quarantine and physical rules in place and it doesn’t allow for people who, through choice, have different kinds of relationship structures. I’m really hoping that, not necessarily the government, but that people start to engage with different types of relationships a bit more and acknowledge the fact that lots of people don’t live within mono/hetero-normativity and that that’s fine.
How can we show you some love?
Readers can follow all my personal social media accounts. So I’m Almaz Ohene across Twitter, Facebook & Instagram and it’s Kayleigh Daniels Dated on Instagram & Facebook and on Twitter it’s @kayleighddated. Readers can also buy the KDD PDF stories via Big Cartel. Also people can book tickets to my workshops and events as and when they see them coming up on social.
Featured photo: Yana Stallein
