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Submit your work before August 31st 2024 for a chance to receive 100-150 EUR per selected image!
We welcome artists, creatives, illustrators and anyone who can visualise pleasure-positive imagery to submit their work to The Pleasure Bank! This call for submissions comes in two parts:
1) Submit new and original work to The Pleasure Bank in line with the criteria detailed in the next section.
Selected submissions will receive a €100-150 EURO stipend.
Please note: to receive the stipend, we are required to do a due diligence check. For this, we will ask for your full name, date of birth, and country, and require you to send us an invoice. More detailed information about the processes will be shared with the artists selected.
2) Donate existing images or designs that showcase pleasure to TPB!
This option is not financially compensated.
Consider promoting your work via The Pleasure Bank to help us, health educators, and pleasure pioneers around the world achieve our goal of normalising and celebrating sexual pleasure
Image Criteria
1) Image type: We are flexible on the formats of the illustrations (pencil sketches, digital drawings, paintings, graphics, multi-media, photography, etc).
2) Image sizing and quality: DPI 72, 1600px (longside), sRGB
3) Required Crosscutting criteria that need to be integrated and made visible in the image set as a whole include:
Realistic and authentic: Diverse and realistic body types, sexual orientation, gender identities, ages, skin colours, and cultures.
Evidence based: It is essential that images are specific and do not hide or withhold information, but help to provide a good understanding of the body and relationships, eg. not using metaphorical imagers like flowers, fruit, inanimate objects in place of different body parts.
4) Recommended image criteria: images that incorporate one or one of the following have a higher chance of being selected in this round as we are looking to expand the scope and audience of TPB.
For online educators/creators: images that depict pleasure in a way that can bypass restrictive content moderation policies on social media platforms.
For younger audiences: images that showcase the diversity of pleasure filled experiences – from hand-holding, hugging, kissing, and other intimate moments of pleasure
Connection, enjoyment and intimacy: images that showcase the complete spectrum of pleasure and centre on forms of intimacy that are less represented in visual media
We have further developed the following image scoring criteria for inclusion in our gallery, please consider these criteria when submitting your image(s), and visit our Artist Info and Image Criteria page for more.
| Realistic Images | Sex Positive Images | Inclusive Images | Evidence Based Images |
| 1. Does the image reflect an authentic sexual practice? 2. Does the image reflect authentic bodies? 3. Does the image foster a healthy body image? 4. Can the audience identify with the image? | 1. Is the image Pleasure focused? 2. Does the image portray sexuality in a positive way? 3. Does the image contain people (with heads and faces) connecting? 4. Does the image not induce fear about sex? | 1. Can the audience identify with the image? 2. Does this image source portray inclusive bodies, genitals, sexual preferences, and practices? | 1. Do the images provide evidence based information? 2. Does the images unnecessarily conceal information? 3. Are the images too complex or simple for the audience? |
For inspiration, take a look at these resources:
Beyond Banana’s Guide to Identify Pleasure Positive Imagery by Share-Net Netherlands
How to become a sexual pleasure champion and trainer by The Pleasure Project
The Global Mapping of Pleasure: A directory of organizations, programmes, media and people who eroticize safer sex by The Pleasure Project
Terms of Use: Creatives must agree with the Terms and Conditions for the Use of Artworks.
How to Submit
To apply, please submit your images via this form, or send your submission(s) to info@thepleasurebank.com with the following information:
- Name
- Title of art work(s)
- Short description of your submission(s)
- Short introduction of yourself
- Any additional details which you would like to include in your biography on TPB’s gallery (eg. pronouns, links to personal websites/social media, links to Venmo/Patreon accounts)
Deadline to Apply and Timelines
August: Our image submission deadline is August 31st 2024.
September: In the first weeks of September we will review all images and inform successful applicants by September 30th, 2024
October: Successful applicants submit their invoices for payment, share final artist and image accreditation details with The Pleasure Bank, and we organise payments to you.
November: Publication of images in The Pleasure Bank Gallery!
Please note: We accepts images that are donated to TPB on a rolling basis!
About The Pleasure Bank
The Pleasure Bank (TPB) is an initiative of the Share-Net Netherlands Community of Practice on Sexual Pleasure, and officially launched in June 2023. In 2022, we set out on a mission to move beyond the realms of pleasure positive language, to a new era of pleasure positive imagery. As Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) experts and advocates, we knew all too well the reality of how difficult it can be to find the right images to support our work and how limiting it can be to not have the right images which showcased the spectrum of sexual pleasure, including the spectrum of wonderful diverse bodies, genders, sexualities and emotions! We decided that if the images we wanted to see weren’t easy to access, then we would get the ball rolling and commission some that were. And then we thought, what if there was one communal place where all these images were compiled and organised, in an easy-to-use gallery? What if we reached out to the pleasure community and asked them to contribute to a digital library that we could all benefit from and invest in? What if there was a resource which meant that we could move beyond bananas and grapefruits to using images which normalised sexual pleasure, were realistic and celebrated the diversity and emotion which sexual pleasure encompasses? Well, now we no longer have to think what if.