Tamara Shefer

Social constructions of gender roles, gender-based violence and HIV/AIDS in two communities of the Western Cape, South Africa

The links between gender roles, gender-based violence and HIV/AIDS risk are complex and culturally specific. In this qualitative study we investigated how women and men in two black communities in the Western Cape, South Africa, constructed their gender identities and roles, how they understood gender-based violence, and what they believed about the links between gender relations and HIV risk. First we conducted 16 key informant interviews with members of relevant stakeholder organisations.Then we held eight focus group discussions with community members in single-sex groups. Key findings included the perception that although traditional gender roles were still very much in evidence, shifts in power between men and women were occurring. Also, genderbased violence was regarded as a major problem throughout communities, and was seen to be fuelled by unemployment, poverty and alcohol abuse. HIV/AIDS was regarded as particularly a problem of African communities, with strong themes of stigma, discrimination, and especially ‘othering’ evident. Developing effective HIV/AIDS interventions in these communities will require tackling the overlapping as well as divergent constructions of gender, gender violence and HIV which emerged in the study.

Gender attitudes, sexual power, HIV risk: a model for understanding HIV risk behavior of South African men

Abstract The Gender Attitudes-Power-Risk (GAPR) model of HIV risk behavior was tested using survey data collected from among 309 men who were attending STI services in a primary health care clinic in Cape Town, South Africa. Results showed that negative attitudes towards women were significantly positively associated with a high level of HIV risk behavior, and that endorsement of traditional male roles was negatively associated with HIV risk behavior. Endorsement of traditional male gender roles was also inversely related to relationship control but positively to a high degree of decision-making dominance in ones relationship. Sexual relationship power did not significantly mediate the relationships between gender attitudes and HIV risk behavior. A better understanding of gender roles and ideologies in combination with ones power in sexual relationships as they relate to HIV risk behavior among men could better inform future HIV prevention interventions.

Discourses on women's (hetero)sexuality and desire in a South African local context

Feminist analyses of gender power inequalities in the negotiation of heterosexual sexuality (heterosex) have exposed heterosexuality as a key site for the reproduction of patriarchy. Empirical studies have highlighted womens lack of negotiation and mens dominance in heterosex. This paper reports on a qualitative study exploring the negotiation of heterosex among young men and women students at the University of the Western Cape, South Africa. A discourse analysis was carried out on the transcripts of focus group discussions held with over 100 male and female students speaking about their sexual experiences with the opposite sex. The study highlights the lack of a positive discourse on womens sexual desires, and continued double standards in the construction of masculine and feminine sexualities, with men viewed as positively sexual while women are representative of love and relationships. Nonetheless, there are some marginal voices contradicting these discourses and challenging the hegemonic construction of women as passive, lacking sexual desire and responsive to male active sexuality.

Narratives of transactional sex on a university campus

Given the imperatives of HIV and gender equality, South African researchers have foregrounded transactional sex as a common practice that contributes to unsafe and inequitable sexual practices. This paper presents findings from a qualitative study with a group of students at a South African university, drawing on narratives that speak to the dynamics of reportedly widespread transactional sex on campus. Since many of these relationships are inscribed within unequal power dynamics across the urban-rural and local-‘foreigner’ divides, and across differences of wealth, age and status that intersect with gender in multiple, complex ways, it is argued that these may be exacerbating unsafe and coercive sexual practices among this group of young people. The paper further argues for a critical, reflexive position on transactional sex, pointing to the way in which participants articulate a binaristic response to transactional relationships that simultaneously serves to reproduce a silencing of a discourse on female sexual desires, alongside a simplistic and deterministic picture of masculinity underpinned by the male sexual drive discourse.

The masculine construct in heterosex

Analysing mens talk on sex and women, TAMARA SHEFER and KEITH RUITERS find a contradictory sex-love dichotomy in which the love role in sex is left for women, whether they agree or not

The Social Construction of Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) in South African Communities

Since the medical link between sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and HIV/AIDS was established, there has been an increased focus on the spread of STIs in South Africa. The aim of this study was to provide an in-depth picture of the dynamics involved in sexuality and the spread of STIs and HIV/AIDS. The authors present the findings of a focus group study, which was a part of a larger, national project addressing the broad question of health-care seeking behavior for STIs. A discourse analysis carried out on 10 focus groups reveals complex and rich narratives on the way in which STIs are constructed in South African communities. The dominant discourses focused on the continuing stigmatization of STIs, causal explanations, and prevention strategies. The analysis raises important recommendations for both educational interventions and health services toward the challenge of halting the spread of STIs and HIV/AIDS.

Intimate partner violence after disclosure of HIV test results among pregnant women in Harare, Zimbabwe

Background HIV status disclosure is a central strategy in HIV prevention and treatment but in high prevalence settings women test disproportionately and most often during pregnancy. This study reports intimate partner violence (IPV) following disclosure of HIV test results by pregnant women. Methods In this cross sectional study we interviewed 1951 postnatal women who tested positive and negative for HIV about IPV experiences following HIV test disclosure, using an adapted WHO questionnaire. Multivariate regression models assessed factors associated with IPV after disclosure and controlled for factors such as previous IPV and other known behavioural factors associated with IPV. Results Over 93% (1817) disclosed the HIV results to their partners (96.5% HIV− vs. 89.3% HIV+, p<0.0001). Overall HIV prevalence was 15.3%, (95%CI:13.7–16.9), 35.2% among non-disclosers and 14.3% among disclosers. Overall 32.8% reported IPV (40.5% HIV+; 31.5% HIV− women, p = 0.004). HIV status was associated with IPV (partially adjusted 1.43: (95%CI:1.00–2.05 as well as reporting negative reactions by male partners immediately after disclosure (adjusted OR 5.83, 95%CI:4.31–7.80). Factors associated with IPV were gender inequity, past IPV, risky sexual behaviours and living with relatives. IPV after HIV disclosure in pregnancy is high but lower than and is strongly related with IPV before pregnancy (adjusted OR 6.18, 95%CI: 3.84–9.93). Conclusion The study demonstrates the interconnectedness of IPV, HIV status and its disclosure with IPV which was a common experience post disclosure of both an HIV positive and HIV negative result. Health services must give attention to the gendered nature and consequences of HIV disclosure such as enskilling women on how to determine and respond to the risks associated with disclosure. Efforts to involve men in antenatal care must also be strengthened.

Intimate partner violence during pregnancy in Zimbabwe: a cross-sectional study of prevalence, predictors and associations with HIV

To describe the occurrence, dynamics and predictors of intimate partner violence (IPV) during pregnancy, including links with HIV, in urban Zimbabwe.

The (Hetero)Sexualization of the Military and the Militarization of (Hetero)Sex: Discourses on Male (Hetero)Sexual Practices among a Group of Young Men in the South African Military

The article is framed in the context of the challenge of HIV/AIDS in South Africa and recognizes that military men are particularly vulnerable to infection. This is argued on the basis of their specific contexts of mobility, isolation and being among communities where they have greater economic and political power, as well as in relation to their identities and sexualities as men, and how these are exaggerated by the institutional framework of the military. Drawing on data from a larger study exploring a group of military mens narratives on their masculinity, sexuality, sexual relationships and HIV/AIDS, the discussion is presented in four broad thematic areas. These point to core aspects of the dominant construction of male sexualities in the military and the complex intersection of hegemonic masculinities and military masculinities, which facilitate a particular vulnerability to unsafe sexual practices. The article concludes with a recommendation that tackling HIV in the military needs to involve rigorous examination of how constructions of masculinity in the military context, at the level of material conditions and in terms of normative discourses on what it means to be a man in the military, exert specific pressures on men to adhere to traditional models of being a man with their attendant sexual practices.

Who needs a father? South African men reflect on being fathered

The legacy of apartheid and continued social and economic change have meant that many South African men and women have grown up in families from which biological fathers are missing. In both popular and professional knowledge and practice this has been posed as inherently a problem particularly for boys who are assumed to lack a positive male role model. In drawing on qualitative interviews with a group of South African men in which they speak about their understandings of being fathered as boys, this paper makes two key arguments. The first is that contemporary South African discourses tend to pathologize the absence of the biological father while simultaneously undermining the role of social fathers. Yet, this study shows that in the absence of biological fathers other men such as maternal or paternal uncles, grandfathers, neighbours, and teachers often serve as social fathers. Most of the men who participated in this study are able to identify men who – as social rather than biological fathers – played significant roles in their lives. Secondly, we suggest that while dominant discourses around social fatherhood foreground authoritarian and controlling behaviours, there are moments when alternative more nurturing and consultative versions of being a father and/or being fathered are evident in the experiences of this group of men.