3. Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) - All submissions
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Item Exploring black lesbian sexualities and identities in Johannesburg(2011-07-07) Matebeni, ZethuExploring black lesbian sexualities and identities is a multifaceted in-‐depth ethnographic study of black urban lesbian life in contemporary South Africa. This study, which focuses on lesbian women aged between 17 and 40 years, reads the term lesbian as both a political and a theoretical project. It speaks to current concerns, which raise questions related to the politics of inclusion/exclusion, love, sexuality, identity politics, violence, style and urban space while sensitively giving agency to women’s narratives. In many ways, it enriches and challenges conventional gay and lesbian studies and studies on sexuality in Africa by bringing meaning to the complex interplay between space, style, erotic practice and sexuality. It further illustrates the flexible practices and variable notions of sex, sexuality and gender categories. At the same time it tackles the precarious and painful position of black lesbian women whose lives are an ongoing maneuvering and negotiation between a potentially hostile or violent environment and a country with constitutional protections. The political and theoretical imperative of the study is evident in the representations of black lesbians as occupying subject positions in which they determine the structures and meanings of their lives. Their narratives show that they inhabit the world actively, not only as victims or in relation to others, but also as conscious subjects that make meanings of their lives: subjects who are actively and critically engaging with the world we inhabit.Item Lovelife counselors' perceptions of the impact of HIV and AIDS on the sexual conduct of adolescents(2007-03-02T12:00:55Z) Lenono, Petunia ReabetsoeThis study explored the perceptions of loveLife counselors on how HIV and AIDS has impacted on adolescent sexuality. The study further examined whether loveLife counselors thought that HIV and AIDS had changed how adolescents expressed their sexuality. The counselors’ perceptions regarding adolescents’ use of condoms during penetrative sex, being faithful to one sexual partner or abstaining from sexual relationships were also explored. In-depth interviews were conducted with loveLife counselors to understand how they think HIV and AIDS has affected adolescents’ sexual behaviour. The sampling method utilized was the nonprobability, purposive sampling. The participants consisted of five loveLife counselors, who work with adolescents. Data was analyzed by means of thematic content analysis. The loveLife counselors’ believe that adolescents have changed their attitudes about how they express sexuality as a result of HIV and AIDS. According to the counselors, HIV and AIDS infection among adolescents have decreased. HIV and AIDS have a positive impact on how adolescents sexually conduct themselves. The counselors think that adolescents are taking serious the warnings against the dangers of HIV and AIDS. This is due to the fact that they are afraid of contracting the virus and consequently suffering from the stigma that people have attached to those who are infected with the virus. As a result of that fear, the perceptions of the counselors are that the majority of adolescents are using condoms during penetrative sex, while others are being faithful to only one sexual partner. According to the counselors in most cases female adolescents initiate condom use as a way of preventing pregnancy rather than as a protective method against contracting HIV and AIDS. Adolescents are, however, finding it very difficult to abstain from sexual relationships.Item Queer reading,queer writing(2006-02-10) de Waal, Shaun AndréThis MA dissertation uses “queer theory” to read existing literary texts and to inform the riting of new fictional works. In the opening literary-critical essay, which functions as an ntroduction to queer theory, I give an overview of its development and conceptual formation, then go on to demonstrate how it may provide useful and fruitful readings of a writer such as William Burroughs. The central and longest section of this dissertation is a group of short fictions that engage with queer theory, using some of its insights to generate investigations of sexuality, power, social relations, and to inspire formal experiments in keeping with the spirit of queer theory. In conclusion, I look back upon this group of short fictional texts and link them to the issues raised in the essay on Burroughs and queer theory.