Mothers' constructions of daughters' sexuality

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT:HIV-infection and AIDS are major problems not only in South Africa, but worldwide. It hasbecome evident that not only is HIV-infection and AIDS rife amongst the youth of South Africa,but the rate of infection is likely to increase within the next few years. Second to the HIV-infectionpandemic in South Africa, is the high prevalence of teenage pregnancies. These have been shown toincrease rapidly with more teenage girls becoming pregnant than a few years back. Teenagers tendnot to use contraceptives and do not make use of their parents as sexual informants. It is believedthat parents do not play an active role in the imparting of knowledge and sexual information. Theyouth and especially teenage girls' sense of personal agency are limited, when they are confrontedwith dangerous sexual situations.Furthermore, it has been argued that a person's socio-economic status plays an important role inHIV-infection, contraceptive use and pregnancy - with teenagers from lower socio-economicgroups more likely to be the higher risk group. This study proposed to address the need for researchon female reproductive health in all the diverse South African communities, by focusingspecifically on working-class mothers' constructions of daughters' sexuality in a coloured! semiruralarea of South Africa.In the current study, data were obtained from ten women aged 32 to 55 years about their views oftheir daughters' sexuality and their experiences with their own sexuality. All of the participantswere mothers of teenage daughters. The women all came from a semi-rural coloured communityand mostly varied only in terms of age and educational level. All of these participants were from aworking-class background.Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with the women and using a feminist socialconstructionist grounded theory these women's accounts were explored and analysed. The analysisrevealed that women still uphold the belief that sexuality is an entity that should be feared. Thefocus of mothers' discussions with their daughters centered on the dangers of sexuality.Furthermore the analysis indicated that mothers aspired to reduce the sexual dangers that theirdaughters face. They endeavored to protect their daughters by continuously subjecting them tovarious messages - such as sex is bad, sex and sexuality can ruin one's future and virginity isthe key to successful womanhood. Mothers also strived to protect their daughters through constant scrutiny. However, mothers, in their efforts to preserve their daughters innocence, were unwittinglyseen to endanger the girls. They were endangering their daughters by keeping them ignorant andthrough shaming sexual experimentation and sexual curiosity. A restricted focus on the danger andperils of sexuality is found to be extremely hazardous. It overshadowed all the other sexualexperiences that women might have. The emphasis on danger portrays women solely as victims andas sexually vulnerable.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University