'Everyone Wants a Vagina That Looks Less Like a Vagina': Australian Women's Views on Dissatisfaction with Genital Appearance

We present a thematic discourse analysis of 94 Australian women's written comments about women's presumed dissatisfaction with their genital appearance. 

Two themes emerged: 'from natural to normal' and 'the difficulty of resistance'. In the first theme, participants discuss genital dissatisfaction with reference to hegemonic constructions of femininity and to postfeminist, neoliberal discourses that position the natural female body as inadequate, with beauty practices necessary to achieve acceptability. 

The second theme addresses the difficulty of challenging this positioning, referencing discourses that position the vagina as unpleasant and discussion of it as taboo. 

We consider implications of these constructions for women's well-being.

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By:   Moran C1, Lee C2.

• 1The University of Queensland, Australia.
• 2The University of Queensland, Australia c.lee@psy.uq.edu.au.
• J Health Psychol. 2016 Mar 23. pii: 1359105316637588. 

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The Role of the Illusion in the Construction of Erotic Desire: Narratives from Heterosexual Men Who Have Occasional Sex with Transgender Women

Little is known about men's sexual desire for and erotic attraction to male-to-female transgender women. To better understand how erotic desire is constructed, this study examined the narratives of a sample of heterosexual men who had had an occasional sexual encounter with a transgender woman. 

Open-ended qualitative interviews were conducted with 16 heterosexual men who reported at least one sexual encounter with a transgender woman in the previous 12 months. Using principles of Grounded Theory, three themes emerged: 

1. the erotic desire that transpired from a transgender woman's construction of her femininity, 
2. the sexual act that dictated the specific navigation of a transgender woman's penis and 
3. the sexual dissonance that resulted from being a heterosexually identified man having sex with a partner who had a penis. 

These themes reflected how the participants defined and negotiated their sexual encounters, both psychologically through their understanding of sex with a transgender woman with a penis, and physically through the navigation of specific sex acts. 

The role of the 'illusion' was central to the meaning and construction of erotic desire. These narratives provided another framework for continuing discourse on the complexity of erotic desire.

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By:  Reback CJ1,2, Kaplan RL1,3, Bettcher TM4, Larkins S2.

• 1 Friends Research Institute, Inc. , Los Angeles , USA.
• 2 Integrated Substance Abuse Programs, Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior , University of California at Los Angeles , California , USA.
• 3 Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences; Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health , University of California at San Francisco , San Francisco , USA.
• 4 Department of Philosophy , California State University , Los Angeles , USA. 
• Cult Health Sex. 2016 Mar 11:1-13. 

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A Discourse Analysis of Male Sexuality in the Magazine Intimacy

Background

The World Health Organization's publication, Developing sexual health programmes, states that the media is an important source of information about sexuality. Although the media can promote awareness of sexual health issues, it also acts as a vehicle for defining and regulating sex norms. In other words, the standards of ‘normal’ sex are in part defined by the media. Accordingly, it has become imperative to analyse the media's construction of sexual norms in order to reveal how they are related to specific ideological views. For the purposes of this study, the focus will be limited to analysing the South African publication Intimacy.

Aim

The study aims to reveal how the sex advice articles written in Intimacy for women in regard to their male partner's sexuality reflect patriarchal and phallocentric ideologies.

Method

A discourse analysis of the sex advice articles in the magazine Intimacy was conducted. It was informed by feminist theories of sexuality that seek to examine the ways in which texts are associated with male-centred versions of sexual pleasure.

Results

The discourse analysis identified a number of key themes regarding male sexuality. These include: (1) biological accounts of male sexuality; (2) phallocentric scripting of the sex act; and (3) the melodramatic penis.

Conclusion

Constructions of male sexuality require the inclusion of alternative modes of male erotic pleasure. This requires texts that encourage men to explore and also to experiment with pleasurable feelings associated with non-genital erogenous zones of the body.

…Intimacy's aim to ‘empower you as its reader and give you permission to take control of your sex life’,³⁴ is, at best, only a pseudo-empowerment for women in heterosexual relations.⁸ It can only ever promote an illusory sense of female control and pleasure as it persists in defining male sexuality according to patriarchal standards. The patriarchal underpinning of male sexuality in Intimacy has been revealed to delimit the sexual act, female sexuality and men to predefined potentials and gender relations: restriction of male sexual expression to the erect penis; notions of ‘real’ sex as penile-vaginal penetration (at the expense of diverse erotic experiences derived from non-genital erogenous zones); biological accounts of the male sex drive (that negate acts of communication and negotiation); the relegation of any sexual act that departs from coitus to foreplay (and thus of secondary importance); and the continual description of the penis as a revered icon of sexual pleasure for both men and women…

  

Full article at: http://goo.gl/tclUtA

By:  Rory du Plessis1

¹Department of Visual Arts, University of Pretoria, South Africa

Corresponding author.

Correspondence to: Rory du Plessis Email:Email: az.ca.pu@sisselpud.yror, Postal address: Private Bag X20, Hatfield 0028, South Africa

How to cite this article: Du Plessis R. A discourse analysis of male sexuality in the magazine Intimacy. Afr J Prm Health Care Fam Med. 2015;7(1), Art. #691, 7 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/phcfm.v7i1.691

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Comparison of Masculine and Feminine Gender Roles in Iranian Patients with Gender Identity Disorder

INTRODUCTION:

Gender identity disorders (GID) are heterogeneous disorders that may be influenced by culture and social norms.

AIM:

The aim of this study was to determine masculine and feminine gender roles in a group of Iranian patients with GID and compare these roles with two control groups.

METHODS:

Twelve male-to-female (MF) and 27 female-to-male (FM) individuals with GID referred to Tehran Psychiatric Institute in Tehran, I. R. Iran were evaluated by self-report inventories and were compared with two groups of healthy controls (81 men and 89 women). Diagnoses were established based on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fourth edition (DSM-IV) criteria. Data analysis was done using analysis of variance and chi-squared test.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES:

Masculine and feminine gender roles were assessed by two questionnaires: (i) Gender-Masculine (GM) and Gender-Feminine (GF) scales derived from the Minnesota Multiphasic Inventory-2 (MMPI-2); (ii) Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI).

RESULTS:

In the scales of masculinity, MF-GID individuals scored as male controls, but lower than female controls. FM-GID individuals scored similar to female controls and higher than male controls. In femininity scales, MF-GID individuals and control women seemed similar, and both scored higher than the other groups. FM-GID persons were considered less feminine than both controls in the GF scale of MMPI-2, but not in the BSRI. In both scales, FM-GID persons had higher scores than control women and MF-GID individuals.

CONCLUSION:

Iranian FM-GID individuals were less feminine than normal men. However, MF-GID individuals were similar to normal women or more feminine. Cultural considerations remain to be investigated.

Full article at:   http://goo.gl/jM57MD

By:  Alavi K1, Eftekhar M1, Jalali Nadoushan AH1.

• 1Mental Health Research Center Department of Psychiatry Iran University of Medical Sciences Tehran Iran. 

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Understanding the Lives of Mothers After Incarceration: Moving Beyond Socially Constructed Definitions of Motherhood

In the wake of mass incarceration, an increasing number of women are going through the penal system. A fair number of these women are mothers, yet the intersection of motherhood and prison may contradict conceptions of femininity and challenge traditional views of appropriate mothering. The contradiction between notions of criminality and femininity contributes to stigmatized perceptions of formerly incarcerated mothers, which drastically shapes their ability to reintegrate into society post-incarceration. While reentry efforts tackle gender differences through the implementation of gender-responsive programs that cater to women's needs, failure to adequately account for unique maternal experiences may hinder attempts to address obstacles faced by mothers in particular, such as regaining child custody and paying for day care. This article argues for special attention to the post-incarceration experiences of mothers without imposing socially constructed definitions of motherhood like having custody and living with children, which may not coincide with the realities mothers face after imprisonment. Ideas are also discussed for the inclusive consideration of formerly incarcerated mothers and their post-incarceration experiences...

Employment and financial challenges

Formerly incarcerated individuals often encounter obstacles to obtain and sustain employment, finding themselves with limited opportunities in the low-wage sector (Brown and Bloom 2009; Dodge and Pogrebin 2001; Hagan and Dinovitzer 1999). As a result, they are likely to seek financial assistance from family members to cover daily expenses and outstanding debts, such as court fines (Brown and Bloom 2009). While some receive financial assistance from relatives, this puts a strain on the finances of family members who are less fortunate or also caring for the mothers' children (Dodge and Pogrebin 2001). These employment and financial difficulties may further complicate the act of mothering post-incarceration. Specifically, unstable employment and income can trigger inconsistent routines, financial obstacles to provide for children, difficulties with affordable childcare arrangements, and associated stress that may influence parent–child relationships (Arditti and Few 2008; Brown and Bloom 2009; Edin and Lein 1997; Scott et al. 2004). As written by Brown and Bloom (2009, p. 332): “Reunion with children takes place in situations where the woman is dependent on others and is still not really in control of her own life.” Such financial obstacles can be particularly detrimental for formerly incarcerated mothers, aggravating attempts at reintegrating into society and navigating motherhood amidst desires and expectations to do so.

Living arrangements

Since mothers are likely to have lived with their children and served as primary caretakers pre-incarceration (Glaze and Maruschak 2008; Mumola 2000), they often expect and hope to live with their children upon their release (Baunach, 1985; Brown and Bloom 2009). Yet, mothers face difficulties in finding permanent housing post-incarceration and may encounter unstable housing including homelessness, which presents obstacles as they seek suitable housing for themselves and their children (Roman and Travis 2004). Since the children's fathers are seldom involved or financially stable, mothers are often unable to rely on the fathers and, instead, rely on other family members for the care of their children (Dodge and Pogrebin 2001). They may exhibit gratefulness for family serving as temporary caregivers, but they may also feel jealousy if unable to realistically provide for their children given common difficulties in finding stable, affordable housing post-incarceration (Arditti and Few 2008). Some mothers struggle with attempts to live with their children, yet others decide to leave their children in the care of family to maintain consistency with arrangements made in their physical absence (Michalsen 2011). Some formerly incarcerated mothers may also encounter hostility from their children because of these adjustments, forcing them to balance “their own process of reintegration and the transitions of their loved ones” (Brown and Bloom 2009, p. 325). Thus, changes in mother–child relationships and problems finding stable housing can negatively impact mothers' plans to reside with their children and contribute to preexisting stress after incarceration.

Mothering techniques

Mothers may also struggle to manage motherhood within a correctional system that stresses idealistic notions of femininity and mothering, while penalizing mothers whom diverge from these social constructions (Ferraro and Moe 2003; Haney 2010). For instance, maternal desires to provide for children during financial difficulties are often associated with violations of parole conditions given that mothers are “filled with expectations of caring for others while under the gaze of the state” (Ferraro and Moe 2003, p. 23). In her ethnographic study, Haney (2010) found that some mothers under correctional supervision were deemed “bad mothers” and scolded for treating their children with tough love. However, the mothers deemed tough love as a necessary parenting approach to teach their children survival techniques for the realities faced in their neighborhoods (Haney 2010). Moreover, mothers of color – fraught with racial inequalities in society – often engage in “motherwork” in which they empower children (both biological and non-biological) against the social and structural barriers they collectively confront as racial minorities (Collins 1994; see also O'Reilly 2014). Their tough love parenting serves to protect their children from the dangers in their community and the attention of the police, while the parenting of White middle-class mothers typically places emphasis on the proper education and employment for future success (Brown and Bloom 2009). Formerly incarcerated mothers may also employ discipline and tough love to prevent their children from following in their footsteps and making the same mistakes they made (Hayes 2009). Though mothers justify this parenting approach according to their life circumstances, this approach may not coincide with social constructions of what mothering entails, therefore, exposing them to further stigmatization (Haney 2010). These factors can be particularly problematic for mothers attempting to regain custody of their under-aged children.

  

Full article at:   http://goo.gl/1boU5W

By:  Janet Garcia

Correspondence address: Janet Garcia, School of Criminal Justice, Rutgers University, 123 Washington Street, CLJ 5th Floor, Newark, NJ 07102, USA. E-mail: Janet.Garcia@rutgers.edu

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Men's Preferences for Female Facial Femininity Decline with Age

OBJECTIVES:

Women tend to have a smaller chin, fuller lips, and rounder eyes than men, due in part to the effects of estrogen. These features associated with facial femininity have been found to be positively associated with fertility. Although young men in their 20s typically judge facial femininity as more attractive than facial masculinity, at all ages, men with higher sexual desire and testosterone levels tend to show a marked preference for feminine faces. In the current study, we extend this research using a large cross-national sample to test the hypothesis that facial femininity preferences will be stronger among younger men than among older men. We also tested whether these preferences are influenced by self-reported sexual openness, national health indices, and gross national income.

METHOD:

We quantified attractiveness judgments (i.e., preferences) among 2,125 heterosexual men (aged 17-73 years) for female faces that were manipulated to appear more or less feminine using a computer graphics program.

RESULTS:

Facial femininity preferences decreased with age, being highest among men in their 30s and lowest among men in their 70s. This pattern was independent of men's sexual openness and cross-national variation in health and socioeconomic development.

DISCUSSION:

Our study shows that men's preferences for facial femininity are age dependent. At the proximate level, differences in preferences could reflect age-related declines in testosterone levels. These age-related declines in preferences could benefit older men, who are less able to invest in mating effort, and thus may opt out of competition with younger men for mates with potentially higher fertility.

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By:   Marcinkowska UM1, Dixson BJ2, Kozlov MV3, Rantala MJ4.

• 1Department of Environmental Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, Jagiellonian University Medical College, Krakow, Poland. Section of Ecology, Department of Biology, University of Turku, Finland. ummarcinkowska@gmail.com.
• 2Evolution and Ecology Research Centre, School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales, Kensington, Sydney, Australia. School of Psychology, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.
• 3Section of Ecology, Department of Biology, University of Turku, Finland.
• 4Section of Ecology, Department of Biology, University of Turku, Finland. Turku Brain and Mind Center, University of Turku, Finland. 

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New Heroines of Labour: Domesticating Post-feminism and Neoliberal Capitalism in Russia

In recent years, post-feminism has become an important element of popular media culture and the object of feminist cultural critique. This article explores how post-feminism is domesticated in Russia through popular self-help literature aimed at a female audience. Drawing on a close reading of self-help texts by three best-selling Russian authors, the article examines how post-feminism is made intelligible to the Russian audience and how it articulates with other symbolic frameworks. It identifies labour as a key trope through which post-feminism is domesticated and argues that the texts invite women to invest time and energy in the labour of personality, the labour of femininity and the labour of sexuality in order to become ‘valuable subjects’. The article demonstrates that the domestication of post-feminism also involves the domestication of neoliberal capitalism in Russia, and highlights how popular psychology, neoliberal capitalism and post-feminism are symbiotically related.

The labour of femininity is closely related to the labour of sexuality, which constitutes another key aspect of the postfeminist subjectivity. Advice concerning sexuality occupies a central position in the self-help books. Sexual pleasure emerges as a new telos to which to aspire (Salmenniemi and Vorona, forthcoming). Sexuality is construed to be essential for a good life and a healthy selfhood. Female readers are therefore ethically obliged to explore, work on and manage their sexuality and that of their male partner. This explicit treatment of sexuality in self-help books is a post-Soviet phenomenon. Sexuality was rarely discussed in public in the Soviet Union: the official approach emphasised sexual restraint and restricted access to information about sexuality (Rivkin-Fish, 2005). In the official Soviet discourse, the female body was represented as a productive body harnessed for the economic prosperity of the state, and as a reproductive body in the service of the nation, but not as a source of pleasure. Sexual pleasure was viewed as potentially dangerous and subversive, diverting attention away from political commitments. For these historical reasons, sexuality is an issue that requires intensive recoding and legitimation in the Russian self-help books:

A real woman sees sex as a healthy part of life. She allows herself not to feel guilty about having sex or wanting to have sex. She likes her body. She can enjoy herself … (Sviyash, 2012)

Believe me, to love sex and all pleasure connected with it is absolutely normal for all living creatures. … To love sex means that you love yourself and life. (Pravdina, 2002)

The self-help texts introduce a sexually liberated woman as a normative figure, rather than the mother figure traditionally dominant in the Russian symbolic order. Being sexy is construed as a form of women’s empowerment and freedom in the new capitalist society. The texts domesticate the new postfeminist sexual ethics of ‘compulsory sexual agency’ (Gill, 2008: 40) by encouraging women to become active, pleasure-seeking sexual agents. As we have emphasised in previous sections, the self-help texts are also structured on the logic of ‘compulsory heterosexuality’ (Rich, 1980). Sexuality is discussed in exclusively heteronormative terms and women are construed as ‘innately’ heterosexual. Homosexuality is mentioned only in passing and is presented as a temporary deviation that has ‘psycho-physiological roots’ and can be ‘cured’ with ‘the right man’ (Shatskaya, 2012: 510)…

Full article at:   http://goo.gl/48JT8B

By:   Suvi Salmenniemi and Maria Adamson

Suvi Salmenniemi, University of Turku, Finland;

Contributor Information.

Suvi Salmenniemi, Department of Social Research, University of Turku, Assistentinkatu 7, Turku, 20014, Finland. Email: if.utu@asutus

 

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“That’s Just How It Is”: A Gendered Analysis of Masculinity and Femininity Ideologies in Adolescent Girls’ and Boys’ Heterosexual Relationships

In this mixed-methods study, we adopted a feminist theoretical lens in conceptualizing gender as hierarchical and complementary ideologies—femininity and masculinity—that are fundamental constituents of institutionalized heterosexuality as a way to understand the persistence of gender inequity in adolescents’ heterosexual relationships. 

In Study 1, we conducted separate analyses for girls and boys to evaluate whether masculinity ideology for boys and femininity ideology for girls account for boys’ endorsement of male coercion and for girls’ endorsement of feminine conventions in heterosexual relationships with a sample of 250 tenth-grade students (n = 144 girls). Masculinity ideology proved to be as strong or stronger than femininity ideology in predicting these respective outcomes. 

In Study 2, we sought to understand this pattern through a thematically informed narrative analysis of interviews with 53 of the Study 1 participants (n = 35 girls) on their beliefs about and experiences with sexual expression and heterosexual relationships. Girls described the dual task of managing boys’ masculinity as well as their own femininity. Boys, by contrast, described girls’ femininity in instrumental terms for the management of their own masculinity. 

Integration of these results provides greater insight into how institutionalized heterosexuality is reproduced through the functioning of these hierarchical complementary gender ideologies.

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By:   Deborah L. Tolman1⇑, Brian R. Davis1, Christin P. Bowman1

1. ¹City University of New York, New York City, USA

1. Deborah L. Tolman, The CUNY Graduate Center, City University of New York, 365 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10016, USA. Email: dtolman@hunter.cuny.edu

 

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Facial Femalization in Transgenders

Transsexualism is a gender identity disorder in which there is a strong desire to live and be accepted as a member of the opposite sex. 

In male-to-female transsexuals with strong masculine facial features, facial feminization surgery is performed as part of the gender reassignment. A strong association between femininity and attractiveness has been attributed to the upper third of the face and the interplay of the glabellar prominence of the forehead. Studies have shown that a certain lower jaw shape is characteristic of males with special attention to the strong square mandibular angle and chin and also suggest that the attractive female jaw is smaller with a more round shape mandibular angles and a pointy chin. 

Other studies have shown that feminization of the forehead through cranioplasty have the most significant impact in determining the gender of a patient. Facial feminization surgeries are procedures aimed to change the features of the male face to that of a female face. These include contouring of the forehead, brow lift, mandible angle reduction, genioplasty, rhinoplasty and a variety of soft tissue adjustments. 

In our maxillofacial surgery department at the Sheba Medical Center we perform forehead reshaping combining with brow lift and at the same surgery, mandibular and chin reshaping to match the remodeled upper third of the face. The forehead reshaping is done by cranioplasty with additional reduction of the glabella area by burring of the frontal bone. After reducing the frontal bossing around the superior orbital rims we manage the soft tissue to achieve the brow lift. The mandibular reshaping, is performed by intraoral approach and include contouring of the angles by osteotomy for a more round shape (rather than the manly square shape angles), as well as reshaping of the bone in the chin area in order to make it more pointy, by removing the lateral parts of the chin and in some cases performing also genioplasty reduction by AP osteotomy.

Via: http://goo.gl/isBBpy

By:  Allon DM, Shmuly T.

 

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Effects of Gendered Behavior on Testosterone in Women and Men

Testosterone is typically understood to contribute to maleness and masculinity, although it also responds to behaviors such as competition. Competition is crucial to evolution and may increase testosterone but also is selectively discouraged for women and encouraged for men via gender norms. 

We conducted an experiment to test how gender norms might modulate testosterone as mediated by two possible gender→testosterone pathways. Using a novel experimental design, participants (trained actors) performed a specific type of competition (wielding power) in stereotypically masculine vs. feminine ways. 

We hypothesized in H1 (stereotyped behavior) that wielding power increases testosterone regardless of how it is performed, vs. H2 (stereotyped performance), that wielding power performed in masculine but not feminine ways increases testosterone. We found that wielding power increased testosterone in women compared with a control, regardless of whether it was performed in gender-stereotyped masculine or feminine ways. 

Results supported H1 over H2: stereotyped behavior but not performance modulated testosterone. These results also supported theory that competition modulates testosterone over masculinity. Our findings thus support a gender→testosterone pathway mediated by competitive behavior. 

Accordingly, cultural pushes for men to wield power and women to avoid doing so may partially explain, in addition to heritable factors, why testosterone levels tend to be higher in men than in women: A lifetime of gender socialization could contribute to "sex differences" in testosterone. 

Our experiment opens up new questions of gender→testosterone pathways, highlighting the potential of examining nature/nurture interactions and effects of socialization on human biology.

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By: van Anders SM1, Steiger J2, Goldey KL3.

• 1Departments of Psychology and Women's Studies, Program in Neuroscience, Reproductive Sciences and Science, Technology, and Society Programs, and Biosocial Methods Collaborative, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109; smva@umich.edu.
• 2The New Theater of Medicine, The George Washington University School of Medicine & Health Sciences, Washington, DC 20052; Center for Research on Learning and Teaching Players Theatre Program, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109;
• 3Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109.  

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Sexual Arousal and Masculinity-Femininity of Women

Studies with volunteers in sexual arousal experiments suggest that women are, on average, physiologically sexually aroused to both male and female sexual stimuli. Lesbians are the exception because they tend to be more aroused to their preferred sex than the other sex, a pattern typically seen in men. 

A separate research line suggests that lesbians are, on average, more masculine than straight women in their nonsexual behaviors and characteristics. Hence, a common influence could affect the expression of male-typical sexual and nonsexual traits in some women. By integrating these research programs, we tested the hypothesis that male-typical sexual arousal of lesbians relates to their nonsexual masculinity. 

Moreover, the most masculine-behaving lesbians, in particular, could show the most male-typical sexual responses. Across combined data, Study 1 examined these patterns in women's genital arousal and self-reports of masculine and feminine behaviors. Study 2 examined these patterns with another measure of sexual arousal, pupil dilation to sexual stimuli, and with observer-rated masculinity-femininity in addition to self-reported masculinity-femininity. 

Although both studies confirmed that lesbians were more male-typical in their sexual arousal and nonsexual characteristics, on average, there were no indications that these 2 patterns were in any way connected. Thus, women's sexual responses and nonsexual traits might be masculinized by independent factors. 

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By: Rieger G, Savin-Williams RC, Chivers ML, Bailey JM.

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Magic Power: Changing Gender Dynamics & Sex-Enhancement Practices among Youths in Makassar, Indonesia

This paper examines changing sexualities and gender relations as they are reflected in the use of sexual enhancement products by young women and men in the eastern Indonesian city of Makassar. 

To examine the relationships between the use of these products and socially sanctioned gender roles, their 'gender scripts' were studied--the assumptions embedded in the products' design and advertising. What kinds of femininity and masculinity are expressed through their use? 

It was found that the most popular products--'magic tissues' that promise to prolong erections and a 'neotraditional' vaginal wash that promises to cleanse, perfume, and tighten vaginas--espouse the dual purpose of promoting sexual pleasure and hygiene. While it was found that the images in advertising to reflect changing gender relations in the field site, this research also points to enduring gender scripts in Indonesian culture: men should be virile, women should be clean and attractive.

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By: Hardon A1, Ilmi Idrus N.

• 1 University of Amsterdam , Amsterdam , the Netherlands.  

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Concurrent Sexual Partnerships among Married Zimbabweans – Implications for HIV Prevention

Concurrent sexual partnerships play a key role in sustaining the HIV epidemic in Zimbabwe. Married couples are at an increased risk of contracting HIV from sexual networks produced by concurrent sexual partnerships. Addressing these partnerships is an international HIV prevention priority.

Our qualitative study presents the socioeconomic factors that contribute to the occurrence of concurrent sexual partnerships among married people in Zimbabwe. We conducted 36 in-depth interviews and four focus group discussions with married men and women in Zimbabwe in 2008 to understand the organizations of concurrent sexual partnerships. Data were analyzed using framework analysis.

Our study indicates that relationship dissatisfaction played a key role in the engagement of concurrent sexual partnerships. Depending on the source of the dissatisfaction, there were four possible types of concurrent sexual relationships that were formed: sex worker, casual partner, regular girlfriend or informal polygyny which was referred to as “small house”. These relationships had different levels of intimacy, which had a bearing on practicing safer sex. Participants described three characteristics of hegemonic masculinity that contributed to the sources of dissatisfaction leading to concurrent sexual activity. Similarly, various aspects of emphasized femininity were described as creating opportunities for the occurrence of concurrent sexual relationships. Economic status was also listed as a factor that contributed to the occurrence of concurrent sexual partnerships.

Marital dissatisfaction was indicated as a contributing factor to the occurrence of concurrent sexual relationships. There were several reports of satisfying marital relationships in which affairs did not occur. Lessons from these marriages can be made part of future HIV prevention interventions targeted at preventing concurrent sexual partnerships by married couples.

Below:  Cycle of extramarital relationships

Below:  Participants’ explanations for men’s lust

Below:  Characteristics of emphasized femininity that shaped extramarital sexual activity

Full article at: http://goo.gl/EqPWNi

By: Esther Mugweni,1 Stephen Pearson,2 and Mayeh Omar2

1UCL Department of Infection and Population Health, University College London, London, UK

2The Nuffield Centre for International Health and Development, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK

  

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