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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"Sex Is Sweet": Women from Low-Income Contexts in Uganda Talk About Sexual Desire and Pleasure

In many patriarchal societies in Africa, heterosexuality is privileged as the single legitimate form of sexual interaction; other sexualities are marginalised because they are perceived as un-African, abnormal, sinful and are repressed. Female sexuality too is subordinated and controlled with it being reduced to women's conventional mothering roles that are conflated with their reproductive capacities. However, there is evidence that women in heterosexual relations have the opportunity to assert themselves and to define pleasurable sex. 

Drawing on in-depth interviews and focus group discussions with married women in heterosexual unions the article examines the extent to which women from low-income contexts in Uganda express their sexual agency. 

The findings show that within heterosexual relations, these women are able to express their sexual desires freely and negotiate diverse options for pleasurable sexual experiences. The evidence indicates the need for acknowledging variations within heterosexual experiences and the possibility of positive heterosexual relationships that resist hegemonic masculinity and subordinated femininity.

Purchase full article at:   http://goo.gl/NaEW2q

By:   Muhanguzi FK1.

• 1Senior Lecturer, School of Women and Gender Studies, Makerere University, P.O. Box 7062, Kampala, UGANDA. Electronic address: floramuha@yahoo.com. 

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Zero Tolerance Against Patriarchal Norms? A Cross-Sectional Study of Swedish Physicians' Attitudes Towards Young Females Requesting Virginity Certificates or Hymen Restoration

Many countries, Sweden among them, lack professional guidelines and established procedures for responding to young females requesting virginity certificates or hymen restoration due to honour-related threats. 

The purpose of the present survey study was to further examine the attitudes of the Swedish healthcare professionals concerned towards young females requesting virginity certificates or hymen restorations. The study indicates that a small majority of Swedish general practitioners and gynaecologists would accommodate these patients, at least given certain circumstances. But a large minority of physicians would under no circumstances help the young females, regardless of speciality, years of practice within medicine, gender, or experience of the phenomenon. Their responses are similar to other areas where it has been claimed that society should adopt a zero tolerance policy against certain phenomena, for instance drug policy, where it has also been argued that society should never act in ways that express support for the practice in question. However, this argument is questionable. 

A more pragmatic approach would also allow for follow-ups and evaluation of virginity certificates and hymen restorations, as is demonstrated by the Dutch policy. Hence, there are some obvious advantages to this pragmatic approach compared to the restrictive one espoused by a large minority of Swedish physicians and Swedish policy-makers in this area.

Full article at:  http://goo.gl/F8uupm

By:  Juth N1, Lynöe N1.

• 1Stockholm Centre for Healthcare Ethics, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden. 

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