Preliminary Investigation of the Abuse of Girls in Zimbabwean Junior Secondary Schools

Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession,

Tell me you own me, gimme them coins : postfeminist fascination with Lolita, Lana Del Rey, and sugar culture on Tumblr

This research sought to describe the size and analyze the content of communities on Tumblr that share posts regarding Lolita, Lana Del Rey, and sugar culture. Research questions included: Why might young women on Tumblr choose to share posts relating to these things? How are they interpreting the images and texts they share? Is this a means of expressing desire, or are these individuals subverting these images and ideas as a means of critiquing gender expectations? A qualitative textual analysis was conducted on data collected by social media analytics software. Tumblr communities sharing content regarding Lolita, Lana Del Rey, and sugar culture included hundreds of thousands of blogs. Individuals in these communities used Tumblr to express their emotions and desires. The images shared by individuals in these communities reveal the ways that young women use Tumblr as a mechanism with which to navigate postfeminist, neoliberal social conditions in which women are limited by social, economic, and political pressures, and are simultaneously led to believe that these pressures hold no influence over their individual lives or behaviors. The prevalence of posts expressing depressive, suicidal, and self-destructive ideas indicates that these individuals may experience the failures of neoliberalism and postfeminism as personal failures. By showing the connections between postfeminist media practices that center on Lolita, Lana Del Rey, sugar culture, and Tumblr, this research provides a link between many previously unconnected areas of research on literature, film, popular culture, sex work, and social networking sites

Young Women’s Perceptions and Narratives of Intergenerational and Transactional Sexual Relationships in Durban, Kwazulu-Natal

Transactional sexual relationships are argued to be a potent driver of the HIV epidemic among young women in South Africa. KwaZulu-Natal bears the heaviest burden of the epidemic. The practice has roots in South Africa’s social and political history of oppression, as well as the tides of post-apartheid globalization. Through a combination of individual interviews and focus groups discussions (FGDs), this study explores 21 young women’s perceptions and narratives of transactional sex from an ‘othered’ perspective. Individual interviews were conducted in the township community of Cato Manor; FGDs were conducted with the assistance of OneVoice South Africa (OVSA) in KwaMashu township. Motivations and dynamics of transactional sexual relationships were found to be incredibly nuanced depending on context, including socioeconomic status and geographical location. Women’s agency and active participation in seeking benefits from transactional sex was highlighted as a key concept in findings. Finally, the ‘othering’ of transactional sex revealed perceptions of the practice in a moralistic lens, closely linked to Zulu culture and dominant discourses on female sexuality and gender

Are “Blessers” a Refuge for Refugee girls in Tshwane, the capital city of South Africa? A Phenomenographic Study

This phenomenographic study reports on the engagement of refugee girls in sexual relationships with blessers in Tshwane, the capital city of South Africa. Data were collected from 20 refugee girls through open and intense individual interviews guided by a semi-structured interview schedule. The audio-recorded interviews were transcribed and analyzed thematically using Sjöström and Dahlgren’s approach to data analysis. Results indicate that girls engage in the “blesser blessee” relationship in order to escape from poverty, sex work and poor living conditions. Blessers provide refuge for refugee girls through meeting their basic needs such as food, shelter, clothes and means of communication. However, in the process, refugee girls are disempowered as their life is completely controlled by the blessers. Due to powerlessness, refugee girls end up in engaging in HIV risky sexual behaviour such as unprotected sex regardless of the knowledge that they are in multiple concurrent partner relationship. Despite the gender dynamics and risks involved in the intergenerational relationships, refugee girls consider the blessers as their gateway to freedom and survival in the city of Tshwane. In order to mitigate the risks and powerlessness entailed in blesser-blessee relationships, the researcher recommends development of a multi-sectoral intervention model focusing on harm reduction and empowerment of refugee girls involved in this type of relationship

Night Moves: A Qualitative Investigation of Street-Level Sex Work

The subculture of street-level sex work including the social environment, drug use and abuse, and violence was examined. Personal interviews were conducted with 43 women involved in streetwalking prostitution. Data were analyzed using Phenomenological Descriptive Analysis (Colaizzi, 1978). Several participants reported developing emotional relationships and having children with clients, former clients, or pimps; some participants were married to men who pimped them. Supportive relationships with other streetwalkers were largely nonexistent; streetwalking constitutes a solitary business for most. The majority reported drug addiction, although less than half entered prostitution to support an already established drug habit. Financial need propelled many into the streets. Victimization and subjection to multiple forms of abuse were commonly reported but did not constitute justification for leaving the streets. Implications of this investigation are discussed

Sugar and Spice: Sex, Money, and Social Media

Interest in transactional sex, or the provision of a sexual relationship in exchange for gifts and/or money, has increased in recent years among researchers, nongovernmental organizations, and law enforcement officials as increasing numbers of women self-identify as hypergamous, indicating their interest in forming heterosexual partnerships with men of higher status. Hypergamous women may identify as sugar babies, spoiled girlfriends, or high-value women. A sugar baby is a woman providing romantic companionship to an older man, known as a sugar daddy, in exchange for money and/or gifts. A spoiled girlfriend is a woman whose partner provides her with money and/or gifts as a condition of the relationship. A high-value woman may best be described as a woman seeking to improve herself and her life circumstances, or “level up,” with the objective of establishing a relationship with a “high-value man,” which has different definitions for different women. This study sought to answer the following research questions: (1) What are the online behaviors of self-identified hypergamous women? (2) What are the similarities and differences among sugar babies, spoiled girlfriends, and high-value women? To answer these questions, I conducted a digital ethnography of sugar babies, spoiled girlfriends, and high-value women on Tumblr and conducted a mixed-methods textual analysis on scraped TikTok posts associated with sugar babies, spoiled girlfriends, and high-value women. Results show that hypergamous communities use social media to share advice, often about relationships and gender performance. Postfeminist sentiment is common among sugar babies, spoiled girlfriends, and high-value women, but there are significant distinctions between the three groups, particularly regarding their theories and praxis related to social class. This research demonstrates trends in intimate relationships that have implications for political and social inequalities

Profit maximization, win optimization and soft budget constraints in professional team sports

Since Rottenberg (1956), Neale (1964), Davenport (1969), and Sloane (1971) published their seminal papers on the peculiar economics of professional team sports, the proportion of studies conducted in this field has grown considerably. Questions of competitive balance, labor market discrimination and the economic impact of hosting a professional league team are just a few examples of research that has added new and interesting insights to the sports economic literature. One central debate, however, remains highly relevant and demands further analysis: What happens when sport meets business in a process of commercialization, which has so clearly affected several team sports over the last 40-50 years? Are clubs essentially turning into profit maximizing business entities when they attain amounts of money not previously seen? Or is the process of commercialization rather a means to an end of winning trophies and championships for the fans and the owners themselves? This chapter introduces the debate on professional clubs’ objectives, whilst applying a new theoretical perspective that gives a more detailed understanding of how the environment affects managerial decision-making than the existing literature has previously provided. By broadening the scope and considering new theoretical insights on club behavior, it enables a matrix of new club categorizations to be presented. Examples of each categorization are given in order to illustrate the scope and understanding of the perspective

Prevalence and mitigation strategies of HIV/AIDS infection risks in Namibian tertiary education institutional hostels

The purpose of this study was to investigate risk factors that could promote HIV infection amongst adolescents and young adults living in tertiary educational institutional hostels in Namibia. Employing structured  questionnaires and focus group discussions, we sought to answer questions pertaining to factors, beliefs systems, values, traditions and sexual relations that could promote HIV infection in the student hostels. The data on these issues were gathered from 306 male and 314 female students aged 18–35 years living in eight hostels. Amongst other results, the data revealed that sexual promiscuity in the hostels was treated as the norm in the majority of cases, unauthorized access to hostel rooms by non-hostel dwellers was rampant, sexual harassment of female  students by men who were under the influence of alcohol was reported to be common and there was general lack of support for victims of sexual abuse in the hostels. In addition, there was a general sense of insecurity in the hostels where more than 50% of the participants were afraid of being sexually attacked, some female hostel  residents engaged in sexual activities for monetary and material gain and there was a general practice of older men from the community having sexual relations with young female hostel dwellers. To mitigate these and other risks it is recommended that there be provision of more HIV/AIDS prevention services, enhanced security,  non-toxic entertainment (e.g. participation in sport and social clubs) and the banning of the sale of alcohol in  student residences and on tertiary institution campuses. These and other results are discussed in the article and ways of mitigating the risks are proposed.Keywords: HIV/AIDS, Namibia, infection risks, the youth, tertiary institutional hostels, mitigation strategiesLe but de la pre´sente enqueˆte e´tait d’examiner les facteurs de risques qui pourraient contribuer a` l’infection au VIH parmi les adolescents et jeunes adultes qui sont loge´s dans les foyers des institutions de  l’enseignement supe´rieur en Namibie. Avec l’aide de questionnaires structure´s et de discussions de groupes cible´s, nous avons essaye´ de re´pondre a` des questions concernant les facteurs, syste`mes de croyances, valeurs, traditions er relations sexuelles qui pourraient contribuer a` l’infection au VIH dans les foyers  re´sidentiels des e´tudiants. Les donne´es sur ces questions ont e´te´ recueillies a` partir de 306 e´tudiants et 314 e´tudiantes aˆge´s de 18 a` 35 ans. Entre autres re´sultats, les donne´es ont re´ve´le´ que, dans la plupart des cas, la promiscuite´ sexuelle dans les foyers e´tait conside´re´e comme la norme, l’acce`s non autorise´e  aux chambres des foyers par des non-re´sidents e´tait ende´mique, le harce`lement sexuel des e´tudiantes par des hommes sous l’influence de l’alcool e´tait, il semble, un fait courant, il n’y avait ge´ne´ralement pas d’appui aux victimes d’abus sexuels dans ces foyers, il y avait un sentiment ge´ne´ralise´ d’inse´curite´ dans les foyers, et plus de la moitie´ des participants avaient peur d’eˆtre la cible des attaques sexuelles, que certaines  e´tudiantes dans ces foyers se livraient a` des activite´s sexuelles pour des raisons pe´cuniaires et mate´rielles, et qu’il y avait d’ordinaire une pratique ou` des hommes plus aˆge´s dans la communaute´ entretenaient des relations sexuelles avec des e´tudiantes internes. Pour re´duire tous ces risques aussi bien que d’autres, on recommande la mise a` disposition de plus de services de pre´vention du VIH/SIDA, beaucoup plus de  se´curite´, divertissements sans boissons alcooliques et l’interdiction de la vente d’alcool dans les re´sidences des e´tudiants et sur les campus des institutions de l’enseignement supe´rieur. Ces re´sultats, ainsi que d’autres, sont examine´s dans l’article, et des moyens de re´duction des risques ont e´te´ propose´s.Mots cle´s: VIH/SIDA, Namibie, risques d’infection, jeunes gens, foyers re´sidentiels d’institutions de l’enseignement supe´rieur, strate´gies de re´ductio

The local knowledge of transactional sex in a sample of tertiary education students in KwaZulu-Natal.

Masters Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg.Background: Transactional sex has been cited in considerable public health literature in terms of its critical role in HIV and STI transmission (Stoebenau et al., 2011). Much of this literature has focused on women’s experiences, their role, and their vulnerability. However, limited research has investigated the role, motivations, and understandings of men in transactional sex relationships. This project attempts to explore and elaborate on this gap with a focus on men as well as the dynamics between men and women in these relationships. Methods: This study investigated the local knowledge and understandings of transactional sex amongst tertiary students. Focus groups were conducted in order to gain an in depth view of tertiary education students' knowledge about these relationships. The students were sampled from two different tertiary institutions to achieve comparison of the two. Results: The research found that both men and women could act as both the provider and the beneficiary in transactional sex relationships. The position of women as beneficiaries was found to sit on a continuum of agency and vulnerability. Meaning, women were described as having power and control within transactional sex relationships regardless of their role as provider or beneficiary. In addition, transactional sex relationships also exist in homosexual as well as heterosexual communities. New terminology used to define both men and women was also uncovered through the focus group discussion(s). Discussion: Although the findings recognized the often-cited risks of transactional relationships including HIV and STI transmission, this study found an emphasis placed on the dimension of emotional dangers and relationship-morality issues such as divorce, betrayal, deceit, and dependency