Feeling difference: history, encounter and the affective life of a postcolonial neighbourhood

In this dissertation I develop an account of Observatory, a neighbourhood of Cape Town, South Africa, and its fem (cis- and transwomen, feminine men and gender non-conforming) residents, to show how place history, personal identity and everyday encounters come to be co-constituted through affect. I argue that structures of feeling - overarching historical affects - and the feeling of structures - embodied experiences of historical affects and structures of difference, including race, class and gender - shape life over the long durée and in the immediacy of encounters. As different but connected affective scales they elucidate how fems, usually cast as subjugated in urban life, are implicated in the unfolding of history, how they accomplish specific trajectories, and unexpectedly summon the past or future through embodied encounters. Through intimate, visceral, but deeply social and historical ways of knowing their own bodies and others, fems feel out, enact and make differences daily. These differences are constructed relationally, not just hierarchically, as identities and histories are reconstituted and power geometries shift from encounter to encounter. This dissertation is purposefully transdisciplinary and seeks an intersectional sociological understanding of embodied affect through an expansive view of the gender-based violence literature, urban and diversity studies, and critical race and queer theory. It combines exploratory archival work, in-depth interviews with twenty fems, and ethnographic observation to produce a historically grounded and empirically rich take on the relationship between urban space, postcolonial time, and everyday forms of difference, embodiment and encounter. In doing so, it straddles a concern for how fems make liveable lives in contexts of gendered insecurity, but also for how their strategies may in turn operationalise other historically entrenched forms of difference, particularly race, thus constructing and endangering others. In this dissertation, I re-illuminate a familiar, although underexplored, race-gender-space encounter. I denaturalise not only the white, global north ciswoman as the focus of inquiry into gendered city life, but also her presumed position of oppression. By addressing a range of fem positionalities in Observatory, I argue instead that fems can and do access histories of power, shaped by colonialism and apartheid. This highlights fem capacity to effect and affect urban space and those within. In addition, I develop an empirical ground for the study of affect that attends to life as lived and emplaced, and that provides an analysis of postcolonial affects from the global south. In this way I push beyond narrow developmentalist approaches to global south cities to bring their rich affective life into focus

All the (tricky) words: a glossary of terms on sex, gender and violence

This glossary contains various definitions related to sex, gender and gender-based violence, accessible to young people, parents and educators. It also includes key South African laws that relate to sexual and reproductive health and gender-based violence. This glossary can be used by itself as a resource for understanding some of the more complex concepts and terms related to sexual health, sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender-based violence. It can also be used in conjunction with the Tools for Talking Taboos classroom exercises

Tools for talking taboos: classroom exercises on sex, gender and violence

This book of classroom exercises can be used by high school educators to address foundational concepts around sexuality, gender and gender-based violence in a classroom context. Exercises are grouped into chapters that address the topics: (1) Gender, (2) Gender and Power, (3) Family Relationships, (4) Teen Dating, (5) Sexual Health, (6) Popular Culture and Media, (7) Sexual Orientation, (8) HIV, (9) Domestic Violence and (10) Sexual Offences. Exercises are in a variety of formats and use a variety of methods and each contains a comprehensive activity plan that educators can follow to address these complex issues in a holistic, interactive, accessible and non-judgmental way

“The care is the best you can give at the time”: Health care professionals’ experiences in providing gender affirming care in South Africa

While the provision of gender affirming care for transgender people in South Africa is considered legal, ethical, and medically sound, and is—theoretically—available in both the South African private and public health sectors, access remains severely limited and unequal within the country. As there are no national policies or guidelines, little is known about how individual health care professionals providing gender affirming care make clinical decisions about eligibility and treatment options

The no-go zone: a qualitative study of access to sexual and reproductive health services for sexual and gender minority adolescents in Southern Africa

Abstract Background Adolescents have significant sexual and reproductive health needs. However, complex legal frameworks, and social attitudes about adolescent sexuality, including the values of healthcare providers, govern adolescent access to sexual and reproductive health services. These laws and social attitudes are often antipathetic to sexual and gender minorities. Existing literature assumes that adolescents identify as heterosexual, and exclusively engage in (heteronormative) sexual activity with partners of the opposite sex/gender, so little is known about if and how the needs of sexual and gender minority adolescents are met. Methods In this article, we have analysed data from fifty in-depth qualitative interviews with representatives of organisations working with adolescents, sexual and gender minorities, and/or sexual and reproductive health and rights in Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Results Sexual and gender minority adolescents in these countries experience double-marginalisation in pursuit of sexual and reproductive health services: as adolescents, they experience barriers to accessing LGBT organisations, who fear being painted as “homosexuality recruiters,” whilst they are simultaneously excluded from heteronormative adolescent sexual and reproductive health services. Such barriers to services are equally attributable to the real and perceived criminalisation of consensual sexual behaviours between partners of the same sex/gender, regardless of their age. Discussion/ conclusion The combination of laws which criminalise consensual same sex/gender activity and the social stigma towards sexual and gender minorities work to negate legal sexual and reproductive health services that may be provided. This is further compounded by age-related stigma regarding sexual activity amongst adolescents, effectively leaving sexual and gender minority adolescents without access to necessary information about their sexuality and sexual and reproductive health, and sexual and reproductive health services

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex human rights in Southern Africa: A contemporary literature review

Individuals engaging in same-sex acts, individuals identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and/ or intersex (LGBTI), and individuals who do not conform to heteronormative ideals of gender and sexuality experience structural, institutional and individual discrimination and exclusion across the world. This is no different in Southern African countries. While LGBTI individuals are heterogeneous and face very specific challenges based on their sexual orientation, gender identity, race, class, ethnicity and other factors, they share experiences of structural, institutional and individual discrimination and marginalisation based on their sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI). In most Southern African countries, same-sex activity remains criminalised, which further marginalises LGBTI individuals, and acts as an additional barrier to accessing public services and realising full civil and political rights. This contemporary literature review focuses on the state of LGBTI human rights in 10 Southern African countries: Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The purpose of this review is to contribute towards a strong evidence base and scientific foundation for informed programming in the region

Interviewees.

<p>Interviewees.</p