Power relations in sexual agreements among male couples in southern Africa
OUTPUT TYPE: Journal Article
PUBLICATION YEAR: 2019
TITLE AUTHOR(S): Z.Essack, I.Lynch, C.J.Kaunda, R.Stephenson, L.Darbes, H.Van Rooyen
KEYWORDS: HIV/AIDS, HOMOSEXUALITY, MEN, PARTNERSHIPS (PERSONAL)
Print: HSRC Library: shelf number 10945
HANDLE: 20.500.11910/14288
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11910/14288
If you would like to obtain a copy of this Research Output, please contact Hanlie Baudin at researchoutputs@hsrc.ac.za.
Abstract
Sexual agreements between same-sex practising men facilitate communication about health promotion activities, including HIV prevention. In African contexts, male couples negotiate their sexual agreements in relation to rigid cultural prescriptions about male power and privilege, intense hostility towards same-sex sexualities and persistent heterogendered socio-cultural norms. Yet the impact of such norms on relationship practices and HIV risk among male couples remains inadequately explored. This qualitative study examined the role of gendered power disparities in establishing sexual agreements among male couples in two Southern African contexts. Eighteen male couples completed in-depth interviews focused on relationship practices, including sexual agreements. The research employed critical social theory to analyse power relations and socio-cultural norms shaping male couples' explicit and implicit sexual agreements, with a focus on implications for HIV risk. The findings outline different types of and motivations for sexual agreements among male couples, including qualified non-monogamy with female partners only. The study illustrates how Southern African male-male sexual practices remain embedded in a cultural context favouring the replication of heteronormative sexual behaviours and relationship practices. These heterogendered norms impact negatively on the process of establishing explicit, mutually agreed-upon sexual agreements, and thus place male couples at increased risk for HIV.-
Related Research Outputs:
- Results of a couples-based randomized controlled trial aimed to increase testing for HIV
- Navigating intimate sexual partnerships in an era of HIV: dimensions of couple relationship quality and satisfaction among adults in Eswatini and linkages to HIV risk
- The Ghana men's study II: mapping and population size estimation (MPSE) and integrated bio-behavioral surveillance survey (IBBSS) amongst men who have sex with men (MSM) in Ghana
- Correlates of substance misuse, transactional sex, and depressive symptomatology among partnered gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men in South Africa and Namibia
- Masculine bodies, feminine symbols: challenging gendered identities or compulsory femininity?
- The imagined future for gays and lesbians in South Africa: is this it?
- Decriminalisation of homosexuality in post-apartheid South Africa: a brief legal case history review from sodomy to marriage
- Black, gay and out/in: interview with Utando Baduza
- The same-sex marriage complex in South Africa: some conceptual, gendered and rights-based interpretations
- Stigma and discrimination experiences of HIV-positive men who have sex with men in Cape Town, South Africa
- Disclosure decisions and HIV positive men who have sex with men (MSM) in Cape Town, South Africa
- 'There's got to be a man in there': reading intersections between gender, race and sexuality in South African magazines
- HIV testing and self-reported HIV status in South African men who have sex with men: results from a community-based survey
- Introduction
- Taking research and prevention forward
- Pride and prejudice: public attitudes toward homosexuality
- Methodological and ethical challenges in conducting behavioural and HIV surveillance among men who have sex with men (MSM) in South Africa: lessons learned and future pointers
- Methodological and ethical challenges in conducting behavioural and HIV surveillance among men who have sex with men (MSM) in South Africa
- Researching MSM in South Africa: some preliminary notes from the frontlines of a hidden epidemic
- Regional MSM research initiatives: UNAIDS/UNDP research project