Between ‘block course relationships ’ and abstinence

Cultures of sexuality among students at Addis Ababa University

Datos Bibliográficos

ID15098286
AutoresMulumebet Zenebe (Addis Ababa University), Haldis Haukanes (0000-0002-9961-1535, University of Bergen, autor de correspondencia), Astrid Blystad (0000-0002-3199-4496, University of Bergen)
Año2024
Volumen26
Número10
Páginas1253-1267
Fecha de publicación2024-10-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaCulture Health & Sexuality (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1369-1058 • E-ISSN: 1464-5351
EditorialInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/13691058.2024.2307435
PMID38315578
OpenAlexW4391529659
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas1
Referencias citadas35

Inspired by African and other feminist scholarship on gender, sexuality and agency, this article studies narrations of norms and practices in sexual relationships between university students. A main aim of the article is to move beyond the problem focus in earlier scholarship on women, sexuality and reproduction, and to identify potential spaces of freedom and expansion of female agency. The article is based on qualitative research conducted with students at Addis Ababa University. The findings a vivid space for male-female relationships. Study participants report being sexually engaged as "the new normal" and claim that many female students are active both in seeking relationships and in discontinuing them. These ideas and practices indicate increasing female agency and emerge in stark contrast to dominant social norms for sexual conduct, which demand chastity before marriage, particularly for women. Students are conscious of this discrepancy and bring it up in their narratives. Findings also show that some students prefer to stay abstinent and make an effort to avoid sexual relations. We argue that expressions of female agency are evident not only in norm-transgressive sexual conduct, but also in norm-conforming strategies of sexual abstinence

Abstinence · Developmental psychology · Family planning · Human sexuality · Narrative · Political science · Population · Scholarship · Sexual abstinence · Social science · Sociology · African Sexualities and LGBTQ+ Issues · Demography · Gender Politics and Representation · Gender Studies · Psychology · Sex work and related issues · Social Psychology