The power of love
Young South Africans re-conceptualising love and sexual relationships
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12330404 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Ronicka Mudaly (0000-0002-7347-2098, Opća Bolnica Zadar, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2013 |
| Volume | 27 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 38-46 |
| Publication date | 2013-06-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Agenda (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1013-0950 • E-ISSN: 2158-978X |
| Publisher | Taylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/10130950.2013.807086 |
| OpenAlex | W1504695674 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 16 |
The degradation of African sexuality, through the construction of African bodies as objects of symbolic and substantial violence and crime, and African people as sexually permissive and sexually immoral, has been a persistent feature of numerous scholarly works. The era of HIV and AIDS has strengthened the bleak African sexuality discourse, by underscoring the danger of sex in Africa. This Article seeks to de-legitimise the subjugation of African sexuality by exploring the sexual realities of young South Africans. Theoretical and conceptual constructs from feminism, and romantic and confluent love, were engaged with to generate insights about youthful love, desire and sex. An innovative, qualitative methodology, whereby young people were enabled to generate interview data from other young people, thereby reducing the power differentials between the researchers and the research participants, was employed. The findings revealed that young South Africans who participated in this study transcended hetero-patriarchal boundaries by demanding sexual autonomy. They disrupted traditional patterns of gender imbalances, which are inherent in the notion of romantic love. These young South Africans in love did not give primacy to the permanence of relationships and did not pursue the idea of a partner who would transform “me” into “we” (Giddens, 2006: 62). Instead, they actively embraced the liberating quality of passionate love, by engaging in confluent love, as a route towards sexual freedom, and consequently, constructed their sexuality autonomously
Autonomy · Human sexuality · Political science · Power (physics · Psychoanalysis · Romance · Sociology · Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health · African Sexualities and LGBTQ+ Issues · Gender Roles and Identity Studies · Gender Studies · Law · Psychology · Social Psychology
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Partnership Concurrency Status and Condom Use Among Women Diagnosed with Trichomonas vaginalis
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Hidden Love
Is there a distinct African sexuality? A critical response to Caldwell
Bodies that matter
Sexuality and the limits of agency among South African teenage women
Regulation and rupture
The Social Context of Aids in sub-Saharan Africa
A Cross-Cultural Perspective on Romantic Love
Bodies That Matter
| Citations per year | 0.13 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2018 - 2018 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |