'She's a slut ... And it's wrong': Youth constructions of taxi queens in the Western Cape

Recent research on young women’s sexuality highlights the transactional nature of relationships among young people, as well as the increase in intergenerational sexual relationships. These unequal and often coercive sexual practices may increase young women’s vulnerability to unsafe sexual practices. Within this context, while there have been some media reports on the relationship between girls and taxi drivers, there has been little documented research on the phenomenon of ‘taxi queens’. Therefore, this study aimed to explore the understandings and constructions of taxi queens among local youth. A qualitative study involving 13 focus groups were held with youth in the Cape Town Metropole and the southern Cape region and analysed thematically. In general, there was widespread recognition among participants of transactional relationships between young women and usually older drivers. Taxi queens were strongly stigmatised, but their behaviour was also constructed as normative, especially in poor communities, and reflecting contradictory notions of vulnerability and power. However, taxi drivers were less stigmatised. Such constructions allow for the ‘othering’ of these young women, which may undermine their ability to seek help in negotiating safer sexual relationships. At the same time, their concerns need to be understood within the larger context of challenges facing youth, especially in poor South African communities.Web of Scienc

Student accounts of space and safety at a South African university: implications for social identities and diversity

Transformation efforts in South African higher education have been under increased scrutiny in recent years, especially following the last years of student activism and calls for decolonization of universities. This article presents data from a participatory photovoice study in which a group of students reflect on their experiences of feeling safe and unsafe at an urban-based historically disadvantaged university. Findings highlight the way in which historical inequalities on the basis of social identities of race, class, and gender, among others, continue to shape experiences, both materially and social-psychologically, in South African higher education. However, and of particular relevance in thinking about a socially just university, participants speak about the value of diversity in facilitating their sense of both material and subjective safety. Thus, a diverse classroom and one that acknowledges and recognizes students across diversities, is experienced as a space of comfort, belonging and safety. Drawing on feminist work on social justice, we argue the importance of lecturer sensitivity and reflexivity to their own practices, as well as the value of social justice pedagogies that not only focus on issues of diversity and equality but also destabilize dominant forms of didactic pedagogy, and engage students’ diverse experiences and perceptions

Masculinity, sexuality and vulnerability in 'working' with young men in South African contexts: 'you feel like a fool and an idiot...a loser'

South Africa has seen a rapid increase in scholarship and programmatic interventions focusing on gender and sexuality, and more recently on boys, men and masculinities. In this paper, we argue that a deterministic discourse on men's sexuality and masculinity in general is inherent in many current understandings of adolescent male sexuality, which tend to assume that young women are vulnerable and powerless and young men are sexually powerful and inevitably also the perpetrators of sexual violence. Framed within a feminist, social constructionist the oretical perspective, the current research looked at how the masculinity and sexuality of South African young men is constructed, challenged or maintained. Focus groups were conducted with young men between the ages of 15 and 20 years from five different schools in two regions of South Africa, the Western and Eastern Cape. Data were analysed using Gilligan's listening guide method. Findings suggest that participants in this study have internalised the notion of themselves as dangerous, but were also exploring other possible ways of being male and being sexual, demonstrating more complex experiences of manhood. We argue for the importance of documenting and highlighting the precariousness, vulnerability and uncertainty of young men in scholarly and programmatic work on masculinities.IBS

Editorial: Critical reflections on contemporary responses to gender violence within public, political, health and research contexts

No Abstrac

"Am iz kwiin" (I'm his queen): Combining interpretative phenomenological analysis with a feminist approach to work with gems in a resource-constrained setting

This article focuses on working with gems using a feminist approach to interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) in a resource-constrained setting. The research explores the experiences of maternal disclosure of HIV to children of HIV positive mothers in Kingston, Jamaica. A feminist approach helps recognise power imbalances within research relationships and the women’s lived experiences. We present three “gems” which illuminate women’s lived experiences and explore how popularised representations of women’s sexuality and mothering influence disclosure discourses. We use emotion work as a conceptual resource to structure the women’s narratives and challenge existing policy discourses, which arguably represent disclosure within a binary, rationalist, decision-making framework. This article adds to global literature on maternal HIV disclosure and problematises policy discourses by bringing into relief the emotion work women engage in when deciding if and how to communicate their HIV status to their children. It adds to the body of research using IPA, particularly in resource-constrained settings where IPA has thus far had little application

Men, masculinities and young people: north–south dialogues

Dialoguing across national borders and specifically global North-South centres and margins has increasingly been viewed as a way to enhance critical and feminist studies and engagement with men and masculinities. This article draws on narratives levels, both in interpersonal and intergroup relations, as well as in public representation of collaborative work. generated by a group of researchers in South Africa and Finland who have been engaged in a transnational research project that included a strong focus on young men, masculinities and gender and sexual justice. The piece provides an account of the nuanced and complex experiences and dynamics involved in transnational research collaboration, particularly within the framework on historical and continued inequalities between the global North and South. While obvious benefits are raised, this experience also foregrounds a range of challenges and constraints involved in transnational research collaboration within this field and possibly many others. Key learnings gleaned from this analysis of reported experiences and thoughts include the importance of careful, considered and critical reflexivity at all moments and at al

Synthesis and characterisation of pyrene-labelled polydimethylsiloxane networks: towards the in situ detection of strain in silicone elastomers

Pyrene-substituted polyhydromethylsiloxanes (PHMS-Py-x) were synthesised by the hydrosilylation reaction of prop-3-enyloxymethylpyrene with polyhydromethylsiloxane (M-n = 3700). The ratio of pyrene substituent to Si-H unit was varied to afford a range of pyrene-functionalised polysiloxanes. These copolymers were subsequently incorporated into polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) elastomers by curing via either Pt(0) catalysed hydrosilylation with divinyl-terminated PDMS (M-n = 186) and tetrakis(dimethylsiloxy) silane, or Sn(II) catalysed condensation with alpha,omega-dihydroxyPDMS (M-n = 26 000) and tetraethoxysilane. An alternative method involving the synthesis and integration of [3-(pyren-1-ylmethoxy)propyl]triethoxysilane (Py-TEOS) into PDMS elastomers was also investigated: a mixture of alpha,omega-dihydroxyPDMS (M-n = 26 000), tetraethoxysilane, and Py-TEOS was cured using an Sn( II) catalyst. Certain of the resulting fluorescent pyrene-labelled elastomers were studied by differential scanning calorimetry and dynamic mechanical analysis. No significant changes were observed in the thermal or mechanical properties of the elastomers containing pyrene when compared to otherwise identical samples not containing pyrene. All of the pyrene-containing elastomers were demonstrated to be fluorescent under suitable excitation in a photoluminescent spectrometer. Two of the elastomers were placed in a photoluminescence spectrometer and subjected to cycles of extension and relaxation (strain = 0-16.7%) while changes in the emission spectra were monitored. The resulting spectra of the elastomer containing the PHMS-Py-50 copolymers were variable and inconsistent. However, the emission peaks of elastomers containing Py-TEOS displayed clear and reproducible changes in fluorescence intensity upon stretching and relaxation. The intensity of the monomer and excimer emission peaks was observed to increase with elongation of the sample and decrease upon relaxation. Furthermore, the ratio of the intensities of the excimer : monomer peak decreased with elongation and increased with relaxation. In neither case was there appreciable hysteresis, suggesting that fluorescent labelling of elastomers is a valid approach for the non-invasive in situ monitoring of stress and strain in such materials

First record of the Indo-Pacific species Iphione muricata Savigny in Lamarck, 1818 (Polychaeta: Iphionidae) from the Mediterranean Sea, Israel

The Indo-Pacific scaleworm Iphione muricata was observed and caught in the Mediterranean Sea along the coast of Israel. Morphological and molecular diagnostic characters of the species are discussed. This is the first record of this alien species in the Mediterranean Sea, and its previous reports in the Suez Canal suggest its introduction via Lessepsian migration

'I act this way because why?' Prior knowledges, teaching for change, imagining new masculinities

This article begins by outlining some of the prior knowledges brought by undergraduate students to an introduction to gender studies class in the Women's and Gender Studies Department at the University of the Western Cape, South Africa. I show that, at the beginning of the course, students clearly understand gender to refer to women and femininity, imagining femininity (but not masculinity) to be responsive to social change. I suggest that, in the face of these prior knowledges, it is important to focus on masculinity as performance, as a cultural artefact and one that is deeply harmful to South African men. Student experiences of this teaching and learning suggest that it offers possibilities for imagining men as allies and beneficiaries - rather than enemies - in the struggle for gender equity