Lumberjacks and hoodrats: negotiating subject positions of lesbian representation in two South African television programmes
- Authors: Donaldson, Natalie
- Date: 2011
- Subjects: Lesbianism on television -- Research -- South Africa , Lesbians -- Research -- South Africa , Gay rights -- Research -- South Africa , Television actors and actresses -- Research -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSocSc
- Identifier: vital:2964 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002473 , Lesbianism on television -- Research -- South Africa , Lesbians -- Research -- South Africa , Gay rights -- Research -- South Africa , Television actors and actresses -- Research -- South Africa
- Description: With the inclusion of sexual orientation in the Equality clause of the post-Apartheid constitution which demands equal rights and protection for all individuals regardless of sexual orientation, South Africa has been praised as one of the most liberal countries in the world. Because of this legal equality, gay and lesbian experiences have become a lot more visible in every day South African lives. This includes visibility in South African television programmes and film. Today, a number of South African produced television programmes have included at least one lesbian character in their storyline and many LGBTIQ activist organisations have deemed this increased visibility as a positive step for LGBTIQ rights. However, discriminatory discourses such as same-sex sexualities as 'un-African ' and unnatural, which often result in brutal hate crimes against LGBTIQ individuals (such as corrective rape), contribute to the social and cultural intolerance of same-sex sexualities. South African research into the lives of lesbian women has often related lesbian experience to that of gay men or has focused on lesbian women as victims of corrective rape and oppressive practices at the hands of the dominant heteronormative culture. This research was a discursive reception study, using three focus group discussions with self-identified lesbian audiences (black and white). The study explored how this audience received (interpreted/talked about) the available fictional representations of 'black' lesbian women and 'white' lesbian women in three clips from two South African television programmes, Society and The Mating Game. Using Wetherell's (1998) critical discursive psychology approach, this research focused on examining the 1) Subject positions made available in/by these representations; 2) Interpretive repertoires used by the audience in appropriating and/or negotiating and/or reSisting these subject positions; and 3) Ideological dilemmas experienced by participants in this negotiation process. The predominant subject positions made available in these representations were differentiated according to binary racial categories of white lesbian women and black lesbian women. For example, participants positioned white lesbian women as "lumberjacks" and "tomboys" while black lesbian women were positioned as "township lesbians" and "hood rats". In working with these subject positions, participants drew on interpretative repertoires of othering and otherness as well as interpretative repertoires of survival. In negotiating with these subject positions and others found in the discussions, ideological dilemmas often arose when participants found themselves having to draw on interpretative repertoires which extend from a heteronormative discourse. These kinds of interpretative repertoires included religion, nature, and compromise which contradicted and created a troubled position when used in relation to the participants' lesbian sexualities. Therefore, when the ideological dilemma and troubled position became apparent, participants had to work to repair the troubled position by justifying their use of these heteronormative interpretative repertoires.
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- Date Issued: 2011
Relational processes enabling the balancing of academic work and motherhood: a grounded theory study with academic women at a South African university
- Authors: Poulos, Tessa
- Date: 2011
- Subjects: Working mothers -- South Africa -- Grahamstown Women in education -- South Africa -- Grahamstown Work and family -- South Africa -- Grahamstown Rhodes University -- Employees Motherhood -- South Africa -- Grahamstown Sex role in the work environment -- South Africa -- Grahamstown
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSocSc
- Identifier: vital:3038 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002547
- Description: Through the use of contextual data, this research study aims to explicate a theory about the experiences of academic women, who are also mothers, employed at a South African University. The research is interpretive in nature as it explores the women's accounts of the conflicts they face in striving to satisfy the demands of both their scholarly work and family responsibilities within multiple intersecting factors related to their personal/familial circumstances, and the strategic processes they engage in to manage the balance between these competing roles. The study followed a constructivist grounded theory design in an attempt to test the hypothesis (emerging from a prior pilot study) that the most significant enabling factors at work in the lives of these women comprise various relational support processes. The findings indicate that balancing academic work and mothering is a delicate activity that is sensitive to a number of facilitating as well as hindering factors. The participants revealed that they experience work-family role-conflict as a result of competing desires to dedicate themselves fully to both of these roles. The relational factors most prominently cited as being critical to enabling a work-family balance include the presence of a supportive partner, a support structure in the home in the form of an employed domestic helper, and the support derived from a 'shared experience' with other working mothers. Non-relational factors emanating from the unique quality of life afforded to mothers by employment within the particular case institution also emerged as being significantly enabling of a work-family balance for this group of academic mothers.
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- Date Issued: 2011
The development and implementation of a mental toughness training programme for young cricketers
- Authors: Pattison, Stuart
- Date: 2011
- Subjects: Cricket -- Psychological aspects -- South Africa -- Grahamstown , Cricket -- Training -- South Africa -- Grahamstown , Cricket players -- Mental health -- South Africa -- Grahamstown , Mental discipline , Toughness (Personality trait) , Success -- Psychological aspects , Personal coaching -- South Africa -- Grahamstown , School sports -- South Africa -- Grahamstown
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSocSc
- Identifier: vital:3037 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002546 , Cricket -- Psychological aspects -- South Africa -- Grahamstown , Cricket -- Training -- South Africa -- Grahamstown , Cricket players -- Mental health -- South Africa -- Grahamstown , Mental discipline , Toughness (Personality trait) , Success -- Psychological aspects , Personal coaching -- South Africa -- Grahamstown , School sports -- South Africa -- Grahamstown
- Description: Modern research being conducted on Mental Toughness is now shifting away from efforts aimed at developing definitions for the construct and instead moving toward efforts at understanding its development. This particular research study focuses on the development and implementation of a Mental Toughness programme designed specifically for, and tailored exclusively to, the needs of schoolboy cricket at Kingswood College in Grahamstown, Eastern Cape. The programme development was an intricate process and the research procedure was guided by the Organisational Development Process model. Data from a focus group as well as various individual interviews were integrated with currently existing Mental Toughness literature and theory to devise this particular Mental Toughness programme. The programme entails educating the athletes on six specific mental skills and incorporates elements of practical application as well as awareness of the importance and influence of Mental Toughness and mental training in a sporting sphere. The programme took the form of mental skills workshops held over a three week period. An analysis was conducted post-programme to document the experience of the athletes as a result of exposure to the programme. Results drawn from the array of analysis procedures were used to help identify the level of success of the Mental Toughness intervention as well as help validify current Mental Toughness models. In addition to highlighting the benefits as a result of the programme experience, various recommendations were drawn in order to shed light on the programme limitations and assist future researchers with understanding the intricacies behind better and more efficient programme implementation.
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- Date Issued: 2011