Gay men and fatherhood in South Africa: a discursive study
- Morison, Tracy, Lynch, Ingrid, Reddy, Vasu
- Authors: Morison, Tracy , Lynch, Ingrid , Reddy, Vasu
- Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/143782 , vital:38282 , https://ischp.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/ischp_2015_abstract_booklet.pdf
- Description: There is little South African research on gender and sexual minorities’ reproductive decision-making and, to date, no published work explicitly focused on gay men. Motivated by the virtual absence of gay men in research, as well as their marginalisation more generally, we undertook a qualitative investigation of gay men’s thoughts, feelings and perspectives of fatherhood, fatherhood decisions, and experiences of pathways to parenthood. Framed by a reproductive justice perspective, the aim of the study was not only to generate new knowledge, but also to inform policy, services, and advocacy. In this paper we present some of the findings from our discursive analysis of participants’ accounts of their own experiences of the pathway to parenthood or remaining ‘childfree’. We locate our analysis within the broader South African context and show how the entanglement of various social identity markers - particularly gender, race, and class - come to bear on participants’ experiences.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
- Authors: Morison, Tracy , Lynch, Ingrid , Reddy, Vasu
- Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/143782 , vital:38282 , https://ischp.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/ischp_2015_abstract_booklet.pdf
- Description: There is little South African research on gender and sexual minorities’ reproductive decision-making and, to date, no published work explicitly focused on gay men. Motivated by the virtual absence of gay men in research, as well as their marginalisation more generally, we undertook a qualitative investigation of gay men’s thoughts, feelings and perspectives of fatherhood, fatherhood decisions, and experiences of pathways to parenthood. Framed by a reproductive justice perspective, the aim of the study was not only to generate new knowledge, but also to inform policy, services, and advocacy. In this paper we present some of the findings from our discursive analysis of participants’ accounts of their own experiences of the pathway to parenthood or remaining ‘childfree’. We locate our analysis within the broader South African context and show how the entanglement of various social identity markers - particularly gender, race, and class - come to bear on participants’ experiences.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
Focus on 'the family'?: how South African family policy could fail us
- Morison, Tracy, Lynch, Ingrid, Macleod, Catriona I
- Authors: Morison, Tracy , Lynch, Ingrid , Macleod, Catriona I
- Date: 2016
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/446244 , vital:74484 , xlink:href="https://hsrc.ac.za/uploads/pageContent/7505/HSRC%20POLICY%20BRIEF%2011%20-%20MORISON%20Family%20policy_PRESS%20(2).pdf"
- Description: In the past decade South African policymakers have increasingly focused on families as sites of state intervention. To date, several family policies have been developed to support societal well-being and cohesion. The most recent policy document is the White Paper on Families in South Africa (DSD 2012), which aims to facilitate the mainstreaming of a family perspective into all government policy-making. Family policies are intended to provide support, enhance family members’ wellbeing, strengthen family relationships, and help families address social challenges, such as economic instability. Their ultimate aim is to ensure a safe and socially cohesive society (Robila 2014). A core concern, therefore, is with promoting ‘stable, healthy families’. This concern is valid in South Africa since many families experienced a profound lack of stability under apartheid and today instability is brought about by various socio-economic changes, especially the HIV and AIDS epidemic.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2016
- Authors: Morison, Tracy , Lynch, Ingrid , Macleod, Catriona I
- Date: 2016
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/446244 , vital:74484 , xlink:href="https://hsrc.ac.za/uploads/pageContent/7505/HSRC%20POLICY%20BRIEF%2011%20-%20MORISON%20Family%20policy_PRESS%20(2).pdf"
- Description: In the past decade South African policymakers have increasingly focused on families as sites of state intervention. To date, several family policies have been developed to support societal well-being and cohesion. The most recent policy document is the White Paper on Families in South Africa (DSD 2012), which aims to facilitate the mainstreaming of a family perspective into all government policy-making. Family policies are intended to provide support, enhance family members’ wellbeing, strengthen family relationships, and help families address social challenges, such as economic instability. Their ultimate aim is to ensure a safe and socially cohesive society (Robila 2014). A core concern, therefore, is with promoting ‘stable, healthy families’. This concern is valid in South Africa since many families experienced a profound lack of stability under apartheid and today instability is brought about by various socio-economic changes, especially the HIV and AIDS epidemic.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2016
Stigma resistance in online childfree communities: The limitations of choice rhetoric
- Morison, Tracy, Macleod, Catriona I, Lynch, Ingrid, Shivakumar, Seemanthini T
- Authors: Morison, Tracy , Macleod, Catriona I , Lynch, Ingrid , Shivakumar, Seemanthini T
- Date: 2016
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/446299 , vital:74488 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0361684315603657"
- Description: People who are voluntarily childless, or ‘‘childfree,’’ face considerable stigma. Researchers have begun to explore how these individuals respond to stigma, usually focusing on interpersonal stigma management strategies. We explored participants’ responses to stigma in a way that is cognisant of broader social norms and gender power relations. Using a feminist discursive psychology framework, we analysed women’s and men’s computer-assisted communication about their childfree status. Our analysis draws attention to ‘‘identity work’’ in the context of stigma. We show how the strategic use of ‘‘choice’’ rhetoric allowed participants to avoid stigmatised identities and was used in two contradictory ways. On the one hand, participants drew on a ‘‘childfree-by-choice script,’’ which enabled them to hold a positive identity of themselves as autonomous, rational, and responsible decision makers. On the other hand, they mobilised a ‘‘disavowal of choice script’’ that allowed a person who is unable to choose childlessness (for various reasons) to hold a blameless identity regarding deviation from the norm of parenthood. We demonstrate how choice rhetoric allowed participants to resist stigma and challenge pronatalism to some extent; we discuss the political potential of these scripts for reproductive freedom.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2016
- Authors: Morison, Tracy , Macleod, Catriona I , Lynch, Ingrid , Shivakumar, Seemanthini T
- Date: 2016
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/446299 , vital:74488 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0361684315603657"
- Description: People who are voluntarily childless, or ‘‘childfree,’’ face considerable stigma. Researchers have begun to explore how these individuals respond to stigma, usually focusing on interpersonal stigma management strategies. We explored participants’ responses to stigma in a way that is cognisant of broader social norms and gender power relations. Using a feminist discursive psychology framework, we analysed women’s and men’s computer-assisted communication about their childfree status. Our analysis draws attention to ‘‘identity work’’ in the context of stigma. We show how the strategic use of ‘‘choice’’ rhetoric allowed participants to avoid stigmatised identities and was used in two contradictory ways. On the one hand, participants drew on a ‘‘childfree-by-choice script,’’ which enabled them to hold a positive identity of themselves as autonomous, rational, and responsible decision makers. On the other hand, they mobilised a ‘‘disavowal of choice script’’ that allowed a person who is unable to choose childlessness (for various reasons) to hold a blameless identity regarding deviation from the norm of parenthood. We demonstrate how choice rhetoric allowed participants to resist stigma and challenge pronatalism to some extent; we discuss the political potential of these scripts for reproductive freedom.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2016
‘My friends would laugh at me’: embedding the dominant heterosexual script in the talk of primary school students
- Morison, Tracy, Macleod, Catriona I, Lynch, Ingrid
- Authors: Morison, Tracy , Macleod, Catriona I , Lynch, Ingrid
- Date: 2022
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/441186 , vital:73864 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1080/09540253.2021.1929856"
- Description: The dominant ‘heterosexual script’ positions men as sexually desiring subjects who initiate sex and use active displays of power to attract women, and women as passive sexual objects who use indirect means to attract men (e.g. physical appearance). While much research has highlighted how this script is deployed in high school settings, less work has attended to primary schools. We demonstrate how the script operates in the talk of primary school students in low resource South African schools. Data were generated in group discussions conducted for a mid-term review of a school-based sexual violence prevention programme. We show how the heterosexual script is embedded in students’ accounts through the regulatory mechanisms of interpersonal and social risks: threats of being ‘dumped’, sexual coercion, violence, and humiliation. These risks are learnt from an early age and may outweigh sexuality education messaging provided later on, which has implications for such interventions. To address this we advocate for early engagement with young people using a dialogical approach that creates a relational context for resistance to inequitable sexual scripts.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2022
- Authors: Morison, Tracy , Macleod, Catriona I , Lynch, Ingrid
- Date: 2022
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/441186 , vital:73864 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1080/09540253.2021.1929856"
- Description: The dominant ‘heterosexual script’ positions men as sexually desiring subjects who initiate sex and use active displays of power to attract women, and women as passive sexual objects who use indirect means to attract men (e.g. physical appearance). While much research has highlighted how this script is deployed in high school settings, less work has attended to primary schools. We demonstrate how the script operates in the talk of primary school students in low resource South African schools. Data were generated in group discussions conducted for a mid-term review of a school-based sexual violence prevention programme. We show how the heterosexual script is embedded in students’ accounts through the regulatory mechanisms of interpersonal and social risks: threats of being ‘dumped’, sexual coercion, violence, and humiliation. These risks are learnt from an early age and may outweigh sexuality education messaging provided later on, which has implications for such interventions. To address this we advocate for early engagement with young people using a dialogical approach that creates a relational context for resistance to inequitable sexual scripts.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2022
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