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cultural or religious reasons, is often carried out by a non-medical practitioner, and involves the surgical removal of some part or the rest of the prepuce (Gruskin, 2007; Gwandure, 2011).
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transmission of HIV and they must be treated early, and more importantly, they must be prevented at all costs (Jackson, 2002).
Acknowledging adolescent sexuality is a formidable challenge. A proliferation in research confirms that youths are active sexual beings, whose majority experience sexual debut prior to formal marriage (DeJong, 2003; Guttmacher Institute, 2014). Research in Zimbabwe indicates that school pupils are continuously framed as asexual, ‘innocent’, and highly dependent on adults for guidance and protection (McLaughlin et al., 2012). Such attitudinal barriers are detrimental to the delivery of comprehensive ASRH services and have far reaching effects since adults’ construction of adolescent sexuality forms the basis of their resultant efforts to regulate it (Chikovore et al., 2009; Lesko, 1996). As such, the effects are not only limited to negative sexual health outcomes such as high STI incidence (including HIV) and unintended teenage pregnancy but can also include the limiting of legitimate endeavours aimed at promoting human development and well-being such as social research with adolescents (Chikovore et al., 2009; UNICEF, 1996).
It is on record that Zimbabwe’s then Ministry of Education, Sports and Culture (MESC hereafter) once denied researchers working on a UNICEF sponsored project gatekeeper permission to conduct interviews with learners below the age of 16 years on issues about sexuality on the pretext that such exposure would make them sexual (Hunter, 2003; Pattman, 2007). Evidently, such an excuse carries ‘protectionist’ connotations, and is engrained in a discourse of denial and suppression of youth sexuality (Sloth-Nielsen, 2012, p.15). Hunter (2003) contends that, research shows that being knowledgeable helps reduce both impulsiveness and compulsiveness. Importantly, teenagers who have facts about sex and sexuality tend to make informed decisions. Furthermore, attempts at restricting adolescents from accessing preventive information when pornographic materials are scattered everywhere is mere hypocrisy (Hunter, 2003). This is particularly true given that the emergence of social
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media platforms such as Facebook and Whatsapp has increased adolescents’ access to traditionally ‘adult content’.
At the turn of the millennium, the MESC collaborated with the Ministry of Information and Publicity to provide limited television and radio programs on both HIV/AIDS, and sexual and reproductive health (Marindo et al., 2003; Muparamoto & Chigwenya, 2009). These were unimportant since the government was facing a legitimacy crisis, thereby opting to use the state media to propagate ideas of nationhood (Chuma, 2005).
Hoffman and Futterman (1996) posit that a majority of the adult population find difficulty in conceiving adolescents as sexual beings. Owing to that, adolescent sexuality is;
retrogressively conceptualised and regarded as something which must be restrained. A discourse continually negating youth sexuality is incessant, despite resonating calls from adolescent sexuality experts not only reiterating that sexuality be acknowledged as a positive and healthy aspect of life (Dowsett & Aggleton, 1999), but also highlighting the need to help young people “determine not only when to say ‘no,’ but when to say ‘yes’ as well” (Bay-Cheng, 2003, p.65).
Negative perceptions of youth sexuality have regrettable implications on the formulation of ASRH policies and the crafting of appropriate interventions. For example, a majority of the government’s policy documents display reluctance to acknowledge that unmarried youth indulge in sexual activities and therefore need preventative tools to mitigate STIs, including HIV (Marindo et al., 2003; Chikovore et al., 2009). Recently, a 14-year-old Grade 7 pupil from a school in Mberengwa gave birth during a national examination session and claimed that the father of the new born baby was a Form 3 learner at a neighbouring school (The Herald, 2016). The story went viral and became of interest to several stakeholders.
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Importantly, the story added to the already glaring evidence that adolescents are neither asexual nor celibate.
Aggleton and Warwick (1997) observed that young people’s access to information, sexual health services, and protective resources (such as condoms) is openly constrained due to the stereotypical and often contradictory ways in which adults view them. Youth sexuality is, often, viewed as problematic (Frizelle et al., 2013). Such prejudice, probably emanate from a burgeoning body of literature in health psychology and adolescent medicine which tend to vilify and pathologise young people (Aggleton & Campbell, 2000). Such presumptions of youth sexuality are detrimental, particularly when viewed from a health promotion perspective where the need to think outside the confines of the mainstream constitutes best practice.
Early social research on young people and HIV/AIDS in the global north, largely informed by prejudice-riddled ideas regarding this ‘homogenous group’ subsequently produced a discourse that framed the youth as “high-risk” (Frizelle et al., 2013, p.1). Such ideas about young people find resonance in adult conceptions of adolescence as a problem stage and are linked to the seminal works of American psychologist, G. Stanley Hall (1904, cited in Cote
& Allahar, 2006). Adolescence is a stage of psychosocial development during which teenagers undergo several changes in both the physical and psychological realm. Hall (1904) characterised adolescents as a period of ‘storm and stress’ (Cote & Allahar, 2006). These are often manifested through mood-swings and physical changes associated with puberty (Cote &
Allahar, 2006). Confidence and self-esteem are very fragile at this early stage in social development (Aggleton & Campbell, 2000).
Despite a proliferation of psychological literature that normalises conflict during the transition stage, debunking this discourse which depicts adolescence as a period of turmoil proves a mammoth task (Frizelle et al., 2013). Youth in the global south were not an exception.
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HIV/AIDS paraphernalia meant for adolescents in South Africa, mainly informed by the above
‘transition discourse’ framed adolescents as irrational beings (Frizelle et al., 2013; Macleod, 2006). Due to their sporadic behaviour, young people are therefore regarded as lacking autonomy, are vulnerable, and irresponsible; and subsequently in dire need of adult guidance, protection and constant surveillance (Frizelle et al., 2013). It is against this backdrop that some adults oppose granting young people autonomy that would see them accessing preventative health resources such as condoms.