The main findings of this study begin with how freedom on campus and peer pressure may influence sexual risk taking amongst female students on campus. The participants in this study explained how they have more freedom than they did while living at home but there are also indications that their freedoms are limited or constrained by peer pressures, gender power inequalities and male power in intimate partner relationships. Sexual risk taking on campus may be further exacerbated by freedom to consume alcohol and multiple partner relationships as mentioned by the participants.
The participants in this study laid claims to have witnessed or heard of gender based violence that occurs at campus from the screams they hear at night to the public bashing of a student
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by her boyfriend. These views are consistent with previous and recent reports of sexual violence and murder inflicted on black female students at various South African higher education institutions. Some of the participants also revealed how instances of abuse are not reported by students and that strict control of residences should be implemented by campus security.
Some participants also mentioned why female students remain in abusive relationships revealing gender inequalities dynamics in intimate partner relationships. The participants’
views were that female students may stay in abusive relationships because they have already invested themselves sexually and emotionally in a relationship while some participants assert that love and trust are the main reasons why they stay and become involved in sexual relationships. Some said how they want to avoid being labelled as “used” by other male students if they leave that relationship. Other participants explained how culture may influence their concepts of love, sexuality and sexual encounters whereby the decision making regarding sex and protection is left entirely in the hands of the male partner while other participants expressed the need to protect their selves sexually and wanted to have an equal part in sexual decision making in their relationships.
The study moved on to discuss how black female students may have engaged in risk taking behaviour out of notions of love, trust and gift taking. For some participants aspirations of love resulted from a need to be in an intimate relationship while other participants believed that female students found themselves in relationships to achieve material wealth associated to middle class status from ‘sugar daddies’. The gifts they acquired may be clothes, money, cell phones in exchange for sex. These women may be less likely to assert safe sex negotiations or practices because of the differing power dynamics in relationships. The participants in this study also discussed how many students were falling pregnant on campus which may be a possible indicator of unprotected sex that may render them at risk for STD’s and HIV.
At this point it is important to illuminate that the participants in this study are not merely victims of male subordination but most participants do express agency in their relationships and decision making regarding sex. They resisted and challenged traditional dominant expectations and understandings of woman’s role in heterosexual relationships. They expressed their agency when they did not conform to the traditional notions of an Black
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African woman- ‘quiet/ submissive’- when they consumed alcohol and party freely, when they choose to have relationships that allow them to attain material gain, when they resisted male dominance and possible negative stereotypes attached to females who insist on condom use or carry their own protection.
Most participants wanted to have equal share in decision making regarding sex and they resisted conventional femininity which is to appear ‘innocent’ about knowledge surrounding sexuality. Then there was a participant who revealed how she will not be pressured into having sex before marriage thereby subscribing to her own sexual agency of abstinence.
Participants also mention how they can achieve power in a relationship through financial independence and education therefore most participants felt that they would be able to exert more power and feel more powerful through financial independence; therefore they can possibly exert more sexual agency through their own economic power that ultimately results from a university education.
Finally the main findings resulting from this research consisted of a need for or attitudes toward sex education. Here participants described their interactions with family members, peers, their partners and health care workers revolving around issues regarding sex education.
Dialogue from participants’ showed how each interaction may differ whereby certain silences or misinformation about issues of sex and risk may further perpetuate Black female students’
risks to health matters such as HIV and unintended pregnancy.
Most participants in this study articulated a negative response when asked about discussing sex with their parents or immediate family members and positive responses when asked if they could discuss sex with their peers. However engaging in conversations with peers only could influence risk taking behaviours if an individual is friends with people who possibly engage in risk taking themselves and are also ignorant or do not have accurate knowledge about HIV and AIDS and other sexual risks.
There are medical nurses available on university campuses so that students can go for assistance but when asked if participants could speak to campus nurses some expressed feelings of pessimism and embarrassment extending from cultural barriers that prevent them from speaking freely about sex to people they perceive as their elders. Furthermore, some participants discussed the vital role universities play in implementing sex education into
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curriculum which could possibly assist in deconstructing traditional gender and cultural norms that support male dominance and notions that may influence sexual risk taking behaviour.
The main findings of this research concluded that sexual risk taking amongst these black female students are exacerbated by the freedoms on campus that they experience, the peer pressures they face from other students both male and female and from boyfriends. This research shows how their constructions of love trust and power influence their use or non use of condoms in sexual relationships. There is a prevalence of ‘sugar daddy’ relationships that may put female students in situations of sexual risk taking behaviours. The participants in this study do articulate sexual agency and decision making regarding sex. They are not ignorant about HIV or other consequences contributing from unsafe sex but some are influenced by traditional and cultural notions surrounding the sexuality of women.