AIDS refers to social constructions or representations of the collective experience of HIV infection and related diseases. This study uses a gender perspective to examine gender misconceptions as perceived by African adolescent girls from the town of Umlazi.
Problem statement
Some misconceptions that teenagers have about HIV infection are often closely associated with false beliefs and popular myths that are widely disseminated. Sexual activity and unprotected intercourse among adolescents is linked to the high levels of HIV infection in South Africa, with girls more likely than boys to contract the virus.
Study objectives
As previously mentioned, the study will focus on Umlazi's adolescent girls: their perspectives on how they live their gendered lives based on their sexuality, and the impact of HIV/AIDS. Despite being a taboo subject for many, sexuality cannot be left out when discussing the complexities of HIV/AIDS.
Significance of the study
Research shows that the trajectory of the country's HIV/AIDS epidemic can be changed by carefully targeting the reduction of risky sexual behavior among young people: If anything can stop the AIDS epidemic in South Africa, it will be teenagers must be. Willocks et al (2003) point out that the wide disparities in infection rates in South Africa follow geographical, age, race, social class and gender lines, with young black women from economically disadvantaged communities being most affected than any other group in the world. the country.
Structure of the study
Here we consider what the data reveal, in addition to questions that arise in the present study and for future research. I now turn to a discussion that considers a review of selected literature related to the empirical context of HIV/AIDS.
LITERATURE REVIEW
- Introduction
- Youth culture backing AIDS
- Regressing by way of culture
- Significant adults fuelling AIDS
- Conclusion
This increases the risk of contracting HIV through sores or cuts in the underdeveloped lining of the vagina, in the event that unprotected sex takes place. It brings into stark relief the issue of women's lack of sexual and reproductive rights.
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
Introduction
A feminist framework
- Multi-faceted theoretical perspectives on AIDS
- Health Belief Model (HBM)
- Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) Model
- Social Inoculation Model (SIM)
Holland et al (1992) argue that the influence of the way in which gender identities are constructed has important implications for the negotiation of safe sexuality. To answer this question, I define the term "feminism" broadly as a conceptual framework for understanding the unequal distribution of power between men and women. According to Campbell (2003), the different perspectives form an essential framework for the kaleidoscope of factors involved in the development and persistence of the HIV epidemic in developing countries.
Recognizing that an individual does not operate in a vacuum, my study goes beyond the individual by drawing on the social inoculation model (SIM). This model explains how societies and social groups influence and are influenced by the attitudes and behavior of others.
Conclusion
RESEARCH METHODS
- Project area
- Study sample
- Data collection methods
- Research ethics
Harding argues with such research because it assumes that the social identity of the observer is irrelevant to the quality of the results in the research process. All the in-depth interviews and focus group discussions were conducted in the medium of English, and those who could not find the appropriate words in English used Zulu instead. The semi-structured questionnaire used in the misconception study was piloted to assess the adequacy of the research design in relation to the data collection instrument.
This is reflected in the study's naming system for reporting purposes, where each girl chose a.
DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION
Introduction
Biomedical aspects of AIDS
Besides Cindy, some girls in the rest of the focus group also do not know much about this practice. Ignorance is not bliss when it comes to reproductive health, especially in the case of HIV and other STIs that can be asymptomatic. For example, two out of 10 pupils appearing in the study do not believe that condoms prevent pregnancy, HIV and other STIs.^The findings of CIET (2004) are consistent with the Rutenberg et al (2001) survey that sexually active adolescents are unaware of their risk of HIV.
He did not write in the Scriptures that men should have sex with little girls (as teenagers) in schools.
Youth culture and AIDS
For example, media campaigns in the US used the phrase, "Get drunk, get drunk, get AIDS" to warn of the dangers of combining alcohol and drugs with sex (McCammon, Knox, & Schacht, 1998). The use of alcohol and hard drugs has become part of today's youth culture, we will discuss this topic in the next section. 2The problem of paternity is increasingly recognized in the context of HIV/AIDS in South Africa.
See also the recent publication by Saba: Men and Fatherhood in South Africa (edited by Richter and Morrell, 2005), which examines the above issues in the context of representation and roles, historical conceptions of fatherhood, and fatherhood in South Africa today within the context of HIV/AIDS.
Girls' sexual agency and AIDS
The findings of the CIET study (2004) were published as 'shocking' for adults who would not expect such young children to be sexually active. Peer pressure seems to be one of the main reasons why girls have sex with boys. One misconception that must be acknowledged in HIV/AIDS interventions is the assumption that girls are merely objects for men to act on sexually.
The girls chuckle at what appears to them to be a novel approach to dealing with unwanted sexual advances.
How adults fuel HIV infection both directly and indirectly
Conversely, the younger adolescent girls are, the less likely they are to have the appropriate negotiation skills to insist on using a condom during every sexual act. However, some girls are easily subjected to sex as they are culturally socialized from a young age to submit to older men in general. For example, young adolescent girls have an increased presence of cervical ectopy (a growth of membranous tissue from the cervix into the vagina), which increases their risk of acquiring HIV (Hankins, 1996).
The range of significant adults who predispose adolescent girls to HIV infection includes what appear to be unlikely groups of men.
The economic backdrop of AIDS
Known as 'dry sex', this form of sex seems to be gaining attention among teenage girls. In Umlazi, alternative HIV/AIDS 'cures' are spreading among those who are unaware that there is no cure for the disease, and thus a lucrative market is emerging for herbalists and other traditional healers. When asked how many healers she knows in Umlazi town who claim to cure HIV/AIDS, she mentions three in Section C of the settlement alone.
It is not only traditional healers who collect the funds they sell against HIV/AIDS, but some faith healers also ask for payment for their prayers.
Sexual orientation and HIV/AIDS
Due to the haste and force of the act, plus the fact that the girl is not psychologically prepared for sex, the vaginal canal does not lubricate, and the girl can contract HIV through cuts in her genitals. AIDS replaced this label in the mid-eighties, but the associations with HIV as a gay disease remained and in many circles on the African continent this belief is still held, despite the presence of the virus in a predominantly heterosexual population. Cindy does not mention that one of the sex partners must be HIV positive to transmit the virus.
Unprotected sex leads to transmission of the virus, not belonging to a group.
Gender-based violence and AIDS
According to CIET (2004), misconceptions about sexual violence and the risk of HIV infection are common among both sexes in South African youth. Most of these young people had themselves been forced to have sex, suggesting that a history of forced sex distorted perceptions of sexual violence and the risk of HIV infection. Sexual violence is therefore high on the list of violent acts committed by such men, some of whom blame alcohol for their offences.
Sexual violence is also reinforced (sometimes glorified) by the media, as explained in the next section.
The media and HIV/AIDS
Allen argues that the introduction of television in the United States in the 1950s contributed significantly to young people making their sexual debuts at increasingly younger ages. The author suspects that children living in such areas are likely to spend more time watching TV due to the limited entertainment options in the township. In the field of human sexuality, the media glorifies sex out of all proportion, accentuating pleasure without necessarily paying attention to undesirable aspects such as unplanned pregnancy, abortion and sexually transmitted infections.
In similar ways, I would argue that township kids are probably no exception and mimic what they see on screen, in the music industry, in the sports arena and can contract HIV by experimenting with unprotected sex.
Conclusion
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Recommendations
Policymakers and implementers of intervention strategies must recognize that certain HIV prevention programs may fuel rather than limit the spread of HIV/AIDS. Culture, as shown in my research among the Ogwini respondents, has both positive and negative influences in terms of health promotion and disease prevention in relation to HIV/AIDS. Although this form of frank communication about sex is considered 'uncultural' by many adults in Zulu-speaking communities, key adults need to communicate candidly with adolescents about sexuality and HIV/AIDS.
Another process that could be invaluable is encouraging community groups to discuss gender stereotypes and other key areas of HIV/AIDS prevention and control.
Limitations
The current explosion of information has contributed significantly to the generation of sexual misconceptions that predispose adolescents to HIV infection, with the loudest voices perhaps coming through mass media, advertising and the Internet. This behavior can be replaced by another set of positive values that promote and enable the building of healthy relationships by men. Lateral biases can be partially minimized through longitudinal ethnographic research rather than one-off interviews or focus group discussions.
Additionally, due to budgetary constraints, I was unable to conduct in-depth interviews and focus group discussions in Zulu (the respondents' native language), which would have elicited much more detail.
Summation
Youth and Fertility: Current South African Issues of Poverty, HIV/AIDS and Youth: Seminar Proceedings. Demonizing women in the age of AIDS: an analysis of the gendered contraction of HIV/AIDS in KwaZulu-Natal. Nelson Mandela/HSRC Survey of HIV/AIDS: South African National HIV Prevalence, Behavioral Risks and Mass Media Household Survey 2002.
Geneva: Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and the World Health Organization (WHO).
APPENDICES: ANNEX 1
QUESTIONNAIRE: FOCUS GROUP DISCUSSION AT OGWINI COMPREHENSIVE TECHNICAL SCHOOL
Do girls your age have sexual partners who are younger, the same age or older than themselves. On average, what is the average age difference between most girls your age and the age of the men they date. Where there is an age difference, why did girls choose to have men of a different age?
Do you know of any high school girls who engage in this form of sex.
APPENDICES: ANNEX 2
QUESTIONNAIRE: IN-DEPTH INTERVIEW AT OGWINI COMPREHENSIVE TECHNICAL SCHOOL
Do you personally use a condom every time you engage in sex (Penis/vagina? . Penis/anus).
