Browsing by Author "Naidu, Uma Maheshvari."

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Anthropology of experience : touring the past at Robben Island.
(Kamla-Raj Enterprises., 2013) Naidu, Uma Maheshvari.
This paper has a transdisciplinary orientation and is located in both anthropology and tourism studies. It draws on the seminal theoretical work of the post structural anthropologist Victor Turner and brings to the study of tourism, the concepts of performance, memory and ‘experience’. The paper focuses on what the world has come to know as the place of incarceration for Nelson Mandela, and now declared a World Heritage Site and museum, established as the blurb goes, ‘as a poignant reminder to the newly democratic South Africa of the price paid for freedom’. The paper looks at the construction of the site of Robben Island Prison Museum, in Cape Town South Africa as a performance space for the reliving and experiencing of a collective shared past and history and probes how visitors to the site, experience the space. Methodologically the paper uses narrative analysis of tourists’ sharing stories of their visits in small focus type groups and in one-on-one interviews. It also draws on a thematic analysis of the visitor entries in a Visitors Book spanning a six month period of visits. The paper attempts to show that the site and constructed heritage product (or tour), emerges as a ‘liminal space’ where different racial categories of visitors, who have had differently shaped life histories, might be made to ‘experience’ a shared past of denial and oppression. Liminality speaks to a dislocation of structure and hierarchies, and by drawing on the ethnographic interviews of a randomised sample group of local and international visitors to the site, the paper shows that the visitor is placed into a liminal space by the manner in which the tour space is constructed and experienced.
Belief and bereavement: the notion of “Attachment” and the grief work hypothesis.
(University of Cape Town, 2014) Naidu, Uma Maheshvari.
Death and bereavement are both unavoidable points along the imaginary of life, as we navigate lives that are punctuated by a seeming infi nite number of events, including the eventuality of death. For some individuals, religion appears to provide the theoretical and theological frameworks that constitute the multiple socially and culturally determined narratives through which one can make sense of the eventuality of death and loss. This sense-making often entails reconstructing and reassembling the grasp of the loss in a way that reaffi rms core theological beliefs about the self and world, and the world beyond. This paper is a theoretical engagement with the widely held conviction that religion and religious beliefs offer reflective tools for accepting and coping with the death of a loved one and brings a critical gaze to the notion of “attachment” and “continuing bonds” within the context of the “Grief work” hypothesis. “Grief work Theory” puts forward a model for “detachment” and severing ties and bonds with the deceased to aid the process of coping with loss and grief, and suggests that this severing is essential for the process of healing, restoration and return to normality for the bereaved. However, the paper engages with the view that religious frameworks and “death specifi c beliefs” offer a form of ‘attachment’ or ‘continuing relationship’ that is healthy and benefi cial rather than pathological, and is more in accordance with insights from later grief research and ‘Continuing bonds Theory’. By peeling back the theoretical wrappings around the notion of attachment, more specifi cally within grief and death counselling, the paper attempts to lay bare a theological reunderstanding and re-contextualisation of ‘attachment’ in the context of grief and bereavement, and bereavement counselling.
The bitter sweet reality: ‘sugar daddy’ relationships and the construction of traditional African masculinities in the context of Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
(2018) Jeawon, Rosheena.; Naidu, Uma Maheshvari.
The aim of this study is to explore ‘sugar daddy’ relationships and the construction of traditional amaZulu masculinities in KwaZulu-Natal. The study has four key research objectives. First, the study seeks to ascertain the main reasons why older men pursue transactional sex relationships with younger women. Secondly, the study seeks to probe the main gratification men derive from sexual relations with a younger woman. Third, the study seeks to probe the perceived men’s sense of control over younger women. Lastly, the study seeks to problematise African masculinity and perceived control and dominance over younger women. The study employs a qualitative research methodology with an exploratory research design to better understand the social phenomenon under study. Consistent with a qualitative methodology, the study employed in-depth face to face interviews as the primary data collection instrument and made use of purposive sampling in selecting respondents and key informants. The study made use of Constructionism and Social Identity Theory in its theoretical framework. Both theories assist in assembling an understanding of group membership and the construction of traditional amaZulu masculinities in the context of the ‘sugar daddy’ phenomenon. The study looked at how middle-aged amaZulu men define their masculinity through transactional sex with younger women. It sampled 22 amaZulu men and their accounts of their ‘sugar daddy’ relationships. These accounts offer insightful interpretations regarding the construction of traditional amaZulu masculinities in KwaZulu-Natal. While trying to ‘define’ masculine identities, the study also acknowledges the fluidity and complexity of the topic. The study makes the assertion that the motivations for men (and the women) in cross-generational sexual relationships are varied and complex. Findings show that for most men however, the key drivers are culturally based (or culturally reduced understandings) and are linked to self-esteem and social standing.
Community perceptions of an early warning system: a case study of Swayimane, UMshwathi Local Municipality’s lightning warning system.
(2021) Ndlela, Senelisiwe.; Mabhaudhi, Tafadzwanashe.; Naidu, Uma Maheshvari.
This study attempts to understand community perceptions of a lightning warning system in the community of KwaSwayimane. The study therefore takes a detailed look at the local community’s views on and insights into the warning system, and how these are shaped by the cultural practices and beliefs embedded in indigenous/local knowledge. The study was carried out at KwaSwayimane, and adopted a mixed methodology, making it both qualitative and quantitative. It involved 100 participants who engaged in questionnaires, focus group discussions and face-to-face interviews. Social constructionism and symbolic interactionism theories were used to analyze the insights gathered during data collection. Findings revealed that the community has recommendations on how to improve their experience of the lightning warning system installed in the area (especially in the context of the dissemination of the warning messages) and these recommendations involve integrating their local/indigenous understandings for protection against lightning strikes with the existing system.
A comparative analysis : contestation of two systems of political representation : Isphakanyiswa and Ngcolosi traditional communities.
(2015) Ngubane, Mlungisi.; Naidu, Uma Maheshvari.; Ojong, Vivian Besem.
Governance requires the support of different ‘categories’ of stakeholders. One such ‘category’ is comprised by the traditional leaders, who are potentially significant players in the implementation of governmental policies and services, within the contemporary democratic South Africa. As such, they represent a community that is potentially able to contribute to the shape and the implementation of the government’s policies and service plans within their local communities. Their possible role, however, has continued to be limited by both, certain sectors of the government as well as the public. This ‘limitation’ comes in the form of challenge on the capability of traditional leaders in conducting policy implementation within a democratic system and on the legitimacy of the leaders, especially the non-elected traditional leaders – isiPhakanyiswa, regarding tradition leaders and the system as mundane, “old fashioned”, and archaic, thus meant to be done away with the relics of the past society. Local communities also tend to question the legitimacy of the traditional leaders. Thus, two is contesting views are created based on the ability of traditional leaders or institutions to contribute to the promotion of good governance and the role of the government and its personnel in carrying out its services. This study explores this contestation by showing the role played by traditional leaders, both elected and non-elected, in contributing and promoting the government’s services in their local communities, probing the embedded assumptions about their inability to play such a role in a democratic society. The study looked at two local government areas, Ngcolosi and Kholwa -Ntumeni in eThekwini Municipality and uThungulu District Municipality, who have elected and non-elected traditional leaders, respectively.
Constructing “woman”: probing how the cultural practice of chinamwali among the Shangaan people is used to construct ‘womanhood’.
(2018) Muchono, William.; Naidu, Uma Maheshvari.
This study aims to probe how the cultural practice of chinamwali among the Shangaan people is used to construct ‘womanhood’. The study probes the perceptions, understanding and lived experiences of the men and women who reside in the Mahenye community of Chipinge District (south eastern Zimbabwe) where chinamwali, (cultural rite of passage for girls and women) is practised. The study was premised on the understanding that the practice of chinamwali socially constructs or defines women in a particular (Mahenye) culture. Interview questionnaires and focus group discussions as well as observations were used to gather data from people in the Mahenye community in Zimbabwe. The study reveals that if a woman is not initiated she is considered no longer valuable in the community and tends to be a social outcast or to be excluded from several cultural activities.
Creating an African tourist experience at the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site.
(University of Pretoria., 2008) Naidu, Uma Maheshvari.
This article considers the example of palaeo-heritage tourism at Sterkfontein Cave, situated in a geographic area designated the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site, or Cradle for short. The article looks at how a particular “African” tourist experience is constructed through the architectural vocabulary and the narrative built around the Sterkfontein Cave, which, with the adept use of a particular theory of human origins, allows the visitor to identify with a trajectory of a shared prehistory and shared humanity. These appear to be constructed in an attempt to redefine the visitor’s image of himself or herself in terms of a shared African history. This sense of a shared history is attempted through the architectural design of the interpretive centre, the virile narrative contained in the logo of the centre, and the process of appropriating seminal fossil artefacts found here. The constructed tourist experience is itself fed by a larger emerging discourse to rearticulate the identity of the African.
The cultural construction of illness amongst isiZulu-speaking nurses: probing nurses' understanding of patient's illness and health in hospitals.
(2014) Darong, Gabriel Gyang.; Naidu, Uma Maheshvari.
This study attempts to understand how cultural constructions of illness amongst isiZulu-speaking nurses shape their understanding of health, illness and patient care. The study thus takes as a backdrop, the idea that people‟s views of the world and daily phenomena are shaped by their cultural practices and beliefs. The study was qualitative and ethnographic and was carried out at a public hospital in the Durban area. It involved 20 participants and the data was collected through in-depth participant observation and semi-structured interviews. A unique feature of the study was that some of the participants were both trained biomedical nurses as well as practicing izangoma. The findings of the study show that the isiZulu-speaking nurses‟ understandings of health and illness have been shaped by their cultural constructions of health and illness. Aside from their nursing training, isiZulu-speaking nurses‟ understanding of health and illness is likewise understood as being in part, shaped by and embedded in their cultural practices and beliefs such as bewitchment and ancestry curse. These cultural constructions and understandings in turn influence their clinical decisions and patient care. The research findings reveal that the isiZulu-speaking nurses involved in the study face levels of internal conflict in carrying out clinical decisions. Such a conflict was deeply expressed by the nurses; especially the isangoma nurses who felt that their twin expertise as traditional practitioners and nurses places them in a better position to understand „how‟ to care for patients, against the care prescribed by the hospital. This difficulty faced by the nurses is informed by the sometimes conflicting and contested expectations on them as biomedical personnel against their own culturally embedded understanding of health, illness, and patient care.
Editorial.
(Kamla-Raj Enterprises., 2013) Naidu, Uma Maheshvari.
No abstract available.
Enacting masculinities: Pleasure to men and violence to women.
(Taylor & Francis (Routledge)/UNISA Press., 2013-05-02) Naidu, Uma Maheshvari.; Ngqila, Kholekile Hazel.
Feminist anthropologists have shown how women’s bodies have been appropriated and rendered ‘docile’ by so called cultural or traditional practices, as well as by discourse. The compelled docility of African women (as that of other women in the global south), is perhaps especially visible within subtly coerced performances within a context of ‘traditional’ masculinised practices, such as unprotected sex, that leave many African women vulnerable and forced to negotiate a host of health concerns around sexually transmitted diseases and of course HIV/AIDS. This is to be seen as a form of violence perpetrated by men against their female partners. However, in probing condom use through a qualitative study with a small group of women, we notice that it is not simply a case of discerning patterns of hegemonic masculinities in relation to condom use or non-use, and that masculinities are also propped up and held together by the relational configurations of practice formed by (mutual) gender relations.
Equal rights without discrimination : probing the experiences of lesbian students at the University of KwaZulu-Natal.
(2015) Mutambara, Marcia Victoria.; Naidu, Uma Maheshvari.
The gap between human rights and sexual identities has gained much attention in the world. Despite the heated resentment of homosexuality in Africa, South Africa is the only African state which has embraced equal rights for all people despite their sexual orientation. However, this has not been a means to end the heinous and disturbing acts of violence and discrimination against LGBTI (Lesbians, gays, bisexual, transgender and intersex) persons. It is evident that though the South African constitution is versatile and inclusive to all rights, the society is not as liberal as the legislation in recognizing the significance of sexual rights. This study therefore, ascertains the extent to which these rights are consolidated and upheld in Higher Education Institutions like the University of KwaZulu-Natal. Using the responsibility to protect norm and social constructivism and social identity theories, the study explored the experiences of a small group of self-identifying lesbian students at the university. Findings reveal that most lesbian students encounter discrimination and social stigma on university premises. The social stigma perpetuates the silencing of some of the students’ sexual identities, and silencing of one’s sexuality constructs the dynamics which make the heteronormative status strengthened suppressing the lesbian status. Findings also reveal that most of the participants felt vulnerable and unsafe. The study in turn recommends that there has to be more active awareness programs and a more specific policy that rules out discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. The study concludes that it is the responsibility of Higher Education Institutions to make sure that all student rights are catered for.
Experiences of people living with HIV/AIDS in a plural health care system: probing tensions and complexities.
(2018) Darong, Gabriel Gyang.; Naidu, Uma Maheshvari.; Moshabela, Matlagolo Mosa.
HIV/AIDS is treated biomedically. People living with HIV (PLHIV) are expected to strictly adhere to active antiretroviral treatment (ART) prescribed by biomedical health practitioners in order to “progress” on the cascade of care. Poor progression on the cascade of care, however, has been shown to exist amongst PLHIV. The use of multiple health systems – biomedicine, traditional healing and religious healing, known as medical pluralism, has been said to be a contributing factor in the poor adherence to HIV testing and treatment. Some PLHIV, however, have been shown to be in care while practicing medical pluralism. Thus, this study explores the experiences of such PLHIV in their practice of medical pluralism, especially how navigate the systems and treatments utilised. This study was conducted at the Hlabisa sub-District, a rural area in uMkhanyakude District of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, though qualitative ethnography. Eighteen participants were recruited using theoretical and purposive sampling. Nine PLHIV were the primary participants in the study. Of the nine PLHIV, four were also traditional healers. The other nine participants, made up of five biomedical healthcare practitioners, three traditional healers and one faith/religious healer, were the secondary participants. The study found that the PLHIV in the study consciously made concurrent, parallel or sequential use of plural healthcare for various health conditions when they believed such conditions can best or only be treated using specific health systems. None of the participants sought to “treat” or “cure” HIV using health systems outside biomedicine. The study found that some of the participants refused initiation into ART due to the attitude of the biomedical health practitioners towards the participants’ use of plural health. Primary participants who maintained their ART all reported to have had suppressed viral loads and high CD4 counts. Their health-seeking behaviours can be seen as an expression of their agency. Hence, rather than excluding them from using basic primary health services due to their plural health use, a better understanding and appreciation of their reasons, motivations, and manners of practising medical pluralism is needed. This will aid in the development of health programmes that better cater for their health needs.
An exploration of the lives and livelihoods of African professional migrants in institutions of higher learning : the case of University of KwaZulu-Natal.
(2009) Otu, Monica Njanjokuma.; Ojong, Vivian Besem.; Naidu, Uma Maheshvari.
This study focuses on the lives and livelihoods of foreign African academics at UKZN. The study attempts to unpack the driving forces behind their decision to migrate and why South Africa has become a preferred destination for these migrants. It explores the kind of networks that inform them of employment opportunities that are available in institutions of higher learning in South Africa. It also sets out to explore the kind of skills possessed by these migrants that are needed for the development of skills in the institution. Research findings reveal a combination of micro and macro factors as reasons surrounding foreign African professional migrancy in South Africa. Macro factors are subsumed under general and structural reasons which include high unemployment rates, corruption, nepotism, and other forms of political oppressions and infrastructural problems. Over and above the relative viability of South African institutions with modern technological facilities and well organised curricular and material structures serve as major attractions to foreign African professional migrancy into the country. The factors of cultural affinity and geographical proximity are also among the reasons that foreign African academics at UKZN cited for their migration into South Africa. The individual in this study constitutes the basic unit in providing a more nuanced understanding of why this group of foreigners migrated to South Africa. In this regard personal reasons such as family pressure and change of geographical space form an integral part of reasons surrounding their migrancy in South Africa. Following the professional convenience that UKZN offers, this research showcases the desire expressed by various migrants under this study to pursue and establish a scholarship that would promote and legitimise Africa as an intellectual space of knowledge production. Being a “Premier University of African Scholarship”, professional migrants from the rest of the continent have indicated their willingness to dedicate their services within their different capacities to develop a curriculum that meets the needs of South Africa and Africa. The study shows some contributions that foreign academic are making in the development of the institution. From a social perspective the study highlights how professional African migrants have reconstructed gender roles and household constitution. Transnational migration as shown by this study reveals changing patterns in gender as African women just like the men are engaged in transnational activities for economic and career advancement. African women with educational skills whether married or unmarried have independently undertaken the decision to migrate for economic and social upliftment.
Exploring constructions of masculinity among young men in the context of poverty: a case study of Kenneth Gardens, Durban.
(2016) Dlamini, Melusi Andile Charles.; Naidu, Uma Maheshvari.
This study explored how young masculinities are constructed and enacted in the context of poverty, unemployment and violence. It sought to understand how poverty shaped young men’s identities, and how they navigated the salient challenges in their lives. The study draws from ethnographic data collected in Kenneth Gardens in Durban, which focused on a group of unemployed men aged between 19 and 30. The study concerns itself with how young masculinities are shaped by social and economic dynamics that unfold in the lives of the young men. This study used the concept of structural violence and adopted a constructionist approach in order to interpret the data collected in the field. The participants’ narratives suggested a dissonance between the young men’s personal circumstances and their aspirations, which demonstrated limited agency. The social and economic marginality of the participants facilitated the emergence of ‘impoverished masculinities’ among the young men, which was marked by the recurrent use of substances and violence. ‘Violent masculinities’ also emerged among the participants as a reaction to instances of victimisation within and around their community. Moreover, the study explored how unemployment and poverty influenced the young men’s enactments of masculinity in relation women as intimate partners. In the study, women were often (hyper)sexualised and objectified, with sexual relationships used as sites of negotiation and resistance in the context of disempowering material conditions. In a context that is increasingly challenging for young people, poverty and unemployment deepened the marginalisation the young men and resulted in the enactment of potentially destructive masculinities. Overall, the data suggests that the context of social and economic marginality lead to limitations in life choices that severely limited the agency of the young men and profoundly affected the construction of young masculinities in Kenneth Gardens.
Exploring the experience of cyberstalking among female students in Tanzanian Universities: a case study of the University of Dar es Salaam.
(2021) Kavishe, Angela Mathias.; Naidu, Uma Maheshvari.
With the current advancement in digitisation, cyberstalking is increasingly being recognised to be a serious global social challenge, especially among university students. This kind of online harassment is characterised by persistent pursuit and monitoring of a victim performed by a determined perpetrator that induces fear or feeling of being unsafe on the harassed person. Cyberstalking has been researched in developed countries. However, in Africa, limited information is available on cyberstalking. This study aimed at exploring how digital technology creates new platforms of violence on the university campus and how university institutional facilities are prepared to curb cyberstalking. The study was guided by the Technological Social Change, Feminists Theory and Cyberfeminism theories. The study was undertaken online at the University of Dar es Salaam, involving 424 female students and 15 key informants. Data were collected using an online questionnaire, interviews, and FGD, as well as documentary review. The 424 female students filled the questionnaire; among them, 30 who had experienced cyberstalking were interviewed while 30 others participated in OFGD; the 15 key informants were also interviewed. The study used a sequential explanatory mixed method. The findings indicate that 172 (40.6%) among the 424 respondents experienced cyberstalking. The cyberstalkers were mainly men who claimed intimate and sexual relationships with the female students. By using video and audio calls; they intimidated, sexually harassed and defamed in social media. Others hijacked victims’ identities and monitored victims’ movements and activities. The study found that these harassments were founded on the longstanding societal mentality that women are subordinate to men. These attitudes transpired in silencing women’s voices, exploiting their bodies in the physical world, and now the ICT enable harassment in cyberspace. The victimised female students reported having felt their right to privacy, freedom of expression, movement, and life were violated. The study found that online methods were sometimes accompanied by physical harassment such as rape and fraud. While all these happen, the University was unaware of the harassment practices and the impact to the university community and status of the institution. Therefore, the study recommends the need to challenge the existing gendered power relations which legitimise online violence.
From practice to policy : a critical study of the perceptions and use of the female condom by women in Durban.
(2012) Mkhize, Nonhlanhla.; Naidu, Uma Maheshvari.
The study aims to probe the perceptions and experiences of using female condoms for women living in Durban. The study probes these perceptions and experiences within the embedded socio-cultural and gendered dynamics that influence, not only the perception and understanding of the female condom, but their gendered use as well. The study was premised on the understanding that female condoms or FCs are a ‘female initiated’ prevention method in preventing unplanned pregnancy, and most importantly in protecting against STIs and HIV/AIDS. The study also assumed that, given the feminized face of the AIDS pandemic, FCs could potentially be an empowering contraceptive tool with which women can exercise control over their own bodies and some control within their sexual relationships; negotiating safer sex, preventing pregnancy and the transmission of STIs like HIV. Mixed methods were used to collect data, using methodological tools such as a questionnaire, focus groups and in-depth interviews with participants from Chatsworth, Durban Central, Inanda, Lamontville, and Wentworth.
Gender and climate change adaptation in South Africa: a case study of vulnerability and adaptation experiences of local black African women to flood impacts within the eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality.
(2020) Udo, Fidelis Joseph.; Naidu, Uma Maheshvari.
This dissertation contributes towards the scholarly debate on gender and climate change adaptation. This is done by exploring the vulnerability and adaptation experiences of local Black Africans to impacts of floods within eThekwini metropolitan municipality, KwaZulu- Natal Province, South Africa. Specifically, the discourse in the dissertation is framed within the context of being a local Black South African woman living in rural/informal flood-prone area of Durban and having to negotiate everyday lived experiences while adapting to impacts of floods and other climate-related disasters. The dissertation is premised on the assumption that local women’s experiences of vulnerability and adaptation to climate-related impacts is significantly influenced by socioeconomic, cultural, sociopolitical, gendered, racial and other significant factors of power relations largely operating within the local context. The dissertation applied a qualitative case study approach to research. Primary data for the study was collected through semi-structured in-depth interviews and focus group discussions with Black women from Inanda, Ntuzuma, KwaMashu (INK) and uMlazi localities of eThekwini metropolitan municipality. Purposive sampling was used to select local Black women who have had experiences adapting to flood impacts within the area. Personnel from the Environmental Planning and Climate Protection Department, ECPCD of the eThekwini metropolitan municipality were also interviewed. Data collection processes sought to garner data relating to the women’s experiences of vulnerability and adaptation to flood impacts, as well as how the municipality addresses gendered vulnerability of Black women within the municipality to floods and other climate change-related disasters. The study adopted a thematic content analysis and was informed by three theoretical lenses: feminist political ecology, critical realism and the Theory of Change. These theories enabled an understanding of how gender intersects with race and class to shape Black women’s experiences as they adapt to climate impacts, as assessed within the contexts presented in this study. The study found that while Black women negotiate their climate adaptation experiences from their varied individual standpoints, their overall adaptation experiences are further shaped by factors related to poverty, lack of ‘intentionally gendered’ approach to adaptation governance in the municipality, as well as socio-cultural normalisation of patriarchal tendencies by men against women which heightens the vulnerability Black women experience in adapting to flood impacts. To address the contextual vulnerability experiences of the women in the context of the study, the study recommends a collaborative governance model that intentionally seeks to address gendered vulnerability from the women’s varied contextual standpoints.
Gendered a (symmetries): probing experiences of sexual coercion among female students at a Zimbabwean university.
(2018) Mukwidigwi, Tariro.; Naidu, Uma Maheshvari.
Overtones of ‘docility’, ‘passivity’ and ‘vulnerability’ characterise representations of female university students’ sexuality. Working within a gendered and feminist framework, I draw on the lived experiences of sexual coercion among female university students to understand the extent to which female students enact or challenge these assertions. Experiences of sexual coercion among female university students offered a potent context to explore matrices of power and subsequent exercise of sexual power, agency and subjectivity by the victims. I also examine how female university students perceive and interpret their experiences of sexual coercion. I further sought to understand the extent to which these interpretations and experiences were culturally and socially conscripted. The theoretical, methodological and analytical underpinnings of this study were informed by social constructionist epistemology. I adopted a sequential explanatory mixed-method design which gives pre-eminence to qualitative and interpretive methods. I utilised a survey questionnaire in the initial phases of research followed by interpretive methods including in-depth interviews, focus group discussions and observation. Analysis and interpretation of data was done using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences, thematic and content analysis. The study findings are presented in the form of tables, graphs and themes which emerged from the inquiry. The narratives of female university students presented a sexually volatile context. Their experiences and interpretations of sexual coercion were an interplay of social, cultural and individual factors. Though sexual coercion was endemic at the university, it was highly marginalised and underreported. The findings of this study present a dissent from notions of sexual passivity and docility held in extant literature. Overt and subtle reactions to sexual coercion in the form of negotiations, antagonistic reactions and (re)construction of dominant sexual practices and norms by female university students demonstrated significant levels of agency, subjectivity and power. Constructions of femininity among some female students were framed around sexual control, autonomy, independence and assertiveness illustrated by an emerging group of “sexually empowered” female university students. The study findings inform interventions which consider female university students as active and agentic beings.
Gendered behaviour on social media: probing the role of Instagram in perpetuating the curvaceous body ideal.
(2018) Mthethwa, Yolanda Lungile.; Naidu, Uma Maheshvari.
The ambiguous messages conveyed by society through the media, particularly social media, have masked the extent to which such prescriptions and ideals harm and deter women from being their true selves. Internalisation of the media body ideal is an adoption of a socially defined body ideal as a personal standard (Knauss & Paxton, 2008). This qualitative study attempts to probe the role of Instagram in perpetuating the curvaceous body ideal. The study is built upon a social constructionism framework and black feminism theory. Deep and thick narratives were collected from young black women at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, ranging between the ages of 18 to 30 years and who are Instagram users. Findings reveal that participants are aware of the curvaceous body trend and to some extent are affected by the trend. Results also showed that some of the participants had a sense of pride in who they are and their uniqueness and did not feel the pressure to conform to the bodies seen on Instagram. The study revealed that the majority of the participants felt that peers of the same gender put the most pressure on women to look a certain way or to have body image concerns, either through social media or in person.
Glaring invisibility: dressing the body of the female cleaner.
(University of Western Cape., 2009) Naidu, Uma Maheshvari.
The paper explores how the uniform of a group of female cleaners appears to be more than an abstract object framed by the practical exegetics of work. The uniform is seen as acting as a material exercise of discretionary and disciplinary power of inscription, and as the paper shows, emerges as a mode by which the cleaners are homogenously objectified and plastically turned into ‘subjects’ (Foucault 1982). The paper shows too that while the single layered cleaners’ uniform can be seen as disciplining the body and stripping down the complex multi-layers of their personality and attempting to naturalise their status as cleaners, the women’s narratives reveal their attempts to destabilise this conscription, if only outside the spatial and organisational domain of the work space.