With the inclusion of sexual orientation in the Equality clause of the post-Apartheid constitution which demands equal rights and protection for all individuals regardless of sexual orientation, South Africa has been praised as one of the most liberal countries in the world. Because of this legal equality, gay and lesbian experiences have become a lot more visible in every day South African lives. This includes visibility in South African television programmes and film. Today, a number of South African produced television programmes have included at least one lesbian character in their storyline and many LGBTIQ activist organisations have deemed this increased visibility as a positive step for LGBTIQ rights. However, discriminatory discourses such as same-sex sexualities as 'un-African ' and unnatural, which often result in brutal hate crimes against LGBTIQ individuals (such as corrective rape), contribute to the social and cultural intolerance of same-sex sexualities. South African research into the lives of lesbian women has often related lesbian experience to that of gay men or has focused on lesbian women as victims of corrective rape and oppressive practices at the hands of the dominant heteronormative culture. This research was a discursive reception study, using three focus group discussions with self-identified lesbian audiences (black and white). The study explored how this audience received (interpreted/talked about) the available fictional representations of 'black' lesbian women and 'white' lesbian women in three clips from two South African television programmes, Society and The Mating Game. Using Wetherell's (1998) critical discursive psychology approach, this research focused on examining the 1) Subject positions made available in/by these representations; 2) Interpretive repertoires used by the audience in appropriating and/or negotiating and/or reSisting these subject positions; and 3) Ideological dilemmas experienced by participants in this negotiation process. The predominant subject positions made available in these representations were differentiated according to binary racial categories of white lesbian women and black lesbian women. For example, participants positioned white lesbian women as "lumberjacks" and "tomboys" while black lesbian women were positioned as "township lesbians" and "hood rats". In working with these subject positions, participants drew on interpretative repertoires of othering and otherness as well as interpretative repertoires of survival. In negotiating with these subject positions and others found in the discussions, ideological dilemmas often arose when participants found themselves having to draw on interpretative repertoires which extend from a heteronormative discourse. These kinds of interpretative repertoires included religion, nature, and compromise which contradicted and created a troubled position when used in relation to the participants' lesbian sexualities. Therefore, when the ideological dilemma and troubled position became apparent, participants had to work to repair the troubled position by justifying their use of these heteronormative interpretative repertoires.

As mudanças sociais das últimas décadas têm gerado profundas alterações na forma de se estabelecer vínculos afetivos, dando origem a múltiplas configurações familiares. Entre estas novas famílias, destacam-se as relações de conjugalidade e de parentalidade entre casais homossexuais, tema central desta pesquisa. Nosso foco de análise foi o modo como estão sendo vivenciadas as conjugalidades e as parentalidades entre mulheres lésbicas. A amostra se constituiu de sete mulheres que mantém uma relação amorosa com outras mulheres e nestas relações, compartilham os cuidados com um ou dois filhos. Procuramos compreender o universo afetivo destas mulheres a partir de suas narrativas. Todas elas residiam, na ocasião da entrevista, na Região Metropolitana do Recife, pertenciam à camada sociocultural média e se encontravam na faixa etária entre 30 e 46 anos. Os indicadores sociais levados em consideração para definir a camada social foram: grau de instrução, profissão, local de convivência e renda mensal. Embora não tenha sido pré-requisito para a nossa investigação, todas elas vivenciaram uma ou duas conjugalidades heterossexuais anteriores. Estas relações lhes possibilitaram o acesso aos filhos. Seis delas são mães biológicas e uma é mãe adotiva. A entrevista teve início com uma questão disparadora, a saber: Como está a sua conjugalidade no momento e como é compartilhar esta relação com o(s) filho(s)?. As narrativas foram submetidas a uma Análise de Conteúdo. Foram identificados três principais núcleos de sentido: a condição homossexual; a conjugalidade entre as mulheres e o exercício da parentalidade neste casal. A condição homossexual mostrou que a homossexualidade destas mulheres nunca foi algo fixo. Ela surgiu com o tempo, a partir de desejos condutores de uma prática sexual calcada na afetividade e na possibilidade de novas descobertas frente ao exercício da sexualidade. A conjugalidade é vivenciada como uma experiência prazerosa, apesar dos desafios enfrentados junto ao processo transitório de um relacionamento heterossexual para um homossexual. Todas as participantes apostam nestas novas relações, pois encontram nos seus acordos relacionais, as possibilidades afetivas de uma conjugalidade igualitária. Assim, a relação de parentalidade surge para complementar uma dinâmica familiar baseada na possibilidade do casal compartilhar junto aos vínculos afetivos, as responsabilidades necessárias à criação dos filhos / Social changes in the last decades have been generating profound alterations in the way how affective relationships are established, originating multiple family configurations. Among these new families, we highlight the conjugality and parenthood relations in homosexual couples, which are the central thematic of this research. We focused our analysis on how lesbian women are living conjugality and parenthood. Our sample was constituted by seven women, who maintain a love relationship with other women and, in these relations, share the caring with one or two children. We aimed to understand the affective universe of these women through their narratives. By the time of the interview, all of them were residents in Recife Metropolitan Region and had middle class social status, with ages varying from 30 to 46 years old. To classify social status the following social indicators were used: formal education level, profession, residence location and monthly income. Although it was not a prerequisite for our investigation, all of them had experienced one or two previous heterosexual conjugalities. Those relationships made possible the access to children. Six of them are biological mothers and one of them is an adoptive one. The interview began with a starter question, which was: how is your conjugality at the moment and how is it to share this relationship with your kid(s)? The narratives were submitted to Content Analysis. Three units of meaning were identified: the homosexual condition, conjugality between women and parenthood in the couple. The homosexual condition showed that those womens homosexuality was never something permanent. It appeared with time, through the desire of a sexual practice based on affectivity and on the possibility of new findings regarding the exercise of sexuality. Conjugality is lived as a pleasant experience, despite the challenges faced in the transition from a heterosexual to a homosexual relationship. All of the participants trust on these new relations, as they find in their relationship contracts the affective possibilities of a equalitarian parenthood. Therefore, the parenthood relation supplements a family dynamics based on the couples possibility to share affective bonds and the necessary responsibilities of raising the children

Made available in DSpace on 2016-08-16T18:10:31Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao Andrea.pdf: 848272 bytes, checksum: 62dc9d12e92a89b8282837c4dc1d6815 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-12-18 / This paper proposes the representations of homoerotic practices study in some brazilian movies from through poststructuralist theories. It is intended,therefore,to analyze the construction of characters and homoerotic practices in our cinema through the analysis of six Brazilian films . Judith Butler, for example, proposes to analyze sexuality questions in order to destabilizing categories as female or homosexuality.From the six analyzed movies and the other narratives raised, it was intended to discuss Sexual Diversity issues as discrimination, prejudice, oppression, violence, intending after this work completion, offer a comprehensive and critical view about the representation of homoerotic practices in national cinema and, also, about our society. / O presente trabalho propõe o estudo das representações das práticas homoeróticas em alguns filmes do cinema brasileiro através dos vieses pósestruturalistas. Pretende-se, assim, analisar a construção de personagens e práticas homoeróticas em nosso cinema através da análise de seis longasmetragens brasileiras. A proposta de teóricas como Butler, por exemplo, é analisar a sexualidade de forma questionadora, desestabilizando categorias até então essencializadas como o feminino ou a homossexualidade. A partir, portanto, dos seis longas analisados e das demais narrativas levantadas, pretendeu-se discutir questões caras à Diversidade Sexual na atualidade, isto é, discriminação, preconceito, opressão, violências; intencionando, assim, com a conclusão deste trabalho, oferecer um panorama abrangente e crítico da representação das práticas homoeróticas no cinema nacional e, consequentemente, na nossa sociedade.

Abstract The present study examines three novels by Finnish women – Johanna Sinisalo, Pirkko Saisio and Helena Sinervo – each of whom has received the Finlandia Prize for fiction. The novels Ennen päivänlaskua ei voi (2000), Punainen erokirja (2003) and Runoilijan talossa (2004) are analysed in the context of contemporary cultural change in which queer themes have become not only a visible part of cultural representations of gender and sexuality but also active constituents of the established cultural canon. The study considers the varieties of gendered and sexual meaning which are generated by this fiction and – as the novels in question deal with non-normative sexuality – it also discusses how these issues were manifested in their reception. Additionally, it investigates the problematics of a literary genre which thematises non-normative sexuality. Beyond its engagement with the interrelationship between the selected novels (along with their social context) and the present culture, institutions and canon, the study also concerns itself with the question of how non-normative sexuality is addressed and discussed in literature and its reception. The novels are examined as products of a context in which their publication had seemed like a swift, yet appropriate, response to a cultural need for the creation of new, 'liberal' and 'progressive' queer representations. In addition, they are approached as works with specific queer-political agendas, aimed at opposing and deranging the hetero establishment. The analysis of the novels is consequently grounded in the politics of performativity, queer theory and the problematics of its domestic contextualisation, taking account, too, of the intersection between performativity and queer reading. This methodology is called queer political reading. The novels under investigation participate in the cultural, societal, social and discursive processes that use gender and sexuality to construct meaning. The fact that they have also received the Finlandia Prize connects them to a wider context, into a contemporary culture and society, which places sexuality at its centre. Where wide and far-reaching gender issues, brought about by cultural, intellectual, judicial and political changes, marked the turn of the 20th century, the turn of the present century is more explicitly sexual in character, facilitated by contemporary phenomena – such as the epochal changes in theories of gender and sexuality, or legislation and presentations of sexual culture, which have manifested themselves over recent years. Nevertheless, it would seem that discussions of queerness tend to remain allusive and implied rather than explicit, taking not only peculiar but also traditional forms, in which the rhetoric of the closet is used extensively. On the one hand, queerness is quite visible in representations of sexuality. But on the other hand, the reception of that queerness remains largely in the closet. This suggests that – particularly on institutional levels – queer themes can be rendered explicit only when it remains contextually suitable. / Tiivistelmä Tutkimus tarkastelee kolmen kirjallisuuden Finlandia-palkinnolla palkitun naiskirjailijan, Johanna Sinisalon, Pirkko Saision ja Helena Sinervon palkintoromaaneja Ennen päivänlaskua ei voi (2000), Punainen erokirja (2003) ja Runoilijan talossa (2004). Teoksia analysoidaan osana nykyistä kulttuurista käännettä, jossa heteronormatiivisuutta kyseenalaistavat, queerit kulttuurituotteet ovat tulleet osaksi sukupuolen ja seksuaalisuuden kulttuurisia esityksiä ja jopa osaksi hyväksyttyä kulttuurista kaanonia. Tutkimuksessa kysytään, millaisia sukupuolen ja seksuaalisuuden merkityksiä Sinisalon, Saision ja Sinervon normienvastaista seksuaalisuutta käsittelevät teokset tuottavat ja miten aiheet tulevat esille vastaanotossa. Lisäksi pohditaan normienvastaisia seksuaalisuuksia käsittelevän kirjallisuuden lajiproblematiikkaa. Tutkimuksessa tarkastellaan paitsi teosten, myös niiden yhteiskunnallisen kontekstin kautta nykyistä kulttuuriin ja sen instituutioihin ja jopa kaanoniin kytkeytyviä tapoja, joilla normien vastaisista seksuaalisuuksista puhutaan ja kirjoitetaan sekä kirjallisuudessa että sen vastaanotossa. Romaaneja tutkitaan siinä kulttuurisessa kontekstissa, jossa niiden julkaiseminen vaikuttaa äkkiseltään sopivalta vastaukselta kulttuurin tarpeeseen saada uudenlaista, "vapaamielisyydestä" ja "edistyksellisyydestä" kertovia queer-esityksiä. Toisaalta niitä lähestytään teoksina, joilla on queer-poliittisia, heterojärjestystä vastustamaan ja sekoittamaan pyrkiviä tavoitteita. Teosten tarkastelu liitetään osaksi performatiivisuuden politiikkojen sekä queer-teoretisoinnin ja sen kotimaisen kontekstualisoinnin problematiikan tutkimusta, performatiivisen ja queer-luennan risteyskohtaan. Tätä tutkimuksen menetelmää kutsutaan queer-poliittiseksi luennaksi. Sinisalon, Saision ja Sinervon romaanit osallistuvat osaltaan siihen kulttuuriseen, yhteiskunnalliseen, sosiaaliseen ja diskursiiviseen prosessiin, jossa työstetään ja rakennetaan sukupuolten ja seksuaalisuuksien merkityksiä. Se, että ne ovat saaneet myös kirjallisuuden Finlandia-palkinnon, kiinnittää ne laajempaan kontekstiin, nykykulttuuriin ja -yhteiskuntaan, joiden keskeiseksi kysymykseksi seksuaalisuus on muotoutunut. Siinä missä 1800–1900-lukujen vaihdetta kuvasti laaja ja kauaskantoinen sukupuoliproblematiikka, jolle aikaan sidottu kulttuurinen, intellektuaalinen, oikeusjärjestelmällinen ja poliittinen muutos raivasi tilaa, tämän vuosisadanvaihteen murros liittyy seksuaalisuuteen, jonka raivaajina ovat samankaltaiset, omaan aikaansa kytkeytyneet ilmiöt: jopa käänteentekevät muutokset sukupuoli- ja seksuaaliteorioissa, lainsäädännöissä ja seksuaalisuuden kulttuurisissa esityksissä. Näyttäisi kuitenkin siltä, että julkisissa keskusteluissa queeriudesta ei vieläkään puhuta kaikissa yhteyksissä suoraan vaan vihjaillen ja mitä eriskummallisimmin mutta usein silti hyvin perinteisin, kaapin retoriikkaa hyväkseen käyttävin sanankääntein: queer on yhtäältä kovin läsnä ja pinnassa seksuaalisuuden representaatioissa, mutta samalla esimerkiksi vastaanotossa monin ehdoin kaapissa. Näyttäisi siltä, että piilevästä queeriudesta huolimatta etenkin instituutiotasolla queer-tematiikka on näkyvää vain silloin, kun se on paikan ja tilanteen mukaan sopivaa.

The aim of the study was to gain a holistic understanding of the lived experiences of four South African, black, Xhosa-speaking lesbians in Nelson Mandela Bay. Contextual, exploratory, descriptive qualitative research based on a phenomenological approach was conducted and analysed through interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). A combination of purposive and snowball sampling was used to recruit participants and semistructured in-depth interviews were conducted with four South African adult, black, Xhosaspeaking females of homosexual orientation between the ages of 18 to 35 years. Findings indicate that the participants experience the following: (a) sexual development as a major influence on their sexual- and self-identity, (b) homosexual sexual orientation had a psychological impact on their lives, (c) they have a holistic understanding of who they are, and this understanding of themselves, has positively influenced their lives, (d) their homosexual sexual orientation has influenced the personal relationships in their lives in both positive and negative ways, (e) society has influenced their lives both positively and negatively because of their homosexual sexual orientation , (f) social networking can act as a risk to unintentional disclosure of homosexual sexual orientation and (g) they have experienced discrimination in various areas of their lives because of their homosexual sexual orientation. Some suggestions for future research included exploring lesbian stereotypes within the broader society, as well as inside the black lesbian community and examining the so-called differences between city and township lesbians with an emphasis on beliefs, attitudes, practices, subcultures and gender identity issues.

No description available.

The separate sphere ideology, dominant but never hegemonic in Victorian Britain, dictated that women’s natural vocation was to be wives and mothers. Between the years 1850 to 1901, the surplus woman problem and a nascent feminist movement challenged the separate sphere ideology. It was also reinforced by imperialist ideologies that held the British family as a sign of Britain’s superiority, and eugenics which placed great importance on heterosexual marriage and reproduction. How did novelists, especially women novelists, respond to the challenges against the separate sphere ideology? How did they depict unconventional women such as surplus women, women who behaved in transgressive ways, feminist women, lesbians, and women who were in interracial relationships? The conventional narrative stressed the importance of marriage, and unconventional characters either reformed themselves or met tragic fates. This remained consistent throughout the second half of the 19th century. At mid-century, unconventional women were the ones who rejected marriage, had an affair, etc. As women began to gain rights in education, work, and civic rights, the temptations that drew middle class women away from conventional life shifted to wanting to work or becoming feminists. Novels also depicted alien others, such as lesbians and non-white people, as menaces and threats to conventional marriage. Acceptable unconventionalities were limited: it was acceptable for women to be unconventional if they were exceptional or they broke one convention but upheld another, such as motherhood. At the end of the century, New Women novelists and other novelists that sympathetically depicted unconventional women critiqued the separate sphere ideology, but were overwhelmingly pessimistic about the possibility that women could escape convention.

This study has analyzed five different judgments from the colonial anti-sodomy law Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code using the frameworks of Foucauldian genealogical discourse, and Judith Butler’s heterosexual matrix. The aim was to understand and expose how sexuality and lesbianism were constructed within these judgments and to make the norms within the discourses visible. The findings showed sexuality as dependent on a heterosexual and gender-binary norm. Gender hierarchy creates structures of the gender binary that positioned the man in the center of sexual interaction, desire, and sexuality. In contrast, the woman played a passive and often invisible, and nonsexual role. Further, the gender hierarchy produced a sexual hierarchy with natural heterosexuality as the most desirable. To maintain good heterosexuality, differentiation was crucial hence the undesirable and perverted male homosexuality acted as a hostile opposition. Due to the role of women as passive lesbianism appeared invisible. The discourse of the nonsexual woman made lesbian sexuality unimaginable. As a consequence, the lesbian was assumed asexual.

No description available.

In this thesis I propose that the representation of the prison is an untapped and valuable resource for non-traditional representations of the queered male, homo-sex and sexualities. I draw together texts on prison and sexuality from the 1800s to the 2000s in order to discuss the representation of prison in light of what it adds to a wider historical understanding of sexuality. The thesis is broadly chronological in form, analysing academic and theoretical texts in context alongside popular cultural representations. I reassess the ways in which sexuality is viewed and understood over time, and place homosexuality within the framework of wider male sexuality as represented in the prison. I theorise a re-imagining of homosexuality within normative male sexuality and I challenge the concept of ‘situational sex' through the complex issues behind understandings of sex in prison. My research methodology includes close textual analysis of representations of prison in literature, film and television alongside academic and theoretical texts on sexuality, gender and queer theory. Each chapter focuses on specific cultural texts, including Against the Law (1957), Birdman of Alcatraz (1962) Short Eyes (1977), Scum (1977, 1979) and Oz (1997-2003). By drawing the representations and the theories together I am able to provide a re-reading of the texts within a recognition of sexual fluidity and the reclassification of heterosexual males and gender hierarchies. In my research I argue that the representation of sex in prison re-writes sexuality and contributes to a reading of the queering potential of the cultural representation of prison. With this method I challenge conventional understandings of sexuality as well as perceptions of how male sexuality is viewed in popular culture. I argue that the cultural representation of the prison is a site of queer potentiality in form, idea and context and is a means to re-imagine male sexuality.