published_or_final_version / Social Work / Master / Master of Social Work

A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Art, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Media Studies, 2017 / ABSTRACT Practices of Pleasure: Exploring porn consumption in South Africa Despite its enormous global lucrative charge, porn remains an under-researched topic in media studies, especially in Africa. Consumption theories which shed light on how people acquire, use and dispose of products (Aldridge 2003) can be used to explain the various ways people attain pornography and their motivations. In the context of South Africa, where pornography only became legal 20 years ago (1996), we still don’t have sufficient research that illuminates on the uses leading to the expansion of explicit media. Most research projects addressing the topic of porn in South Africa porn do so by engaging its textuality and discourses surrounding it. Pamela Ramlagun’s work on teenage girl’s consumption of porn is the only known work in South Africa to tackle pornography through those who use it. Still, this work is mainly qualitative and does not offer an encompassing national outlook. It is also not clear how South African porn consumption practices deviate from or converge with other consumption practices in other global economies. What can pornography consumption in South Africa tell us about South Africans? This research proposes to find out “why do people watch porn?” (motivations), “which types of porn do people watch?” (preferences), “what are people hoping to get when they watch porn?” (needs) and “what do people think about certain aspects of porn?” (beliefs). In determining the various consumption patterns of pornography consumers, this study utilised a mixed method approach, a large anonymous survey and in depth interviews. A total of 676 survey responses and 25 in depth interviews were recruited. Phase 1 of this research comprised the survey stage. An online questionnaire which remained open for 6 months gave porn consumers within the country an opportunity to participate in the study. The survey was hosted on an online survey hosting site called Qualtrics so that anyone in South Africa could access it. Information about the survey was advertised on the Sunday Times newspaper which is considered the largest weekly paper nationally. Various online fora such as Chat24, ZaGossip, Facebook and Blogspot were also used to mete out information regarding the study. Readers were informed the research sought to investigate porn usage in the South Africa and that in order to participate they had to be porn consumers, be at least 18 years of age, and be residing in South Africa at the time of completing the questionnaire. The link to the online questionnaire was also included. Once all the survey data had been collected, I exported it to SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) for analyses. Phase 2 of the data collection process comprised interviews. Interview respondents chose their preferred mode of interviewing i.e. a face-to-face session, a recorded phone-call conversation, a WhatsApp mobile chat or an online live-chat. Information about the interview phase was distributed on Blogspot, Facebook and Chat24. All participants of the survey were guaranteed both anonymity and confidentiality. Where it was impossible to grant anonymity to the interview respondents (e.g. face-to-face interviews) confidentiality was assured. Interviews were transcribed and a coding schema was manually developed for the analyses of the interview data. Data reveals that African1 porn consumers often use borrowed, pirated and free porn whereas their white counterparts mostly afford to buy original DVD’s or pay for home internet which they use to download and/or stream quality porn material. Porn is thus revealed to be a commodity whose attainment reflects national socio-economic inequalities where white minority citizens possess greater wealth than the African majority. In South Africa, porn also proves to fill the glaring crevices of sexual education in a prude socio-cultural milieu where many parents and educators deliberately eschew the topic of sex. Furthermore, South Africa is a nation bereft of access and circulation of its own porn with most porn consumers indicating to watch only international explicit content. Not surprisingly, many survey respondents felt there wasn’t enough porn in South Africa. Lastly, porn consumption in the country is modulated by a contradictory legal framework which grants sexual consent at age 16 yet disbars porn till adulthood, making many consumers who possess and view porn as teenagers criminally complicit. / GR2018

Not available / text

published_or_final_version / Journalism and Media Studies Centre / Master / Master of Journalism

No description available.

No description available.

Thesis (MA)--University of Stellenbosch, 2005. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis focuses on the representation of women in media aimed at women. A critical examination of visual communication (magazines, advertising and visual story-telling1) will demonstrate that the media may be regarded as highly influential in the way women perceive their bodies, reproduction and sexuality. I begin by examining the presentation of the ‘ideal’ woman as an instance of the Pygmalion complex. This reading of the media’s formulation of the female ideal aims to demonstrate the psychological effects of the Pygmalion complex on women, and illustrates how the resultant striving for perfection drives production and consumption. I shall demonstrate how the image of the ‘ideal’ woman is increasingly more sophisticated and convincingly portrayed through the use of digital manipulation, plastic surgery, excessive dieting and exercise regimes. I propose that the average woman is left feeling inadequate and is undermined by the voice of her own cultural representation. This thesis also investigates the persistence of the virgin / whore binary in the media’s depiction of female sexuality. I propose that this is an essentialist and dualistic presentation of female sexuality as either ‘good’ (surrendered, submissive and conforming – i.e. the virgin); or ‘bad’ (transgressive, explicit, dangerous and destructive – i.e. the whore). I further suggest that this polarised appropriation of women’s sexuality deprives women of ownership of their own sexuality. I also propose that the media’s treatment of female sexuality presents women as being in competition within one another for male attention and approval and that this representation damages female solidarity. Finally I demonstrate that pornography has infiltrated all aspects of popular culture, from magazines to music videos. My hypothesis is that this use of pornographic conventions depicts the rape and abuse of women as normative, commonplace and even entertaining, and that this has a detrimental effect on both women’s and men’s sexual and social wellbeing. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie tesis is gerig op hoe vroue in die media wat op vroue gerig is, verbeeld word. 'n Kritiese ondersoek van visuele kommunikasie (in tydskrifte, reklame en visuele verhaling2) sal toon hoe die media as uiters invloedryk beskou kan word ten opsigte van hoe vroue hul eie liggame, voortplanting en seksualiteit beskou. Ek begin deur die voorstelling van die 'ideale' vrou as 'n voorbeeld van die Pygmalionkompleks te ondersoek. Hierdie beskouing van die media se formulering van die ideaal van vrouwees is daarop gerig om die sielkundige effek van die Pygmalion-kompleks op vroue te demonstreer en illustreer hoe produksie en verbruik deur die strewe na perfeksie wat as gevolg van hierdie formulering ontstaan, aangedryf word. Ek sal toon hoe die beeld van die 'ideale' vrou, as meer en meer gesofistikeerd, oortuigend weergegee word deur middel van digitale manipulasie, plastiese snykunde, oormatige volg van diëte en oefenprogramme. Ek voer aan dat die gemiddelde vrou hierdeur met die gevoel gelaat word dat sy tekortskiet en ondermyn word deur die boodskap van die publikasies wat haar eie kulturele beeld verwoord. Hierdie tesis ondersoek ook die volhardendheid van die tweeledige voorstelling van vroulike seksualiteit in die beelding van maagd en hoer wat in die media aangebied word. Ek voer aan dat dit 'n wesenlike en dualistiese voorstelling van vroulike seksualiteit as óf 'goed' (uitgelewer, gedwee en konformerend – d.w.s. die maagd), óf 'sleg' (oortredend/sondig, eksplisiet, gevaarlik en vernietigend – d.w.s. die hoer) is. Ek stel verder voor dat hierdie gepolariseerde toe-eiening van die vrou se seksualiteit vrouens van eienaarskap van hul eie seksualiteit ontneem. Ek stel ook voor dat die voorstelling van die vrou se seksualiteit soos dit in die media aangebied word, suggereer dat vrouens ter wille van die aandag van 'n man en om goedkeuring te wen met mekaar kompeteer en dat hierdie voorstelling skade doen aan die gevoel van solidariteit tussen vroue. Ten slotte demonstreer ek hoe pornografie reeds alle aspekte van die populêre kultuur vanaf tydskrifte tot musiekvideos binnegedring het. My hipotese is dat hierdie gebruik van pornografiese konvensies die verkragting en mishandeling van vroue as normatief, alledaags en selfs vermaaklik uitbeeld en dat dit 'n nadelige effek het op die seksuele en die sosiale welsyn van mans sowel as vroue.

The aim of this qualitative research study was to explore the influences of pornographic material on the sexual exploitation of children. An interpretive research method, based on phenomenological principles, was followed. A total of 18 semistructured interviews were conducted with sentenced sex offenders who had committed an offence against a child (a person under the age of 18). The research findings, obtained through a process of interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA), highlighted personal and family characteristics that could increase individuals’ susceptibility to the effect of exposure to pornographic material. Moreover, it was found that early, recurrent exposure to pornography results in physical, cognitive and behavioural influences that considerably increase the level of sexual satisfaction and need for instantaneous sexual gratification. This uncontrollable need for sexual gratification often results in destructive behaviour such as addiction to pornographic material, criminal sexual acts involving children and damage to the family system. The effect of sexually explicit material is furthermore intensified by the availability of pornographic material on the Internet, which considerably increases the likelihood of individuals being exposed to a variety of pornographic images, including illegal material such as child pornography. Based on the outcomes of the research study, it can be concluded that pornography does have an effect on human behaviour in relation to the sexual exploitation of children which necessitates the effective regulation of pornographic material, especially on the Internet, and the evaluation of the help profession’s approach to effectively deal with issues stemming from exposure to pornographic material / Psychology / D.Litt. et Phil. (Psychology)

The aim of this qualitative research study was to explore the influences of pornographic material on the sexual exploitation of children. An interpretive research method, based on phenomenological principles, was followed. A total of 18 semistructured interviews were conducted with sentenced sex offenders who had committed an offence against a child (a person under the age of 18). The research findings, obtained through a process of interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA), highlighted personal and family characteristics that could increase individuals’ susceptibility to the effect of exposure to pornographic material. Moreover, it was found that early, recurrent exposure to pornography results in physical, cognitive and behavioural influences that considerably increase the level of sexual satisfaction and need for instantaneous sexual gratification. This uncontrollable need for sexual gratification often results in destructive behaviour such as addiction to pornographic material, criminal sexual acts involving children and damage to the family system. The effect of sexually explicit material is furthermore intensified by the availability of pornographic material on the Internet, which considerably increases the likelihood of individuals being exposed to a variety of pornographic images, including illegal material such as child pornography. Based on the outcomes of the research study, it can be concluded that pornography does have an effect on human behaviour in relation to the sexual exploitation of children which necessitates the effective regulation of pornographic material, especially on the Internet, and the evaluation of the help profession’s approach to effectively deal with issues stemming from exposure to pornographic material / Psychology / D.Litt. et Phil. (Psychology)