This feminist poststructuralist study explores discourses of gendered and sexualized subjectivity of South African women who self‐identify as bisexual. The discipline of psychology has typically upheld a monosexual binary, where heterosexuality and homosexuality are positioned as the only legitimate categories of sexual identification. Within such a structure bisexuality is not considered a viable sexual identity. In broader public discourses female bisexuality is generally constructed in delegitimising ways, such as through constructions that necessarily equate bisexuality with promiscuity or describe it as an eroticized male fantasy, as a threat to lesbian politics, or as a strategy to retain heterosexual privilege. Data collection entailed conducting individual interviews with thirteen bisexual women and the transcribed texts were analysed using discourse analysis. The analysis focused on how bisexuality is Constructed in the interview texts, how the various constructions of bisexuality function and how Gendered subjectivity intersects with participants’ identity as bisexual. The analysis identifies a number of discourses that impact on, in varied and contradictory ways, participants’ positioning as bisexual. In a post‐apartheid context, participants regard fixing their Identity along strictly defined lines of difference as oppressive and resist bisexuality as being primary To their identity. Participants challenge the traditional gender binary through unsettling the automatic Linking of sex, gender and sexuality in discourses of sexual desire. However, participants also demonstrate the coercive effects of dominant discourse in the gendered positioning of subjects, with Heterosexuality in particular functioning as a normative sexual category with implications for participants’ gendered subjectivity. It then appears that parallel to its ability to disrupt the gender binary, bisexual discourse also acts in ways to support it. The analysis further indicates that in claiming a bisexual identity, participants risk marginalization in The face of delegitimising discourses that construct them in negative terms of promiscuity, hypersexuality and decadence. Powerful silencing discourses further construct same‐sex attraction As un-African and as sinful. The analysis concludes with a discussion of participants’ strategies to Normalize bisexuality. This study contributes to research accounts that explore diversity in sexual identification and creates Greater visibility of bisexual women in South African discourses of sexuality. It also contributes to theories of female sexual identities and adds to theoretical debates around the challenge to dominant gender and sexuality binaries posed by bisexuality. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Psychology / unrestricted

Previous research indicates that gay men‟s relationships with their mothers are generally more warm, supportive, and emotional than their relationships with their fathers, and that fathers are less likely to be told, less likely to be told first, and more likely to react negatively to disclosure than mothers would. Most of these findings are derived from asking sons to report on their parental relationships. As such, very little is known about the nature of the father-son relationship before, during, and after disclosure, from the father‟s perspective. The aim of this thesis, therefore, is to uncover and explore first-hand accounts of the experiences and taken-for-granted meanings that potentially shape heterosexual fathers‟ relationships with their gay sons. A sample comprising six Afrikaans-speaking, white fathers, between the ages of 53 and 61 years, from a middle to upper-middle income bracket, and residing in Gauteng, South Africa, were selected purposively through the use of opportunistic or convenience sampling. Utilising an interpretivist approach located within the qualitative research paradigm, an individual in-depth interview strategy was adopted as a means of gathering data. A brief questionnaire probing demographic characteristics was also utilised to further contextualise the data obtained in the interviews. All the interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed for later coding and analysis. Through the use of thematic network analysis, eight organising themes were uncovered, including (a) subliminal awareness prior to coming out; (b) epistemic rupture of internal system of beliefs; (c) personal paradigmatic shifts; (d) acceptance as a complex and ongoing dialectical and reconciliatory process; (e) ambiguous loss; (f) persistent history of thought; (f) wrestling with the reason why; and (g) coming out as a dual experience. Each organising theme contained several basic themes. On the whole, the themes support the view that most parents are neither totally rejecting nor fully accepting of their gay sons. The fathers are seen to navigate their way through a plethora of experiences and meanings that are not only likely to inform the development of their multidimensional identities as men and fathers, but also shape their unique relationships with their gay sons. While the fathers may have attained a level of “loving denial” in their relationships with their gay sons, most continue to struggle with the meaning and expression of same-sex sexuality, and appear to wrestle with the challenge of integrating their understanding of same-sex sexuality with their constructions of traditional Afrikaner masculinity, as well as their meanings associated with having a gay son. However, unlike prior reports of a poor father-son dyad, the fathers reported a general improvement in their relationship with their gay son after he came out. This discrepancy may be attributed to the possibility that the particular group of fathers who volunteered to discuss their father-son relationships willingly were further along in the acceptance process. Recommendations for future research, includes an exploration of the dynamic interaction between heterosexual and gay constructions of masculinity within the father-son dyad before, during and after disclosure, examining the role that mothers play in influencing the quality of the father-son relationship before, during and after disclosure, uncovering the intra- and inter-personal variables that may facilitate the adaptive adjustment processes among fathers over the longer term, and exploring the contexts and processes associated with transitions within fatherhood across the life course of fathers of gay sons. / Heterosexual fathers' relationships with their gay sons / Psychology / D. Phil.

This paper investigates three questions; how an exegetically sound basis for a biblical ethics concerning same-sex sexual acts might be construed, what role the Bible, and other sources of ethical insight, should play in construing Christian ethics, and what a Christian ethic founded on the answers to those questions would say concerning same-sex sexual acts today. To perform these investigations, the hermeneutical issue regarding biblical texts, as well as the relation between revelatory and non-revelatory ethical sources within Christian ethics, is discussed, and the construed Christian ethics concerning same-sex sexual acts and sexuality of Lisa Sowle Cahill, Samuel W. Kunhiyop, Richard B. Hays, and Peter Coleman are evaluated before a suggestion is presented. That suggestion states that a sound exegetical basis demands a historical-critical reading that aims at understanding the language agreement between first recipients and author(s). It also claims that it is the perspective of the text that should be in focus in forming biblical ethics. Further, it is suggested that the Bible should be considered as having a unique role in Christian ethics by means of supplying a unique perspective on other sources for ethics, as well as on the insights of Scripture itself. This perspective is based on revelation, and should be formed from the central Scriptural notion of imitatio Dei/Christi. The Bible should also be recognized as a unique source of Christian ethical insight. However, an awareness of the impossibility of perfect understanding of Scripture opens the need for a dialog with other sources of ethical insight, such as experience, tradition, and secular reason, through which they are able to play a role in construing Christian ethics. Finally, the Christian ethics concerning same-sex sexual acts holds such acts to be in need of a discriminating division between good and bad; those that are performed within a loving and caring relationship and those that are not. The former are tentatively commended based on an understanding of the clearly encouraged homosocial love they might result of, as well as positive human experience, while the latter are vehemently condemned because of their damaging nature to one or both of the people involved. / Uppsatsen undersöker tre frågor; hur en god exegetisk grund för en biblisk etik angående samkönade sexuella handlingar kan utformas, vilken roll Bibeln och andra källor till etisk insikt ska ha i utformandet av kristen etik, och hur en kristen etik baserad på svaren på dessa två frågor skulle se på samkönade sexuella handlingar idag. För att undersöka dessa frågor kommer hermeneutiska frågor angående bibeltexter likväl som relationen mellan uppenbarelsebaserade och icke-uppenbarelsebaserade källor till etisk insikt inom kristen etik att diskuteras. De konstruktioner av kristen etik angående samkönad sexualitet som gjorts av Lisa Sowle Cahill, Samuel W. Kunhiyop, Richard B. Hays och Peter Coleman utvärderas också innan ett eget förslag presenteras. Det förslag som sedan presenteras menar att en god exegetisk grund kräver en historisk-kritisk läsning som söker förstå den språkliga överenskommelse som fanns mellan ursprunglig(a) mottagare och författare. Förslaget menat också att det är textens perspektiv som ska vara i fokus i utformandet av en biblisk etik. Vidare föreslås det att Bibeln ska anses ha en unik roll i utformandet av kristen etik genom att den erbjuder ett unikt perspektiv på andra etiska källor och på Skriten själv. Detta perspektiv är baserat på uppenbarelse, och bör utformas utifrån den i Skriften centrala idén om imitatio Dei/Christi. Bibeln bör också erkännas som en unik källa till kristen etisk insikt. En medvetenhet om det omöjliga i att nå perfekt förståelse av Skriften öppnar dock upp för behovet av en dialog med andra källor till etisk insikt, källor såsom erfarenhet, tradition, och sekulärt förnuft, genom vilken dessa källor kan spela en roll i konstruktionen av kristen etik.Den kristna etiken angående samkönade sexuella handlingar menar slutligen att det måste göras en skarp skillnad mellan bra och dåliga handlingar av det slaget; de som utförs inom en kärleksfull relation, och de som inte utförs inom en sådan. De förstnämnda är försiktigt lovordade i egenskap av att resultera från en klart uppmuntrad homosocial kärlek, liksom till följd av positiva mänskliga erfarenheter, medan de senare är kraftfullt fördömda på grund av deras skadliga natur i relation till en av de, eller båda, inblandade

Previous research indicates that gay men‟s relationships with their mothers are generally more warm, supportive, and emotional than their relationships with their fathers, and that fathers are less likely to be told, less likely to be told first, and more likely to react negatively to disclosure than mothers would. Most of these findings are derived from asking sons to report on their parental relationships. As such, very little is known about the nature of the father-son relationship before, during, and after disclosure, from the father‟s perspective. The aim of this thesis, therefore, is to uncover and explore first-hand accounts of the experiences and taken-for-granted meanings that potentially shape heterosexual fathers‟ relationships with their gay sons. A sample comprising six Afrikaans-speaking, white fathers, between the ages of 53 and 61 years, from a middle to upper-middle income bracket, and residing in Gauteng, South Africa, were selected purposively through the use of opportunistic or convenience sampling. Utilising an interpretivist approach located within the qualitative research paradigm, an individual in-depth interview strategy was adopted as a means of gathering data. A brief questionnaire probing demographic characteristics was also utilised to further contextualise the data obtained in the interviews. All the interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed for later coding and analysis. Through the use of thematic network analysis, eight organising themes were uncovered, including (a) subliminal awareness prior to coming out; (b) epistemic rupture of internal system of beliefs; (c) personal paradigmatic shifts; (d) acceptance as a complex and ongoing dialectical and reconciliatory process; (e) ambiguous loss; (f) persistent history of thought; (f) wrestling with the reason why; and (g) coming out as a dual experience. Each organising theme contained several basic themes. On the whole, the themes support the view that most parents are neither totally rejecting nor fully accepting of their gay sons. The fathers are seen to navigate their way through a plethora of experiences and meanings that are not only likely to inform the development of their multidimensional identities as men and fathers, but also shape their unique relationships with their gay sons. While the fathers may have attained a level of “loving denial” in their relationships with their gay sons, most continue to struggle with the meaning and expression of same-sex sexuality, and appear to wrestle with the challenge of integrating their understanding of same-sex sexuality with their constructions of traditional Afrikaner masculinity, as well as their meanings associated with having a gay son. However, unlike prior reports of a poor father-son dyad, the fathers reported a general improvement in their relationship with their gay son after he came out. This discrepancy may be attributed to the possibility that the particular group of fathers who volunteered to discuss their father-son relationships willingly were further along in the acceptance process. Recommendations for future research, includes an exploration of the dynamic interaction between heterosexual and gay constructions of masculinity within the father-son dyad before, during and after disclosure, examining the role that mothers play in influencing the quality of the father-son relationship before, during and after disclosure, uncovering the intra- and inter-personal variables that may facilitate the adaptive adjustment processes among fathers over the longer term, and exploring the contexts and processes associated with transitions within fatherhood across the life course of fathers of gay sons. / Heterosexual fathers' relationships with their gay sons / Psychology / D. Phil.