This thesis is an ethnographic study of the lives of thirty community HIV educators in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Compared to quantitative studies this is a small number, but by keeping the number of participants small it has been possible to obtain an extensive understanding of the lives of each individual, which helps to explain why they make the decisions they do. The reason for choosing community HIV educators as the participants in this study is because it could be stated from the outset that they are well-informed about HIV prevention and, depending on the specific NGO they work for, they have been recipients of either ‘female empowerment’ or ‘responsible masculinity’ programmes. This is significant because early HIV prevention interventions have assumed that providing individuals with HIV awareness and gender equality programmes would lead to the implementation of HIV preventative behaviour. Studying the willingness and ability to implement HIV prevention practices of these particular individuals could therefore help to answer the question whether HIV awareness and gender-related programmes are indeed sufficient to create HIV preventative behaviour change. Furthermore, it was useful to hear from these participants what they experience as enabling and restricting factors when it comes to implementing HIV preventative behaviour. The core research question is: How do community HIV educators in KwaZulu-Natal negotiate HIV prevention in their everyday intimate relationships? The data presented in this thesis was collected during ten months of participant observation amongst community HIV educators whilst they were at work, at home, or out with their peers. To further aid the general understanding of Zulu culture, the researcher lived as part of a Zulu family for six months. The thesis presents several examples of community HIV educators who do not consistently use condoms in their everyday lives despite the fact that they promote the use of condoms. How is it possible that those who speak of being transformed as a result of HIV awareness and female empowerment or responsible masculinity programmes, and who promote condom use in their communities, do not always consistently use condoms in their personal lives? This thesis is concerned with trying to resolve this apparent illogicality. It argues that when individual interventions fail to lead to behaviour change it is because individuals act in relation to other people instead of in isolation. The thesis draws on the work of Bourdieu, particularly his concepts of habitus, field, and capital, to explain how structural factors influence individual practice. This means that the negotiation of HIV prevention is affected by what is generally considered appropriate in terms of existing dispositions. Hence the perception of a particular HIV prevention practice as either appropriate or inappropriate affects the ability of an individual to implement this practice. Examples are provided of how, when it comes to the practice of condom use, which has generally been perceived as inappropriate, structural factors have a restricting effect on HIV prevention. This thesis also provides examples of how, when it comes to the practice of medical male circumcision and virginity testing, which have generally been perceived as appropriate, structural factors actually have an encouraging effect on HIV prevention. As a result this thesis argues that instead of addressing individuals, HIV prevention interventions should address the collective. However, this thesis also argues that an increase in economic, cultural, social, and symbolic capital can suppress the effect of structural factors. To support this argument the thesis attends to individuals who, when they can afford to do so as a result of having capital at their disposal, deviate from collectively determined ideal practice, for example by discreetly negotiating HIV counselling and testing with their sexual partners.

Esta dissertação enfoca o tema a partir da análise de narrativas de jovens (homens e mulheres, entre 18 e 24 anos), residentes em três capitais brasileiras (Rio de Janeiro, Porto Alegre e Salvador), acerca de experiências envolvendo sexo por constrangimento ou forçado. Os relatos são examinados à luz de uma produção internacional que discute a questão da coerção sexual. Os dados analisados correspondem a uma sub-amostra de 46 entrevistas com jovens pertencentes a camadas médias e populares, selecionadas do conjunto de 123 entrevistas que integraram a fase qualitativa da pesquisa GRAVAD (Gravidez na Adolescência: Estudo Multicêntrico sobre Jovens, Sexualidade e Reprodução no Brasil). A leitura do material empírico buscou situar os episódios narrados nas biografias individuais e refletir sobre as representações dos sujeitos sobre gênero e sexualidade e os aspectos dessas trajetórias capazes de conduzir a um entendimento de tais eventos. Moças e rapazes relataram distintas experiências de sexo contra vontade, que variavam de acordo com o contexto e o tipo de coerção utilizada e/ou sofrida. As dinâmicas das relações entre os gêneros revelam que, na negociação sexual, consentimento e desejo nem sempre andam juntos. Em determinadas condições, certos modos de constrangimento são tidos como constitutivos dos jogos de sedução. A análise das narrativas evidencia o caráter relacional e contextual das interações afetivo-sexuais entre os gêneros e do que pode ser qualificado como violência. Tal conclusão, conduziu ao questionamento acerca da positividade atribuída a certas atitudes e comportamentos sexuais categorizados como violentos por diversos estudos dedicados ao tema. / This dissertation presents the (reported) experiences concerned to sex imposed by pressure or by use of force of young men and woman (from the age of 18 to 24 years old), who live in three Brazilian capitals (Rio de Janeiro, Porto Alegre and Salvador). The reports are examined in the light of an international production discussing the subject of sexual coercion. The data corresponds to a sub-sample from 46 interviews with youngsters of middle-class and lower classes, selected from a group of 123 interviews concerning the qualitative data of GRAVAD research (Teenage Pregnancy: A Multi-centered Study about Youth, Sexuality and Reproduction in Brazil). Young men and women related different experiences of forced sex, which vary according to the context and the kind of coercion used and/or suffered. The dynamics of gender relations reveal that, in terms of sexual negotiation, agreement and desire are not always together. Under certain circumstances, some forms of coercion are taken as part of the seduction interaction. The analysis of the narratives clarifies the relational and contextual character of the affective and sexual interactions between genders and what can be qualified as violence. Such conclusion lead to the questioning of the positivism attributed to some sexual conducts categorized as violent by many studies dedicated to the theme.

Esta dissertação enfoca o tema a partir da análise de narrativas de jovens (homens e mulheres, entre 18 e 24 anos), residentes em três capitais brasileiras (Rio de Janeiro, Porto Alegre e Salvador), acerca de experiências envolvendo sexo por constrangimento ou forçado. Os relatos são examinados à luz de uma produção internacional que discute a questão da coerção sexual. Os dados analisados correspondem a uma sub-amostra de 46 entrevistas com jovens pertencentes a camadas médias e populares, selecionadas do conjunto de 123 entrevistas que integraram a fase qualitativa da pesquisa GRAVAD (Gravidez na Adolescência: Estudo Multicêntrico sobre Jovens, Sexualidade e Reprodução no Brasil). A leitura do material empírico buscou situar os episódios narrados nas biografias individuais e refletir sobre as representações dos sujeitos sobre gênero e sexualidade e os aspectos dessas trajetórias capazes de conduzir a um entendimento de tais eventos. Moças e rapazes relataram distintas experiências de sexo contra vontade, que variavam de acordo com o contexto e o tipo de coerção utilizada e/ou sofrida. As dinâmicas das relações entre os gêneros revelam que, na negociação sexual, consentimento e desejo nem sempre andam juntos. Em determinadas condições, certos modos de constrangimento são tidos como constitutivos dos jogos de sedução. A análise das narrativas evidencia o caráter relacional e contextual das interações afetivo-sexuais entre os gêneros e do que pode ser qualificado como violência. Tal conclusão, conduziu ao questionamento acerca da positividade atribuída a certas atitudes e comportamentos sexuais categorizados como violentos por diversos estudos dedicados ao tema. / This dissertation presents the (reported) experiences concerned to sex imposed by pressure or by use of force of young men and woman (from the age of 18 to 24 years old), who live in three Brazilian capitals (Rio de Janeiro, Porto Alegre and Salvador). The reports are examined in the light of an international production discussing the subject of sexual coercion. The data corresponds to a sub-sample from 46 interviews with youngsters of middle-class and lower classes, selected from a group of 123 interviews concerning the qualitative data of GRAVAD research (Teenage Pregnancy: A Multi-centered Study about Youth, Sexuality and Reproduction in Brazil). Young men and women related different experiences of forced sex, which vary according to the context and the kind of coercion used and/or suffered. The dynamics of gender relations reveal that, in terms of sexual negotiation, agreement and desire are not always together. Under certain circumstances, some forms of coercion are taken as part of the seduction interaction. The analysis of the narratives clarifies the relational and contextual character of the affective and sexual interactions between genders and what can be qualified as violence. Such conclusion lead to the questioning of the positivism attributed to some sexual conducts categorized as violent by many studies dedicated to the theme.