The politics of erasure: thinking critically about anonymity and confidentiality
- Marx, Jacqueline, Macleod, Catriona I
- Authors: Marx, Jacqueline , Macleod, Catriona I
- Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/143827 , vital:38286 , https://ischp.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/ischp_2015_abstract_booklet.pdf
- Description: Anonymity and confidentiality are prominent features in research ethics codes. In this paper we critically examine the ethical imperative to change or eradicate research participant’s names and the distinctive, individually identifying characteristics of their lives. Drawing on examples from a research ethics application for a project involving women who had extricated themselves from relationships in which they had experienced intimate partner violence, and an ethnographic case study of cross-dressing and drag, consideration is given to the multiple ways in which anonymity and confidentiality can be put to work, both promoting and undermining what it means to do ethical research. We argue that the requirement for anonymity and confidentiality cannot be assessed without taking into account historicity and the socio-political contexts in which a study and its participants are located. The paper concludes with some consideration of the implications of a situated ethics approach for institutional review board protocols.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
- Authors: Marx, Jacqueline , Macleod, Catriona I
- Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/143827 , vital:38286 , https://ischp.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/ischp_2015_abstract_booklet.pdf
- Description: Anonymity and confidentiality are prominent features in research ethics codes. In this paper we critically examine the ethical imperative to change or eradicate research participant’s names and the distinctive, individually identifying characteristics of their lives. Drawing on examples from a research ethics application for a project involving women who had extricated themselves from relationships in which they had experienced intimate partner violence, and an ethnographic case study of cross-dressing and drag, consideration is given to the multiple ways in which anonymity and confidentiality can be put to work, both promoting and undermining what it means to do ethical research. We argue that the requirement for anonymity and confidentiality cannot be assessed without taking into account historicity and the socio-political contexts in which a study and its participants are located. The paper concludes with some consideration of the implications of a situated ethics approach for institutional review board protocols.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
When is it legitimate to use images in moral arguments? The use of foetal imagery in anti-abortion campaigns as an exemplar of an illegitimate instance of a legitimate practice
- Kelland, Lindsay, Macleod, Catriona I
- Authors: Kelland, Lindsay , Macleod, Catriona I
- Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6305 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1016146
- Description: We aim to interrogate when the use of images in moral persuasion is legitimate. First, we put forward a number of accounts which purport to show that we can use tools other than logical argumentation to convince others, that such tools evoke affective responses and that these responses have authority in the moral domain. Second, we turn to Sarah McGrath’s account, which focuses on the use of imagery as a means to morally persuade. McGrath discusses 4 objections to the use of imagery, and outlines responses that may be used to legitimate the use of imagery in moral arguments. Assuming that we accept her account and that the invocation of affect has authority in the moral domain, we, using McGrath’s responses, examine whether the use of foetal imagery in anti-abortion campaigns is a legitimate instance of this practice.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
- Authors: Kelland, Lindsay , Macleod, Catriona I
- Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6305 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1016146
- Description: We aim to interrogate when the use of images in moral persuasion is legitimate. First, we put forward a number of accounts which purport to show that we can use tools other than logical argumentation to convince others, that such tools evoke affective responses and that these responses have authority in the moral domain. Second, we turn to Sarah McGrath’s account, which focuses on the use of imagery as a means to morally persuade. McGrath discusses 4 objections to the use of imagery, and outlines responses that may be used to legitimate the use of imagery in moral arguments. Assuming that we accept her account and that the invocation of affect has authority in the moral domain, we, using McGrath’s responses, examine whether the use of foetal imagery in anti-abortion campaigns is a legitimate instance of this practice.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
Women’s micro-narratives of the process of abortion decision-making: justifying the decision to have an abortion
- Mavuso, Jabulile M-J J, Macleod, Catriona I
- Authors: Mavuso, Jabulile M-J J , Macleod, Catriona I
- Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/143893 , vital:38292 , https://ischp.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/ischp_2015_abstract_booklet.pdf
- Description: What is missing from abortion research is research that explores women’s narratives of the processes of abortion decision-making in a way that acknowledges the constraints placed on ‘choice’. This study sought to explore, using Foucauldian feminist post-structuralism and a narrative-discursive approach, women’s micro-narratives of the abortion decision-making process. Purposive sampling was used to recruit a total of 25 participants from three abortion facilities in the Eastern Cape. Participants were unmarried ‘Black’ women between the ages of 19 and 35, and were mostly unemployed. Narrative interviews were done with the women. Analysis revealed an over-arching narrative in which women described the abortion decision as something that they were ‘forced’ into by their circumstances. To construct this narrative, women justified the decision to have an abortion by drawing on discourses that normalise certain practices located within the husband-wife and parent-child axes and make the pregnancy a problematic, unsupported and unsupportable one. Gendered and generational power relations reinforced this and contributed to the obstruction of reproductive justice.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
- Authors: Mavuso, Jabulile M-J J , Macleod, Catriona I
- Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/143893 , vital:38292 , https://ischp.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/ischp_2015_abstract_booklet.pdf
- Description: What is missing from abortion research is research that explores women’s narratives of the processes of abortion decision-making in a way that acknowledges the constraints placed on ‘choice’. This study sought to explore, using Foucauldian feminist post-structuralism and a narrative-discursive approach, women’s micro-narratives of the abortion decision-making process. Purposive sampling was used to recruit a total of 25 participants from three abortion facilities in the Eastern Cape. Participants were unmarried ‘Black’ women between the ages of 19 and 35, and were mostly unemployed. Narrative interviews were done with the women. Analysis revealed an over-arching narrative in which women described the abortion decision as something that they were ‘forced’ into by their circumstances. To construct this narrative, women justified the decision to have an abortion by drawing on discourses that normalise certain practices located within the husband-wife and parent-child axes and make the pregnancy a problematic, unsupported and unsupportable one. Gendered and generational power relations reinforced this and contributed to the obstruction of reproductive justice.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
Young people’s use of ‘peer pressure/normalization’ as discursive resources to justify gendered youth sexualities: implications for Life Orientation sexuality education programmes
- Jearey-Graham, Nicola, Macleod, Catriona I
- Authors: Jearey-Graham, Nicola , Macleod, Catriona I
- Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/143749 , vital:38279 , https://ischp.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/ischp_2015_abstract_booklet.pdf
- Description: ‘Peer pressure’ has been associated in the scientific literature with a range of risky sexual behaviors, thereby undermining safe sex messages delivered in Life Orientation (LO) classes. LO texts warn against peer pressure. Taking a discursive psychology perspective, we show how young people, in contrast, use the discourses of ‘peer pressure to have sex’ and ‘peer normalization of sex’ to justify youth sexual activity. Using data from focus group discussions about youth sexualities with students at a Further Education and Training College in South Africa, we show how participants outlined a need for young people to be socially recognizable through engaging in, and being able to talk about sex, and how they implicated peer norms in governing individual sexual behavior. Both discourses pointed to a gendering of sexual norms. The deployment of these discourses by young people themselves has implications for Life Orientation programmes. Nuanced engagement with ‘peer group’ narratives is indicated.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
- Authors: Jearey-Graham, Nicola , Macleod, Catriona I
- Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/143749 , vital:38279 , https://ischp.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/ischp_2015_abstract_booklet.pdf
- Description: ‘Peer pressure’ has been associated in the scientific literature with a range of risky sexual behaviors, thereby undermining safe sex messages delivered in Life Orientation (LO) classes. LO texts warn against peer pressure. Taking a discursive psychology perspective, we show how young people, in contrast, use the discourses of ‘peer pressure to have sex’ and ‘peer normalization of sex’ to justify youth sexual activity. Using data from focus group discussions about youth sexualities with students at a Further Education and Training College in South Africa, we show how participants outlined a need for young people to be socially recognizable through engaging in, and being able to talk about sex, and how they implicated peer norms in governing individual sexual behavior. Both discourses pointed to a gendering of sexual norms. The deployment of these discourses by young people themselves has implications for Life Orientation programmes. Nuanced engagement with ‘peer group’ narratives is indicated.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
‘Victim’ or ‘survivor’?: language, identity and ethics revisited
- Barker, Kim, Macleod, Catriona I
- Authors: Barker, Kim , Macleod, Catriona I
- Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/143738 , vital:38278 , https://ischp.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/ischp_2015_abstract_booklet.pdf
- Description: Initially in feminist circles, and subsequently in more common usage, the term ‘survivor’ came to signify those who have been (sexually) violated and live on, and even thrive. The passivity implied by the term ‘victim’ therefore gave way to the more agentic connotations of ‘survivor’. However, neither term adequately captures the complexity and fluidity of subject positions taken up by and ascribed to women who have been subjected to sexual violence. The selection of an inadequate word is not neutral: each identifier calls forth particular identity constructions which have real effects. Reducing women’s experiences to one pole of this simple binary can diminish and totalise those experiences. In this paper we re-consider the use of these terms with reference to research conducted with protestors participating in an annual anti-rape protest held at Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa. We focus on the perspectives of women who are ‘survivors’ of sexual violence.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
- Authors: Barker, Kim , Macleod, Catriona I
- Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/143738 , vital:38278 , https://ischp.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/ischp_2015_abstract_booklet.pdf
- Description: Initially in feminist circles, and subsequently in more common usage, the term ‘survivor’ came to signify those who have been (sexually) violated and live on, and even thrive. The passivity implied by the term ‘victim’ therefore gave way to the more agentic connotations of ‘survivor’. However, neither term adequately captures the complexity and fluidity of subject positions taken up by and ascribed to women who have been subjected to sexual violence. The selection of an inadequate word is not neutral: each identifier calls forth particular identity constructions which have real effects. Reducing women’s experiences to one pole of this simple binary can diminish and totalise those experiences. In this paper we re-consider the use of these terms with reference to research conducted with protestors participating in an annual anti-rape protest held at Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa. We focus on the perspectives of women who are ‘survivors’ of sexual violence.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
‘… a huge monster that should be feared and not done’: lessons learned in sexuality education classes in South Africa
- Shefer, Tamara, Kruger, Lou-Marie, Macleod, Catriona I, Baxen, Jean, Vincent, Louise
- Authors: Shefer, Tamara , Kruger, Lou-Marie , Macleod, Catriona I , Baxen, Jean , Vincent, Louise
- Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6314 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1020933 , http://www.mrc.ac.za/crime/aspj/2015/AhugeMonster.pdf
- Description: Research has foregrounded the way in which heterosexual practices for many young people are not infrequently bound up with violence and unequal transactional power relations. The Life Orientation sexuality education curriculum in South African schools has been viewed as a potentially valuable space to work with young people on issues of reproductive health, gender and sexual norms and relations. Yet, research has illustrated that such work may not only be failing to impact on more equitable sexual practices between young men and women, but may also serve to reproduce the very discourses and practices that the work aims to challenge. Cultures of violence in youth sexuality are closely connected to prevailing gender norms and practices which, for example, render women as passive victims who are incapable of exercising sexual agency and men as inherently sexually predatory. This paper analyses the talk of Grade 10 learners in nine diverse schools in two South African provinces, the Eastern Cape and the Western Cape, to highlight what ‘lessons’ these young people seem to be learning about sexuality in Life Orientation classes. We find that these lessons foreground cautionary, negative and punitive messages, which reinforce, rather than challenge, normative gender roles. ‘Scare’ messages of danger, damage and disease give rise to presumptions of gendered responsibility for risk and the requirement of female restraint in the face of the assertion of masculine desire and predation. We conclude that the role which sexuality education could play in enabling young women in particular to more successfully negotiate their sexual relationships to serve their own needs, reproductive health and safety, is undermined by regulatory messages directed at controlling young people, and young women in particular – and that instead, young people’s sexual agency has to be acknowledged in any processes of change aimed at gender equality, anti-violence, health and well-being.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
- Authors: Shefer, Tamara , Kruger, Lou-Marie , Macleod, Catriona I , Baxen, Jean , Vincent, Louise
- Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6314 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1020933 , http://www.mrc.ac.za/crime/aspj/2015/AhugeMonster.pdf
- Description: Research has foregrounded the way in which heterosexual practices for many young people are not infrequently bound up with violence and unequal transactional power relations. The Life Orientation sexuality education curriculum in South African schools has been viewed as a potentially valuable space to work with young people on issues of reproductive health, gender and sexual norms and relations. Yet, research has illustrated that such work may not only be failing to impact on more equitable sexual practices between young men and women, but may also serve to reproduce the very discourses and practices that the work aims to challenge. Cultures of violence in youth sexuality are closely connected to prevailing gender norms and practices which, for example, render women as passive victims who are incapable of exercising sexual agency and men as inherently sexually predatory. This paper analyses the talk of Grade 10 learners in nine diverse schools in two South African provinces, the Eastern Cape and the Western Cape, to highlight what ‘lessons’ these young people seem to be learning about sexuality in Life Orientation classes. We find that these lessons foreground cautionary, negative and punitive messages, which reinforce, rather than challenge, normative gender roles. ‘Scare’ messages of danger, damage and disease give rise to presumptions of gendered responsibility for risk and the requirement of female restraint in the face of the assertion of masculine desire and predation. We conclude that the role which sexuality education could play in enabling young women in particular to more successfully negotiate their sexual relationships to serve their own needs, reproductive health and safety, is undermined by regulatory messages directed at controlling young people, and young women in particular – and that instead, young people’s sexual agency has to be acknowledged in any processes of change aimed at gender equality, anti-violence, health and well-being.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
Adolescent pregnancy: A feminist issue
- Authors: Macleod, Catriona I
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , book chapter
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/434360 , vital:73051 , ISBN 978-1-4899-8025-0 , https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-4899-8026-7_6
- Description: Pregnancy and mothering are enduring and central concerns of feminism. DiQuinzo (1999) sums this up in stating that “mothering is both an important site at which the central concepts of feminist theory are elaborated and a site at which these concepts are challenged and reworked.” Stephens (2004) argues, ‘…reproduction and mothering are central to theories of patriarchy and women’s unequal position in Western society…Childbirth can paradoxically be seen as both a cause of women’s subordinate position in society and a means of empowerment.’ Yet, despite the pivotal nature of pregnancy and mothering in feminist literature, there has been surprisingly little direct engagement by feminists in the area of ‘adolescent pregnancy.’ The engagement that there has been is a whisper in relation to the plethora of public health, medical, and psychological writings on ‘adolescent pregnancy.’ The feminists who have engaged with ‘adolescent pregnancy’ have, from their initial engagement and to varying degrees, tried to undermine simple interpretations of ‘adolescent pregnancy’ as a social problem and to link micro- and macro-level gender relations to occurrence of, and responses to, ‘adolescent pregnancy.’ Thus, for example, in the 1980s, Chilman (1985) asserted, ‘Sexism particularly afflicts programs and policies for these young people [unmarried teenage parents] as well as the behaviors that lead up to their becoming unmarried parents.’ In the 1990s, Pillow (1997), using a combination of feminist and postmodern theory, argued that ‘teen research and policy interventions can be understood as entrenched in the dilemmas of modernism, resulting often in normative assumptions that reflect our paradoxical attitudes and practices concerning female sexuality.’ More recently, Wilson and Huntington (2005) observed ‘adolescent pregnancy’ at a time when rates of fertility among young women are decreasing in ‘Western’ societies is ‘underpinned by changing social and political imperatives regarding the role of women in these countries.’
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2014
- Authors: Macleod, Catriona I
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , book chapter
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/434360 , vital:73051 , ISBN 978-1-4899-8025-0 , https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-4899-8026-7_6
- Description: Pregnancy and mothering are enduring and central concerns of feminism. DiQuinzo (1999) sums this up in stating that “mothering is both an important site at which the central concepts of feminist theory are elaborated and a site at which these concepts are challenged and reworked.” Stephens (2004) argues, ‘…reproduction and mothering are central to theories of patriarchy and women’s unequal position in Western society…Childbirth can paradoxically be seen as both a cause of women’s subordinate position in society and a means of empowerment.’ Yet, despite the pivotal nature of pregnancy and mothering in feminist literature, there has been surprisingly little direct engagement by feminists in the area of ‘adolescent pregnancy.’ The engagement that there has been is a whisper in relation to the plethora of public health, medical, and psychological writings on ‘adolescent pregnancy.’ The feminists who have engaged with ‘adolescent pregnancy’ have, from their initial engagement and to varying degrees, tried to undermine simple interpretations of ‘adolescent pregnancy’ as a social problem and to link micro- and macro-level gender relations to occurrence of, and responses to, ‘adolescent pregnancy.’ Thus, for example, in the 1980s, Chilman (1985) asserted, ‘Sexism particularly afflicts programs and policies for these young people [unmarried teenage parents] as well as the behaviors that lead up to their becoming unmarried parents.’ In the 1990s, Pillow (1997), using a combination of feminist and postmodern theory, argued that ‘teen research and policy interventions can be understood as entrenched in the dilemmas of modernism, resulting often in normative assumptions that reflect our paradoxical attitudes and practices concerning female sexuality.’ More recently, Wilson and Huntington (2005) observed ‘adolescent pregnancy’ at a time when rates of fertility among young women are decreasing in ‘Western’ societies is ‘underpinned by changing social and political imperatives regarding the role of women in these countries.’
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2014
Beyond coming out: lesbians’ (alternative) stories of sexual identity told in post-Apartheid South Africa
- Gibson, Alexandra, Macleod, Catriona I
- Authors: Gibson, Alexandra , Macleod, Catriona I
- Date: 2014
- Language: English
- Type: Book chapter
- Identifier: vital:6304 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1016063
- Description: Over the last several decades, the ‘coming out’i story has become entrenched as the central narrative with which lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) people can narrate their experiences of claiming a sexual identity and storying their lives in general (Bacon, 1998; Blackburn, 2009). It has developed into a “canonical narrative” (Bruner, 1987, p. 15), or a culturally recognisable story for LGB people, in that it involves the recounting of a series of familiar events in moving from a place of shame to one of self-acceptance about one’s sexual identity (Cohler & Hammack, 2007; Plummer, 1995). The ‘coming out’ canonical narrative additionally operates as a counter-narrative, which has enabled LGB people to voice their sexuality within heterosexist and heteronormative confines (Blackburn, 2009). Nevertheless, there are limitations (and limiting effects) to this narrative, and further refinement of how we understand sexual identity narratives is required. To illustrate this argument, we draw on a narrative-discursive study of eight lesbians’ stories of sexual identity in post-apartheid South Africa.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2014
- Authors: Gibson, Alexandra , Macleod, Catriona I
- Date: 2014
- Language: English
- Type: Book chapter
- Identifier: vital:6304 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1016063
- Description: Over the last several decades, the ‘coming out’i story has become entrenched as the central narrative with which lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) people can narrate their experiences of claiming a sexual identity and storying their lives in general (Bacon, 1998; Blackburn, 2009). It has developed into a “canonical narrative” (Bruner, 1987, p. 15), or a culturally recognisable story for LGB people, in that it involves the recounting of a series of familiar events in moving from a place of shame to one of self-acceptance about one’s sexual identity (Cohler & Hammack, 2007; Plummer, 1995). The ‘coming out’ canonical narrative additionally operates as a counter-narrative, which has enabled LGB people to voice their sexuality within heterosexist and heteronormative confines (Blackburn, 2009). Nevertheless, there are limitations (and limiting effects) to this narrative, and further refinement of how we understand sexual identity narratives is required. To illustrate this argument, we draw on a narrative-discursive study of eight lesbians’ stories of sexual identity in post-apartheid South Africa.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2014
Celebrating 30 years of Feminism and Psychology
- Macleod, Catriona I, Capdevila, Rose, Marecek, Jeanne, Braun, Virginia, Gavey, Nicola, Wilkinson, Sue
- Authors: Macleod, Catriona I , Capdevila, Rose , Marecek, Jeanne , Braun, Virginia , Gavey, Nicola , Wilkinson, Sue
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/444262 , vital:74211 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-013-0452-2"
- Description: Feminism and Psychology (FandP) was launched in 1991 with a sense of possibility, enthusiasm and excitement as well as a sense of urgent need – to critique and reconstruct mainstream psychology (theory, research methods, and clinical practice). Thirty years have now passed since the first issue was produced. Thirty volumes with three or four issues have been published each year, thanks to the efforts of many. On the occasion of FandP’s 30th anniversary, we, the present and past editors, reflect on successes, changes and challenges in relation to the journal. We celebrate the prestigious awards accruing to the journal, its editors, and authors, and the significant contributions the journal has made to critical feminist scholarship at the interface of feminisms and psychologies. We note some of the theoretical and methodological developments and social changes witnessed over the last three decades. We highlight challenges facing feminist researchers in academia as well as international feminist publishing. We conclude that the initial enthusiasm and excitement expressed by the then editorial collective was justified. But, there is still much work to be done.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2014
- Authors: Macleod, Catriona I , Capdevila, Rose , Marecek, Jeanne , Braun, Virginia , Gavey, Nicola , Wilkinson, Sue
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/444262 , vital:74211 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-013-0452-2"
- Description: Feminism and Psychology (FandP) was launched in 1991 with a sense of possibility, enthusiasm and excitement as well as a sense of urgent need – to critique and reconstruct mainstream psychology (theory, research methods, and clinical practice). Thirty years have now passed since the first issue was produced. Thirty volumes with three or four issues have been published each year, thanks to the efforts of many. On the occasion of FandP’s 30th anniversary, we, the present and past editors, reflect on successes, changes and challenges in relation to the journal. We celebrate the prestigious awards accruing to the journal, its editors, and authors, and the significant contributions the journal has made to critical feminist scholarship at the interface of feminisms and psychologies. We note some of the theoretical and methodological developments and social changes witnessed over the last three decades. We highlight challenges facing feminist researchers in academia as well as international feminist publishing. We conclude that the initial enthusiasm and excitement expressed by the then editorial collective was justified. But, there is still much work to be done.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2014
Cracks in reproductive health rights: knowledge of abortion legislation stipulations amongst learners in Buffalo City, South Africa
- Macleod, Catriona I, Seutlwadi, Lebogang, Steele, Gary I
- Authors: Macleod, Catriona I , Seutlwadi, Lebogang , Steele, Gary I
- Date: 2014
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6296 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1014772
- Description: Background: The Choice on Termination of Pregnancy (CTOP) Act legalised abortion on request in South Africa until up to 12 weeks of gestation and thereafter under specified conditions. Within the context of liberal legislation, accurate information is a necessary (although not sufficient) requirement for women to exercise their reproductive rights. Objectives: This research investigated Grade 11 learners’ knowledge of the CTOP Act and its stipulations. Methods: Survey research was conducted with respondents drawn from a range of schools in Buffalo City, South Africa. Multi-stage sampling was used, namely stratified random sampling of schools and purposive sampling of grades used within schools. The data were collected by means of self-administered questionnaires in group situations. Results: Results indicate that knowledge of the legal status of abortion, as well as of the various stipulations of the law, was poor. Various misunderstandings were evident, including that spousal approval is required in order for married women to have an abortion. Significant differences between the knowledge of respondents at the various schools were found, with those learners attending schools formerly designated for African learners during Apartheid having the least knowledge. Conclusion: Given the multiple factors that may serve as barriers to women accessing abortion, it is imperative that at least the most fundamental aspect of reproductive rights, that is, the right to information, is not undermined.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2014
- Authors: Macleod, Catriona I , Seutlwadi, Lebogang , Steele, Gary I
- Date: 2014
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6296 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1014772
- Description: Background: The Choice on Termination of Pregnancy (CTOP) Act legalised abortion on request in South Africa until up to 12 weeks of gestation and thereafter under specified conditions. Within the context of liberal legislation, accurate information is a necessary (although not sufficient) requirement for women to exercise their reproductive rights. Objectives: This research investigated Grade 11 learners’ knowledge of the CTOP Act and its stipulations. Methods: Survey research was conducted with respondents drawn from a range of schools in Buffalo City, South Africa. Multi-stage sampling was used, namely stratified random sampling of schools and purposive sampling of grades used within schools. The data were collected by means of self-administered questionnaires in group situations. Results: Results indicate that knowledge of the legal status of abortion, as well as of the various stipulations of the law, was poor. Various misunderstandings were evident, including that spousal approval is required in order for married women to have an abortion. Significant differences between the knowledge of respondents at the various schools were found, with those learners attending schools formerly designated for African learners during Apartheid having the least knowledge. Conclusion: Given the multiple factors that may serve as barriers to women accessing abortion, it is imperative that at least the most fundamental aspect of reproductive rights, that is, the right to information, is not undermined.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2014
Pregnancy among young women in South Africa
- Macleod, Catriona I, Tracey, Tiffany
- Authors: Macleod, Catriona I , Tracey, Tiffany
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , book chapter
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/434371 , vital:73052 , ISBN 978-1-4899-8025-0 , https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-8026-7
- Description: In 1994, South Africa witnessed its first democratic elections after centuries of colonial and then apartheid rule. As time passes since that euphoric moment in 1994, the difficulties of transformation have become evident. In terms of sexual and reproductive health, HIV/AIDS is acknowledged as one of the most significant challenges, with South Africa having one of the highest infection rates globally. Pregnancy among teenage women is receiving increasing attention as well. For example, public concern has been expressed that the recently introduced Child Support Grant (CSG) acts as a ‘perverse incentive’ for young women to bear children. This emotional claim was refuted by separately commissioned reviews of research on girls who received the grant. National statistics paint an interesting picture that negates the popular opinion in South Africa that rates of teenage pregnancy and childbearing are escalating. The 1998, the South African Demographic and Health Survey (SADHS) indicated that 35 % of women had had a child by the age of 19 years, while in the 2003 SADHS survey, this had decreased to 27 %. The rights-based approach adopted by the South African government to sexual and reproductive health enshrines a young woman’s right to prevent an unwanted pregnancy, to plan a pregnancy with her partner should they wish, to make an independent decision concerning the outcome of a pregnancy, to terminate that pregnancy safely should she wish, and to access non-discriminatory prenatal and postnatal care should she take the pregnancy to term. While there are still many obstacles and challenges associated with the issues of ‘adolescent pregnancy,’ it is important to remember the success represented by, and that arises from, this rights-based legislation.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2014
- Authors: Macleod, Catriona I , Tracey, Tiffany
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , book chapter
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/434371 , vital:73052 , ISBN 978-1-4899-8025-0 , https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-8026-7
- Description: In 1994, South Africa witnessed its first democratic elections after centuries of colonial and then apartheid rule. As time passes since that euphoric moment in 1994, the difficulties of transformation have become evident. In terms of sexual and reproductive health, HIV/AIDS is acknowledged as one of the most significant challenges, with South Africa having one of the highest infection rates globally. Pregnancy among teenage women is receiving increasing attention as well. For example, public concern has been expressed that the recently introduced Child Support Grant (CSG) acts as a ‘perverse incentive’ for young women to bear children. This emotional claim was refuted by separately commissioned reviews of research on girls who received the grant. National statistics paint an interesting picture that negates the popular opinion in South Africa that rates of teenage pregnancy and childbearing are escalating. The 1998, the South African Demographic and Health Survey (SADHS) indicated that 35 % of women had had a child by the age of 19 years, while in the 2003 SADHS survey, this had decreased to 27 %. The rights-based approach adopted by the South African government to sexual and reproductive health enshrines a young woman’s right to prevent an unwanted pregnancy, to plan a pregnancy with her partner should they wish, to make an independent decision concerning the outcome of a pregnancy, to terminate that pregnancy safely should she wish, and to access non-discriminatory prenatal and postnatal care should she take the pregnancy to term. While there are still many obstacles and challenges associated with the issues of ‘adolescent pregnancy,’ it is important to remember the success represented by, and that arises from, this rights-based legislation.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2014
A performative-performance analytical approach: infusing Butlerian theory into the narrative-discursive method
- Morison, Tracy, Macleod, Catriona I
- Authors: Morison, Tracy , Macleod, Catriona I
- Date: 2013
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6212 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003065 , http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1077800413494344
- Description: Judith Butler’s theory of performativity provides gender theorists with a rich theoretical language for thinking about gender. Despite this, Butlerian theory is difficult to apply, as Butler does not provide guidance on actual analysis of language use in context. In order to address this limitation, we suggest carefully supplementing performativity with the notion of performance in a manner that allows for the inclusion of relational specificities and the mechanisms through which gender, and gender trouble, occur. To do this, we turn to current developments within discursive psychology and narrative theory. We extend the narrative-discursive method proposed by Taylor and colleagues, infusing it with Butlerian theory in order to fashion a dual analytical lens, which we call the performativity-performance approach. We provide a brief example of how the proposed analytical process may be implemented.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
- Authors: Morison, Tracy , Macleod, Catriona I
- Date: 2013
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6212 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003065 , http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1077800413494344
- Description: Judith Butler’s theory of performativity provides gender theorists with a rich theoretical language for thinking about gender. Despite this, Butlerian theory is difficult to apply, as Butler does not provide guidance on actual analysis of language use in context. In order to address this limitation, we suggest carefully supplementing performativity with the notion of performance in a manner that allows for the inclusion of relational specificities and the mechanisms through which gender, and gender trouble, occur. To do this, we turn to current developments within discursive psychology and narrative theory. We extend the narrative-discursive method proposed by Taylor and colleagues, infusing it with Butlerian theory in order to fashion a dual analytical lens, which we call the performativity-performance approach. We provide a brief example of how the proposed analytical process may be implemented.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
Developing principles for research on young women and abortion
- Authors: Macleod, Catriona I
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , book chapter
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/434384 , vital:73053 , ISBN 9781919895581 , https://rowman.com/ISBN/9789280812275/Jacketed-Women-Qualitative-Research-Methodologies-on-Sexualities-and-Gender-in-Africa
- Description: Soon after the first democratic elections in South Africa in 1994, the Choice on Termination of Pregnancy (CTOP) Act of 1996, which legalised abortion for the first time, was passed. Women may now request abortions up to the twelfth week of pregnancy. After this, abortions may still be performed but under specified conditions, for instance, if continued pregnancy will significantly affect the woman’s social or economic circumstances. The Act also promotes the provision of non-mandatory counselling before and after abortions are performed. Minors are counselled to notify their parents or guardian but do not require consent for an abortion. Since the introduction of the CTOP, a number of studies have been conducted on abortion in South Africa. Many have taken a health-related focus, for example, studies on the quality of care provided by midwives (Dickson-Tetteh and Billings 2002); profiles of women seeking abortions (Ramonate, Hiemstra, De Coning and Nel 2001); attitudes, beliefs and experiences of health providers (Buga 2002; Da Costa and Donald 2003); the cost of termination of pregnancy services (Reproductive Rights Alliance 2000); prevalence of morbidity in termination of pregnancies (Jewkes, Brown, Dickson-Tetteh, Levin and Rees 2002); the proportion of pregnancies that end in termination of pregnancy (Buchmann, Mensah and Pillay 2002); and impediments in the provision of services (Engelbrecht, Pelser, Ngwena and Van Rensburg 2000).
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
- Authors: Macleod, Catriona I
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , book chapter
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/434384 , vital:73053 , ISBN 9781919895581 , https://rowman.com/ISBN/9789280812275/Jacketed-Women-Qualitative-Research-Methodologies-on-Sexualities-and-Gender-in-Africa
- Description: Soon after the first democratic elections in South Africa in 1994, the Choice on Termination of Pregnancy (CTOP) Act of 1996, which legalised abortion for the first time, was passed. Women may now request abortions up to the twelfth week of pregnancy. After this, abortions may still be performed but under specified conditions, for instance, if continued pregnancy will significantly affect the woman’s social or economic circumstances. The Act also promotes the provision of non-mandatory counselling before and after abortions are performed. Minors are counselled to notify their parents or guardian but do not require consent for an abortion. Since the introduction of the CTOP, a number of studies have been conducted on abortion in South Africa. Many have taken a health-related focus, for example, studies on the quality of care provided by midwives (Dickson-Tetteh and Billings 2002); profiles of women seeking abortions (Ramonate, Hiemstra, De Coning and Nel 2001); attitudes, beliefs and experiences of health providers (Buga 2002; Da Costa and Donald 2003); the cost of termination of pregnancy services (Reproductive Rights Alliance 2000); prevalence of morbidity in termination of pregnancies (Jewkes, Brown, Dickson-Tetteh, Levin and Rees 2002); the proportion of pregnancies that end in termination of pregnancy (Buchmann, Mensah and Pillay 2002); and impediments in the provision of services (Engelbrecht, Pelser, Ngwena and Van Rensburg 2000).
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
Introducing a Critical Pedagogy of Sexual and Reproductive Citizenship: Extending the ‘Framework of Thick Desire'
- Macleod, Catriona I, Vincent, Louise
- Authors: Macleod, Catriona I , Vincent, Louise
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , book chapter
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/434411 , vital:73056 , ISBN 978-1-4899-8025-0 , https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9780203069141-7/introducing-critical-pedagogy-sexual-reproductive-citizenship-catriona-macleod-louise-vincent
- Description: In Michelle Fine’s influential 1988 paper,‘Sexuality, Schooling, and Adolescent Females: The Missing Discourse of Desire’, she examined the “desires, fears, and fantasies”(p. 30) shaping responses to sex education in the United States in the 1980s. Fine’s work encouraged a ‘turn to pleasure’in sexuality education research. This work focused on and critiqued Fine’s idea, elaborated below, of a ‘missing discourse of desire’in the education of young people and of young women in particular (see for instance Allen, 2004, 2005; Connell, 2005; Rasmussen, 2004, 2012; Tolman, 1994; Vance, 1993). Less taken up, however, was a second major thread in Fine’s 1988 paper, namely the ‘absence of entitlement’in which she argued that not only the absence of a discourse of desire but also the absence of “viable life options” for young women combined to produce their vulnerability (Fine, 1988, p. 49). Almost twenty years later, in a 2006 article, Fine, with Sara McClelland, revisited the missing discourse of desire, this time in the context of an educational crusade in the United States advocating Abstinence Only Until Marriage (AOUM) approaches to sexuality education.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
- Authors: Macleod, Catriona I , Vincent, Louise
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , book chapter
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/434411 , vital:73056 , ISBN 978-1-4899-8025-0 , https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9780203069141-7/introducing-critical-pedagogy-sexual-reproductive-citizenship-catriona-macleod-louise-vincent
- Description: In Michelle Fine’s influential 1988 paper,‘Sexuality, Schooling, and Adolescent Females: The Missing Discourse of Desire’, she examined the “desires, fears, and fantasies”(p. 30) shaping responses to sex education in the United States in the 1980s. Fine’s work encouraged a ‘turn to pleasure’in sexuality education research. This work focused on and critiqued Fine’s idea, elaborated below, of a ‘missing discourse of desire’in the education of young people and of young women in particular (see for instance Allen, 2004, 2005; Connell, 2005; Rasmussen, 2004, 2012; Tolman, 1994; Vance, 1993). Less taken up, however, was a second major thread in Fine’s 1988 paper, namely the ‘absence of entitlement’in which she argued that not only the absence of a discourse of desire but also the absence of “viable life options” for young women combined to produce their vulnerability (Fine, 1988, p. 49). Almost twenty years later, in a 2006 article, Fine, with Sara McClelland, revisited the missing discourse of desire, this time in the context of an educational crusade in the United States advocating Abstinence Only Until Marriage (AOUM) approaches to sexuality education.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
Men and talk about legal abortion in South Africa : equality, support and rights discourses undermining reproductive ‘choice’
- Macleod, Catriona I, Hansjee, Jateen
- Authors: Macleod, Catriona I , Hansjee, Jateen
- Date: 2013
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6295 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1014770 , http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13691058.2013.802815
- Description: Discursive constructions of abortion are embedded in the social and gendered power relations of a particular socio-historical space. As part of research on public discourses concerning abortion in South Africa where there has been a radical liberalisation of abortion legislation, we collected data from male group discussions about a vignette concerning abortion, and newspaper articles written by men about abortion. Our analysis revealed how discourses of equality, support and rights may be used by men to subtly undermine women's reproductive right to ‘choose’ an abortion. Within an Equal Partnership discourse, abortion, paired with the assumption of foetal personhood, was equated with violating an equal heterosexual partnership and a man's patriarchal duty to protect a child. A New Man discourse, which positions men as supportive of women, was paired with the assumption of men as rational and women as irrational in decision-making, to allow for the possibility of men dissuading women from terminating a pregnancy. A Rights discourse was invoked to suggest that abortion violates men's paternal rights.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
- Authors: Macleod, Catriona I , Hansjee, Jateen
- Date: 2013
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6295 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1014770 , http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13691058.2013.802815
- Description: Discursive constructions of abortion are embedded in the social and gendered power relations of a particular socio-historical space. As part of research on public discourses concerning abortion in South Africa where there has been a radical liberalisation of abortion legislation, we collected data from male group discussions about a vignette concerning abortion, and newspaper articles written by men about abortion. Our analysis revealed how discourses of equality, support and rights may be used by men to subtly undermine women's reproductive right to ‘choose’ an abortion. Within an Equal Partnership discourse, abortion, paired with the assumption of foetal personhood, was equated with violating an equal heterosexual partnership and a man's patriarchal duty to protect a child. A New Man discourse, which positions men as supportive of women, was paired with the assumption of men as rational and women as irrational in decision-making, to allow for the possibility of men dissuading women from terminating a pregnancy. A Rights discourse was invoked to suggest that abortion violates men's paternal rights.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
Reflecting on South African psychology: published research, ‘relevance’ and social issues
- Macleod, Catriona I, Howell, Simon
- Authors: Macleod, Catriona I , Howell, Simon
- Date: 2013
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6219 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1006277
- Description: As South Africa prepared to host the 30th International Congress of Psychology in 2012, a call was made to reflect on the strengths of and challenges facing contemporary South African Psychology. This paper presents our response to our brief to focus on social issues by presenting the results of a situational analysis of South African Psychology over the last five years and comparing this corpus of data to a similar analysis reported in Macleod (2004). Articles appearing in the South African Journal of Psychology (SAJP) and abstracts in PsycINFO with the keyword ‘South Africa’ over a 5½ year period were analysed. The content of 243 SAJP articles and 1986 PsycINFO abstracts were analysed using the codes developed by Macleod (2004). Results indicate: an increase in the number of articles, a reduction in the percentage of articles using quantitative methodologies and ‘hard’ science theoretical frameworks (particularly in the SAJP), and an increase in qualitative, theoretical, and methodological papers, and papers using systems-oriented theory (particularly in the SAJP). Traditional topics of assessment, stress and psychopathology continue to dominate, with social issues such as housing, land reform, development programmes, water resources and socio-economic inequities being largely ignored. Most research continues to be conducted in Gauteng, KwaZulu/Natal and the Western Cape, predominantly with adult, urban-based, middle-class participants, sourced mainly from universities, hospitals or clinics and schools. Collaborations or comparisons with other African, Asian, South American and Middle East countries have decreased. While the analysis presented in this paper is limited by its exclusion of books, theses, research reports and monographs, it shows that in published research there are some positive trends and some disappointments. The limited number of social issues featuring in published research, the under-representation of certain sectors of the population as participants, and the decrease in collaboration with, or comparison to, countries from the global ‘South’ represent challenges that require systematic attention.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
- Authors: Macleod, Catriona I , Howell, Simon
- Date: 2013
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6219 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1006277
- Description: As South Africa prepared to host the 30th International Congress of Psychology in 2012, a call was made to reflect on the strengths of and challenges facing contemporary South African Psychology. This paper presents our response to our brief to focus on social issues by presenting the results of a situational analysis of South African Psychology over the last five years and comparing this corpus of data to a similar analysis reported in Macleod (2004). Articles appearing in the South African Journal of Psychology (SAJP) and abstracts in PsycINFO with the keyword ‘South Africa’ over a 5½ year period were analysed. The content of 243 SAJP articles and 1986 PsycINFO abstracts were analysed using the codes developed by Macleod (2004). Results indicate: an increase in the number of articles, a reduction in the percentage of articles using quantitative methodologies and ‘hard’ science theoretical frameworks (particularly in the SAJP), and an increase in qualitative, theoretical, and methodological papers, and papers using systems-oriented theory (particularly in the SAJP). Traditional topics of assessment, stress and psychopathology continue to dominate, with social issues such as housing, land reform, development programmes, water resources and socio-economic inequities being largely ignored. Most research continues to be conducted in Gauteng, KwaZulu/Natal and the Western Cape, predominantly with adult, urban-based, middle-class participants, sourced mainly from universities, hospitals or clinics and schools. Collaborations or comparisons with other African, Asian, South American and Middle East countries have decreased. While the analysis presented in this paper is limited by its exclusion of books, theses, research reports and monographs, it shows that in published research there are some positive trends and some disappointments. The limited number of social issues featuring in published research, the under-representation of certain sectors of the population as participants, and the decrease in collaboration with, or comparison to, countries from the global ‘South’ represent challenges that require systematic attention.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
Teenage pregnancy
- Authors: Macleod, Catriona I
- Date: 2013
- Language: English
- Type: Text
- Identifier: vital:6301 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1015906
- Description: In a book on preventing early pregnancy and poor reproductive outcomes in developing countries, the World Health Organisation (2011) declares that ‘adolescent pregnancy’ contributes to maternal, perinatal and infant mortality, and to a vicious cycle of poverty and ill-health. This statement reflects the common public assumption that ‘teenage pregnancy’ represents an individual, social, health, educational and financial risk that requires remediation. This kind of public perception is spurred by media coverage in which young girls with large protruding stomachs are etched in profile and stories of calamity are told (e.g. Time (21 June 2005) magazine). And yet the very notion of 'teenage pregnancy' is a relatively recent one. Depending on the country one talks about, it has been around since between the 1960s and 1980s. In the United States, for example, the rise of ‘teenage pregnancy’ as a social problem was associated with a shift in gendered power relations. Prior to the late 1960s the morally loaded concepts of 'unwed mother' and 'illegitimate child' were used to describe young women who conceived. For the most part, young pregnant women were excluded from society, with the accompanying shame around the lack of proper conjugal arrangements. The use of the term 'teenage pregnancy' removed the implied moral judgment and replaced it with seeming scientific neutrality. Young pregnant women now became publicly visible and thus the object of scientific scrutiny (Arney & Bergen, 1984).
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
- Authors: Macleod, Catriona I
- Date: 2013
- Language: English
- Type: Text
- Identifier: vital:6301 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1015906
- Description: In a book on preventing early pregnancy and poor reproductive outcomes in developing countries, the World Health Organisation (2011) declares that ‘adolescent pregnancy’ contributes to maternal, perinatal and infant mortality, and to a vicious cycle of poverty and ill-health. This statement reflects the common public assumption that ‘teenage pregnancy’ represents an individual, social, health, educational and financial risk that requires remediation. This kind of public perception is spurred by media coverage in which young girls with large protruding stomachs are etched in profile and stories of calamity are told (e.g. Time (21 June 2005) magazine). And yet the very notion of 'teenage pregnancy' is a relatively recent one. Depending on the country one talks about, it has been around since between the 1960s and 1980s. In the United States, for example, the rise of ‘teenage pregnancy’ as a social problem was associated with a shift in gendered power relations. Prior to the late 1960s the morally loaded concepts of 'unwed mother' and 'illegitimate child' were used to describe young women who conceived. For the most part, young pregnant women were excluded from society, with the accompanying shame around the lack of proper conjugal arrangements. The use of the term 'teenage pregnancy' removed the implied moral judgment and replaced it with seeming scientific neutrality. Young pregnant women now became publicly visible and thus the object of scientific scrutiny (Arney & Bergen, 1984).
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
When veiled silences speak: reflexivity, trouble and repair as methodological tools for interpreting the unspoken in discourse-based data
- Morison, Tracy, Macleod, Catriona I
- Authors: Morison, Tracy , Macleod, Catriona I
- Date: 2013
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6220 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1006280 , http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1468794113488129
- Description: Researchers who have attempted to make sense of silence in data have generally considered literal silences or such things as laughter. We consider the analysis of veiled silences where participants speak, but their speaking serves as ‘noise’ that ‘veils’, or masks, their inability or unwillingness to talk about a (potentially sensitive) topic. Extending Lisa Mazzei’s ‘problematic of silence’ by using our performativity-performance analytical method, we propose the purposeful use of ‘unusual conversational moves’, the deployment of researcher reflexivity, and the analysis of trouble and repair as methods to expose taken-for-granted normative frameworks in veiled silences. We illustrate the potential of these research practices through reference to our study on men’s involvement in reproductive decision-making, in which participants demonstrated an inability to engage with the topic. The veiled silence that this produced, together with what was said, pointed to the operation of procreative heteronormativity.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
- Authors: Morison, Tracy , Macleod, Catriona I
- Date: 2013
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6220 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1006280 , http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1468794113488129
- Description: Researchers who have attempted to make sense of silence in data have generally considered literal silences or such things as laughter. We consider the analysis of veiled silences where participants speak, but their speaking serves as ‘noise’ that ‘veils’, or masks, their inability or unwillingness to talk about a (potentially sensitive) topic. Extending Lisa Mazzei’s ‘problematic of silence’ by using our performativity-performance analytical method, we propose the purposeful use of ‘unusual conversational moves’, the deployment of researcher reflexivity, and the analysis of trouble and repair as methods to expose taken-for-granted normative frameworks in veiled silences. We illustrate the potential of these research practices through reference to our study on men’s involvement in reproductive decision-making, in which participants demonstrated an inability to engage with the topic. The veiled silence that this produced, together with what was said, pointed to the operation of procreative heteronormativity.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
(Dis)allowances of lesbians’ sexual identities: Lesbian identity construction in racialised, classed, familial, and institutional spaces
- Gibson, Alexandra, Macleod, Catriona I
- Authors: Gibson, Alexandra , Macleod, Catriona I
- Date: 2012
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6222 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1006536 , http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0959353512459580
- Description: This article explores how lesbian identity construction is facilitated and constrained by the raced, classed, gendered, familial, and geographical spaces that women occupy. We present a narrative-discursive analysis of eight lesbians’ stories of sexuality, told within a historically white university in South Africa. Three interpretative repertoires that emerged in the narratives are discussed. The ‘disallowance of lesbian identity in particular racialised and class-based spaces’ repertoire, deployed by black lesbians only, was used to account for their de-emphasis of a lesbian identity through the invocation of a threat of danger and stereotyping. The ‘disjuncture of the (heterosexual) family and lesbian identity’ repertoire emphasised how the expectation of support and care within a family does not necessarily extend to acceptance of a lesbian identity.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2012
- Authors: Gibson, Alexandra , Macleod, Catriona I
- Date: 2012
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6222 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1006536 , http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0959353512459580
- Description: This article explores how lesbian identity construction is facilitated and constrained by the raced, classed, gendered, familial, and geographical spaces that women occupy. We present a narrative-discursive analysis of eight lesbians’ stories of sexuality, told within a historically white university in South Africa. Three interpretative repertoires that emerged in the narratives are discussed. The ‘disallowance of lesbian identity in particular racialised and class-based spaces’ repertoire, deployed by black lesbians only, was used to account for their de-emphasis of a lesbian identity through the invocation of a threat of danger and stereotyping. The ‘disjuncture of the (heterosexual) family and lesbian identity’ repertoire emphasised how the expectation of support and care within a family does not necessarily extend to acceptance of a lesbian identity.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2012
Feminist health psychology and abortion : towards a politics of transversal relations of commonality
- Authors: Macleod, Catriona I
- Date: 2012
- Language: English
- Type: Text
- Identifier: vital:6303 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1015959
- Description: In 1992 Speckhard and Rue argued in the Journal of Social Issues for the recognition of a diagnostic category, post-abortion syndrome (PAS). This term was first used in 1981 by Vincent Rue in testimony to the American Congress, but was only formalised in a published paper a decade later. Speckhard and Rue (1992) posit that abortion is a psychosocial stressor that may cause mild distress through to severe trauma, creating the need for a continuum of categories, these being post-abortion distress, post-abortion syndrome and post-abortion psychosis. PAS, which is the main focus of their paper, and which has taken root in some professional language as well as lay anti-abortion discourse, is described as a type of post-traumatic stress disorder.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2012
Feminist health psychology and abortion : towards a politics of transversal relations of commonality
- Authors: Macleod, Catriona I
- Date: 2012
- Language: English
- Type: Text
- Identifier: vital:6303 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1015959
- Description: In 1992 Speckhard and Rue argued in the Journal of Social Issues for the recognition of a diagnostic category, post-abortion syndrome (PAS). This term was first used in 1981 by Vincent Rue in testimony to the American Congress, but was only formalised in a published paper a decade later. Speckhard and Rue (1992) posit that abortion is a psychosocial stressor that may cause mild distress through to severe trauma, creating the need for a continuum of categories, these being post-abortion distress, post-abortion syndrome and post-abortion psychosis. PAS, which is the main focus of their paper, and which has taken root in some professional language as well as lay anti-abortion discourse, is described as a type of post-traumatic stress disorder.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2012