Girls Enjoy Sex Too Pleasure as a Factor

‘Girls Enjoy Sex Too’: Pleasure as a Factor in Sexual Decision-Making for Female University Students Tsitsi B Masvawure Ph. D Candidate, Dept of Anthropology and Archaeology & Intern, Centre for the Study of AIDS University of Pretoria, SOUTH AFRICA

Methodology This paper is based on findings from an ethnographic study that I conducted between August 2006 and December 2007 at the UZ, as part of my Ph. D studies Participant observation and in-depth interviews were the key data collection tools used.

The two points I want to make are: Firstly, that Contrary to common belief, female sexuality, especially that of young unmarried African women, is not always: v‘sexually subordinate’ nor v‘sexually disinterested’; nor yet still valways ‘reluctantly sexual’.

Secondly that, In particular social contexts, young unmarried African women become ‘active lust seekers’ and embody an active female sexuality that has sexual pleasure as its core. As a result, some young women are thus at greatest risk of picking up HIV infection in contexts of pleasure, rather than in contexts of danger.

Female Students as ‘Active Lust Seekers’

NARRATIVE 1 i) “This first week here, I am on him like mad…and the last days before my period. So, like I just visited on the 25 th. This was my last period 3 to 7…I did him here futi [again]. We did here, up to here. Yah, these first five days. Ndichingopedza [as soon as my period finished], I went to his house. We stayed up to here…then I disappeared for a while. So this is 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10…up to day 10, I was with him. 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 I was away, just calling to say hie. Then on day 19, I went. They say the corpus whatever has disintegrated… whatever. . . So, I went…” ii) “If he asks, I give him. Why not? It’s not like girls don’t enjoy sex. They do!” Neria, 19, First Year Law Student

NARRATIVE 2 “Iwe [you], we used to skip class and go to his room and have sex. We did this most afternoons. We would have lunch together at the DH and then go at it afterwards. We even did it ten times in one night! We were crazy!” -Joyce, 20, 2 nd year Medical Student

NARRATIVE 3: i) “Yes, it was the fastest I have ever seen-not fastest as in one-minute, but fastest as in we’ve only known each other for one day… At first it was pure lust! (laughs) I mean, you know, going to bed a day after meeting…please!” ii) “I’m thinking ‘Gorgeous Man’. I like that type-nice and big. You feel their weight. ’ -Tari, 22, final year, Nutritional Science

Female Students as ‘Active Lust Seekers’ The quotes above illustrate the following: These female students portray themselves in quite sexually active ways and they see themselves as equal participants in the sexual act. For instance, Neria uses the active ‘I did him’ or ‘we did it’, and never once describes herself as having been ‘done’. She thus foregrounds herself as an active and willing participant in the sexual act. b. Neria’s sexual agency, and her enjoyment of the sexual act is made all the more poignant by the fact that she creates opportunities for sex to occur. Neria times her visits to her boyfriend’s place to coincide with the days just after her period. Once her period starts, she [conveniently] ‘disappears’. Neria also performs kegel exercises and ‘goes commando’ in order to tighten and dry her vagina-all of which supposedly enhance the sexual encounter for her. From her comments and behaviour, Neria does not fit neatly into the picture of a ‘reluctantly sexual’ nor ‘sexually disinterested’ young woman. a.

c. Joyce carries on the ‘sex as pleasure’ narrative in her animated description of how she bunked/skipped her classes, just so she could have sex with her boyfriend. She also comments on the fact that she could sleep over in her boyfriend’s room as he had bribed the Janitor. She could therefore come and go as she pleased as she was known by the Janitor. In retrospect, Joyce thought her interest in sex had been rather extreme, and she attributed this to her naivety as a new student coming from an all-girls boarding school. She explained that she had found being in the presence of males ‘ 24 -7’ quite disorienting and hence had ‘totally lost it’. Like Neria, never once did Joyce describe herself as a victim or as having been coerced into sex by her boyfriend. Instead, she made it quite clear that she had initiated many of their sexual encounters herself and she took full responsibility for her actions.

d. Tari, on the other hand, had a penchant for politicians and powerful men and she wore her femininity like a badge of honor. Indeed, it was her hyper-sexuality that one immediately noticed in a first encounter. Tari was very short, small-waisted and had very wide hips, which she showed off in skin-tight jeans and very short skirts. She was what male students refer to, approvingly, as a ‘portable’ woman. As an active lust seeker, Tari maintained a sexual relationship with an ex, because she still loved him and also because his sexual prowess was ‘legendary’. Tari prided herself in being an expert on all kinds of contraceptive options, from the female and male condoms to the pill and to the loop. She was also very open about her sexual life and in an interview, she narrated an incident in which she had been so overcome by desire that she had gone on to have sex with a boyfriend even though she was having her period. Yes, it had been quite a messy encounter, she acknowledged, but it had been made that much more exciting by the fact that this had happened in her friend’s room. ‘I had lots of cleaning up to do afterwards!’ she laughed.

The almost flippant, and nonchalant manner in which these female students discuss their sexual experiences holds the clue for understanding the meanings they attach to their pre-marital sexual encounters Not only is sex pleasure; it is also play, adventure, transcendence, fun, fantasy, interaction, connectedness, , a time-out, liminality, growth, giving, sharing, expression of emotions and power, among other things. I borrow from anthropologist Ralph Bolton’s (1995) list of twenty-six ways in which sex is a joyous act that is positively experienced. Bolton’s list is quite illuminating and tells us much more about the motivations behind many seemingly ‘irrational’ sexual actions.

So, how is ‘active lust seeking’ possible? Female sexuality in Zimbabwe, as in many other patriarchal societies, is considered an important family resource. As such, young unmarried women’s movements are under constant surveillance by family members, and the general public. So, how is active lust seeking for young women possible in such a context?

1. The university is a liminal space i. e it lies ‘between and betwixt’ and represents a ‘moment in and out of time’ (Victor Turner, 1967). The university exists at the threshold of society, being both part of, and apart of, society Liminal spaces are associated with: u u Permissiveness Suspension of the ‘normal’ Provides a temporal reprieve from the strictures of everyday demands Special and extraordinary experiences Active lust seeking by female students is largely possible, and permissible, within the specific context of the university experience; outside of this liminal space, such behaviour is harder to sustain and the students are very much aware of the temporality of their experiences. ‘it is at university that sex ceases to be taboo and enters the realm of the normal and the expected’.

2. The university student identity facilitates and creates active lust seeking by female students These students therefore both construct themselves and are constructed by the university Performativity: refers to a reiteration and citation that produces the effect that it names (Judith Butler, 1993). All female students at the UZ are referred to as USA-University Spinsters Association. This identity carries numerous connotations, all of which hinge on the notion of female students as ‘sexually available’. e. g. ‘there are no virgins on campus’ phd phenomenon: parent, husband, degree ‘anything is possible at this university’ tutorials

Conclusion We need to listen more to young women’s narratives of sexual pleasure, as it is an ever-present reality in their lives, as much as danger is. ‘women’s actual sexual experiences are more complicated, difficult to grasp and more unsettling’ (Carole Vance 1989) Our reluctance or inability to programme for young women’s pleasure is a huge impediment to effective HIV prevention targeting young women; and we have failed many young women, as a result. e. g. all three female students that I quote had pregnancy scares during the course of my fieldwork. So, how do we programme for pleasure while simultaneously responding to the realities of sexual violence and coercion?

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