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This article explores sexual agency and pleasure among heterosexual women in South Africa. By focussing on Tupperware-style sex-toy parties, this article offers a glimpse into a ‘hidden’ world of white, middle-class women living in Johannesburg. What is revealed in this ethnographic account is that these gatherings promise women new ways of enjoying sex, while remaining within the boundaries of heteronormative notions of (hetero)sex. I use the term ‘decently transgressing’ to capture the ways in which the women in this study make sense of their (hetero)sexual selves and how they negotiate their (hetero)sexual agencies, particularly in relation to past and present heteronormative discourses within the South African context. The findings show that there are tensions between women wanting to embrace their own sexual agency and desires, yet at the same time being limited by certain heteronormative norms.

Studies have shown that violent, unwanted, and coerced sexual intercourse remains a common, normalized experience for many women in heterosexual relationships. While some studies have exami...

(2016). A different kind of AIDS: Folk and lay theories in South African townships. South African Review of Sociology: Vol. 47, No. 4, pp. 132-136.

The aim of this paper is to investigate the extent to which university students are likely to hold heteronormative and normative gendered views. Data was obtained through a quantitative survey. A t...

The process of coming out is important in trying to understand how a lesbian identity is shaped and re-negotiated within various social spaces in South Africa today. The article argues that it is vital to acknowledge the intersectionality of identities and social spaces in order to understand and conceptualise the coming-out process. The article raises the question how lesbian identities are formed over time and argues that the different stages of identity development are influenced by the individual's other overlapping identities, as well as certain spaces which either permit or prohibit the disclosure of her sexual identity. The study draws on data gathered through a series of qualitative semi-structured interviews with black and white lesbians, and it forms part of an ongoing conversation about the experiences of lesbian women in South Africa, by documenting the identity formation of several lesbian women living in and around Johannesburg.

This article reports on the findings of a study which focused on former sociology students and their current careers. The underlying aim of the study was to establish whether former students believe sociology was useful to them in their endeavours to find jobs and, if so, how it was useful. The article is based on research conducted in November 2006, in which 47 former postgraduate and undergraduate students participated. These participants had been students in the Sociology Department of the University of Johannesburg (UJ) sometime between 2001 and 2005. The article will show that there is a contrast between what students expect with regard to their studies and finding jobs, and what happens in reality. The majority of former students believe sociology has been a valuable asset to them and that they use the skills they have acquired on a regular basis in their individual careers. This research is significant as it demonstrates that sociology can provide students with the opportunity to enter a b...