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South African bisexual women’s accounts of their gendered and sexualized identities : a feminist poststructuralist analysis
Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2012.
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University of Pretoria
2013
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| _version_ | 1867613590233546752 |
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| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author2 | Maree, David J.F. |
| author_browse | Maree, David J.F. |
| author_facet | Maree, David J.F. |
| collection | Thesis |
| dc_rights_str_mv | © 2012 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria. |
| description | Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2012. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:repository.up.ac.za:2263/25631 |
| institution | University of Pretoria (South Africa) |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:38:33.924Z |
| license_str | Other — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from UPSpace — University of Pretoria Institutional Repository |
| publishDate | 2013 |
| publishDateRange | 2013 |
| publishDateSort | 2013 |
| publisher | University of Pretoria |
| publisherStr | University of Pretoria |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | UPSpace — University of Pretoria Institutional Repository |
| spelling | oai:repository.up.ac.za:2263/25631 South African bisexual women’s accounts of their gendered and sexualized identities : a feminist poststructuralist analysis Maree, David J.F. ingrid.sange@gmail.com Lynch, Ingrid Poststructuralist theory Social constructionism South africa Feminist theory Discourse analysis Gender Women Same-sex sexuality Sexual orientation Female bisexuality UCTD Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2012. 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. Psychology unrestricted 2013-09-06T22:44:46Z 2013-06-27 2013-09-06T22:44:46Z 2013-04-11 2012 2013-06-18 Thesis Lynch, I 2012, South African bisexual women’s accounts of their gendered and sexualized identities : a Feminist poststructuralist analysis, PhD thesis, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, viewed yymmdd < http://hdl.handle.net/2263/25631 > D13/4/703/ag http://hdl.handle.net/2263/25631 http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-06182013-083823/ © 2012 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria. application/pdf application/pdf application/pdf application/pdf application/pdf application/pdf application/pdf University of Pretoria |
| spellingShingle | Poststructuralist theory Social constructionism South africa Feminist theory Discourse analysis Gender Women Same-sex sexuality Sexual orientation Female bisexuality UCTD South African bisexual women’s accounts of their gendered and sexualized identities : a feminist poststructuralist analysis |
| title | South African bisexual women’s accounts of their gendered and sexualized identities : a feminist poststructuralist analysis |
| title_full | South African bisexual women’s accounts of their gendered and sexualized identities : a feminist poststructuralist analysis |
| title_fullStr | South African bisexual women’s accounts of their gendered and sexualized identities : a feminist poststructuralist analysis |
| title_full_unstemmed | South African bisexual women’s accounts of their gendered and sexualized identities : a feminist poststructuralist analysis |
| title_short | South African bisexual women’s accounts of their gendered and sexualized identities : a feminist poststructuralist analysis |
| title_sort | south african bisexual women s accounts of their gendered and sexualized identities a feminist poststructuralist analysis |
| topic | Poststructuralist theory Social constructionism South africa Feminist theory Discourse analysis Gender Women Same-sex sexuality Sexual orientation Female bisexuality UCTD |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/2263/25631 http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-06182013-083823/ |