This article explores gender power relations and the contradictions and confusions
associated with sexual identity and normative (hetero-)sexual practices. Theories of
‘identity’ and ‘performativity’ are used to
understand the relationships between young women's sexual identity constructions and
sexual practices within the context of HIV/AIDS in South Africa. The discussion
focuses on young women's accounts of their feminine identities with respect to
issues of intimacy and romantic love; pregnancy, virginity and respect; desire,
danger and disease; future marriage and family. It highlights the fragility and
ambiguity in the processes of identity construction and performance of heterosexual
femininity in an HIV/AIDS environment. Significantly, the dominant discourses of
femininity through which these young women made sense of their sexual selves, stood
in direct contradiction to their sexual safety. Given this, greater understanding of
these identity processes would appear vital to successful strategies in the
protection against HIV/AIDS in South Africa.
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