Abstract
This chapter examines how alcohol, fear, and female dress are constructed as risk factors in female university students’ accounts of violence on campus. A racially diverse group of 10 female students who resided at the on-campus residence at the University of KwaZulu-Natal participated in the qualitative study on which this chapter draws. The aim of the chapter is to investigate female students’ vulnerability to gender violence and how this is interlinked with substance use, fear and the discursive production of female dress. Participants argued that female students’ “deviation” from traditional gendered scripts increased their vulnerability. They saw women’s acquiescence within hetero-patriarchal settings not as an indication that their femininity was passively constructed, but that it was a protective strategy enabling them to mediate and reduce the risk of violence. Our participants also demonstrated agency through actively proposing ways of raising consciousness about gender violence in the student body, and suggesting roles that men could play in the prevention of violence. The chapter concludes with recommendations for working with female students’ agentic capacities to challenge violence.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
- 1.
Permission to conduct the research was granted by the University Ethics Committee (HSS 1524/013CA).
References
Anitha, S., Jordan, A., Jameson, J., & Davy, Z. (2020). A balancing act: Agency and constraints in university students’ understanding of and responses to sexual violence in the night-time economy. Violence Against Women, 1–23. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077801220908325
Anitha, S., & Lewis, R. (Eds.). (2018). Gender based violence in university communities: Policy, prevention and educational initiatives. Bristol, UK: Policy Press.
Bureau of Market Research. (2018). Exploration of the blesser-blessee phenomenon among young people in Gauteng. Gauteng: BMR Youth Research Unit, UNISA.
Cohen, L., Manion, L., & Morrison, K. (2018). Research methods in education (8th ed.). UK, London: Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group
Commission for Gender Equality. (2017). Gender transformation at institutions of higher learning. Commission for gender equality. Retrieved May 3, 2016 from http://www.cge.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/CGE-2017-Gender-Transformation.pdf
Culatta, E., Clay-Warner, J., Boyle, K., & Oshri, A. (2020). Sexual revictimization: A routine activity theory explanation. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 35(15–16), 2800–2824.
Decker, M. R., Latimore, A. D., Yasutake, S., Haviland, M., Ahmed, S., Blum, R. W., et al. (2015). Gender-based violence against adolescent and young adult women in low-and middle-income countries. Journal of Adolescent Health, 56(2), 188–196.
Fedina, L., Holmes, J., & Backes, B. (2018). Campus sexual assault: A systematic review of prevalence research from 2000 to 2015. Trauma, Violence, & Abuse, 19(1), 76–93.
Gibbs, A., Myrttinen, H., Washington, L., Sikweyiya, Y., & Jewkes, R. (2020). Constructing, reproducing and challenging masculinities in a participatory intervention in urban informal settlements in south africa. Culture, Health and Sexuality, 22(5), 535–550. https://doi.org/10.1080/13691058.2019.1614671
Gordon, S. F., & Collins, A. (2013). “We face rape. We face all things”: Understandings of gender-based violence amongst female students at a South African university. African Safety Promotion: A Journal of Injury and Violence Prevention, 11(2), 93–106.
Hoskin, R. A. (2020). “Femininity? It’s the aesthetic of subordination”: Examining femmephobia, the gender binary, and experiences of oppression among
sexual and gender minorities. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 49, 2319–2339.List, K. (2017). Gender-based violence against female students in European university settings. International Annals of Criminology, 55(2), 172–188.
Loots, S., & Walker, M. (2015). Shaping a gender equality policy in higher education: Which human capabilities matter? Gender and Education, 27(4), 361–375. https://doi.org/10.1080/09540253.2015.1045458
Masvawure, T. B. (2011). The role of ‘pimping’ in the mediation of transactional sex at a university campus in zimbabwe. African Journal of AIDS Research, 10(2), 165–171. https://doi.org/10.2989/16085906.2011.593379
Mellins, C. A., Walsh, K., Sarvet, A. L., Wall, M., Gilbert, L., Santelli, J. S., et al. (2017). Sexual assault incidents among college undergraduates: Prevalence and factors associated with risk. PLoS One, 12(11), e0186471.
Morrell, R., Jewkes, R., Lindegger, G., & Hamlall, V. (2013). Hegemonic masculinity: Reviewing the gendered analysis of men’s power in South Africa. South African Review of Sociology, 44(1), 3–21.
Mudaly, R. (2009). Theorising researcher self-effacement and youth deep insiders in the context of HIV and AIDS. Journal of Education, 46, 159–182.
Nekgotha, T. K., Nel, K., & Govender, S. (2020). Stress levels and alcohol use amongst beginning students at a peri-urban South African university: A brief report. Journal of Psychology in Africa, 30(3), 208–210.
Perkins, W., & Warner, J. (2017). Sexual violence response and prevention: Studies of campus policies and practices. Journal of School Violence, 16(3), 237–242.
Phipps, A. (2020). Reckoning up: Sexual harassment and violence in the neoliberal university. Gender and Education, 32(2), 227–243.
Pitpitan, V., Kalichan, C., Eaton, L., Cain, D., Sikkema, J., Skinner, D., et al. (2013). Gender based violence, alcohol use, and sexual risk among female patrons of drinking venues in Cape Town, South Africa. Journal of Behavioural Medicine, 36(3), 295–304.
Rau, A., Radloff, S., Coetzee, J., Nardi, C., Smit, R., & Matebesi, Z. (2014). Students perceiving risk: A quantitative assessment on three South African university campuses. African Sociological Review, 18(1), 65–90.
Rodgers, C., & LaBoskey, V. K. (2016). Reflective practice. In J. J. Loughran & M. L. Hamilton (Eds.), International handbook of teacher education (pp. 71–104). Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer.
Rollero, C., & Tartaglia, S. (2019). The effect of sexism and rape myths on victim blame. Sexuality & Culture, 23, 209–219.
Ross, E., & Rasool, S. (2019). “You go to campus with fear and come back with fear.” University students’ experiences of crime. SA Crime Quarterly, 68, 7–20.
Safety and Violence Initiative. (2016). Gender-based violence at higher education institutions in South Africa. Retrieved May 5, 2020 from https://www.saferspaces.org.za/understand/entry/gender-based-violence-at-higher-education-institutions-in-south-africa1
Senn, C. Y., Eliasziw, M., Hobden, K. L., Barata, P. C., Radtke, H. L., Thurston, W. E., & Newby-Clark, I. R. (2021). Testing a model of how a sexual assault resistance education program for women reduces sexual assaults. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 45(1), 20–36. https://doi.org/10.1177/0361684320962561
Sexual Violence Task Team (2016). “We will not be silenced”: A three–pronged justice approach to sexual offences and rape culture at Rhodes University/UCKAR. Grahamstown, South Africa: Critical Studies in Sexualities and Reproduction.
Sharoni, S., & Klocke, B. (2019). Faculty confronting gender-based violence on campus: Opportunities and challenges. Violence Against Women, 25(11), 1352–1369.
Singh, S., Mudaly, R., & Singh-Pillay, A. (2015). The what, who and where of female students’ fear of sexual assault on a South African university campus. Agenda, 29(3), 97–105.
Statistics South Africa. (2016). South Africa demographic and health survey 2016. Pretoria: South Africa.
Stoebenau, K., Heise, L., Wamoyi, J., & Bobrova, N. (2016). Revisiting the understanding of “transactional sex” in sub-saharan africa: A review and synthesis of the literature. Social Science and Medicine, 168, 186–197. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2016.09.023
Swartz, S., Mahali, A., Arogundade, E., Khalema, E. S., Rule, C., Cooper, A., Molefi, S., & Naidoo, P. (2017). Ready or not! race, education and emancipation: A five-year longitudinal, qualitative study of agency and impasses to success amongst higher education students in a sample of South African universities. Client report submitted to the Centre for Critical Research on race and identity, University of KwaZulu-Natal/Department of Higher Education and Training. Cape Town, South Africa: HSRC.
Treffry-Goatley, A., De Lange, N., Moletsane, R., Mkhize, N., & Masinga, L. (2018). What does it mean to be a young african woman on a university campus in times of sexual violence? A new moment, a new conversation. Behavioral Sciences, 8(8). https://doi.org/10.3390/bs8080067
United States Department of Justice Archives. (2018). Protecting Students from Sexual Assault. Retrieved May 5, 2020 from https://www.justice.gov/archives/ovw/protecting-students-sexual-assault
UN Women. (2018). Guidance note on campus violence, prevention and response. EVAW section of UN Women. Retrieved May 5, 2020 from https://www.unwomen.org/en/digital-library/publications/2019/02/guidance-note-on-campus-violence-prevention-and-response
Vetten, L. (2014). Rape and other forms of sexual violence in South Africa. Institute for Security Studies, Policy Brief, 72, 1–7.
Wiederman, M. W. (2015). Sexual script theory: Past, present and future. In J. DeLamater & R. F. Plante (Eds.), Handbook of the sociology of sexualities (pp. 7–22). Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer.
Wilson, P. A., Sarvet, A., Walsh, K., Wall, M., Ford, J. V., Gilbert, L., … Mellins, C. A. (2020). The situational contexts of sexual experiences among urban college students: An event-based analysis. International Journal of Sexual Health, 32(3), 199–215. https://doi.org/10.1080/19317611.2020.1772440
World Health Organisation. (2013). Global and regional estimates of violence against women: Prevalence and health effects of intimate partner violence and non-partner sexual violence. Geneva, Switzerland: WHO Press.
World Health Organisation. (2018). Global status report on alcohol and health. Geneva, Switzerland: WHO Press.
Acknowledgement
This work is based on the research supported by the National Research Foundation of South Africa (Grant Numbers 90388, 113818). The opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in any publication generated by the NRF supported research is that of the author(s), and therefore the NRF accepts no liability whatsoever in this regard.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2021 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Mudaly, R., Singh, S., Singh-Pillay, A., Mabaso, B. (2021). “Why you Touching me? This Is Scary.” Alcohol, Fear, and Miniskirts as Risk Factors in Female Students’ Understandings of Violence on Campus. In: Bhana, D., Singh, S., Msibi, T. (eds) Gender, Sexuality and Violence in South African Educational Spaces. Palgrave Studies in Gender and Education. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-69988-8_11
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-69988-8_11
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-69987-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-69988-8
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media StudiesLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)