Prior to analysis of the question at hand it is of utmost importance to understand the dynamics of HIV/AIDS within South Africa. Phiri is but one of many neighbourhoods that has been hard hit by the HIV/AIDS epidemic. This essay is arguing that the spread of HIV/AIDS in Phiri cannot be attributed to the mentality that “it’s their culture” but that the high spread of HIV/AIDS can be accredited to many other factors.
The documentary by Dumisani focuses on the lives of the various characters within his neighbourhood, with particular emphasis on one High-school student girl. From the onset of the documentary it is evident that Phiri is not a well off neighbourhood. One of the striking comments within this documentary that we will focus this essay on is one made by an elderly woman - “THIS IS A WHITE MAN’S COUNTRY”
There are approximately 5.7 million South Africans living with HIV and Aids (Avert, 2009). Majority of these people can be found living below the poverty line or as lower class citizens. As we are continuously taught in Sociology, correlation between two factors does not necessarily imply that one factor results in the other but begs us to question the deeper rooted inter-play between factors. The high AIDS numbers within South African townships and informal settlements cannot be attributed to single factors such as culture or class position or education or race or creed but rather a continuous inter-play between all these various factors.
The documentary about Phiri does not anywhere state that it is specifically about HIV/AIDS, but gives one an overview of the many different lifestyles and expectations of the different characters portrayed. Through this, one can gain an understanding of the many social influences, constraints, dependencies and power relations that contribute to the spread of HIV/AIDS in areas such as Phiri.
The dynamics between the genders within Phiri leads to many of the problems faced. As this is a poor community the males within it use their sexuality to prove their masculinity. In the documentary Dumisani and some men speak about what it is to male. Previously they defined themselves by how much they had suffered during the Apartheid regime, how much they had suffered in prison etc. Within the post- Apartheid South Africa they now define their masculinity around being able to provide for their families, if they are able to give financial support. But within this poor community there is little resources and high unemployment. Most families are broken with many of the men leaving their girlfriends once they fall pregnant or have a baby. Therefore with the demasculization the men have found a new way to prove themselves male, with virility. As one of the men say that there is something wrong with Dumisani because he does not always have a “hard on” and he should see a traditional healer.
“Thus he makes woman into the symbol of his own dependence, and in addition , the further he dissociates himself from her, the more he feels he is his own master; he creates two definitions, feminity and virility, which exacerabate the anatomical differences, increase women’s dependence and concentrate everything that seems to represent human strength in himself.” (Reynaud 2004:142)
One of the constraints that the girls face is if they (the girls) initiate the use of condoms, the girls are seen as being promiscuous. Added to this constraint is that girls carrying condoms are often boxed as being “slutty”. It is clear that many of the girls will take the risk of not using a condom, rather than having these stigmas’s attached to them. There is a great prevalence of male dominance within the society of Phiri, as many girls feel they have to please the men, as they are often dependant on these men both financially and/or emotionally.
Another large issue for both women and men in Phiri is the lack of education and knowledge around sex and HIV/AIDS. One girl tells her story of the first time she had sex; she was with her first boyfriend, and had very little knowledge on the subject. He told her that she would not get pregnant the first time she had sex, and she believed him: she fell pregnant. This emphasises the fact that little sexual education reaches Phiri, it is also worrying that her main concern about having sex was falling pregnant, and not the contraction of sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV.
Studies done in the United States and Western Europe show that “public education and the use of safer sexual practices have proven to be the most effective means of limiting the spread of HIV transmission” (Parker, 1999: 261). An increase in sexual education in South Africa would play a large role in the decrease in the spread of HIV/AIDS, however it seems that South Africa does not have all the required recourses to get this information all of its citizens. A man in the documentary whom tested positive for HIV opened a small centre, calling it an AIDS Consortium Workshop, as a support structure for those with living with HIV, and to educate the citizens of Phiri about HIV, and the prevention of it. He felt that if he had more knowledge on the subject of HIV/AIDS he would have been able to protect himself, and may be living today without the disease.
The dynamics within the community affect the spread of HIV/AIDS as it does not seem to be spoken about within the community. The people that Dumisani interviews will only speak about the disease when prompted to, even then they ask to speak about something else. The few people who do speak about the disease are the few individuals who have a support group for those living with HIV/AIDS. There is no talk of treatment for the disease and the only other support the community has (for HIV/AIDS) is situated far from the community itself.
The argument that HIV/AIDS numbers in Phiri can be attributed to cultural norms misses the point completely. It is evident that there are many factors at play as we have pointed out. Firstly masculinities are challenged through women gaining equal roles sexually, but within societies such as these women who take responsibility for their sex lives are often stigmatised. Secondly, of all the women interviewed, none of them were still with their boyfriends after having children with them, thus burdening them with added responsibilities, both financial and emotional. Thirdly education levels within societies such as these is often at times limited to the minimal recourses available, evidence of this is the poor functioning of the Aids Consortium Workshop. The issue of HIV/AIDS is compounded by these various factors that are not at all unique to a specific culture, but rather embedded in various social practices.
Reference:
www.avert.org/aidssouthafrica.htm
Parker, R. (1999). Within Four Walls:Brazilian sexual culture and HIV?AIDS. In R. Parker & P. Aggleton (Eds.). Culture, Society and Sexuality: A Reader. London: Routledge. 253-266.
Reynaud, E. 2004. Holy Virility: The Social Construction of Masculinity in Feminism and Masculinities. Google Books
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