4.3 Article

Sex as Boys' Fame, But Girls' Shame: Adversarial Adolescent Gender Roles and Gender-based Violence in Guyana

Journal

JOURNAL OF INTERPERSONAL VIOLENCE
Volume 37, Issue 21-22, Pages NP19237-NP19264

Publisher

SAGE PUBLICATIONS INC
DOI: 10.1177/08862605211043585

Keywords

dating violence; adolescents; Caribbean; gender roles; violence prevention

Funding

  1. Faculty of Nursing doctoral completion award
  2. Dalla Lana School of Public Health global health travel award at the University of Toronto

Ask authors/readers for more resources

Gender-based violence is a significant issue for youth in Guyana, especially young women. Discussions about sex, dating, and violence rarely occur at the community level. Research showed that in Guyana, heteronormative, adversarial gender roles in adolescent relationships contribute to violence.
Gender-based violence (GBV) is a significant issue for youth in Guyana, particularly among young women. Yet, discussions about sex, dating, and violence rarely occur at the community level. To understand the heightened risk for GBV with youth in Guyana, we utilized a critical qualitative design to explore adolescent dating violence with adolescents (14-16 years old), parents, and school officials in a public secondary school in Guyana. In total, 36 racially and religiously diverse participants from low to middle-income households participated in focus groups (n = 30) and interviews (n = 6). Discussions centered on dating in adolescence; community awareness of dating violence; gender, racialization, and class in relation to dating violence; and dating violence prevention in schools and family settings. Our results revealed that heteronormative, adversarial gender roles in Guyana are enacted in adolescent relationships in ways that contribute to violence. Two important factors emerged in relation to femininity: female respectability related to sexuality; and the relationship between clothing, sexuality, and social class. Masculinity for adolescent boys was centered on reproducing normative assumptions about femininity and explaining the use of violence through pathologizing race. Participants were also asked to identify gender roles that adolescent boys and girls should embody in relationships, which revealed possibilities for overcoming adversarial roles in relationships. We propose that adolescent GBV prevention initiatives consider long-standing and deeply embedded ideas within gender norms that are connected to sexuality, class, and race. Without accounting for these systemic factors, GBV prevention initiatives and programs may inadvertently perpetuate traditional definitions of masculinity and femininity that contribute to violence.

Authors

I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.

Reviews

Primary Rating

4.3
Not enough ratings

Secondary Ratings

Novelty
-
Significance
-
Scientific rigor
-
Rate this paper

Recommended

No Data Available
No Data Available