Transactional sex relationships in fiction: the disintegration of women’s emancipation through the blesser/blessee culture in selected african novels
| dc.contributor.author | Gawas, Emelda U | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2024-01-29T07:03:05Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2024-01-29T07:03:05Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2023 | |
| dc.description | A research submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of philosophy in english studies | en_US |
| dc.description.abstract | The hashtag #blessed started trending several years ago on different social media platforms when women claimed to be beneficiaries of blessers. The latter was what the new hashtag denoted and not the often biblical meaning of ‘blessed’ which is to receive favour from God. The hashtag thus falls under the contemporary phenomenon known as transactional sex relationships, colloquially known as the blessers, blessees, sugar daddies, sugar babies and side-chicks. Since this is a new phenomenon, this study aimed to interrogate the multiple layers of transactional sex relationships in fiction and how they possibly contribute to the disintegration of women’s emancipation. The study which was essentially a qualitative desktop study employed purposive sampling to select and analyse four novels by southern African writers: The Blessed Girl by Angela Makholwa (2018), Bare: #The Blesser Game by Jackie Phamotse (2017), Sweet Medicine by Panashe Chigumadzi (2016), and The y in yOUR Man is Silent: Book 1 by Yvonne Maphosa (2019). Employing the postcolonial paradigm of Africa writing-back-to-self advocated by Mwangi (2009) and a critique of Lipstick Feminism, the study analysed how the writers aesthetically present literary devices describing the unrefined data about transactional sex relationships. In addition, the study analysed how the transactional sex relationship culture encouraged the possible disintegration of women’s emancipation. The study contributes to the understanding of the self-reflexive catalytic events that lead to transactional sex relationships and their consequences in Africa, without singular attribution to the West. The findings indicate the following: firstly, the authors wrote extensively and without inhibition about transactional sex relationships using visual imagery more than euphemisms whilst presenting a variety of issues that are considered taboo. The following key issues were identified as the primary sources of transactional sex ii relationships: women’s agency, consumerism, modernity, poverty, parental influence or encouragement, peer pressure, gendered norms, grade adjustments to pass, and guaranteed job offers. Depression, trauma, abuse, and isolation were some of the issues found to be the psychological, physical and social consequences of transactional sex relationships. Significantly, the study found that the advancement of Lipstick Feminism towards the application of make-up and women using their sex appeal as empowerment has contributed to the commodification of transactional sex and thus the disintegration of women’s empowerment. The findings of the study corroborate the existing social studies’ findings on the phenomenon and provide vital information for future studies. The study recommends future studies to employ Mwangi’s (2009) postcolonial paradigm of writing-back-to-self to examine the other taboos revealed in this thesis; skin and private part bleaching, depression, indecent public exposure, polyamory, black tax and men who have sex with men (MSM). The study concludes that the transactional sex relationship culture contributes to the disintegration of women’s empowerment. | en_US |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/11070/3762 | |
| dc.language.iso | en | en_US |
| dc.publisher | University of Namibia | en_US |
| dc.subject | Women’s empowerment | en_US |
| dc.subject | Disintegration | en_US |
| dc.subject | Transactional sex relationships | en_US |
| dc.subject | Side-chick | en_US |
| dc.subject | Blesser | en_US |
| dc.subject | Blessee | en_US |
| dc.title | Transactional sex relationships in fiction: the disintegration of women’s emancipation through the blesser/blessee culture in selected african novels | en_US |
| dc.type | Thesis | en_US |