Brazil-Gender Role Beliefs at Sexual Debut-Research
Author: Womens UN Report Network
Date: May 8, 2006
Volume 32,
Number 1, March 2006
Gender Role Beliefs at Sexual Debut: Qualitative Evidence from Two Brazilian
Cities
CONTEXT: Culturally based beliefs about gender roles influence women’s
sexual behavior and their ability to protect themselves from unwanted sexual
experiences. Studying the beliefs that influence women’s behavior at sexual
debut helps contextualize unwanted sexual intercourse.
METHODS: Twenty-four focus groups on women’s beliefs about gender
roles at sexual debut were conducted in 2002 with low- and middle-income women
aged 18–21 and 30–39 who were recruited from public and private venues in
Recife, capital of Pernambuco, and Belo Horizonte, capital of Minas Gerais,
Brazil. The data were analyzed for common themes, and quotations were chosen to
illustrate those themes.
RESULTS: Focus group participants perceived that men have an urgent
need for sex. This perception caused women to fear abandonment, anger or
violence if they refused to have sex with their partner. The participants
believed that women had to act passive the first time they had sex because
taking the initiative (for example, by asking their partner to practice
contraception) would lead him to accuse them of having previous sexual
experience. Also, they believed they had to say no to sex under all
circumstances to protect their reputation.
CONCLUSION: To decrease the occurrence of unwanted intercourse,
interventions must address the social expectations that influence men’s and
women’s sexual behavior.
International Family Planning Perspectives, 2006, 32(1):45–51
The great majority of reproductive health research assumes that, except in
the case of rape, sexual intercourse is voluntary and wanted. Although the
Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) questionnaire asks whether the intercourse
reported by a woman was involuntary, it does not ask if the intercourse was
wanted. Researchers have found that rape accounts for only a small percentage of
women’s experiences of unwanted sexual intercourse.1 In fact, many experiences that are not
categorized in surveys as involuntary take place according to the man’s
dictates, without regard for the woman’s desires. These unwanted experiences are
shaped by beliefs about gender roles and clouded by ambiguous communication.
Sexual negotiation and communication take place within the context of
culture-based beliefs about sexual functioning. Therefore, identifying these
beliefs is critical to understanding how and perhaps why control is or is not
exercised by women. Brazil provides an interesting case study of sexual
experiences because its culture is traditionally patriarchal, grounded in
Catholicism and machismo, and yet in juxtaposition to these generally
repressive doctrines, Brazilian women are seen as very sensual. Nevertheless,
Brazilian women’s voices regarding their own sexual desires and experiences are
largely missing.
The meaning of sexual intercourse changes significantly over the life course.
In order to deal with moderately comparable events, this study focuses on
women’s first vaginal intercourse when it occurs outside of marriage.
BACKGROUND
While in the pursuit of other research interests, a number of investigators
in Brazil have found evidence of negative sexual experiences for women. For
example, in their evaluations of HIV-prevention campaigns with adolescents,
Monteiro in Rio de Janeiro and Paiva in São Paulo demonstrated that condom
distribution campaigns were having little effect on the spread of HIV because
the campaigns were grounded in a concept of equality between the genders that
did not match the adolescents’ reality.2 Other studies have indirectly documented the
burden of unwanted sexual intercourse in Brazil while examining women’s
strategies to avoid sex. Women in focus groups in São Paulo reported that men
accepted headaches, menstruation, toothaches, general preoccupations and fatigue
as reasons for refusing sexual intercourse, and said that they used these
“acceptable” excuses with frequency.3 Brazilian women also employ folklore-based
reasons to abstain from sex. Breast-feeding women refused sexual advances by
stating that semen would poison the breast milk.4 Some women feigned menstruation, using the
social taboo against sexual intercourse during that time.5 Women in Pernambuco, noting rumors that tubal
ligation induces frigidity, said that having the procedure would provide them
with a welcome strategy for avoiding unwanted intercourse.6 Yet respondents in one study believed that
using excuses to avoid intercourse should have limits and explained that they
observed certain rules when using these excuses. One middle-class participant
said, “If I say I have a headache, he understands…. But if we always say no,
we’ll lose our husband[s]” [author’s translation].7
In Brazil, one’s sexual debut marks the transition to womanhood. Virginity
has lost much of its social value in the middle- and upper-class cultures of São
Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, but it continues to be relatively important in more
rural areas and among the lower classes. The 1996 Brazilian DHS showed that 1.2%
of women reported that their sexual debut was involuntary (4.1% for women
younger than 15 years old, 0.4% for women 15–17 years old and 0.0% for women
18–24 years old).8 However, involuntary sexual debut captures only
a small proportion of all unwanted sexual debuts. Of 45 sexually active women
aged 14–17 interviewed in a midsized city in Minas Gerais, five said they
neither liked nor disliked their sexual debut, four disliked it and six had not
wanted to have sexual intercourse at that point in time.9 Fear, suffering, sadness, anger, savage and bad
were some of the words used by women to describe their first intercourse
experience (vaginal or anal). These studies demonstrate that women’s agency at
sexual debut in Brazil demands further attention.
DATA AND METHODS
Studying female sexual agency at sexual debut requires relying on
participants’ accounts of their experiences since the event under study is by
its very nature hidden. Furthermore, the event is always recounted
retrospectively, introducing the bias inherent in recall. Therefore, I used
focus groups to capture what women perceive as normal at sexual debut. While
negotiation can involve contraceptive use or what sexual behaviors to engage in,
this article deals with the negotiations regarding whether to engage in sexual
intercourse. This study focuses on women’s experiences of premarital sexual
debut; in 1996, the date of the last Brazilian DHS, 84% of initial sexual
experiences for women 15–24 years old took place before marriage.10
This study was conducted in 2002 in Belo Horizonte, the capital of the state
of Minas Gerais, and Recife, the capital of the state of Pernambuco. Both cities
are large metropolitan areas—the fourth and eighth largest cities in the
country, respectively. With approximately 80% of Brazil’s population residing in
cities, 10 of which have more than a million inhabitants, it was fitting to
carry out an urban study. The two cities provide an interesting comparison
between the wealthier, industrial southeast (Belo Horizonte) and the more
impoverished, agrarian northeast (Recife). Participants were recruited at
locations where they lived, worked or obtained services within the city limits
of the two sites. Respondents were recruited from public health posts in slums,
college preparatory facilities, community activity centers, university classes
and personal networks. Within each city, the sample was divided between
lower-income and middle-income, as well as 18–21-year-olds and 30–39-year-olds
to capture the sexual experiences of two different generations. The focus groups
were stratified according to socioeconomic status and age to maintain
homogeneity within groups. Socioeconomic status was based on self-reported
neighborhood of residence and age. The 18–21-year-olds had completed an average
of 10.2 years of education and had 0.2 lifetime births per woman at the time of
participation; the 30–39-year-olds had completed an average of 9.9 years of
education and had 1.6 lifetime births per woman. Most of the participants were
white or mixed race, with a minority identifying as black. Institutional review
board approval for fieldwork was obtained from the University of Texas at
Austin.
All of the focus groups took place in Portuguese, and were moderated by a
native speaker as the author observed and took notes. After the guidelines had
been pilot tested and the questions modified accordingly, 24 focus groups were
held—12 in each city, with an average of six participants each. On average, the
focus groups met for two hours. All discussions were tape-recorded and later
transcribed by a native Portuguese speaker, and all of the analysis was done in
Portuguese. The software program NVIVO2 (QSR International, Melbourne,
Australia) was used for the data analysis to identify major themes related to
agency and control at first sex. The author created the codes, coded the data
and analyzed the data. The key themes are summarized below, illustrated with
quotes. The quotes that appear below were translated by the author and were not
back-translated. The moderator is designated by the letter M and the various
participants by P, P1, P2 and so on.
RESULTS
Women’s Perceptions of Male Sexual Behavior
Women’s perceptions of men’s sexual needs and how men would likely react if
those needs were not met are a critical aspect of the sexual interaction. The
most prevalent belief held by women was that all men need sex and would
therefore abandon a woman, or in some instances resort to violence, if she did
not agree to have sex.
•The male need for sex. One of the most common assumptions
voiced by the women was that men need frequent sexual activity.
P1: Men want sex all the time, you know?
P2: And when he wants it, we have to give it to
him.
—lower-income 18–21-year-olds, Belo Horizonte
Even when a man expressed a willingness to wait for sex, respondents were
distrustful.
P: Look, the majority of men are scoundrels…. I don’t trust my
boyfriend. I love him, I think he’s the man of my life. And I say to him that I
don’t trust him. I know that he could find another woman, you know? …So even
though he tells me that he’ll wait [until I want to have sex] and tolerate me
and give me what I want, I want to believe him but women have fears. I have
fear. Now I’m really scared that he’ll find someone else to satisfy him, you
know?
—lower-income 18–21-year-olds, Belo Horizonte
For some participants, the belief that men need sex meant that they tolerated
an unfaithful partner in order to preserve their virginity.
P1: I said no to him. “No, let’s wait till we’re married.”
P2: He threatened you, didn’t he?
P1: Yeah, he really did. He got tired of threatening me. He’d leave me
at home and go looking out on the street [for a prostitute]…. But, as they say,
love is blind, right? He’d go looking for his women in the street and…the
following day, he’d be at my house, hugging me and kissing me.
P3: And he knew that you knew that he’d looked for another
[woman]?
P1: He knew. He’s the one who told me.
M: What would he say?
P1: He’d say to me, “Since you don’t want to give it to me….”
P2: What happened was that you were scared of losing him, the loss.
Sometimes, lots of times, you’re with a guy, sometimes you like him so much but
sometimes because of the threats, you are scared to lose him, and there’s where
you give in.
P1: But I fought all the time with him. I said, “You go take a bath in
alcohol from your head to your toes” [because you’ve been with a
prostitute].
—lower-income 30–39-year-olds, Belo Horizonte
P: He wanted to pass the limit with me and I said, “No…this way, we’re
going to have to break up because I am a moça [virgin].” So sometimes he
looked, for example, for a woman in the street. He wanted to do to me, a moça,
what he did with those women in the street. I said, “No, you’d better go find a
woman in the street because I’m a moça. If you want to date me direito
[correctly], you respect me, don’t pass the limit.”
—lower-income
30–39-year-olds, Recife
That the partners of the participants quoted above were having sex with other
women did not seem to challenge the participants’ place in the relationship.
Rather, this was a way for women to maintain their virginity in the face of
men’s perceived need for sex. Although the belief that men need sex was a
near-universal theme across all the focus groups, lower- and middle-income
18–21-year-olds from both cities challenged the legitimacy of this idea.
•The threat of abandonment. The fear of being abandoned for another
woman was the reason most frequently cited for engaging in sexual intercourse by
the participants in both cities and across socioeconomic and age divisions.
M: Why did she [a friend] have sex?
P: She liked him and wanted to stay with him no matter what. She
thought that this was a good idea…. She did it to satisfy him. She didn’t think
about her own pleasure. She had sex to hold on to him. [She thought:] “If I hold
on to him in bed, he’s mine. He won’t go looking for someone else.”
—lower-income 18–21-year-olds, Belo Horizonte
P: Women are very scared. I think that they are very scared, very
insecure. They think, “If I don’t [have sexual intercourse], I will lose him,
whom I like so much.” …Many women start thinking, “If I don’t, he will think
that I’m really slow…and he won’t want to talk to me anymore, won’t want to see
me anymore.”
—lower-income 18–21-year-olds, Recife
P1: It’s because women think like this, “Gosh, if I say no to him,
he’ll get upset,” because there are lots of women who are scared of losing the
guy they like…. Lots of women pass through this. [They think:] “If I say no to
him, he’ll leave me, so I’ll do what he wants.”
P2: Out of fear of losing him.
—middle-income 30–39-year-olds,
Recife
Although respondents said men do threaten to abandon their partners, women
often had sex out of fear of abandonment even when the men did not voice any
explicit threat.
•Fear of the male reaction to sexual denial. Another prevalent
belief among the respondents was that sexual denial would provoke a man’s
anger.
M: Do women think about what the guy will do if they say no when
things are progressing to sexual intercourse?
P1: She gets scared. [She thinks:] “Gosh, I’ll…what will I say?” He’ll
get angry.
P2: [She thinks:] “He’ll get angry at me.”
P3: [She thinks:] “And he won’t look in my face any more.” So she gets
scared. This happens a lot.
P4: It’s difficult.
P5: Many [women] don’t end things [the sexual encounter]; they let it
roll so that he doesn’t get angry.
—middle-income 18–21-year-olds,
Recife
Fear of physical violence was cited as a reason to engage in sex even if
women did not want to. This fear was most often voiced by older, lower-income
focus group respondents.
M: Women had fears in saying no?
P1: Of being beaten up.
P2: Yeah.
P3: Of being beaten.
P4: Hit in the face.
M: Yeah?
P5: The men of this time hit women a lot.
M: Hit them?
—lower-income 30–39-year-olds, Belo Horizonte
P5: Hit them.
M: Why is it not possible to say no?
P1: It’s because we know the temperament of our partners. So a woman
won’t say no because she knows that he will react in an aggressive manner.
P2: There’s that fear that you’ll be attacked.…
P3: It happens.
P4: It happens.
P5: It happens.
P3: And the force…
P2: …of a man who’s furious…
—lower-income 30–39-year-olds,
Recife
Although lower-income participants were more likely than middle-income
participants to relate having experienced violence or knowing someone who had
experienced violence the first time they had sex, they were also more likely
than middle-income participants to relate stories of women challenging men’s
attempts at forcing them to have sex.
Women anticipated abandonment, anger or violence as a consequence of not
having sexual intercourse; this reaction was accepted and understood, largely,
because of men’s perceived need for sex. In Brazil, a man’s support and
protection greatly increases women’s access to social status, financial
well-being and protection from other men’s sexual advances in the public
sphere.11 Satisfying a man’s sexual
desire is a strategy women employ to increase their chances of keeping a man
around.
The Accommodating Woman
The dynamic at sexual debut is only partially explained by looking at women’s
expectations of male behavior. Women’s expectations of themselves are equally
important. The beliefs about female behavior that emerged from the focus groups
were largely grounded in men’s perceived expectations of women’s behavior.
The most prevalent opinion voiced by the respondents for women at sexual
debut is that they should be completely passive and ignorant. If women behave
otherwise, they risk being accused of having previous sexual experience. Women
also believe they are expected to say no to sex under all circumstances so as
not to be seen as looking for sex. Latin America’s conservative Catholic
tradition ties a woman’s status to her perceived sexual purity. This idea lives
on in contemporary Brazil: The participants in these focus groups used the terms
meninas para namorar ou meninas para casar [girls to date or girls to
marry] to draw the distinction between girls with good reputations and those
with bad ones.
•The need to act passive. Lower-income participants of both
age-groups and in both cities voiced the unequivocal belief that women should
act ignorant about sexual functioning and, as a result, be passive at sexual
debut. It is not acceptable for women to make sexual advances, ask for the use
of contraceptives or demonstrate any sexual knowledge.
P1: I think it’s very rare for women to take the initiative…. I think
the majority depend on his initiative. No matter how much they [women] want to,
no matter how much they are willing, there is always that threat of what the man
would say.
P2: What he’d think of you, because if you were doing that with him,
you already had other experience…. They always want to be the first, and the
fact that the woman took the initiative would stick in his
head.
—lower-income 30–39-year-olds, Recife
From the women’s perspective, passivity was appropriate, in part, because men
always had more sexual experience than they did.
P1: Men always had sex, starting from age 12.…
P2: Even the parents would take him to the Zona [area of
prostitution] to be a man.
P3: It was like, women were like this, “You have to be a sinhazinha
[delicate and beautiful lace edging], put together.” In this way, men were much
better developed than we were. We learned things [about sex] late in life. Men
already knew how to do it.
—lower-income 30–39-year-olds, Recife
To take sexual initiative, which includes dressing in a sexually suggestive
way, places women at risk of jeopardizing their status as a menina para casar.
Women eavesdropped to learn how men divided women into the categories of meninas
para namorar or meninas para casar.
P1: At home, I’m the only girl. My brother’s going to be 19, but he
only hangs out with older boys. Like the cousins and stuff who are older, like
27, like 28. What I see of their conversations, there are two types of women.
One of them has a girlfriend just like he likes it. And he has that one in the
street who is more sem vergonha [shameless]. So there are still lots of
boys who dream like this, that desire both types of women. Most guys are like
that and they think they can have everything….
P2: Just like you see in the street, a woman walks by in little shorts
and a plunging neckline, [the boys say:] “That’s tasty.” A girl walks by nicely
made-up, [and the boys say:] “That’s the woman of my dreams.”
P3: Exactly.
—lower-income 18–21-year-olds, Belo
Horizonte
This division is based on the assumption that a woman displaying her body has
loose sexual morals and is consequently not someone to marry, only someone with
whom to have sex.
P1: I have some really good guy friends and we talk about everything….
[They say:] “I will arrange to have many girlfriends, I will date all the girls,
but I’ll marry you.” [Laughter.] They joke like that: “Because you’re a girl to
marry.” Never would they take that girl that they make out with every day and
marry her.
P2: Because she’s not the kind of person that he wants for marriage.
This happens a lot.
P3: He wouldn’t have any confidence in her
[fidelity].
—middle-income 18–21-year-olds, Recife
The extent to which virginity is socially valued varied greatly between the
two age-groups studied, as well as by social class and education level. Being
suspected of having had previous sexual experience could be emotionally searing
and carry social consequences, such as losing one’s status as a menina para
casar. The majority of women spoke about how they had to engage in “image
management” that ranged from not taking the initiative sexually to making sure
that they did not display the signs that men interpreted as meaning that they
were sexually experienced. Any initiative taken by women preempted the male
conquista [conquest], another important part of the sexual
interaction.
•Saying no to sexual intercourse. Rebhun found that in Brazil,
moral accountability for sexual behavior still resides with women, who are
expected to say no to sexual advances.12 Furthermore, a woman must say no to sex so the
man can overcome her resistance. This attitude is grounded, in part, in the
idea, as identified by Caravelas13 and later by Goldstein,14 of an inherent sensuality of women, more
prevalent in Brazil than perhaps elsewhere, that makes it impossible for them
not to want sexual intercourse. Zanotta Machado’s male interviewees in Brazil
treated no as a part of the seduction.15 Female focus group respondents in the present
study described the importance of never acting willing to have sex at sexual
debut.
Lower-income participants across age-groups and cities described how the
conquista happens.
P1: When a woman likes that person…a woman has that history of
prohibition against expressing her desire. We’re very much blamed, everything is
prohibited for women, so we have this history of prohibition against expressing
our desire—”No, no, no” [while grabbing the woman next to her in a sexually
suggestive way]—saying no is not a question of wanting…it’s more that you want
it, but you have to say no because…it’s not that you don’t want it, you are
crazy with desire, you want it but you have to play this game, you have to make
a little drama…. Like, “Get off me, get off me.” [Laughter.]
P2: Even if she wants him to continue, for her to be conquered, she
says, “No, no, no,” and lets him come and grab her so that he doesn’t think that
she’s easy, you know….
P1: On the other hand, it’s not cool that we lose a lot of time
blocking, in the end we’re perpetuating a lot of things, lots of taboos that we
have. In reality, you don’t want to say no, you want to say yes and even take
the initiative, but you see, there are the blame and accusations, the
preestablished rules that you run into.
—lower-income 30–39-year-olds,
Recife
P: My other boyfriend, he would come and I would reprimand him, “No!”
Even if I was dying of desire, I said “No!”
M: Oh, yeah?
P: It’s that “No, yes,” right?
—lower-income 18–21-year-olds,
Belo Horizonte
Respondents would say no while demonstrating yes—that is, say no while
suggestively touching the participant next to her. In a more animated focus
group, a participant acted out saying no to her sex partner while she mimed
riding a horse. These physical demonstrations always sent the respondents into
peals of laughter as they recognized their own behavior in the actions of the
other women. In spite of this, the majority of participants were very clear
about the fact that rejecting sex was as simple as saying no.
Yet there is evidence that these prescripts may not be as absolute among the
younger participants as they were among the older participants. Some
lower-income 18–21-year-olds from Recife advocated both taking the initiative
and engaging in token resistance to sex. The importance of saying no to provide
an opportunity for sexual conquest did not play as prominent a role in the
narratives of middle-income participants from Recife as it did in those of the
lower-income participants.
DISCUSSION
The beliefs that women in Belo Horizonte and Recife, Brazil, hold about male
and female roles in sexual behavior provide insight into the occurrence of as
well as the circumstances of women’s sexual debuts. Data such as those presented
here challenge the implicit assumption of the majority of quantitative studies
that first sexual intercourse, an oft-used demographic benchmark, is a wanted
and mutually agreed-upon experience in which partners have more or less equal
control.
Pressure to engage in intercourse was a familiar aspect of sexual debuts
among women of both socioeconomic strata and age cohorts and in both cities.
This pressure was present in part because of the social perception that the male
need for sexual intercourse is urgent and requires immediate gratification. The
perception that a man would leave if not provided for sexually—even in
adolescence—was treated by the focus group participants as inherent to
masculinity and therefore socially legitimate. Anger and, less commonly, sexual
violence from a man in response to sexual rejection, which came up more
frequently in lower-income groups and among older respondents than among others,
were also feared. Although some female participants in the present study did
relate positive experiences at first intercourse and were able to satisfy their
own sexual needs, this article focuses on the attitudes held by the majority of
the focus group respondents in regard to male and female behavior in the context
of a woman’s sexual debut.
Saying no to sex under all circumstances feeds the social belief that women’s
refusals of sexual advances are insincere and therefore need not be taken
seriously.
What is most striking about these findings is that the perception of negative
consequences for not having sex with their partner was so pervasive that women
felt pressure to engage in sexual intercourse even when their partner did not
express any threat. The beliefs that men need sex and will abandon or abuse
their partner if she does not provide it create an environment in which sexual
coercion of women is the rule rather than the exception. Even if a man does
express acceptance and understanding of his partner’s desire to abstain from
intercourse, it is difficult for the woman to believe that any one man could act
counter to his “nature.”
Coercion of women to engage in unwanted sexual intercourse has typically been
assumed to occur through threats.16 However, Heise, Moore and Toubia17 point out that “the touchstone of coercion is
an individual woman’s lack of choice to pursue other options without severe
social and physical consequence.” To the extent that women engage in unwanted
sexual intercourse because they believe their partner will otherwise abuse or
abandon them even if no threat is made, they are experiencing sexual coercion.
Acting passive and inexperienced at sexual debut undermines women’s ability
to exert any control over the sexual situation. One of the justifications women
used for acting passive at first intercourse is that men have more sexual
experience. By engaging in sex with partners who have greater sexual experience,
women are placing themselves at increased risk of exposure to STIs. Although
fewer than 1% of Brazilian adults are estimated to be infected with HIV,18 other STIs are common; Recife has the highest
prevalence of human papilloma virus infection in the world.19
Saying no to sex under all circumstances also feeds the social belief that
women’s refusals of sexual advances are insincere and therefore need not be
taken seriously. The participants did not acknowledge the contradictory messages
they gave their partners by saying no both when engaging in token resistance to
sex and when actually not wanting to engage in sex. However, even though saying
no as part of token resistance may neutralize its meaning in an unwanted sexual
situation, this script is a critical part of the image management that women
engage in to maintain their reputation.
There is evidence that some of these beliefs about male and female behavior
are in transition—younger respondents approved more progressive gender roles
than their older counterparts. For example, some 18–21-year-olds in both cities
and in both socioeconomic groups challenged the idea that men have an
overwhelming need for sex. Some lower-income 18–21-year-olds in Recife said
women should take the initiative sexually, yet they also advocated engaging in
token resistance. The presence of both traditional and progressive messages may
leave women unsure of how to behave.
Although these focus groups capture the experiences of individuals in only
two locations in Brazil, women’s lack of sexual assertiveness at first
intercourse is not unique to the two study sites. The gender relations and
social paradigms of behavior identified in this study are at play throughout
Brazil and other Latin American countries. Therefore, these sites may serve as a
case study of the control women expect to exercise at sexual debut in other
contexts with similarly constructed gender roles.
Future analyses of sexual negotiation at first intercourse can benefit from
an understanding of the role played by women’s beliefs about gender relations
and social behavior. It is critical that future research on sexual intercourse,
not only at debut but throughout the life course, take into account the fact
that women may be having sex out of fear because they are functioning under
certain culturally informed assumptions that limit their ability to control the
sexual situation. Women’s vulnerability to unwanted sexual intercourse needs to
be addressed, beginning with the gender roles that girls and boys learn at an
early age. Sex education classes can also address gender roles in sexual
relationships, through the way that contraception is presented to users, the way
that users are taught to introduce contraceptives into a sexual relationship and
the way that young people are taught about STIs. Fostering a more egalitarian
model of sexual behavior that allows both women and men to choose whether to
have intercourse will go a long way toward decreasing unwanted sexual
experiences.
REFERENCES
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Young women’s degree of control over first intercourse: an exploratory analysis,
Family Planning Perspectives, 1998, 30(1):12–18.
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4. Ibid.
5. Heise L, Moore K and Toubia N,
Sexual Coercion and Reproductive Health: A Focus on Research, New York:
Population Council, 1995.
6. Diniz SG et al., Not like our
mothers: reproductive choice and the emergence of citizenship among Brazilian
rural workers, domestic workers and housewives, in: Petchesky RP and Judd K,
eds., Negotiating Reproductive Rights: Women’s Perspectives Across Countries
and Cultures, New York: Zed Books, 1998, pp. 31–68.
7. Villela WV and Barbosa RM, 1996,
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(see reference 11).
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RESUMEN
Contexto: Creencias enraizadas en la cultura sobre el papel que les
corresponde a los géneros influyen en el comportamiento sexual de la mujer y en
su capacidad para protegerse de experiencias de relaciones sexuales no deseadas.
El estudio de las creencias que influyen en el comportamiento de la mujer en su
debut sexual asiste a contextualizar las relaciones sexuales no deseadas.
Métodos: En 2002, se realizaron 24 grupos focales para estudiar la
experiencia de las mujeres en el momento de su primera actividad sexual. Las
participantes eran de 18–21 y de 30–39 años y tenían ingresos bajos y medios;
fueron reclutadas de lugares públicos y privados en dos ciudades del
Brasil—Recife, la capital de Pernambuco, y Belo Horizonte, la capital de Minas
Gerais. Los datos fueron analizados con respecto a temas comunes, y se
escogieron declaraciones para ilustrar estos temas.
Resultados: Las participantes en los grupos focales percibieron que
los hombres tenían una necesidad urgente de mantener relaciones sexuales. Esta
percepción llevó a que las mujeres temieran a enfrentarse al abandono, el enojo
o la violencia de la pareja si se rehusaran a mantener relaciones. Las
participantes creían que en el momento de su primera experiencia sexual, la
mujer debe actuar en forma pasiva porque si toma la iniciativa (por ejemplo, si
le sugiere a su pareja usar un anticonceptivo) su pareja puede acusarle de ya
haber iniciado la actividad sexual. Asimismo, creían que en cualquier
circunstancia, las mujeres siempre deberían negarse a mantener relaciones
sexuales para proteger así su reputación.
Conclusiones: Para reducir los casos de relaciones sexuales no
deseadas, las intervenciones deberán abordar las expectativas sociales que
conforman la conducta sexual del hombre y la mujer.
RÉSUMÉ
Contexte: Les croyances culturelles relatives aux rôles sexuels
influencent le comportement sexuel des femmes et leur apti- tude à se protéger
contre les expériences sexuelles non désirées. L’étude des croyances qui
influencent le comportement des femmes à l’heure de leur initiation sexuelle
aide à contextualiser les rapports sexuels non désirés.
Méthodes: Vingt-quatre groupes de discussion sur l’expé- rience
féminine de l’initiation sexuelle ont été organisés en 2002 avec des femmes de
faibles et moyens revenus âgées de 18 à 21 ans et de 30 à 39 ans, recrutées dans
des endroits publics et privés de Recife, capitale de Pernambuco, et de Belo
Horizonte, capitale de Minas Gerais, au Brésil. Les données ont été analysées en
fonction de leurs thèmes communs, avec sélection de citations pour illustrer ces
thèmes.
Résultats: Les participantes aux groupes de discussion percevaient
chez les hommes un besoin impérieux de rapports sexuels. Cette perception
amenait les femmes à craindre l’abandon, la colère ou la violence si elles
refusaient les avances sexuelles de leur partenaire. Les participantes pensaient
que les femmes doivent se montrer passives lors de leurs premiers rapports
sexuels, car la prise d’initiative (demander au partenaire de pratiquer la
contraception, par exemple) mènerait à l’accusation, par leur partenaire, d’une
expérience sexuelle antérieure. Les participantes croyaient aussi qu’il leur
fallait dire non aux rapports sexuels en toutes circonstances pour protéger leur
réputation.
Conclusion: Pour réduire les rapports sexuels non désirés, les
interventions doivent tenir compte des attentes sociales qui façonnent le
comportement sexuel des hommes et des femmes.
Acknowledgements
The author gratefully acknowledges Joseph E. Potter, Jacqueline Thomas and
the support of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, which provided funding for this
research.
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