Short description:

This book examines the complex relationships between young masculinities and sexual health within Southern Africa. This book will interest researchers of critical masculinity studies, sexual and reproductive health, gender studies, and African studies, as well as policy makers, development practitioners, and activists.

Long description:

This book examines the complex relationships between young masculinities and sexual health within Southern Africa. It considers how socio-cultural and economic factors shape young men?s experiences of masculinity and the effects on relationship dynamics, gender norms and sexual health.

Through thematic chapters covering love, pleasure, social norms, risk, and HIV, the book emphasises the global importance of engaging young men in fostering gender equity and promoting healthier sexual practices. Readers will benefit from a diverse range of methodologies and perspectives that highlight the plurality and fluidity of masculinities, challenging monolithic accounts of young men in the region whilst illustrating the global relevance of understanding local contexts in shaping masculinities. The book provides valuable insights for developing effective sexual health interventions that recognise and embrace 'other' masculinities. Sexual health approaches that resonate with the lived realities of young men can potentially enhance young men?s engagement and participation in promoting healthier relationships and practices.

With important insights for theory, policy, and practice, this book will be of interest to researchers across the fields of critical masculinity studies, sexual and reproductive health, gender studies and African studies, as well as policymakers, development practitioners, and activists.

Table of Contents:

1. Young masculinities and sexual health: perspectives from Southern Africa  Part I: Love, pleasure and romance  2. Love, masculinity and alternative pathways to sexual health  3. Love as resistance? Young men?s narratives on intimate relationships and healthy sexualities in South Africa  4. Navigating love, romance and sexual health: adolescent boys' experiences in a South African township  Part II: Social norms, masculinity and health  5. Masculine norms and sexual health implications for young men in Zimbabwe  6. Exploring the intersection of young men?s mobile-internet use, gender attitudes and intimate relationship dynamics: a mixed-methods study  7. Streetwise masculinities: poverty, risk-taking and sexual health in a South African township  8. Masculinities in transition: young trans men, gender and the South African health care system  Part III: Masculinity and sexual risk  9. On the edge of a knife: young masculinity, poverty and sexual health  10. Amajita: masculinity and sexual risk among young men in a South African informal settlement  11. Mjolo, waithood and masculinities among out-of-school young men in Zimbabwe  12. Peer pressure and heterosexual norms among young black men in Somkhele, South Africa  Part IV: Masculinity and HIV  13. How young Zimbabwean men's attitudes towards female PrEP use depend on gender norms  14. HIV game-changers? A modified scoping review of adolescent boys and young men?s sexual health in the context of PrEP and ART in Southern Africa  15. Research with adolescent boys and young men living with HIV ? reflections on ethical and methodological challenges in the Eastern Cape, South Africa  16. Theorising 'other' masculinities among adolescent boys and young men in Southern Africa: implications for sexual health