Massey Research Online - Browsing by Author "Morison T"

Browsing by Author "Morison T"

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A performative-performance analytical approach: Infusing butlerian theory into the narrative-discursive method
(SAGE Publications (UK and US), 2013-10-01) Morison T; Macleod C
Judith Butler’s theory of performativity provides gender theorists with a rich theoretical language for thinking about gender. Despite this, Butlerian theory is difficult to apply, as Butler does not provide guidance on actual analysis of language use in context. In order to address this limitation, we suggest carefully supplementing performativity with the notion of performance in a manner that allows for the inclusion of relational specificities and the mechanisms through which gender, and gender trouble, occur. To do this, we turn to current developments within discursive psychology and narrative theory. We extend the narrative-discursive method proposed by Taylor and colleagues, infusing it with Butlerian theory in order to fashion a dual analytical lens, which we call the performativity-performance approach. We provide a brief example of how the proposed analytical process may be implemented.
As long as they behave themselves: Heterosexual recuperation in South African’s talk about homosexuality
(Psychology in Society, 4/08/2016) Morison T; Mtshengu A; Sandfort T; Reddy V
Several qualitative researchers using discursive methodologies have noted how opposition to homosexuality has not necessarily diminished, despite the general expression of liberal tolerance in many settings. Instead, heterosexist rhetoric has shifted to accommodate political change. Our research builds on this observation within the South African context, using a discursive psychology approach. We examine rhetorical strategies of "heterosexual recuperation": the ways that heterosexual boundaries and the dominance of heterosexuality are maintained by speakers, at the same time as they attempt to avoid being heard as heterosexist. Drawing on data from a qualitative study conducted with heterosexual-identifying Black South Africans (32) from four provinces, we focus on talk that was resourced by a "discourse of tolerance" and characterised by speakers' concern to avoid the attribution of heterosexism. This talk was analysed using thematic analysis, to which discursive psychology techniques were applied. We identified two ways of speaking that relied on this discourse - (1) "As long as they do it in private", and (2) "Flashing their homosexuality" - and show how they ultimately worked to recuperate heterosexuality and marginalise non-normative sexualities. We discuss the implications of these findings in relation to a critical psychology that works to challenge hetero-patriarchal norms.
“As long as they behave themselves”: Heterosexual recuperation in South Africans’ talk about homosexuality
(Psychology in Society, 24/11/2016) Morison T; Mtshengu A; Sandfort T; Reddy V
Extending sexual scripting theory through critical discursive psychology: An analytical approach to explore the performance of sexual identities.
(SAGE Publications, 2024-09-23) Healy-Cullen S; Morison T
Sexual scripting theory, a widely used tool in sexuality research, was originally developed by Gagnon and Simon to illuminate the social nature of sexual practices and identity construction. Later, they sought to develop the theory further to align with a social constructionist perspective. However, vestiges of individualism and cognitivism haunt sexual scripting theory largely due to the use of the symbolic interactionist concept of performance. To address this, we draw on the performance–performativity approach in critical discursive psychology that develops the notion of performance from a discursive perspective and offers a way of extending sexual scripting theory that offers a truly social explication of sexual identity construction. We provide a practical illustration of this extended theorising, drawing on data from a project about young people’s online engagement with pornography. We demonstrate how developing the notion of sexual scripts as discursive resources that enable the performance of sexual identities allows us to illuminate the social and situated nature of identity construction. This framework enhances understanding of the process of sexual identity construction and provides a valuable tool for studying how broader sexual scripts that are sociohistorically specific provide a scaffolding for the ways an individual can construct sexual identities. Overall, this paper offers a valuable contribution to discursive scholarship in psychology by presenting a nuanced analytical framework that coheres with a constructionist, performative view of identity.
'Failed' mothers,‘failed’ womxn: Demarcating normative mothering
(Routledge, 2019-12-09) Macleod CI; Feltham-King T; Mavuso JM-JJ; Morison T; Zuffrey, C; Buchanan, F
In this chapter, we show how the boundaries of acceptable mothering are demarcated and regulated through reference to the ‘Other’ (Woollett & Phoenix, 1997). Using examples of ‘womxn’ who refuse motherhood, terminate pregnancies and reproduce when considered to be too young, we outline how womxn who ‘fail’ at normative mothering or who deviate from expected reproductive decisions form the pathologised presence that pre-defines the absent trace of normative mothering and the successful accomplishment of womxnhood (Macleod, 2001). We use the term ‘womxn’ and ‘womxnhood’ to disrupt normative assumptions about gender and sex, here taken to be socially constructed, which write gender and sex onto individuals. In this chapter, the term ‘womxn’ denotes and recognises womxn-identifying persons with the biological capacity to become pregnant, including intersex and transgender individuals. We also use this term to foreground the experiences of womxn of colour, womxn from/living in the global South, trans, queer and intersex womxn, as well as all womxn-identifying persons who have been excluded from dominant constructions of ‘womanhood’ and feminist praxis on the subject (Ashlee, Zamora & Karikari, 2017; Merbruja, 2015).
Focus on ‘the family’? How South African family policy could fail us
(HSRC Press, 1/03/2016) Morison T; Lynch I; Macleod C
This policy brief draws on research projects conducted by Tracy Morison, Ingrid Lynch and Catriona Macleod with funding support from the South African Research Chairs Initiative (SARChI) of the Department of Science and Technology (DST) and the National Research Foundation (NRF) of South Africa; the DST-NRF Centre of Excellence in Human Development; and the Ford Foundation.
Focus on ‘the family’? How South African family policy fails queer families
(Unisa Press & Routledge, 2019-01-01) Macleod CI; Morison T; Lynch I; Morison, T; Lynch, I; Reddy, V
The most policy document is the White Paper on Families, which aims to facilitate the mainstreaming of a family perspective into all government policy-making from the national to the municipal level and across multiple departments. The irony is that less than a third of South African families actually conform to the two cisgender heterosexual biological parent model that is favoured in family policy. South African research has shown that children of lesbian parents learn open-mindedness and to be comfortable with the family in which they live, and that men in same-sex relationships challenge gendered divisions of household tasks. Promoting the two-biological-parent family as the preferred family structure creates an impossible ideal for the majority of South Africans to live up to. Because such a family structure is strongly connected to class, it is out of reach for the majority of citizens, let alone those who live in queer relationships.
Gay men as parents: Analysing resistant talk in South African mainstream media accounts of queer families
(SAGE Publications (UK and US), 1/04/2016) Lynch I; Morison T
There is increasing visibility of dissident sexualities and genders in media debates about families, including resistant discourses that challenge delegitimising claims about queer families. There remains, however, a lack of research that assesses the ways in which discourses seeking to defend queer parenthood function to challenge or, at times, reinforce hetero-gendered norms. Families formed by gay men have generally received less attention, both in the media as well as academic scholarship. In this paper, we explore resistant discourses deployed in mainstream print media, attending particularly to news reports about queer fathers and their children. Through a critical thematic analysis of South African newspapers, informed by feminist discursive psychology, we identify four themes in resistant ways of talking: de-gendering parenthood, normalising queer parents, valorising queer parenting, and challenging the heteronormative gold standard. We conclude with the political implications of such resistant talk, as part of a project of transforming restrictive hetero-gendered norms.
How do youth, parents, and educators use discursive sexual scripts to make sense of youth engagement with internet pornography?
(Taylor and Francis Group, 2022-12) Healy-Cullen S; Morison T; Ross K; Taylor JE
In this article, we explore how culturally available sexual scripts are drawn on to make meaning of young people’s engagement with internet pornography (IP). We draw on a version of sexual scripting theory developed by feminist discursive scholars to perform a critical thematic analysis of 24 interviews with parents, educators, and young people. We identify three main scripts commonly drawn on by participants to make sense of youth engagement with IP, namely: a script of harm, a heterosexual script, and a developmentalist script. These scripts, often interweaving with one another, were deployed in various ways, firstly, as ‘risk talk’ and, secondly, as ‘resistant talk’. While both adults and youth engaged with dominant (‘risk’) and alternative (‘resistant’) talk, adults primarily positioned youth within ‘risk talk’. We show how alternative ‘resistant talk’ disrupts common, scripted ways of accounting for youth engagement with IP in a way that demonstrates more nuanced sexual subjectivities – particularly among youth – than the traditional media effects paradigm acknowledges. Importantly, our findings show how, within discursive restraints, essentialized gender constructions can be resisted to position youth as agentic sexual subjects.
Intimate partner violence in Khayelitsha schools: A Culture of silence
(2018-03-31) Lynch I; Essop R; Tolla T; Morison T
A team of HSRC researchers, partners and collaborators conducted research at 24 schools in Khayelitsha in the Western Cape to provide baseline data for a programme to address sexual violence in South African schools. They found high levels of sexual violence, including intimate partner violence. This was accompanied by a culture of silence.
Muted resistance: The deployment of youth voice in news coverage of young women’s sexuality in Aotearoa New Zealand
(SAGE Journals, 1/02/2020) Morison T; Herbert S
Youth sexuality is typically constructed as a social problem, and associated with a range of negative consequences for larger society and for young people themselves—especially young women. The media play a role in perpetuating this dominant construction, but may also offer a space for resistance. In this article, mainstream news media reportage on youth sexual and reproductive issues in Aotearoa are discursively analysed to identify instances of resistance to oppressive discourses. Taking a feminist poststructuralist perspective, the aim is to connect news reporting, as a representational practice, with broader relations of power. The focus of the analysis, therefore, is on whether and how young people are allowed a voice in news reportage, and to what effect their voices are deployed. The analysis demonstrates not only that youth voice is relatively muted in comparison to experts, but also that it is frequently used to reinforce the dominant constructions of youth sexuality (as problematic and risky). Yet, instances of resistance are also evident. These are assessed in relation to their impact on gender power relations and possibilities for amplifying resistance are discussed.
Patient-provider power relations in counselling on long-acting reversible contraception: a discursive study of provider perspectives
(Taylor and Francis Group, 2022-05-06) Morison T
Contraceptive providers play an essential role in shaping contraceptive decision-making and care, with the potential to constrain patients' agency. This is a particular concern given the rising hegemony of Long-Acting Reversible Contraception (LARC) and growing evidence of negative patient experiences of LARC promotion and provision. Despite this evidence, little research has considered health providers' perspectives. Drawing on interviews with 22 contraceptive health providers in Aotearoa New Zealand, this paper explored their professional identity construction, focusing on meaning-making in instances of conflict between providers' and patients' priorities and agendas. Guided by feminist poststructuralist theory, the discursive analysis highlights common rhetorical strategies used by participants to (1) justify the use of coercive practices to encourage LARC uptake, and (2) in turn, negotiate positive identities. Findings show how participants grapple with the reproductive politics structuring contraceptive care, including established understandings of the purpose of (long-acting) contraception and contraceptive providers' roles vis-à-vis provision and promotion. The findings point to limitations on contraceptive agency, despite the unanimous endorsement of rights-based voluntary care. Extending the critical literature on LARC and contributing to the under-researched area of contraceptive coercion and agency, the findings of this study have important implications for the delivery of contraceptive care.
Performing smart sexual selves: A sexual scripting analysis of youth talk about internet pornography
(SAGE Publications, 2023-01-22) Healy-Cullen S; Morison T; Taylor J; Taylor K
In this article, we explore young New Zealanders’ use of sexual scripts in talk about Internet pornography (IP) to perform ‘smart’ sexual selves. Using sexual scripting theory, as developed by feminist discursive psychologists, our analysis of interview data generated with 10 youth (aged 16–18 years) highlights two commonly constructed sexual identities across youth talk; (i) the proficient Internet pornography user, and (ii) the astute Internet pornography viewer. The way these young people talk about portrayals of sexuality and gender in IP – and their ability to discern its artifice – suggests they are savvy consumers who are capable of using IP as a cultural resource (e.g. for learning, entertainment) while at the same time acknowledging it as a flawed representation of sex and sexuality. We discuss the implications of our findings for strengths-based sexuality education that supports sexual agency, proposing a justice-orientated approach grounded in the notion of ethical sexual citizenship.
Reproductive justice: A radical framework for researching sexual and reproductive issues in psychology
(John Wiley and Sons Ltd, 2021-05-13) Morison T
The reproductive justice framework holds much promise for guiding research that can contribute to social change. Its limited integration and use in social psychology therefore represents a missed opportunity for justice-oriented social researchers. The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of the reproductive justice framework and demonstrate its value for social psychologists studying sexual and reproductive issues. Using the example of contraceptive provision, rights-based sexual and reproductive health research is contrasted with reproductive justice-oriented research to demonstrate how a reproductive justice lens can extend the analytical focus to illuminate the complex roots of an issue. This is crucial for developing policy and interventions that contribute toward longer-term systemic change and, ultimately, social transformation.
Rethinking ‘Risk’ in Sexual and Reproductive Health Policy: the Value of the Reproductive Justice Framework
(Springer Nature Switzerland AG, 2019-12) Morison T; Herbert S
Using the case of Sexual and Reproductive Health Strategy in Aotearoa (New Zealand), this article interrogates the dominant risk discourse in sexual and reproductive health policy. It highlights the tensions between risk discourse and broader equity goals, which are increasingly seen as significant within sexual and reproductive health. Working within a poststructuralist perspective,discursive methodology is used to explore the positioning of youth in ten (10) policy documents. The analysis shows how the risk discourse, along with a developmental discourse, creates three common youth subject positions: youth as at risk and vulnerable, as not-yet citizens, and as especially vulnerable relative to other young people. It demonstrates how these positions may be associated with ‘new’ or covert forms of morality and stigmatisation. Detailing the implications for ethnic minorities in particular, it adds to prior analyses of gender- and class-based inequities. The Sexual and Reproductive Justice framework, which encompasses notions of rights and justice, is discussed as an alternative to risk-based policy development that can attend to sexual and reproductive health inequities.
South African women as champions of change: A civil society programme of action for the African women’s decade
(HSRC Press, 2014) Chitiga-Mabugu M; Karuaihe S; Reddy V; Morison T; Botsis H; Ntuli M; Tsoanamatsie N
Women are agents of their own development and make valuable contributions towards the eradication of poverty and the establishment of early childhood structures in South Africa. South African Women as Champions of Change provides a perspective on the complexities in best practice case studies in respect of civil society engagement with poverty eradication, early childhood development, gender-based violence, and the advocacy initiatives aligned to some of these programs. A cross-cutting theme underpinning the analysis is an exploration of the socioeconomic conditions that promote employment creation for women. This book is a timely reminder of the invaluable contribution made by civil society organizations towards addressing the challenges affecting grassroots South African communities.
Supporting Intellectually Disabled Women’s Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights: A Qualitative Study With Support Workers in Aotearoa New Zealand
(Taylor and Francis Group, 2023-11-16) Bloom O; Morison T
This article presents findings from a qualitative study of support worker responses to intellectually disabled women’s sex and reproductive health. Drawing on reproductive justice theory, interviews with seven support workers from various disability service providers in New Zealand were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis. The findings point to the persistence of a sexual risk discourse, which undermines progressive perspectives, including the rights-based approach that is usually advocated for in sexual and reproductive health, and ultimately constrains intellectually disabled women’s sexual agency. The value of a reproductive justice framework for countering risk-oriented framings in favor of a social justice perspective that expands the notions of individual rights is discussed. The findings support a growing global evidence base and have implications for national and international policy and practice.
The childfree ‘choice’: Childfree social identity construction in virtual spaces.
Morison T
Use and perceptions of public Sexual and Reproductive Health services: A quantitative situational analysis in OR Tambo and Gert Sibande districts
(Human Sciences Research Council, 2016) Morison T; Lynch I
This report presents the findings of a quantitative situational analysis of the use and perceptions of the quality of health care services among healthcare users in two districts, using survey methodology. The report was commissioned by the AIDS Foundation of South Africa (AFSA) as part of their three-year Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) programme. The study is framed within a Sexual and Reproductive Justice framework. This conceptual approach expands the rights-based perspective to consider wider contextual factors like socio-economic status, gender, disability, race, and sexuality as potential barriers to Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR). The primary aim of the study was to identify the key advocacy strategies and levers for change with respect to access to SRHR, identified from a situational analysis of selected facilities. These will inform the work of AFSA’s implementing partners. Survey methodology was used to ascertain people’s own perceptions and experiences of services in terms of access, quality, and satisfaction with general as well as SRH-specific services in the public health system.
Using Q-Methodology to Explore Stakeholder Views about Porn Literacy Education
(Springer Nature Switzerland AG, 2022-06) Healy-Cullen S; Taylor JE; Morison T; Ross K
Introduction ‘Porn literacy education’ is emerging as a pedagogical strategy to support youth in navigating the new technological pornography landscape. However, the characteristics of effective porn literacy education according to those who will be most affected by it—young people, their caregivers and educators—is unknown. Yet, end user views are imperative to policy development in sexuality education worldwide. Methods Using Q-methodology, the commonalities and idiosyncrasies of these stakeholder views were explored. In 2019, 30 participants recruited through nine schools in New Zealand completed an online Q sort, and 24 also took part in a follow-up interview. Results There were two distinct discourses regarding porn literacy education among stakeholders: (i) the pragmatic response discourse and (ii) the harm mitigation discourse. Conclusions Stakeholders hold nuanced and ideologically charged perspectives about porn literacy education and educational initiatives more generally. It is therefore important that policy caters for these different perspectives and that a 'one-size-fits-all' policy approach is acknowledged as insufficient. Policy Implications It is crucial that policy development is guided by evidence about what constitutes effective sexuality education. The social discourses reported here are important to consider in developing policy about porn literacy education and require further research to more fully understand the potential of porn literacy as pedagogy.

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