The prize and the price: Shaping sexualities in South Africa

Abstract

What is the Prize, and who pays the Price? The desired and the desirable are often constellated through our ideas of what is undesired and undesirable, deeply knotted into our sense of self, our sense of where and how we fit into the world. These notions of desire form the backdrop to this powerful volume which examines the historical continuities and interruptions of heteronormativity in South African society.

Leading and emerging scholars disentangle the strands of particular sexual identities, and deepen the reader's understanding of the multiple workings of heteronormativity in South African society in particular, and sexuality in general. Through analyzing where and how heteronormativity intersects with other axes of power and social identity, contributors to this volume reveal that it is not monolithic, and heterosexuality as the South African norm is effectively 'outed' from within heteronormativity.

The chapters extend beyond the well researched areas of sexuality - same sexualities, HIV/AIDS and gender-based violence - to less discussed areas, such as childhood sexuality and disability. The multiplicity of issues raised have relevance for a range of readers interested in the fledgling field of Sexualities Studies, and in its significance, the scholarship extends well beyond the borders of South Africa.