Negotiating pleasure and sexual risk: Alcohol use among female university students

Transformation in Higher Education

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Negotiating pleasure and sexual risk: Alcohol use among female university students
 
Creator Singh, Shakila
 
Subject Education; Higher Education; Gender violence alcohol-related pleasure; gender norms; female students; negotiating risk; sexual risk.
Description This study explores how female university students navigate the interplay between the pleasure that alcohol gives them and the risks to their sexual safety it poses. This mixed-method study employed an open-ended questionnaire administered by a student-researcher. The sample comprised 76 voluntary female students who reported consuming alcohol. The findings indicate that women who consume alcohol exercise personal agency in their self-expression, yet they do so within a context of gender and sexual violence. Participants articulated various strategies for mitigating risks to their sexual safety while drinking, such as consuming alcohol within supportive social networks, avoiding financial dependence, and regulating their alcohol intake.Contribution: This article contends that alcohol consumption at university plays a significant role in the expression of gender and sexuality, offering both pleasure and risk. Consequently, arguments about equality must acknowledge risk-taking as an inherent aspect of university life for young adults and prioritise strategies for managing alcohol-related risks rather than simply advocating for blanket prohibitions on alcohol use.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor National Research Foundation of South Africa (Grant Number 113818).
Date 2025-06-05
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — Qualitative research
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/the.v10i0.490
 
Source Transformation in Higher Education; Vol 10 (2025); 8 pages 2519-5638 2415-0991
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://thejournal.org.za/index.php/thejournal/article/view/490/899 https://thejournal.org.za/index.php/thejournal/article/view/490/900 https://thejournal.org.za/index.php/thejournal/article/view/490/901 https://thejournal.org.za/index.php/thejournal/article/view/490/902
 
Coverage South Africa Current female university students
Rights Copyright (c) 2025 Shakila Singh https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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