Abstract

This ethnographic study explores the experience of men in long-term relationships with sex workers and their construction of masculine identities in Kampala, Uganda. Data were collected in 2019 and comprise in-depth interviews with 13 male partners and two group discussions of women with long-term male partners. Thematic analysis used an intersectional lens to frame reconfigurations of gender and masculinity in the context of relationships with sex workers. All men had been clients of sex workers before progressing to become long-term partners. We discuss the complex ways in which men participated in value systems of respectability and reputation to (re)configure gender relations that made sense of their long-term relationships with sex workers. Men viewed their relationships with women through the normative lens of traditional masculine roles associated with monopoly over a partner’s sexuality, provider and father. However, poverty, HIV, the failure to have exclusive sexual rights over a partner, and the shame associated with sex work intersected and disrupted masculinities. Despite this, men found meaning in these relationships through the woman’s commitment to the relationship, her financial support, her help in accessing HIV services, and the children from the relationship, thereby attaining respectability and avoiding a crisis of masculinity.

摘要

这项人种学研究探讨了男性在乌干达坎帕拉与性工作者建立长期关系的经历以及他们对男性身份的建构。数据于 2019 年收集，包括对 13 名男性伴侣的深入访谈和对长期男性伴侣的女性的两次小组讨论。主题分析使用交叉镜头来构建与性工作者关系背景下的性别和男子气概的重新配置。在发展成为长期合作伙伴之前，所有男性都曾是性工作者的客户。我们讨论了男性参与尊重和声誉的价值体系以（重新）配置性别关系的复杂方式，这使得他们与性工作者的长期关系变得有意义。男性通过与垄断伴侣的性行为、提供者和父亲相关的传统男性角色的规范镜头来看待他们与女性的关系。然而，贫穷、艾滋病毒、未能对伴侣拥有专属性权利以及与性工作相关的羞耻感交织并破坏了男子气概。尽管如此，男性还是通过女性对这段关系的承诺、她的经济支持、她在获得艾滋病毒服务方面的帮助以及这段关系中的孩子找到了这些关系的意义，从而获得了尊重并避免了男子气概的危机。