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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Sexual body ideal among Zulu women: continuity and change
Authors:Ogana, WinnieISNI
Ojong, Vivian BesemISNI
Year:2012
Periodical:Indilinga: African Journal of Indigenous Knowledge Systems
Volume:11
Issue:1
Pages:32-48
Language:English
Geographic term:South Africa
Subjects:Zulu
women
body
images
External link:https://hdl.handle.net/10520/EJC126066
Abstract:Among the Zulu in South Africa's KwaZulu-Natal Province, overweight and obese women are generally viewed in positive light. Favourable cultural associations of plump women range from beauty to fecundity, physical well-being, affluence and happiness, among other positive attributes. Such notions are still widely held among isiZulu-speaking women in contemporary KwaZulu-Natal, despite overweight and obesity being implicated in public health disorders like diabetes, hypertension, cancer, coronary disease and strokes. This gender-based article interrogates changes in how Zulu women in particular view their sexuality in terms of their body weight, size and shape, against the backdrop of an individual's image and identity. These concepts are juxtaposed against the Western 'thin ideal' of a sexually alluring female body. The article is based on an ethnographic study conducted mainly among Durban-based Zulu women either studying or working at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. In South Africa the Western thin ideal has heavy racial overtones for the majority of blacks, who are still shrouded by a minority white culture that continues to dominate 17 years after the apartheid era ended. Whether for or against the contemporary Western 'thin ideal', for these women there is no escaping the cultural change currently mapping future trends. Current trends foretell an intertwined Zulu ethnicity of the past, but also contemporary aspirations spearheaded by women in the globalizing West. Bibliogr., sum. [Journal abstract]
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