“The devil will make you pregnant” Constructions of sexuality and womanhood among New Zealand Filipino women Aïyesha Melničenko 2009 “The devil will make you pregnant” Constructions of sexuality and womanhood among New Zealand Filipino women By Aïyesha Melničenko A thesis submitted to the Victoria University of Wellington in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology Victoria University of Wellington 2009 Abstract High youth pregnancy and sexually transmitted infection (STI) rates in New Zealand are an under-researched health concern, particularly among ethnic minority communities. Conflicting sexuality messages from home and dominant cultures may make negotiating a sexual standpoint problematic for immigrant adolescents. An understanding of cultural minorities‟ constructions of sexuality and influences affecting their decision-making would aid the development of culturally applicable sexuality education. This thesis discusses research with New Zealand Filipino women, with an aim to investigate how immigrant women make sense of sexuality in the context of intimate relationships. For the first study, six focus group interviews, involving 33 New Zealand Filipino adolescent women, discussed individual and cultural interpretations of sexuality, safer sex and womanhood. A discursive analysis examined patterns of agreement and conflict in the young women‟s talk to reveal how they used and resisted cultural discourses of heterosexuality. Contradictions often arose as they shifted between dominant Western and Filipino messages about sexual safety and appropriate feminine behaviour. Principal constructions of women and sexuality that came out of the talk, and how these constructions promote or restrict sexual behaviours, are discussed. The second study, twenty-six individual interviews with New Zealand Filipino adolescent girls and their immigrant Filipino mothers, explored how immigrant women construct life narratives to make sense of their sexual selves. Interviews focused around individuals‟ personal stories of intimate relationships, heterosexuality, romance, sexual education, womanhood, and adjustment to the interface between New Zealand and Filipino portrayals of sexuality. Thematic and narrative analyses explored areas of agreement and dispute within and across the women‟s stories, as they took up different identities as mothers, daughters, girlfriends, Filipinas, and New Zealanders. Thematic analysis of the daughters‟ interviews examined key patterns in the young women‟s 5 constructions of first sexual experiences, including explanations of first sex, the gap between expectations and experiences, sexual safety, and perceptions of their partners. One young woman‟s story was focused on in a more comprehensive study of how sexual, feminine and cultural identities are constructed and reconstructed through narrative. After an overview of the themes from the mothers‟ interviews, three mothers‟ narratives were discussed in relation to their constructions of sexual selves as they learned about, experienced, and taught their daughters about sexuality. Links found between mother and daughter narratives likely signify the passing of cultural stories of feminine sexuality through the generations. Many contradictions were apparent in the adolescents‟ talk, as girls worked to develop and explain a sense of self that moved between subject positions offered by the heterosexuality discourses of their new migrant context and their Filipino heritage. How young Filipinas‟ sexual stories recycle and resist the talk of their mothers and cultural contexts is discussed, as well as how cultural identities influence sexual practices. The thesis also reflects upon the appropriateness of discursive research for allowing cultural expression among marginalised populations. 6 Acknowledgements It takes a whole village to raise a thesis. There are many people without whose support this thesis would not have been written. I am indebted to the women who took part in the research, sharing their time and their lives. I feel privileged to have been trusted with their stories. I want to thank the Wellington and Auckland Filipino communities for supporting my research. I am grateful to Jeri Reyes whose conversation guided my research questions, and to Jane Panganiban and Krystle Magadia for helping me recruit willing participants. I am hugely grateful to my supervisor, Marc Wilson, for so kindly coming to the rescue at a critical and desperate point. Immense thanks to Marc for his support, collaboration, creativity, enthusiasm, and not giving up on me when I just about did. I am thankful for the invaluable support of my first supervisor, Sue Jackson. After opening me to a world of critical research that just made sense, her guidance and understanding helped me through some challenging years. I also wish to acknowledge Jim Liu for his feedback on my original ideas. My great thanks to Gaynor Parkin for her compassion and amazing support, as well as to the many other Victoria University clinical psychology staff, including Wendy Kelly, John McDowall, Rachael Collie, Tony Ward, and to Shona de Sain, for their patience and encouragement when I struggled to keep on top of things. To Lynn Phillips and Jo Hodge, for propping me up and keeping me afloat, thank you; this thesis would not have migrated out of my office without your care and alliance. To my clinical supervisors, Kelly Donovan, Giselle Bahr, Astrid Katzur, Angelique O‟Connell, Mary Miller, Natalie Coynash and Barbara Matthews, who spurred on my passion to get back in the real world and who understood when my mind was in two places, thank you. I would like to acknowledge the financial support provided by a Victoria University of Wellington PhD Scholarship and an 7 Alice Bush Family Planning Association Scholarship, as well as research grants from the Victoria University of Wellington Faculty of Science and School of Psychology. I am so glad to have gone through the postgrad process with my clinical classmates, Jutta Humpfer, Joe Melser, Barbara Manighetti, Teresa Watson, Sharlene Murdoch, Luke Rowe, and most especially Michelle Berry and Debbie Taylor. Their friendship, humour and helping hands at moments of panic kept me sane and light-hearted. I would like to thank fellow PhDer, Phil Best, for his kindness and calming nature, the School of Psychology discursive group, particularly Carly Butler, for motivating discussions, and my office mates, Justine Cornwall, who gave great advice when I was starting out, and Michelle Gezentsvey, whose enthusiasm made hot days in the office worthwhile. To Andrew Bredenkamp, for being a treasured support to King and I, and for putting his computer / psych degree to the best possible use at 3am, much much thanks. To my lovely friends, especially Lizzy May, James Perrine and Trang Nguyen for their endless love and support, as well as to Olivia Baddeley, Ryan Wilson, Sarah Kirkham, Melissa Zhou, Stacey Madden, Rachael Worboys, Sayema Islam, Kora-Cora Krause, Georgina Araboglos, and Victoria Dawson-Wheeler, thank you for accepting my recent hermitic lifestyle and being there with a smile and a hug when I crawl out of my hole. I am forever appreciative of my family, the Melničenko, Davidson, Panganiban and Dalit clans, who are a constant source of love, support and happiness. To my mother, Clare Davidson, for always managing to be there when I need her, for having unending faith in me, and for her gentle goodness; and to my father, Emil Melnichenko, for instilling in me a love of learning and science, for devotedly going beyond the call of duty, and for proudly raising strong-willed and -minded daughters; thank you both for inspiring me to always want to do more. To my uncle, Milan Melničenko, for his exceptional diligence, checking in on me and supplying everything from good conversation to a car and shelter; to my uncle, Mima 8 Melničenko, for reminding me of the importance of laughter and not taking life too seriously; to Marliz Panganiban for living amongst my mess without complaint and entrusting me with a sisterly bond beyond in-law-ness; also to Timmy, Mabelle, Roy and Jane Panganiban, Gazel, Joel, Kay and Angela Dalit, Shaarka and Fialka Melničenko for allowing me to experience the value of siblings (a little later in life than usual); and to Kolya for quietly sitting beside me; I am very grateful. I offer special thanks to the remarkable women in my family: my mother, Clare; Otilie Bureš and Jean Davidson, who I am honoured to have as grandmothers; my step-mother, Christl Harvey; my mother-in-law, Elsa Dalit; and my aunts, Diana Duncan, Penelope Janes, and Kate Carey-Smith. Together, these loving and resilient women have nurtured my sense of self and fostered in me an appreciation of family stories of culture and womanhood. It is through their life stories of strong women that I have had the courage to construct my own path. To my husband, Ronaldo Panganiban, for his endless love and support, for his incredible patience waiting for me to finally get a real job, for feeding me when I was hungry, for comforting me when I was exhausted or panicked or both, for sleeping loyally beside me when I worked into the wee hours, and for creating a most cherished home with me, my love and gratitude are immeasurable. Para sa aking paa, kung ok lang sa‟yo. 9 Preface: Positioning Myself In The Research The present thesis revolves around a qualitative study of interviews with immigrant Filipino women living in New Zealand, with a focus on these women‟s perceptions and stories of sexuality, womanhood, culture and identity. New Zealand has a large and expanding immigrant population and has very much become a multiethnic community. In recent years, attention has turned to the lack of information on the experience of being an immigrant and ways in which to aid the process of adjustment to life in New Zealand (Ward, 2007). Another recent area of concern and need for research is that of adolescent sexual health in New Zealand (Ministry of Health, 2001), where rates of adolescent pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are alarmingly high and have been found to be even higher in many minority ethnic communities (Ministry of Health, 2004).