A young Zambian woman meets with her boyfriend. She doesn’t care that the other girls think she is prudish because she is still a virgin. He boyfriend is a good guy, but she is not sure about his friends. She fears they may be persuading him to force her to have sex, or even to drug her. What can she do, can she find a way to challenge him to treat her with respect?…
“Girl Power I: She Challenged him to Treat her Right” – is a Zanelic Theatre Group Production. It can be viewed on its own – or as the first of three new interconnected films. Film 4 – deals with the very real problem of negative peer pressure that can lead even good guys to do bad things. It explores how young women can be assertive as a way to avoid being deceived, ‘tricked’ and even drugged into having sex against their wishes.
The Zanelic Theatre Group are a group of young people from Linda compound near Lusaka, Zambia. The film was shot in 2013 in association with Dr Mike Kesby from the Department of Geography and Sustainable development, University of St Andrews, Scotland, UK. The film was produced as part of a Participatory Action Research project investigating the issues that young urban Zambians face when negotiating relationships and sexual health.
The research identified that peer pressure has a significant impact on young people’s decision-making. It can cause them to begin sexual activity before they are ready, fail to use protection and even to resort to deception and force as a means to coerce their partner into having sex. Both genders face peer pressure, though it impacts them differently. Young women often bear the worse consequences of social expectations, being coerced into sexual activity and even raped by their partners. They also face the risk of pregnancy, while both partners face the risk of sexually transmitted infections in general, and in particular, HIV. Finding ways to talk assertively with partners about what they do and do not desire is a major challenge for young Zambian women, but an important means to young women’s empowerment.
This film emerged from discussions lead by young women.
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