Mbari and uncle Nicodemus: Male representations in the heterosexual discourse among female undergraduates in Nigeria

Abstract

This paper examines the various labels ascribed to males in the heterosexual discourse among female undergraduates in Nigeria. Insights from Community of Practice and Sexual Script Theory were used to demonstrate the use of situated linguistic choices to establish the differentials in male sexual behaviours. Data for the study were generated through participant observation and unstructured interviews with the aid of audiotape recordings and field notes. The study involves a representative sample of 22 female undergraduates who served as participants and research assistants. The findings reveal that situated language practices stimulate heterosexual discourses where female undergraduates creatively ascribe labels to the different males’ sexual scripts. The labels include those related to male sexual performance, body size and size of sex organs, financial and marital status, familial and gatekeeping roles, and other routine sexual behaviours shown by men in sexual phases such as advances, arousal and intercourse. The scripts are also combined to re-enact the peculiar sexual narratives by the female students that show emerging sexual orientations. It is believed that the categorisation of such males’ sexual behaviours in the University social contexts, would provide a basis for comparison with the sexual practices of other young adults’ social groups across the globe.

LAY SUMMARY

The paper discusses the various strands of sexual scripts shown by men in their heterosexual relationships with female undergraduates in a Nigerian University. The students ascribed labels based on the sexual performance, economic and marital status, and other routine behaviours that have an impact on the male sexual lifestyle.

Keywords:

• Sexual labels
• heterosexual discourse
• female undergraduates
• male sexual partners
• Nigeria

1. Introduction

The emerging social dynamics in human relationships have created behavioural change that introduces gradual deviations from some sociocultural norms that proscribe certain heterosexual practices. In most African cultures, the evolving male and female youth culture is characterised by “deviant” behaviours and expressiveness across domains of language use including sexual discourse which was traditionally restricted. Heterosexual relationships and expression of sexuality are shaped by cultures that prescribe permissible ways of such practices (Diamond, 2002; Moi, 2005). On this, Williams (1985) and Helle-Valle (2004) describe the differences between Western and African concept of sexuality, and argue that Western civilisation’s permissiveness is attributable to the gradual erosion of African traditional sexual practices. Scholars contend that African traditional sexual orientations proscribe heterosexual relationships for unmarried young adults (Smith, 2004a, 2004b). However, continuous cultural interface and changing orientations have resulted in the advances, and development of sexual relationships among adolescent youth and students in Africa and African educational institutions (Bledsoe, 1990; Castle & Konate, 1999; Tade & Adekoya, 2012). These emerging orientations are bound to produce different strands of heterosexual relationships and practices.

In the global scene, educational institutions have been identified as fertile sites for sexual orientations that often activate heterosexual relationships labelled in conceptual terms among the practitioners (Jacobson, 2005; Lips, 2004). Studies on the various forms of sexual practices in Universities that categorised students’ heterosexual relationships show that the trend is a global phenomenon (Allison & Risman, 2013; Bogle, 2007; Currier, 2013; Vrangalova, 2015; Wentland & Reissing, 2014). For instance, in some Western Universities, “hookups” is used to describe heterosexual encounters including the advances, caressing, kissing, intercourse and other related sexual activities practiced among students (England et al., 2007; Holman & Sillars, 2012; Wade, 2017). It is also established that there is an increased interest in the hookups culture among students in Western Universities (Glenn & Marquardt, 2001; Bogle, 2007). Smith (2000) and Cornwell (2002) add that premarital romantic and sexual relationships are somehow conceived as being urban sexual practices even in non-Western Universities. These differences in the conception and practices would depend on multifactorial orientations of the practitioners and sociocultural backgrounds.

In Nigeria for instance, studies abound on the spreading trend of purposive and active heterosexual practices among students in Nigerian Universities based on different sexual orientations (Elegbeleye, 2006; Johnson, 2007; Odu & Akanle, 2008; Okonkwo, 2010; Olley, 2008; Onyeoku, 2012; Tade & Adekoya, 2012). These sexual orientations are found to have manifested in the sexual practices among Nigerian University undergraduates (Okonkwo, 2020). Such orientations are believed to be heavily influenced by the diverse cultures, norms, traditions and orientations, which are sometimes very difficult to change once long internalised (Nwankwo, 2001; Onyeoku, 2012; Smith, 2000, 2004a, 2004b; Sunmola et al., 2003). The description of these orientations as sexual labels appear to be prominent in the linguistic practices of the undergraduate students. The linguistic labels are often presented as conceptual and euphemistic representations. For instance, markers such as “hustling,” “aristo,” “runs,” and “paroles” are used as concepts to refer to conditioned heterosexual relationships among Nigerian undergraduate students (Olugbile et al., 2008). These expressions often provide insights into the sociocultural and sociolinguistic motivations that create the differences in the linguistic choices of social groups (Uwen & Ushie, 2022). These conceptual representations are also aspects of cognitive mechanisms where one known thing is projected onto a different experiential domain such that the projected is understood in terms of the known (Barcelona et al., 2005). The concepts in this description entail “an experiential and cognitive process, in which we use properties, relations, and entities that characterize one domain of experience and/or knowledge (source domain) to understand, think, plan, and talk about a second domain (target domain) that is different in kind from the first” (Jandausch, 2012, p. 2). It is the conceptual representations within the macro Nigerian sociocultural context that the students draw from to recontextualise certain linguistic resources to ascribe (male) labels in their heterosexual discourses.

The increasing heterosexual practices and discourses among undergraduates in Nigerian Universities are believed to have devised linguistic creations that describe their different sexual behaviours. This conceptual perspective is the key motivation for the study which aims at investigating the labels that describe these behaviors in a University in Southern Nigeria (concealed for ethical concerns). The thrust of the study is therefore to identify and examine the linguistic choices used in the description and ascription of identities by the female students based on the sexual behaviours of male partners in their heterosexual relationships.

2. Theoretical framework

The relevant theories to this study are Sexual Script Theory (SST) and Community of Practice (CofP). SST was introduced by Simon and Gagnon (1969) as a modification of biological models of sexual behaviours to include the description of sexuality as a social construct and product. The moderation aligns with the notion that the biological development in males and females have consequential influence on their sexual experiences and expectations that set the differentials in traditional sexual scripts (Simon & Gagnon, 1969, 1986; Wiederman, 2005). The authors’ argument is hinged on the claim that sex is socially contextualised, determined and “scripted” based on the differentials in sexual behaviour among sexual partners. Based on this description, sexual partners become the “actors” who use language to create “scripts” in order to construct, shape and situate their (in)appropriate sexual behaviours and interactions (Simon & Gagnon, 1986, 2003). SST as a theoretical framework therefore allows for a deepened explanation and understanding of sexual conducts and relationships that operate differently, depending on the orientation of the practitioners. According to Simon and Gagnon (1986, 2003), sexual scripts operate in three dimensions at the macro level: the cultural, interpersonal and intrapsychic scripts. Cultural scripts describe gender roles in relation with heterosexuality, interpersonal scripts produce and develop continuous socialisation and learning through sexual experiences while intrapsychic scripts create influence on the individual’s production of sexual roles to display sexual fantasies and desires for the attention of others. The interface and interplay of the three scripts, usually and consequentially enact several patterns of sexuality within a given heterosexual partner and social group, following familiar practicing orientations (Simon & Gagnon, 1986; Whittier & Simon, 2001). Heterosexual relationships in this framing, are bound to create complementary but oppositional sexual scripts that typify roles for men and women during sex (McCabe et al., 2010; Simon & Gagnon, 1986; Wiederman, 2005). Therefore, in heterosexual discourse, sex talks are made to often correspond with gendered consciousness with some congruency in individual experiences (McCabe et al., 2010). These individual sexual desires and experiences are often outcomes of sexual (cultural) orientations experimented in heterosexual (interpersonal) relationships that introduce the differentials in (intrapsychic) sexual roles that are gendered and situationally determined. The differences are topicalised in the heterosexual discourse among (young) men and women to ascribe labels to sexual behaviours. These enacted labels are the investigative focus of this study. To situate the labels within the propositions and context of SST, the insights from the theory are extended in this study to accommodate more strands of sexual behaviours that accommodate more differentials in sexual scripts. These include marital and financial status, size of sex organ, physical anatomy, gatekeeping services and address terms that create significant influence in sexual (un)attractiveness and (dis)satisfaction to construe identified sexual scripts.

CofP on the other hand, is used in the explanation of marked identities and social values devised, adopted and used by social group(s) as components of their belief system embedded in linguistic anthropology. Lave and Wegner’s (1991) influential research on the notion of CofP stimulates other studies on the CofP. One of such is Eckert and McConnell-Ginet (1992, p. 464) that describe CofP as:

An aggregate of people who come together around mutual engagement in an endeavor. Ways of doing things, ways of talking, beliefs, values, power relations – in short, practices – emerge in the course of this mutual endeavor. As a social construct, a CofP is different from the traditional community, primarily because it is defined simultaneously by its membership and by the practice in which that membership engages.

This claim foregrounds what members are engaged in, the commonality in the way they talk and do things that express their values and beliefs through the use ingroup codes. In the same way, Holmes and Meyerhoff (1999) argue that in the context of sociolinguistics, CofP is a complex and dynamic phenomenon. Also, Wegner (1998) demonstrates that CofP is a social process and method of learning devised to gain competence in the tenets and use of group’s language. Such competence is utilised to “construct, negotiate, and challenge the discourses and social boundaries that particular code indexes” (Garrett, 2004, p. 54). The competence creates the differences in the group’s social and linguistic alignments and beliefs. This stage of competence, according to Wegner (1998), is achieved through: mutual engagements, joint enterprise and shared enterprise. Mutual engagements involve the regular interactions among members to introduce situated linguistic items. A joint negotiated enterprise also explains the interpersonal relationships formed as a communal practice to create discursive micro groups while shared repertoire (enterprise) of negotiable resources is gained over time to construct and assign ingroup situated meanings. The three dimensions jointly construct the identities and (linguistic) differentials, and further integrate the mutual interest, values, beliefs and ideology of social groups that strengthen their bond and solidarity (Bucholtz, 1999; Eckert, 2001, 2008; Eckert & Wenger, 2005; Holmes & Meyerhoff, 1999; King, 2014). These peculiarities in linguistic choices are created from the continuous conversational engagements by group members in their shared social practices. These creations often complement the relationship between certain expressions and the meaning orientations in the situational context (Uwen, 2023b). The female undergraduates at the selected University are, in this context, described as a speech community with devised linguistic choices used for the ascription of labels to the sexual behaviours of their males partners. The choices are therefore indexed as ingroup linguistic devices that bear situated meanings that are mutually understood by members. The two theories are relevant to the study because they account for the ascription of labels to the several identifiable sexual scripts using insights from SST and CofP. Through the expressive youth culture, the female students consciously activated the liberation provided by the University’s social context to freely express their heterosexual roles, identities, preferences and responsibilities from where the labels were created and ascribed.

3. Materials and methods

The study adopts a qualitative approach that involved a ten-month (May, 2021 to February, 2022) period of field work using the female undergraduates as the research population. The researcher’s regular visits to the hostels’ premises during the study facilitated the consultation of some female students for the exercise. Of the 88 consulted, only 22 willing heterosexual female undergraduates were recruited as participants and research assistants after screening them for eligibility. The criteria for eligibility to participate include: being in the age (bracket of 19-25), female students in year two - final year in different programmes of study, and admission of involvement in heterosexual activity which made them familiar with the topic. The participants were the representatives of the sample population. Their consents were sought for, and approved before their engagement in the exercise. The selection of participants that were familiar with the topic follows Sarantakos’ (1998) position that researchers are often at liberty to choose subjects who, in their assessment, are relevant to the research topic and capable of providing the needed information. The choice of the age range agreed with local laws that guarantee the right to make self-decision at certain age, while the selected year(s) of study is to ensure that the participant had more than a year’s experience in the University needed to understand different sexual behaviours. In terms of the frequency and percentage distribution, two participants were at the age of 19 (9.1%), two were 20 (9.1%), four were 21 (18.2%), three were 22 (13.6%), four were 23 (18.2%), three were 24 (13.6%) while four were 25 (18.2%). For the participants’ years of study, seven were identified to be in their second year of study (31.8%), eight were in third year (36.4%), while seven were in their final year (31.8%). The target population were young female adults from different ethnocultural and religious backgrounds schooling in the selected University. The choice of the school is informed by the multiethnic, multireligious, multicultural and heterogeneous nature of the students. These factors, are believed to influence male sexual behaviours that are peculiar or similar to sexual practices in Nigerian and other Universities across Africa and beyond.

Data were generated by means of participant observation, unstructured interviews while audiotape recordings and field notes were utilised as research tools. Data collection were supervised by the researcher and moderated by the research assistants who were adequately informed of the essence and what was required of the research. This knowledge enabled the participants to extract the relevant data from their heterosexual discourse with other female undergraduates. Participant observation provided significant information that was facilitated by the long involvement of the participants in heterosexual relationships that stimulated discourses that generated the labels. Also, unstructured interviews provided expanded knowledge on different male sexual behaviours and provided avenues for explanation, confirmation and harmonisation of the labels, and their situated meanings. Again, Audiotape recordings were enabled by the smart phones used by the participants to keep records of interactions that captured the relevant data. Field notes were used to document key information that could be forgotten. Before the data were subjected to analysis, the recordings were transcribed and cross-referenced with the field notes in a debriefing meeting held with the (participants) research assistants. The essence was to ensure acceptable data harmonisation and interpretation for the credibility of the study. The transcripts were then coded using thematic and content analysis approach.

4. Findings and discussion

The data are analysed using Braun and Clarke (2006) thematic and content analysis approach. The authors’ postulation emphasises the generation of themes following specific procedural decisions. In this study, the themes are theoretically and semantically derived and coded based on the traditional and moderated sexual scripts meant to contextualise the male sexual labels formulated by the female students from the heterosexual discourses. The theorisation, semanticisation and thematisation of sexual scripts in this context, situate and construe the (un)traditional scripts in terms of a shift, rehearsal, moderation and enactment of new scripts influenced by the University environment. Relying on the precepts of CofP, and given the observation that the creations that ascribe the male sexual labels are social constructs, the construal’s of the content of the labels are therefore beyond individual values but rather conceived as communal repertoire with communal interpretations. The application of the thematic and content analysis approach according to Braun and Clarke (2006), are based on procedural phases. These include: researchers’ familiarisation with the data, generation of initial codes, search for appropriate themes, proper review of the themes, defining and naming the acceptable and final themes, and the production of analysable extracts of participants discussion. Conceptually, similar and overlapping themes derived from the data were later reviewed to ensure heterogeneity in their semantic imports. Based on these clarification, the sexual scripts adopted for analysis and discussion in this study, are those related to the duration of sexual performance, size of the sex organ, financial status and spending habit, marital status, third party and gatekeeping, familial address terms, body size and other routine sexual behaviours. In the analysis, terms such as client, man, boyfriend, boo and aristo are used interchangeably to refer to male sexual partners while gbola and dick are used to describe the male sexual organ. Similarly, girlfriend, babe, runsgirl and girl are all used to refer to the female undergraduates engaged in the heterosexual relationships while kpekus is used to represent the female sex organ.

4.1. Sexual performance scripts

One of the evidences of sexual performance scripts is that man is responsible for woman’s orgasm, which she should experience before the man’s, failure of which the man could be seen as being sexually dysfunctional (Braun et al., 2003). Situating this sexual experience, it is posited that “sexual performance signifies masculinity and ranges according to age, body system and health implications” (Thompson & Barnes, 2013, p. 271). The optimal health of a male is therefore measured in his sexual performance and the sustained ability to maintain erectile function. In this categorisation of sexual scripts related to the sexual performance of the male sexual partners, the participants coined certain associative expressions, as aspects of their CofP, to convey situated meanings of the gradable levels of male sexual performance. Such constructs include: one minute man(guy), NEPA, evening service and share grace to represent their clients’ quick and premature ejaculation, while other coinages such as full dose, Sunday service and astral pump account for delayed ejaculation. Also, bad market, bolt driver, super glue, iron mike and womb swifter represent the male sexual lovers’ capabilities in sexual aggressiveness and inability to experience orgasm during ejaculation.

One minute man is used in this context to represent event that concludes in seconds or often do not last long. For instance, NEPA is the acronym for National Electric Power Authority described by its unreliable and epileptic power supply, evening service refers to the short duration of evening activities at Nigerian Pentecostal Churches and share grace describes the short time used for the recitation of 2 Cor. 13:14 which conventionally marks the closure of religious activities in most Nigerian Churches. The labels here, are combined to define men who experience early, quick or uncontrollable ejaculation before or during penetration. For the next set of labels, full dose literally means the amount of drugs taken according to the quantity and length of time prescribed by a physician to adequately treat an ailment. Also, Sunday service describes the series of religious activities (offerings, prayers, songs’ rendition, teaching and preaching) that are sequentially observed during a lengthy Church service on Sundays. Also, astral pump refers to a superior quality brand that pumps water for as long as there is power supply. These ascriptions designate the satisfactory length of time clients could last sexually from fore play to intercourse. The other representations include bad market (a Nigerian English creation for an unprofitable business), used here to refer to a male sexual partner who lasts longer than the monetary reward given to the girlfriend. Similarly, bolt driver is a label for a male lover who patiently obeys all the instructions of the girlfriend during a long sexual encounter, just the same way a bolt driver does to his passenger(s). Again, super glue is ordinarily the tag for a reliable gum brand that glues items inseparably, but is used here as the identity of a man who maintains sexual erection for an endurable period. In the same way, Iron Mike is a referent to the famous aggressive boxer Mike Tyson, but also used by the female undergraduates to connote aggressive and continuing sexual stamina. Womb shifter, among these labels, means a male who lasts so long during sex that could cause vaginal injury or bruises. In the students’ CofP, bad market, bolt driver, super glue, Iron Mike and womb shifter, are conceptual representations for male’s sexual aggressiveness, high sexual performance and inability to experience orgasm during the phases of sexual activity. To Conaglen and Conaglen (2013), these phases occur in three sexual activities: sexual desire, arousal and orgasm. It is these phases when combined, that describe the sexual function and performance of the male partners from where the labels are ascribed.

On such sexual experiences, a 24 year old participant complained this way “one minute man often turns me off, I prefer it in full dose, I mean the bolt driver standard, and once in a while, it’s also good to experience the aggressives type.” Another participant aged 25 reported that “the essence of sexual encounters is to derive satisfaction, it doesn’t make sense having sex with men with low libido.” Although the preference of the participants goes for male partners with high sexual performance, the situated labels here describe the various sexual scripts for sex duration to account for short, lasting and aggressive sexual experience.

4.2. Sexual scripts based on the size of the male sex organ

Another set of labels are derived from the size of male sex organ. On this, scholars have argued that men are often defined and sexually scripted in terms of the possession of certain physical attributes that facilitate or reduce their sexual performance (Menard & Cabrera, 2011; Oliver & Hyde, 1993). This, sometimes, is dependent on the size of the penis. The penis, apart from its reproductive function, denotes masculinity, and is a vital instrument for heterosexual activities. The size of the penis, as the participants observed, is not necessarily determined by the overall body size. For instance, a 21 year old participant claimed that “the body size cannot be used to determine that of the penis. The size of the penis determines the sexual ego, dominance and power of the man during sexual intercourse. Men with big penis are often admired because they have the tendency to sexually satisfy their girlfriends.” This conception is corroborated thus, “men deem sex as another agency of power, dominance and governance. Sexual performance with a large-sized penis symbolises masculine power to control women such that small penis could destroy heterosexual relationships” (Khan et al., 2008, p. 37). The labels in this category of sexual scripts are formed through compounding; by the addition of two or more bases to “man” as the constant root morpheme that obligatorily occupies the final position of the realised compound. The sexual scripts derived from the females students’ CofP include: needleman, broomstickman and smallpinman ascribed to male sexual partners with small penis. Also, massivaman, full optionman, elasticman, highwayman, irokoman and bigpinman are ascriptions for long and large-sized penis of their boos. Aligning with Khan et al. (2008) claim, a 19 year old female student’s admiration for big penis was explained this way “I like the gbola big! I mean where it is massive, that way you know he’s thick and in charge. That kind of dick goes right deep and occupies the kpekus.” Also, an 18 year old participant complained that the “smallpinguys are just often disturbing, they can’t sexually satisfy you in anyway. At the end of it all, it’s just another boring experience.” The opinion of the participants suggests that the degree of sexual performance and (dis)satisfaction largely depend on the size of penis. This claim justifies Hrzenjak’s (2000) position that the continuation of sexual relationships by females sometimes depend on the sexual partner’s size of penis. The labels in this category adopted the linguistic choices with mutual understanding in the female undergraduates’ CofP to construct their sexual experience with their male partners.

4.3. Financial status and spending habit-induced sexual scripts

This category of sexual scripts presents labels that associated with the spending habits of the clients. Money, as the participants observed, performs some functions in heterosexual relationships. Particularly, money influences the sexual desires of females towards their male romantic partners, depending on what the latter could offer. On this, studies show that (some) female youth engage in heterosexual activities for material and financial rewards (Hunter, 2002; Johnson, 2007; Tade & Adekoya, 2012). Other studies claim that some sexually active females naturally have sexual desires for males with little or no financial rewards but they are liked for other reasons (Diamond, 2002; Jacobson, 2005). On these preferences, a 25 year old final year female undergraduate narrated that “depending on the financial capacity and prudence of their aristos, the spending habit of our clients fall into their manner of giving no money for sex which could be excessive, moderate, little or even nothing.” Here, the undergraduates used ATM, CBN, MMM, MMS, Obi Cubana, loaded guy, azaman and odogwu as identies drawn from their CofP, to situate sexual scripts to men who spend extravagantly for sexual rewards. Also, microfinance bank and community bank (third grade banks with low capital base in the Nigeria’s context) are labels for moderate spenders, while half bread, brokeguy, chewing gumboyfriend and akagum (code-mixed Igbo and English lexical items), are financial sexual scripts that describe men who sexually satisfy their babes but pay little or nothing as rewards. To support the existence of these practices, two participants aged 23 who were also in their third year of study, explained that ATM (automated teller machine) is ascribed to a client who gives quick cash in reasonable sums, while the CBN (Central Bank of Nigeria) pays as high as the ATM but exclusively with mints (newly minted clean currency). They also reported that MMM (money making machine) pays in the similar manner (like ATM and CBN), but with the assurance of paying more in future sexual encounters. Similarly, MMS (mugu money spender) is also used to describe a male partner, who pays as the three labels above, but in the case of MMM, he does not demand for a commensurate sexual rewards. The different labels among these clients, is Obi Cubana. He is different because he pays in foreign (hard) currency. Obi Cubana (real name is Obinna Igiebu), from whom the label is derived, is a Nigerian entrepreneur, businessman and philanthropist known for often giving out US Dollars. Corroborating these scripts, a 20 years old second year female student claimed that they used loaded guy as a label to describe a male sexual partner who pays in bundles of (loaded) cash, the azaman (a codemixed Igbo and English elements) refers to the client who pays without bothering to confirm the exact amount while odogwu (Igbo term) pays with admirable display of wealth. Another final year female undergraduate captured her experience this way “whether you be azaman, Obi Cubana or microfinance bank, what matters is performance. I like to make my money but I prefer the brokeguys sometimes, they don’t have much cash to give but they would always hit you real hard”. The labels in this section show the differentials in sexual scripts in terms of the gradable sexual desires of young female adults that are motivated by the financial status and spending habits of the male partners. While the ATM, CBN, MMS, MMM, azaman, odogwu, loaded guy and Obi Cubana maintain irregular sex with their girlfriends, microfinance, community bank, brokeguy, akagum and chewinggum guy have regular sex with high sexual performance. The labels are also creatively resemanticised to align with the situated meanings within the CofP of the female students.

4.4. Marital status-related sexual scripts

In the girls’ CofP, there are also some sexual scripts that account for the different sexual behaviours and labels that describe their male sexual partners who were already engaged in (un)marital relationships. It is established that married men’s engagement in heterosexual relationships with young female adults often prove the subtle reality that emotional and sexual expression of love involve responsibilities that elicit sex (Hunter, 2002). The married men in this description, often entice their female sex partners with rewards such as gifts, material exchanges and economic support in order to sustain the romantic relationships (Cole, 2004; Cole & Thomas, 2009). The labels for such married men include: King Solomon, wifey property, wifey pikin and mummy pet. Allusively, King Solomon is a religious description of the Biblical Solomon, believed to have married 700 wives and 300 concubines. The label is used in this context, to mark the sexual script that defines the sexual behaviour of a male partner known to be legally married to two or more wives, who as well, maintains sexual relationships with female students. This sexual habit is captured in such client’s irregular sexual encounters with the female partner because of his many wives who also need his attention. This sexual script is a rehearsal of polygamy facilitated by the multiple privileges that men have in the society. The behaviour is promoted by patriarchy and sociocultural practices that place a high value on men and their freedom to have multiple sexual partners (Tade & Adekoya, 2012). In the context of the students’ CofP, wifey property often (mistakenly) mentions his wife’s name during sex with his girlfriend. This behaviour is viewed by the participants as indexation of his emotional attachment to his wife. Also, wifey pikin and mummy pet are used to describe male partners who make, or receive calls from their wives and/or mothers during sexual intercourse. As expressed in the labels, studies have further proven that young female adults who keep sexual relationships with married men are often aware of their marital status but go ahead because of the gains they derive (Olumofin, 2015; Teefah, 2019). Commenting on this, a 23 year third year female admitted thus:

I know it is bad to engage in sexual relationship with married men, it is actually against my culture and family principles, but I do it to sustain myself because the married men can always give you whatever you want. Truly, their sexual requests are also irregular, and even when they make love, they won’t stress you like the unmarried male students.

Other labels that capture the sexual scripts related to unmarried male partners are about to and vacancy. About to is a shortened form for the nuptial declaration “about to wed.” Here, it is ascribed to a bachelor who is widely known to be in a serious relationship but engages in “quick” sex because of the absence of the supposed female partner. The final label in this set of sexual scripts is vacancy. Vacancy is used by the girls to refers to an unmarried male who engages in frequent sexual encounters with his girlfriend using marriage as a promisory bait. A 19-year old year two female undergraduate contextualised this sexual practice in her experience. She reported that “I date unmarried guys only. Although some of them frequently demand for sex but the only hope is that the relationship could lead to marriage some day.” The scripts in this section also provide clues to the (ir)regularity of sexual encounters male sexual partners have with their babes depending on the number of other female partners they keep.

4.5. Third party and gatekeeper sexual scripts

The heterosexual discourse of the focus group also contains elements used to ascribe labels on mediational sex and roles of third parties and gatekeepers in their romantic engagements. Third party and gatekeeper roles produce strands of sexual scripts, and they could make or mar sexual relationships. This is because, according to Etaugh and Bridges (2004), the females have a different social lifestyle and sexual behaviour from the men. Studies have established the existence of mediational sex activities facilitated by gatekeepers and third party representations among students in Universities usually known as “pimps.” Pimp-mediated transactional sex “introduces a third person—the pimp—into what is traditionally understood to be a relationship between the two parties and, in the process, dramatically transforms the social obligations that define this peculiar social relation” (Masvanwuve, 2011, p. 165). Two types of pimps were identified to have existed in the institution under study: the male (which is the concern of this study) and female pimps who get sex or cash rewards for third party services. The lexical choices the female students deploy for third party and gatekeeping representations include: middleman, contractor, senior accountant and referral. In the participants’ context of usage, middleman refers to a male student who runs sexually-related errands. The middleman, in the course of running the errands, also makes sexual advances, develops and establishes sexual affair with the female(s) involved. This development is usually unknown to the “publicly known” male sexual partner. Middleman, in the girls’ conceptualisation, often gets solicited sexual rewards in return for his gatekeeping services. Another label here is contractor. He is often engaged by the runsgirls or influential men outside the University environment or both, specifically to provide transactional sex services. The contractor provides such services for the sexual pleasures of well-to-do men who visit the city to attend political or other major events. In doing this, the contractor often demand for, and have “quick” sexual rewards from one or more girls hired for the visitors. In the same manner, the senior accountant performs the services of the contractor, but does this specifically for politicians who delegate (the negotiations and) payment of the girls’ sexual services to the senior accountant. The senior accountant uses the money as a bait to have consented sex with one or more of the girls in the process of negotiation and payment. Also, referral, in the girls’ CofP, is another label to a male partner who has discontinued or is in a continuing sexual relationship with a girl, but refers his male friend to make advances towards the girls because of her sexual exploits which he wants his friend to also experience. Describing this situation, a 24-year old third year female undergraduate admitted that:

There are guys in that sexual habit. My friend fell to one. Her boo refered his other male friend to do everything to experience her sexual exploits. She came to realise after she had had several sexual encounters with the referral. Only cheap female students fall into such traps.

Commenting on these practices, Tade and Adekoya (2012) corroborate that in some Nigerian Universities, there are existing structures and connections developed by male and female students, specifically for the attraction of sexual partners to their friends. Tade and Adekoya’s observation is also corroborated by a final year female student aged 24. She posited that “some middlemen are wising up these days, some dey follow chop same kpekus unknown to the ‘real’ owner. The wicked ones na referrals, they bang (have sex) finish, they want make their friends to follow chop, that’s too bad.” These sexual scripts and the associated labels used in the participants’ CofP, are used to demonstrate some specific male sexual behaviours that appear to be both deliberate and accidental. One characteristic of this set of sexual scripts is that, given the circumstances, the male sexual agents hardly have any emotional attachment other than the transient pleasure they derive from the sexual encounters.

4.6. Sexual scripts related with familial address terms

Another set of sexual scripts are defined in familial address terms. Familial address terms, according to Mardiha (2012), are linguistic forms used to attract people’s attention and significations for the expression of intimacy, reflection of identity and communication of politeness. Address terms generally “are influenced by the social status, gender, age, family relationship, occupational hierarchy, race and degree of intimacy” (Wardhaugh, 2006, p. 272). This category of labels identified in the girls’ CoP, are those related with family relationships, and are used to index the sexual roles and sex-induced responsibilities of the male partners. The labels include: Daddy G.O., Uncle Joe, Uncle Nico, Bro Paul and Bro Steve. Daddy G.O., as used by the participants, is derived from Pentecostal conception of General Overseer as one who oversees the administration of a Pentecostal Christian denomination in the Nigerian religious context. In the situated meanings within the participants’ CoP, Daddy G.O. represents a married male lover who takes care of (oversees) the overall needs of the female girlfriend (as a father could), but in this case for occasional sexual rewards. Similarly, Uncle Joe is derived from Nigerian political discourse domain. It is reflective of the largely applauded concession of defeat by President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan in the 2015 presidential election, allegedly believed to be won by him. President Jonathan was believed to do so for the sake of peace in Nigeria amid threatening tension. The Joe succeeding the familial address term Uncle, is the clipped form of “Jonathan.” It is used by the undergraduates, as the identity of a male lover who concedes to, and cedes his sexual responsibilities to another man in the contest for the sexual control of a shared girlfriend. In the same way, Uncle Nico (Nicodemus) is derived from the allusive story of the Biblical Nicodemus, a Pharisee and member of the Jewish ruling council who visited Jesus at night to seek for redemption (John 3: 1–21). The label of Uncle Nico here, is used to mark the sexual script for one who makes sexual advances and enguages in intercourse with the female partner only at night. Another term in this category is Bro Paul (Bro is the clipped version of brother). Bro Paul is linked to the conversion story of Saul (later Paul) on his way to Damascus to continue his mission on the prosecution of Christians, an encounter that made him an eventual follower of Christ (Acts 9:1-19). In the girls’ CofP, Bro Paul connotes a male lover who initially abhors sex, but later becomes addicted to it. Also, Bro Steve (Stephen), is used as an allusive referent to the Stephen of the Bible. Stephen was the Hellenist Jew ordained among the seven deacons in the early Church, and the first Christian martyr stoned to death for preaching the gospel of Christ (Acts chapters 6 and 7). Bro Steve, in the students’ heterosexual discourse, marks the man who suffers sex-related assault plotted by his female lover who feels he has cheated on her. As demonstrated here, familial address terms communicate gender and politeness, and are often used to construct intimacy (Mardiha, 2012; Wardhaugh, 2006). The labels also show aspects of Nigerian English usage in the Pentecostal context. Nigerians are religious people, and they utilise the English language to communicate their religious consciousness in the performance of religious and secular activities (Aremu, 2013; Uwen, 2020; Uwen & Ukam, 2020). On the familial labels, a 19 year old year two student claimed that “I think we use those labels to describe them because of the (familial) roles they play because of sex.” Another 20 year old female student argued that “the meaning of the labels show what men do, or pass through for the of sake of sex and sexual advances. And the University environment gives us some freedom for sexual affairs which cannot be tolerated in our family homes.” The terms and the sexual scripts construe contextualised Nigerians’ familial and religious attachments as important aspects of their socioreligious lives.

4.7. Body size (un)attractiveness as sexual scripts

The next set of sexual scripts are those associated with male physical looks. Studies claim that there is an emerging orientation on how males perceive, think and behave with respect to their bodies as instruments for sexual attraction (Cafri & Thompson, 2004; Rose & Frieze, 1993). This consciousness has impacted on how men conditioned their bodies through regular exercise and medication to keep themselves fit for sexual attraction to the opposite sex. As observed by the participants, the male anatomy is construed by the female undergraduates as a factor that affects sexual performance. The physical stature here, becomes a key consideration for acceptance of sexual advances and relationships. It is on this basis that they devise labels such as elephantiasis, biggie, tummy tummy, shot put and athlete. Elephantiasis as used by the focus group, is associated with the common (sub)tropical disease that causes the swelling of the body. For the girls, it is a derogatory term that represents fat and plumpy man who performs poorly during sex. Also, biggie has associated features with elephantiasis, but he rather a tall man. The next is tummy tummy, a lexically reduplicated term for emphasis on a particular part of the body. This label describes an abnormally protruding belly of a male partner that prevents deep penetration and hinders satisfactory sexual performance. Again, shot put is literally a heavy spherical ball used in sporting competition, but used in the girls’ CofP to stand for a male lover, who because of his short stature, finds it difficult to stimulate arousal through kissing and fondling with the female’s breasts during a sexual activity. The other label athlete, pronounces a tall, average-sized, sporty and attractive looking male, who performs optimally during sexual encounters. A 23 year old undergraduate who prefers the athletic label captured it this way:

many of us go for the athlete, it’s always boring having sex without satisfaction. I can’t imagine a man with big tummy sleeping with me. The large tummy would always be a barrier to satisfactory sex. The funny thing is that the meanings of these expressins are somehow only known to students.

On the students’ preference for a male sexual partner with the features of an athlete, studies have also proven that women are sexually attracted to men with thin bodies, fit looking with vigor, and good health, which are relevant criteria for choosing their male sex partners because of their high performance during sexual intercourse (Cafri & Thompson, 2004; Kearney-Cooke & Steicken-Asch, 1990; Shackelford et al., 2000; Singh, 1995). In the female students’ CofP, the sexual scripts, aside from establishing the differentials in sexual habits related with body size, they also relate on, and offer clues to how the physical looks determine their sexual preferences.

4.8. Other routine sexual scripts

The female students have also formulated labels to represent other routine sexual scripts not captured above. Those in this category include: motivational speaker, antivirus, playboy, mbari, kick to start and holy holy. Motivational speaker is ascribed to men who can say anything persuasive and convincing enough, including making unfulfilled promises, that often make the girlfriend yield to his sexual desire. Similarly, antivirus is a sexual identity for a male partner who is often conscious of wearing condom before and during sexual intercourse for fear of contracting sexually transmitted disease(s) while playboy is one who makes deliberately unfilled promises during sex. Another term here is mbari. According to Okparaocha (1976), mbari is a cultural practice in Owerri, a town in Southeastern Nigeria, that allows the woman to have two or more sexual relationships with men. The Igbo lexical term is resemanticised in the context of the heterosexual discourse among the female students, to refer to a man who has sexual relationships with two or more female students known to each other. This description affirms the conventional beliefs that men are predictably promiscuous and very likely to have multiple sexual partners (Bogaert & Fisher, 1995; Santana et al., 2006). For kick to start, it is the marker for men who take alcohol or sex enhancement drugs for optimal sexual performance. The final term in this category is the lexically reduplicated term holy holy which emphasises chastity. The holy holy label refers to the boyfriend who often regret during and after having sexual intercourse. He calls it sin with scriptural verses that condemn premarital sex to substantiate his guilt. On male routine sexual behaviours, a 24 year old female student in her final year of study argued that:

Men do different things for sex, and they behave differently during sex. We also use different expressions to describe their attitudes before, during and after sex. When we discuss these habits by narrating our experience, we learn one or two things but usually for just for the fun of it.

Going by the participant’s opinion, it is the situated experience in the University that shapes the social context of the social interactions on sexuality and the linguistic choices they use to describe them (Uwen & Ekpenyong, 2022; Whittier & Simon, 2001).

5. Conclusion

The study is a representation of male sexual partners in the heterosexual discourse among sexually active female University students in Nigeria. The discourse situates the labelling of the sexual practices in the global sexual discourses from the tertiary institution’s perspective. The study utilised the situated construction, articulation and construal of cultural, interpersonal and intrapsychic sexual scripts to demonstrate the initiation and production of sexual desires, sexual behaviours and performance of sexual roles by male sexual partners and the appropriation of meanings within the University’s social context. The study has further validated that female students initiate, negotiate and advance sexual discourses among themselves to narrate experiences that nuanced their individual sexual relationships with the male partners.

The sexual practices of the males and females in the context of the heterosexual discourse of the participants, are believed to have been influenced by ethnolinguistic, sociocultural and religious backgrounds which provided for some restraints and limit freedom in some sexual behaviours in certain contexts. However, the University environment is seen as a detachment from the cultural restraints to some sexual practices. On this basis, the students utilised the liberating context of the University environment as a fertile site for self-engagement in the emerging youth culture of self-assertiveness and expression in sexual performance and discourse. This consciousness motivated the communication of their sexual practices and roles, from where the female undergraduates leveraged on, to devise labels for the sexual scripts practiced by their male partners. This new culture permeates into discussion on, and creation of elaborate lexical items for the description of sexual activities and practices in a “tabooed” domain of discourse across many cultures in Nigeria. This rehearsed the conscious attempt to rebalance the gender power imbalances in the discourse on heterosexual performance, attitudes and roles that are conveyed through the peculiar linguistic choices with situated meanings within the participants’ CofP.

The choices showcased the students’ linguistic creativity achieved through the combined use of figurative expressions, slangy creations, neologisms, Nigerian Pidgin, lexical reduplications, collocational choices, resemanticisations, acronymisations, borrowings from indigenous languages, clipped and blended forms, codemixed items and other compounded words. The creations, altogether, express the nature of the sociolinguistic context of the University environment and the peculiarities in Nigerian English usage. Labels of this nature index and define the multilingual and interenthnolinguistic identities of the communication partners (Uwen & Ekpe, 2023). The study portrays the sexual depiction of men, by their female lovers, as a sentient demonstration of their heteronormative way of thinking towards the creation of labels that narrate male sexual escapades. These conceptions reestablish the connections between heterosexual components such as transactional sex, commercial sex, sex as self-willed activity, sexual experience and sexual expressions used to explain the activities, interest and goals in their engagement in sexual relationships. The goals and interest ranged from optimal sexual satisfaction, monetary and gifts rewards, economic and social security, participation in peers’ sexual practices, social bonding, and self-fulfilment to expectation of future marital relationships.

The research methods adopted in labelling the male sexual behaviours has deepened knowledge on the sexual scripting of male-female sexual orientations and behaviours. The participants’ also strengthen the endorsement of the existence of the sexual scripts and introduced the differentials in sexual practices in the heterosexual relationships of the focus population. The study, however, have some limitations. The limitations spanned from the focus on a largely homogeneous group of heterogeneous students with no in-depth knowledge of their age, ethnocultural and religious backgrounds and prior sexual orientations. The research assistants were also grossly inadequate given the large population of students. This, could be, in addition to the possible influence from volunteer bias of the recruited participants, as they may not be comfortable in the reconstruction of the labels they devised for the description of the sexual attitudes of their male partners. This is connected with the high number of those (66 among the 88) who were consulted but turned down the request on the topic to substantiate the fact that not all the female students were engaged in heterosexual relationships. These limitations, however, do not erode the validity of the study and the insights it offers in the growing discourse on heterosexuality. To create a gender balanced and logical conclusion on this subject, a further research on the male undergraduates’ heterosexual discourse is recommended, to properly understand the perceptions of the male sexual partners with respect to these labels. This, it is believed, would logically nuance this study in a more balanced way.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

God’sgift Ogban Uwen

Dr God’sgift Ogban Uwen is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of English and Literary Studies, University of Calabar, Nigeria. His research interest include: Sociolinguistics, Semiotics and Pragmatics, and he reviews for Scopus indexed journals. He is a member of revered academic and professional associations and has published in reputable journals including Journal of Language, Identity & Education, European Journal of Humour Research, International Journal of Language Education, Language Matters, International Journal of Multilingualism, Forum for Linguistics Studies, and Environment and Social Psychology, among others.