Love and sexual availability go hand in hand for young men, and if adolescent girls resist sex they are likely to get beaten up.

This is the grim picture painted by a study of teenage sexual relationships in Khayelitsha, where it appears that men control relationships, often using violence on girls to accept 'the inevitable'.

The research into violence in sexual relationships was conducted among 24 pregnant teenagers aged between 14 and 18. Most had partners about five years older.

The study by the Medical Research Council, reported in the Urbanisation and Health Newsletter, found that men controlled sexuality, defining 'teenage love' as penetrative sex and using violence from the beginning of relationships to force sex on their girlfriends.

Strikingly evident was that women were unable to negotiate the timing of sex and the conditions under which it happened, and felt powerless to protect themselves against pregnancy, let alone sexually transmitted diseases by using condoms, said researchers Katherine Wood, Rachel Jewkes and Fidelia Maforah.

Male partners dictated the timing and conditions of sexual intercourse, defining penetrative sex as the 'purpose' of love. One teenager explained: 'He told me that if I accepted him as a lover, we had to engage in sexual intercourse and do the things that adults do.'

All but one young woman described assault as a regular feature of sexual relationships, and some said this was the main reason they continued to have sex. Physical assault was so commonplace, women said, that many of their female peers saw it as an expression of love. In most cases, men were reported to use violent strategies from the beginning of relationships to force girls to have sex.

'He told me that I did not want to do it, he would force me to. He beat me up and forced my underwear down,' said one girl. The researchers said that earlier studies in South Africa into first-time intercourse had found that 30 percent of girls were 'forced' to have sex.

Men continued to use physical assault after initial intercourse to enforce sex, beating their partners with belts, sticks and shoes if they refused. 'They do not care; they will hit you anywhere, face and all. You would think they at least will avoid that because your parents would see the bruises and the injuries, but they do not care,' said one teenager.

In another study of 600 teenage girls in Cape Town, some pregnant, 60 percent of respondents said they had been beaten up by their partners.

Men also controlled relationships in other ways, beating their partners when they were seen talking to other men, when they wanted to terminate relationships or were suspected of sexual infidelity.

(Independent Newspapers, 14/01/98)