Gender Violence in South Africa: An Annotated Bibliography
Introduction
Gender violence as a topic of inquiry has steadily increased in popularity, both domestically and
internationally, in recent decades. It is readily acknowledged as a pervasive problem in society,
crossing class and racial boundaries. Much attention has focused on the empowerment of women
as a way to reduce their susceptibility to violence, and while successful in many ways, this
strategy often fails to address the origins of violent behavior. This bibliography surveys gendered
violence in South Africa, a country that is no stranger to conflict. Particular emphasis is given to
the construction of masculine identities and the consequent widespread use of violence as a
means of legitimating power. Specific themes that are explored in more depth include:
 Historical legacy of oppression and familiarity to violence (e.g. colonization, violent
conflict, Apartheid);
 Traditional masculine ethnic identities (e.g. Zulu, Afrikaans, Xhosa);
 Migration of men from rural villages to urban centers for employment, where sexual
dominance of males over other males flourished, a trend continued upon their return
home but in the form of males sexually dominating females;
 Misunderstanding surrounding HIV/AIDS;
 Prevalence of poverty which positions women as vulnerable to violence due to a lack of
resources (e.g. education, health services, employment)
 An increase in inequalities, between black and white racial groups and within the black
community, which has lead to a crisis of identity and a need to prove dominance and
control, manifested in the form of male violence towards females.
Keywords
Apartheid, Contemporary Society, Development, Family Structure, Gender-Based Violence,
Gender Roles, HIV/AIDS, Inequality, Masculinity Construction, Patriarchal Cultural Structure,
Rape, Sexual Rights, Societal Structures, South Africa, Violence (political, collective, domestic),
Traditional/Ethnic Identity, Violence Against Women
Articles and Books
Ahluwalia, Pal, Louise Bethleham, and Ruth Ginio (Eds.)
2007 Violence and Non-Violence in Africa. New York: Routledge.
This edited volume of articles are directed at political, social, and cultural
processes in Africa which incite violence or which facilitate its negation through
non-violent social action, whether or not explicitly formulated as such. The last
few chapters in this volume are devoted to apartheid and post-apartheid South
Africa, most notably how apartheid created a mechanism for violence in the
country. Each section addresses a different aspect of the continuing repercussions
of the material and structural violence of apartheid.
Armstrong, Sue
2004 Rape in South Africa: An Invisible Part of Apartheid’s Legacy. Gender
and Development (previously called Focus on Gender) 2(1): 35-39.
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This article investigates rape in South Africa, where, during the years of
apartheid, a culture of aggression and domination has caused both black and white
cultures to intensify their specific male-dominated power systems, as the national
liberation struggle has been fought. This heavily militarized society has
marginalized qualities which are traditionally thought of as female, such as trust,
compassion and gentleness (Cock, 1989). In situations of conflict, rape as a means
of asserting male power over women tends to increase in incidence and intensity
(El Bushra and Piza Lopez, 1994). This has certainly been the case in South
Africa, where the incidence of rape and other forms of gender violence, has
soared (Segel and Labe, 1990).
Ashworth, Adam
1999 Weighing Manhood in Soweto. CODESRIA Bulletin 3 & 4: 51-59
Bannon, Ian and Maria C. Correia (Eds.)
2006 The Other Half of Gender: Men’s Issues in Development. Washington, D.C.: The
World Bank.
This volume contributes to the small, albeit growing, literature on men and gender
in the context of development. It is in no way an exhaustive look; rather, it
provides a collection of research and insightful articles that examine the way
development affects men. It aims to expand the debate and discourse on gender
and development to encompass men and to identify the critical knowledge and
data gaps that can help us better understand men and concepts of masculinity.
With a more complete understanding of development as a gendered process that
impacts both men and women, the authors hope ultimately to influence policy
design and implementation that can move us closer to the goal of gender equity.
Men and gender issues are analyzed in this collection from a variety of
approaches and perspectives. The book starts with an overview chapter that
examines gender issues across multiple countries and then moves into specific
topics, first in Latin America and the Caribbean and then in Sub-Saharan Africa.
A final chapter summarizes some of the common messages emerging from the
chapters and suggests policy directions. Chapter 8, “Young Men and the
Construction of Masculinity in Sub-Saharan Africa,” applies a gender perspective
to young men in Sub-Saharan Africa in examining two of the most pressing issues
in the region today: conflict and HIV/AIDS.
Bay, Edna G. and Donald L. Donham (Eds.)
2006 States of Violence: Politics, Youth, and Memory in Contemporary Africa.
Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press.
The essayists whose work is collected here – historians, anthropologists, and
political scientists – bring their diverse disciplinary perspectives to bear on
various forms of violence that have plagued recent African history. Exploring
violence as part of political economy and rejecting stereotypical explanations of
African violence as endemic or natural to African cultures, this work includes
essays that examine a continent where the boundaries on acceptable force are
shifting and the distinction between violence by the state and against the state is
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not always clear. The case studies are drawn from field research conducted in
Guinea-Bissau, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Africa, and Zimbabwe.
Becker, Heike
2003 The Least Sexist Society? Perspectives on Gender, Change and Violence among
Southern African San. Journal of Southern African Studies 29(1): 5-23.
This article refutes essentialist popular and academic discourses revolving around
the presumption of primordial gender equality and harmony among the San of
southern Africa. These discourses continue to ignore the devastating gendered
consequences of land and cultural dispossession, poverty, and the large-scale
militarization of the San. The discussion focuses on contemporary gender-based
violence among San communities against the background of those socioeconomic, political, and cultural influences that have fundamentally altered
gender relations among southern African San. The central argument presented is
that, relatively recently, and as a result of specific social and historical
circumstances, distinct and hierarchically organized perceptions of ‘men’ and
‘women’ have begun to establish themselves to varying degrees among southern
African San communities. It is argued that violence between San men and women
has been reproduced and exacerbated by the San people's re-appropriation of
gender as a significant social category, which is, however, highly ambiguous and
contradictory. The comparative analysis employed in this paper draws on recent
field research among three major communities of San, at Schmidts-drift in the
Northern Cape (South Africa), Ghanzi district in western Botswana, and
Tsumkwe West, the area formerly known as 'Western Bushmanland', in northeastern Namibia. In conclusion, the paper takes up again the cultural discourse of
'traditional' gender equality and harmony, and asks how this, within the wider
context of contemporary cultural reclamation, may become a strategic, although
contested, tool to address contemporary gender concerns among San people.
Beinart, William
1992 Introduction: Political and Collective Violence in Southern African
Historiography. Journal of Southern African Studies 18(3): 455-486.
Violent conflict, though by no means unique to southern Africa, has been central
in its modern history. It is very difficult to write about the region in the nineteenth
century without constant reference to wars, conquest, and violence. Recent
conflicts have put violence high on the political and academic agenda. Whereas
guerrilla struggle was the weapon of liberation movements up to the late 1970s, it
subsequently became that of counter-revolution. Intellectuals have responded
rapidly to these developments, a testament to the fertility of academic production
on the region. Nor have they, by and large, dodged the difficult questions. It is not
only the wars of liberation, the rise of Renamo, and South Africa’s militarization
which have been explored. The intensity of civil conflict and the nexus of
violence within or between African communities have also become important
questions for explanation. Academics have explicitly pursued these issues as part
of the ideological work necessary to counter the colonial notion of the intrinsic
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violence of ‘tribes’. An increasing volume of literature displays direct concern not
only with the causes of conflict, but with violence itself.
Boonzaier, Floretta and Cheryl De La Rey
2003 ‘He’s a Man, and I’m a Woman’: Cultural Constructions of Masculinity and
Femininity in South African Women’s Narratives of Violence. Violence Against
Women 9(8): 1003-1029.
In South Africa, woman abuse is a pervasive social problem. This article explores
how abused women give meaning to their experiences. Narrative interviews were
used to investigate 15 women's experiences of violence from their partners. In
their narratives, women constructed particular gendered identities, which reflected
contradictory and ambiguous subjective experiences. Meanings women attached
to their experiences of abuse were filtered through the particular social context—
characterized by poverty and deprivation—within which their experiences
occurred. Women's naming of the violence was linked to broader sociocultural
mechanisms that construct woman abuse as a social problem in South Africa.
Booyens, K., A. Louw-Hesselink, and P. Mashabela
2004 Male Rape in Prison: An Overview. Acta Criminologica 17(3): 1-13.
Correctional facilities are high-risk settings for the sexual victimization of
prisoners, especially for males. Many legal jurisdictions do not recognize a crime
of rape against a male victim, but instead use terms such as “forcible sodomy” or
“child abuse”. Male-on-male rape in men’s correctional facilities remains an
ignored crime problem within the larger society. The experience of being raped
can cause a man to develop anxiety disorders, depression, post-traumatic stress
disorders, and suicide ideation and action. When a rape victim is eventually
released from prison he is more likely filled with a tremendous amount of rage
and studies have shown that victims become predators in the general society.
Borer, Tristan Anne
2009 Gendered War and Gendered Peace: Truth Commissions and Postconflict Gender
Violence: Lessons from South Africa. Violence Against Women 15(10): 11691193.
That war is profoundly gendered has long been recognized by feminist
international relations scholars. What is less recognized is that the postwar period
is equally gendered. Currently undertheorized is how truth-seeking exercises in
the aftermath of conflict should respond to this fact. What happens to women
victims of war violence? The difficulties of foregrounding gendered wartime
violence in truth telling are illustrated by the South African Truth and
Reconciliation Commission. This article explores some consequences of the
failure to uncover gendered truth, including its impact on the government’s
reparations policy, and continued “peacetime” violence perpetrated against
women in South Africa.
Breckenridge, Keith
4
1998
The Allure of Violence: Men, Race and Masculinity on the South African
Goldmines, 1900-1950. Journal of Southern African Studies 24(4): 669-693.
In the history of the modern industrial world the Witwatersrand stands out in four
key respects: first, the size of the workforce which grew from around 200,000
men in 1910 to over 400,000 in 1940; second, the longevity of an industry that
has continued almost uninterrupted for well over a century; third, its geographical
concentration; and fourth, its exclusively male demographic character. All four of
these features suggest that we need to pay very close attention to an important
question: What kinds of masculinities, to use Connell's term, were forged on the
South African gold mines? A succinct answer does spring to mind. The gold
mines fashioned explicitly racial masculinities and an intensely monitored legal,
economic, and geographical boundary between them. Between 1900 and 1950 and
probably for some time thereafter, the definitive encounter between white and
black men in South Africa was underground on the gold mines. The evidence that
we have on the relationship suggests that it was characterized by high levels of
personal violence. This article explores worker relationships, and argues that the
reason that violence was so common on the mines was that both black and white
men celebrated the capacity for personal violence as a key element of masculinity.
Brod, Harry and Michael Kaufman (Eds.)
1994 Theorizing Masculinities. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
A new field of inquiry and growing interdisciplinary area, men's studies, is just
now beginning to develop its own distinctive methodologies and perspectives as
demonstrated in the pages of Theorizing Masculinities. This first major
compilation of new theoretical work on men begins by presenting ideas borrowed
from the disciplines that have fostered the study of masculinities: sociology,
psychoanalysis, ethnography, and inequality. The following chapters explore
many issues central to the study of men such as power, ethnicity, feminism, and
homophobia. The contributors also provide theoretical explanations of some of
the institutions most closely identified with men, such as the military, sports, and
the men's movement. The contributors to this volume come from disciplines as
diverse as sociology, political science, industrial relations, philosophy, education,
anthropology, gender studies, and literature. Together, they make this benchmark
volume the guiding set of theories on masculinities. Theorizing Masculinities is a
comprehensive volume that will appeal to a wide range of students and scholars,
especially those interested in gender, sociology, social theory, family studies,
counseling, and psychology.
Brown, Jill, James Sorrell, and Marcela Raffaelli
2005 An Exploratory Study of Constructions of Masculinity, Sexuality and HIV/AIDS
in Namibia, South Africa. Culture, Health & Sexuality 7(6): 585-598.
The goal of the current study was to explore notions of masculinity and their
linkages to HIV/AIDS among Owambo men and women in Namibia, where an
estimated one-fifth of 15-49 year-olds have acquired HIV. Thirteen open-ended
interviews and three focus groups were conducted with 50 male and female
participants aged 19-50 in rural and urban Namibia. Qualitative analysis revealed
5
six central themes: the evolving meanings of masculinity, power dynamics
between men and women, women as active agents, the tension between formal
and informal education and HIV transmission, alcohol and masculinity, and the
blending of masculinity and explanations of HIV and AIDS. The findings suggest
both direct and indirect linkages between notions of masculinity and AIDS, and
highlight the need for prevention efforts that focus on providing alternative
avenues for attaining culturally recognized markers of masculinity.
Campbell, Catherine
1992 Learning to Kill? Masculinity, the Family and Violence in Natal.
Journal of Southern African Studies 18(3): 614-628.
Analyses of South African violence have failed to take explicit account of the fact
that the conflict has almost always taken the form of men fighting men. The aim
of this paper is to point to a crisis in masculinity amongst working-class African
men, and to suggest that this forms a key dimension of explanation for the
massive upsurge in violence in the recent past. Political analysts concerned with
bringing an end to the violence cannot afford to ignore its gendered dimensions.
The paper elaborates on three points: that there is a crisis of African masculinity;
that violence is one of the compensatory mechanisms whereby men have sought
to reassert their masculinity in the face of this crisis; and that it is within the
family that men learn to be violent.
———
1997
Migrancy, Masculine Identities and AIDS: The Psycho-Social Context of HIV
Transmission on the South African Gold Mines. Social Science and Medicine
45(2): 273-281.
Levels of HIV infection are particularly high amongst migrant workers in subSaharan Africa. This paper presents a case study of one such vulnerable group of
migrants—underground workers on the South African gold mines—and
highlights the psycho-social context of HIV transmission in the mining setting.
On the assumption that social identities serve as an important influence on
peoples’ sexual behavior, the study examines the way in which miners construct
their social identities within the parameters of their particular living and working
conditions. It also identifies some of the key narratives used by miners to make
sense of their experience in the realms of health, ill-health, HIV, and sexuality.
Masculinity emerged as a leading narrative in informants’ accounts of their
working life, health, and sexuality, and the paper examines the way in which the
construction of masculine identities renders miners particularly vulnerable to
HIV. The implications of these findings for HIV educational interventions are
discussed.
Choi, Susanne Y.P. and Kwok-Fai Ting
2008 Wife Beating in South Africa: An Imbalance of Resources and Power. Journal of
Interpersonal Violence 23(6): 834-852.
This article develops an imbalance theory to explain physical violence against
women in intimate relationships in South Africa. The theory proposes four
6
typologies: dependence, compensation, submission, and transgression, through
which imbalances in resource contribution and power distribution between
spouses are hypothesized to contribute to violence. The dependence hypothesis
suggests that economic dependence of the wife will lead to more violence. The
compensation hypothesis argues that the husband will use force to compensate for
his inability to live up to the male-provider norm. The submission hypothesis
suggests that violence will increase due to the submission of women in maledominated families. Finally, the transgression hypothesis argues that men in
female-dominated families will use force to punish their wives for supposedly
transgressing the gender norm of male dominance. Empirical evidence provided
some support for the dependence, submission, and transgression hypotheses.
Cleaver, Francis
2002 Masculinities Matter! Men, Gender and Development. New York: Zed Books.
Men appear to be missing from much gender and development policy, but many
emerging critiques suggest the need to pay more attention to understanding men
and masculinities, and to analyzing the social relationships between men and
women. This book considers the case for a focus on men in gender and
development, which requires us to reconsider some of the theories and concepts
which underlie policies. It includes arguments based on equality and social
justice, the specific gendered vulnerabilities of men, the emergence of a crisis of
masculinity, and the need to include men in development as partners for strategic
change.
Connell, R.W.
2000 The Men and the Boys. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Questions about men and boys have aroused remarkable media attention and
public interest in recent years. But what have we learned about masculinity, and
where is our thinking on the subject headed? In this book, Connell continues his
pioneering work by taking the next step in understanding the dynamics of
contemporary masculinity: incorporating the international dimension. Through a
discussion of masculinity and globalization, this book links theory with case
studies to point us toward change. This book looks at a range of intriguing and
controversial subjects, including the question of sex between men, men’s bodies
and health, education, the prevention of violence, and much more. It includes the
voices of many men, both straight and gay, in a series of life histories. As he
reveals the price men and boys across cultures pay for patriarchy, Connell makes
a persuasive case for men to change their conduct in order to create a more
cooperative and peaceful world.
———
2002
Masculinities. 2nd ed. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
This is revised edition of Connell’s groundbreaking text, which has become a
classic work on the nature and construction of masculine identity. In its first
edition, it provided one of the most important voices in feminist scholarship by
men. Connell argued that there is no such thing as a single concept of masculinity,
7
but that many different masculinities exist, each associated with different
positions of power. In a world in which gender order continues to extend privilege
to men over women, but that also raises difficult issues for men and boys,
Connell’s account is more pertinent than ever. In the new edition, Connell
discusses the development of masculinity studies in the ten years since the book’s
initial publication. He explores global gender relations, new theories, and
practical uses of masculinity research. Looking to the future, the new concluding
chapter addresses the politics of masculinities, and the implications of masculinity
research as a way of understanding current world issues.
Cornwall, Andrea
1997 Men, Masculinity and Gender in Development. Gender and Development 5(2): 813.
This article focuses on the implications of recent work in feminist theory, and on
questions of masculinity, stressing the need to take account of the complex and
variable nature of gender identities, and to work with men on exploring the
constraints of dominant models of masculinity. Gender and Development (GAD)
initiatives have consistently been focused exclusively on women, in the attempt to
involve women as equals. However, this can have detrimental impacts on males
since it fails to include them in the discussion of total gender equality. It is noted
that the link between men and power differs between cultures, and while some
men have and use power (most notably over women), not all people in power are
men.
Cornwall, Andrea
2000 Missing Men? Reflections on Men, Masculinities and Gender in GAD. IDS
Bulletin 31(2): 18-27.
This article explores the implications of missing men for Gender and
Development (GAD). Men, in all their diversity, are largely missing from
representations of gender issues and gender relations in GAD. Mainstream
development purveys its own set of stereotypical images of men, serving equally
to miss the variety of men who occupy other, more marginal, positions in
households and communities. Men remain residual and are often missing from
institutionalized efforts to tackle gender inequity. Portrayed and engaged with
only in relation to women, men are presumed to be powerful and are represented
as problematic obstacles to equitable development. Men’s experiences of
powerlessness remain outside the frame of GAD, so threatening is the idea of the
marginal man. Amidst widespread agreement that changing men, as well as
women, is crucial if GAD is to make a difference, new strategies are needed. This
article suggests that rather than simply ‘bringing men in’, the issues raised by
reflecting on men, masculinities, and gender in GAD require a more radical
questioning of the analytical categories used in GAD, and a revised politics of
engagement.
Dangor, Zubeda, LeeAnn Hoff, and Renae Scott
8
1998
Woman Abuse in South Africa: An Exploratory Study. Violence Against Women
4(2): 125-152.
This exploratory study addresses the issue of woman abuse in South Africa and
the resources for victimized women and children, or their absence. It provides
documentation for the expansion of social, health, and legal services on behalf of
this at-risk population. The study affirms the need for national survey data and indepth research with abused women themselves to obtain a fuller picture of the
personal, familial, and societal costs of violence against women. An unvarnished
acknowledgment of domestic violence and its physical, emotional, and social toll
on community stability and health is integral to the new South Africa's pursuit of
political and economic reform.
Daphne, Jeremy
1998 A New Masculine Identity: Gender Awareness Raising for Men. Agenda 37: 2429.
The author reports on the Gender Education and Training Network (GETNET)
training initiative to build men’s gender awareness, noting the importance of
developing the vision of ‘a new man’ in South Africa. GETNET, conceptualized
in 1996, is an independent, non-profit organization that provides an education,
training, and consultancy service on gender issues. Its activities include gender
awareness raising among women and men, training of gender coordinators, and
gender mainstreaming in organizational change. It originally strived to play an
active role in the equalization of power relations between women and men by
placing special emphasis on women’s empowerment, but has now introduced
gender awareness training programs exclusively for men. This short article also
evaluates the programs that serve the male population, identifying some of the
principal debates and issues raised by men at the workshops and discusses their
implications.
Datta, Kavita
2004 A Coming of Age? Re-conceptualizing Gender and Development in Urban
Botswana. Journal of Southern African Studies 30(2): 251-268.
Feminist research has debated whether Gender and Development (GAD)
discourse should be re-conceptualized to include both women and men as
gendered beings. While the arguments for and against are now fairly well
established in the theoretical realm, empirically grounded work that has explored
the sheer complexity of integrating men into what has largely been a women-only
discourse is much more recent. Drawing upon in-depth interviews, this article
explores the case for the inclusion of men in localized GAD discourse, policies,
and programs. The research evidence presented is contradictory, suggesting both
the potential for a marginalization of women’s rights if men are embraced, and the
necessity of integrating men so as to further the struggle to achieve gender
equality. The article concludes by arguing that, while the case for the reconceptualization of GAD may not be clear cut in Botswana, there is a need to
start to think about how male identities can be problematized and how men can be
usefully included into GAD studies.
9
Delius, Peter and Clive Glaser
2002 Sexual Socialization in South Africa: A Historical Perspective. African Studies
61(1): 27–54.
Dunne, M., S. Humphreys, and F. Leach
2006 Gender Violence in Schools in the Developing World. Gender and Education
18(1): 75–98.
This paper explores gender violence in schools in what is commonly known as the
‘developing world’ through a review of recent research. Violence in the school
setting has only recently emerged as a widespread and serious phenomenon in
these countries, with the consequence that our knowledge and understanding of it
is embryonic: much of it remains invisible or unrecognized. The authors use
theories of gender/sexual relations to provide a more coherent understanding of
the issues. They start by clarifying the purposes and the broad position adopted in
writing this paper. Then, they trace the conceptual connections between
gender/sexual relations and gender violence in schools, acknowledging the
importance of locating understanding of the phenomena within the context of the
school’s culture, its structures, and processes. They organize the review using two
overlapping categories: implicit gender violence, which relates to the everyday
institutional structures and practices, and explicit gender violence, which relates to
more overtly sexualized encounters. Both categories cover gender violence
perpetrated by students on other students, by teachers on students, and by students
on teachers. In the final section, the theoretical connections (and distinctions)
generated by the research allow for a critical overview of the strategies that have
been used to address the problem to date.
El-Bushra, Judy and Eugenia Piza Lopez
1993 Gender-Related Violence: Its Scope and Relevance. Gender and Development
1(2): 1-9.
The purpose of this paper is to sketch out the parameters of this broad and
complex subject, and to identify policy issues for further consideration. Violence
– which is defined as an assault on a person’s physical and mental integrity – is an
underlying feature of all societies, an undercurrent running through social
interaction at many different levels. How a society chooses to control the violence
inherent in it reflects the value it places on mutual respect and tolerance of
difference, and on human rights, democracy, and good governance. Though some
countries may have more successful records than others in this respect, gender
violence is a worldwide and ever-present phenomenon against which eternal
vigilance is necessary. Gender-related violence is defined as violence which
embodies the power imbalances inherent in patriarchal society. Though it is not
necessarily carried out by men against women, this is overwhelmingly the form it
takes
Epprecht, Marc
10
1998
———
2005
The ‘Unsaying’ of Indigenous Homosexualities in Zimbabwe: Mapping a
Blindspot in an African Masculinity. Journal of Southern African Studies 24(4):
631-651.
Many black Zimbabweans believe that homosexuality was introduced to the
country by white settlers and is now mainly propagated by ‘the West’. The denial
of indigenous homosexual behaviors and identities is often so strong that critics
have been quick with accusations of homophobia. Yet those critics unfairly
impose a rather crude and ultimately unhelpful analysis. Without denying that
violent forms of homophobia do exist in Zimbabwe, the invisibility of indigenous
homosexuality has more complex origins. This article examines the many,
overlapping discourses that are constructed into the dominant ideology of
masculinity and that contrive to ‘unsay’ indigenous male-to-male sexualities. It
seeks in that way to gain insight into the over determination of assertively
masculinist behavior among Zimbabwean men today. It also draws lessons for
researchers on the importance of interrogating the silences around masculinity.
Black Skin, ‘Cowboy’ Masculinity: A Genealogy of Homophobia in the African
Nationalist Movement in Zimbabwe to 1983. Culture, Health & Sexuality 7(3):
253-266.
This paper examines the intellectual and social origins of racialist homophobia in
contemporary Zimbabwean political discourse, exemplified by President Robert
Mugabe’s anti-homosexual speeches since the mid-1990s. It challenges the
notions that such homophobia is either essential to African patriarchy or simple
political opportunism. Tracing overt expressions of intolerance towards malemale sexuality back to the colonial period, it focuses on ways in which notions of
appropriate, respectable, exclusive heterosexuality within the ‘cowboy’ culture of
White Southern Rhodesia trickled into, or were interpreted in, the African
nationalist movement. It concludes that understanding this history could improve
efforts to address concerns around sexual health in Zimbabwe and elsewhere in
the region, particularly silences around same-sex sexuality in HIV/AIDS
education and prevention.
Erlank, Natasha
2003 Gendering Commonality: African Men and the 1883 Commission on Native Law
and Custom. Journal of Southern African Studies 29(4): 937-953.
Towards the end of the nineteenth century, the Cape Colonial government
attempted to formalize African law and custom within its native territories. This
process, particularly apparent in the Commission on Native Law and Custom
(1878-1883), involved much discussion between colonial representatives and
African men in the Eastern Cape about the origins, utility, and worth of customs
and practices such as initiation, lobola (bridewealth), and polygamy. Particular
areas of concern for both groups were the gender relations and sexual codes that
existed in Xhosa-speaking society. The Commissioners viewed practices such as
polygamy as troublesome, retrogressive, and oppressive to women. Xhosa, Fingo,
and Thembu men were concerned, on the contrary, to assert the validity and worth
11
of such practices. One noticeable change in African attitudes to gender relations
concerned the way in which African men were beginning to view female sexual
activity in less forgiving terms. In a context in which much of the information
sought and testimony received concerned sex and gender codes, discussion
around sex framed a metanarrative more diffusely concerned with racial
differences.
Fox, Ashley M. et al.
2007 In Their Own Voices: A Qualitative Study of Women’s Risk for Intimate Partner
Violence and HIV in South Africa. Violence Against Women 13(6): 583-602.
This study qualitatively examines the intersections of risk for intimate partner
violence (IPV) and HIV infection in South Africa. Eighteen women seeking
services for relationship violence were asked semi-structured questions regarding
their abusive experiences and HIV risk. Participants had experienced myriad
forms of abuse, which reinforced each other to create a climate that sustained
abuse and multiplied HIV risk. Male partners having multiple concurrent sexual
relationships, and poor relationship communication compounded female
vulnerability to HIV and abuse. A social environment of silence, male power, and
economic constraints enabled abuse to continue. “Breaking the silence” and
women’s empowerment were suggested solutions.
Garcia-Moreno, Claudia
2001 The World Health Organization Addressing Violence Against Women.
Development 44(3): 129-132.
This article describes the approach of the World Health Organization (WHO)
towards violence against women as a major public health issue. The author
explains how the focus of WHO’s work is on building the knowledge base for
policy and action, identifying the role of the health sector in the prevention of
violence against women, and the provision of care for those experiencing abuse.
Gear, Sasha
2005
Rules of Engagement: Structuring Sex and Damage in Men’s Prisons and
Beyond. Culture, Health & Sexuality 7(3): 195-208.
This paper analyses data from a recent study of ex-prisoners and prisoners in
Gauteng Province, South Africa, to consider the moral economy established by
hegemonic inmate culture in which sexual interactions are negotiated. It argues
that while this system is based on outside norms of heterosexism, ruptures with
these norms occur. Male prison populations are rearranged into gendered
categories through intricate inmate rituals, causing dramatic breaks in the ways
that some prisoners are understood by others and themselves. The rituals and rules
involved in the constructions appear to be unfamiliar from an ‘outside’
perspective, but have roots beyond prison walls. Similarly, the gendered positions
generated are distinct from those they imitate, but also emerge in relation to them,
beyond mere imitation. Even as new structures of identity emerge, breaks with the
outside are never total.
12
———
2007
Behind the Bars of Masculinity: Male Rape and Homophobia in and about South
African Men’s Prisons. Sexualities 10(2): 209-227.
This article explores the dynamics and layers of discourse surrounding sex, sexual
violence, and coercion in South Africa’s men’s prisons. Violence in prison, most
of which goes unrecorded, is ritualized and fundamental in establishing inmate
identities and hierarchies. Male rape, perhaps the most severely under-reported, is
one of many forms of assault occurring (predominantly) between prisoners.
Drawing on interviews with (ex)prisoners, together with related media coverage,
the author shows how in dominant discourses on prison sex and sexual violence, a
blurring occurs between ‘homosexuality’ and ‘male rape’. Consequently,
inclusive understandings of diverse sexualities are negated and sexual violence in
prison is denied. The article traces how powerful discourses on gender and
sexuality make invisible the violence of male rape, and simultaneously demonize
same-sex desire behind bars. Moreover, the author considers the embryonic
discourses that challenge hegemonic understandings, arguing that they have not
yet adequately succeeded in producing more accepting understandings of male
sexuality or male victimization.
Gibson, Diana and Anita Hardon (Eds.)
2005 Rethinking Masculinities, Violence, and AIDS. Amsterdam: Het Spinhuis.
The essays collected in this book resonate with the ways in which men are both
constructed and behave as gendered beings (i.e., in relations with other men,
women, and children). They also address the more recent focus on issues of
power and masculinity in relation to violence, unsafe sex, and exposure to
sexually transmitted infections and HIV/AIDS. The authors examine the role of
power and violence in the construction and practices of masculinity in various
socio-cultural settings, and across age groups and class differences. There are a
variety of chapters that focus on countries in Africa, with five devoted exclusively
to South Africa. These chapters largely deal with the construction of men and
boys as perpetrators, the multi-cultural forms of masculinity that exist within the
country, and the dominant ways that manhood is performed. Additionally, each
chapter contains a component that evaluates the HIV/AIDS pandemic in relation
to gendered identities and behaviors.
Chapters:
“Masculinities in South Africa: A Critical Review of Contemporary
Literature on Men’s Sexuality,” by Tamara Shefer, et al
“The Practice of Masculinity in Soweto Shebeens: Implications for Safe
Sex,” by Sakhumzi Mfecane, et al
“Some Notions of Masculinity in Manenberg, Capt Town: The Gangster
and the Respectable Male,” by Heidi Sauls; and
“Gender and Violence in a Cape Town Township,” by Diana Gibson, Ann
Dinan, and George McCall
Glaser, Clive
13
1998
Swines, Hazels and the Dirty Dozen: Masculinity, Territoriality and the
Youth Gangs of Soweto, 1960-1976. Journal of Southern African
Studies 24(4): 719-737.
During the 1960s and early 1970s, the youth gangs of Soweto, like their
predecessors throughout the Witwatersrand in the 1940s and 1950s, developed a
sense of masculine identity intimately linked to their territories. There was a great
deal of cultural continuity between these exclusively male urban gangs and rural
age grades: groups of male adolescents separated off from established households
to experiment with their sexuality, hone their fighting skills, and assert their
independence. The social mobility of most city-bred black youths, however, was
blocked and much of their masculine dignity was invested in their ability to
dominate their local streets. Gang identity depended on an overlap of personal and
spatial familiarity, which took time to develop. Gangs, therefore, usually emerged
in fairly settled neighborhoods. While there was relative continuity in gang
formation in the older parts of Soweto, gangs took longer to cohere in the newly
resettled areas.
Goldblatt, Beth and Shelia Meintjes
1997 Dealing with the Aftermath: Sexual Violence and the Truth and Reconciliation
Commission. Agenda 36: 7-18.
While thousands of people have faced the Truth and Reconciliation Commission
(TRC) to tell stories of human rights violation under Apartheid, many of the
stories of violence against women have remained untold. In order to rebuild South
African society as one based on human rights and justice, survivors of sexual
violence need to tell their experiences. This article examines the role of the TRC
in dealing with the issue of sexual violence against women and the evidence that
did and did not emerge. It then tries to explore the relationship between political
and other sexual violence, and the relationship between public and private
violence, leading to a preliminary understanding of the gendered nature of South
African society both during and in the aftermath of apartheid. Finally, it proposes
certain reparation measures as the means to ensure positive social reconstruction.
Govender, Michelle
2003 Domestic Violence: Is South Africa Meeting Its Obligations in Terms of the
Women’s Convention? South African Journal on Human Rights 19(4): 663-678.
Violent crime in South Africa is at an unprecedented rate, with women and girls
at the receiving end of much of the crime. There is a danger that the efforts to
address such violence against women will be swallowed up by the larger struggle
against violence in society in general. This article examines reasons why, despite
state action, gender based violence is South Africa is regarded as being amongst
the highest in the world. A key reason given to explain the occurrence of violence
is that efforts taken by the state, although directed specifically at reducing the
amount of gendered violence, have been rather ineffective in halting its
occurrence.
Gqola, Pumla Dineo
14
2007
Greig, Alan
2000
Hall, Steve
2002
How the ‘Cult of Femininity’ and Violent Masculinities Support Endemic Gender
Based Violence in Contemporary South Africa. African Identities 5(1): 111–24.
This essay draws on South African history in order to deepen understanding of the
high level of gender based violence in that country in the post-Apartheid era.
Demonstrating the limitations of current public discourses about gender, violence,
and sexuality, the author argues that events like the recent rape trial of former
national vice-president [now President] Jacob Zuma, are unsurprising. Rather,
such moments are enabled by the continuum through which masculinities and
femininities are thought and sanctioned in contemporary South Africa. The
patterns of complicity that allow for gender based violence require historicized
feminist undoing.
The Spectacle of Men Fighting. IDS Bulletin 31(2): 28-32.
The meaning of male violence should be a central concern of Gender and
Development (GAD) discourse and practice. Explanations of the nature, and
limits, of men’s responsibility for such violence increasingly center on their
socialization into a masculine identity. By counter-posing the ‘individual’ and the
‘social’, attention becomes fixed on identity as the surface that connects these two
realities on which is inscribed the masculinity of men. The task of responding to
the spectacle of men fighting then appears to be one of re-inscribing a new nonviolent masculine identity. This paper argues that GAD practitioners should be
wary of this kind of politics of identity. Focusing on identification as relation,
rather than identity as boundary, clarifies the violent politics of difference at the
heart of masculinity. Addressing violence means approaching a new politics of
difference. This is a politics of alliance and coalition, a transgressing of sectoral
and institutional boundaries in recognition of the common bases of oppression
and their plural manifestations in women’s and men’s lives. GAD can address the
politics of identification(s) by approaching questions of responsibility for and
complicity in male violence as personal-communal issues. Depending on what
they choose to fight for, the spectacle of men fighting can be a sight, and site, of
real political potency.
Daubing the Drudges of Fury: Men, Violence and the Piety of the ‘Hegemonic
Masculinity’ Thesis. Theoretical Criminology 6(1): 35-61.
A substantial body of empirical work suggests that young, economically
marginalized males are the most likely perpetrators and victims of serious
physical violence. Interpreting these findings in a historicized way that has been
neglected by the criminological discourses of the moment suggests that physical
violence has become an increasingly unsuccessful strategy in the quest for social
power in liberal-capitalist societies. Although it has been displaced by symbolic
violence as the principal domineering force in capitalism’s historical project,
physical violence has not been genuinely discouraged, but harnessed as a
specialist practice in a pseudo-pacification process. From this perspective,
violence has a complex relationship with liberal-capitalism. Can the concept of
15
‘hegemonic masculinity’ help criminology to deal with this complexity and
inform violence reduction strategies? This article argues that, in the context of
pseudo-pacification, the notion that violent males ‘rework the themes’ of an
institutionally powerful ‘hegemonic masculinity’ inverts and distorts the concept
of hegemony, which for Gramsci was the self-affirming cultural production of the
dominant political-economic class. Thus the concept of ‘hegemonic masculinity’
tends to downplay political economy and class power, which suggests that it is too
far removed from historical processes and material contexts to either justify the
use of the term hegemony itself or explain the striking social patterns of male
violence. This intellectual retreat is representative of a general political
evacuation of capitalism’s global socio- economic processes, a move that is
allowing sparsely regulated market forces to continue the economic insecurity,
specialist roles, and corresponding cultural forms that reproduce the traditional
male propensity to physical violence.
Hassim, Shireen
2009 Democracy’s Shadows: Sexual Rights and Gender Politics in the Rape Trial of
Jacob Zuma. African Studies 68(1): 57-77.
This article examines the implications of the trial of Jacob Zuma, former
President of the ANC and current President of South Africa, for sexual and gender
politics in South Africa. The article argues that a central, contested issue in public
debates on the trial was the relationship between public and private spheres in
society.
Hatty, Suzanne E.
2000 Masculinities, Violence and Culture. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
This book offers a post-modern analysis linking the contemporary social crisis of
masculine subjectivity and the law and order crisis over escalating violence. In
doing so it examines the major biological, psychological, sociological, and
anthropological theoretical models of masculinity and violence, and formulates an
integrated theoretical approach to the relationship between violence and
masculinity. In essence, the book focuses on violence as a gendered activity,
specifically masculine. Early chapters define and theorize both violence and
masculinity, and subsequent chapters focus on representations of violence and
masculinity in popular culture. Familiar but insightful examples from cartoons,
fiction, television, and the movies are used to illustrate the construction of
masculinity in popular culture as well as the range of images of violence that
dominate our senses.
Hearn, Jeff
2001
Men Stopping Men’s Violence to Women. Development 44(3): 85-89.
This article examines some of the major forms of organized responses men have
made to men’s violence against women in recent years. These include campaigns
against men’s violence, men’s programs for men who have been violent to
women, and national and international commitments against men’s violence to
women. The article also points to possible future organized responses by men.
16
Hirschowitz, R., Milner S. and Everatt, D. (Eds.)
1994 Growing Up in a Violent Society. In Creating a Future: Youth Policy for South
Africa, ed. D. Everatt. Johannesburg: Ravan Press.
Hunter, Mark
2005 Cultural Politics and Masculinities: Multiple-Partners in Historical Perspective in
KwaZulu-Natal. Culture, Health & Sexuality 7(4): 389-403.
Drawing from ethnographic, archival, and secondary research, this article
examines multiple-sexual partners from a historical perspective in KwaZuluNatal, a South Africa province where one in three people are thought to be HIV
positive. Research on masculinities, multiple-partners, and AIDS has been
predominantly directed towards the present day. This article stresses the
importance of unraveling the antecedents of contemporary masculinities,
particularly the gendered cultural politics through which they have been
produced. Arguing against dominant conceptions of African masculinity as being
innate or static, it charts the rise and fall of the isoka, the Zulu man with multiplesexual partners, over the last century. Showing how the isoka developed through
changing conditions occasioned by capitalism, migrant labor, and Christianity, it
contends that an important turning point took place during the 1970s, when high
unemployment threatened previous expressions of manliness, notably marriage,
setting up an independent household and becoming umnumzana (a household
head). The high value placed on men seeking multiple-partners increasingly filled
the void left by men’s inability to become men through previous means. Turning
to the contemporary period, the article argues that, shaken by the huge AIDS
deaths, men are betraying increasing doubts about the isoka masculinity.
Jewkes, Rachel
2001 Reflections on Gender Violence in the South African Public Health Agenda.
Development 44(3): 64-68.
The article discusses how gender has come to be a major concern of the health
sector, describing some of the key influences on the policy arena over the past
decade, which has contributed to gender based violence being incorporated into
public policy. The author discusses the activities within the health sector to
counter gender violence, as well as challenges and dilemmas which these pose.
Jewkes, Rachel, et al.
2002 Rape of Girls in South Africa. The Lancet 359(9303): 319-321.
Child rape violates human rights and causes immediate and long-term health
problems for the child. In the 1998 South Africa Demographic and Health Survey,
the authors assessed the frequency of rape in a nationally representative study of
11,735 women, aged 15-49 years. 153 of these women had been raped (forced or
persuaded to have sex against their will) before the age of 15 years. The results
show that younger women were significantly more likely to report rape than older
women. The largest group of perpetrators were school teachers. Their findings
17
suggest that child rape is becoming more common, and lend support to qualitative
research of sexual harassment of female students in schools in Africa.
Johnson, Catherine F.
2001 Strategies to End Gender Based Violence: The USAID Approach. Development
44(3): 125-128.
This article affirms that gender-based violence undermines development efforts in
such sectors as economic growth, HIV/AIDS, and child survival. Gender violence
is an enormous cost to society. The author advocates for a comprehensive,
multifaceted model to address the problem, including legal interventions, health
approaches, public awareness, and political will, illustrating this model with the
interventions of USAID.
Jones, Adam (Ed.)
2006 Men of the Global South: A Reader. London: Zed Books.
This collection highlights a population group which hardly figures in the literature
of gender and development. It describes men in all their complexity and
inconsistency: violent and non-violent, powerful and not powerful, straight and
not straight, maintainers of tradition and destroyers of it. Both potentially
controversial and uniquely insightful, it provides a rich new set of case-material
and conceptual tools for researchers and teachers. Particularly in the Global
South, in the face of the massive social challenges posed by globalization,
poverty, conflict, and climate change, this book argues that it is imperative that
we understand men better in order to support resolutions to these problems that
produce gender equality and social harmony.
———
2009
Gender Inclusive: Essays on Violence, Men, and Feminist International Relations.
New York: Routledge.
This volume offers a challenging and unconventional reinterpretation of gender
and mass violence. It consists of a compilation of essays and excerpts drawn from
nearly two decades of Adam Jones’s writing on gender and politics. This diverse
collection of essays explores vital issues surrounding ‘gendercide’ (genderselective mass killing), including: how gender shapes men and women as victims
and perpetrators of mass violence, including genocide; the range of genderselective atrocities inflicted upon males, especially the gendercidal killing of
civilian men of “battle age”; the victimization of women and girls worldwide,
including the structural forms of violence (“gendercidal institutions”) directed
against them; genocidal violence throughout modern history, with a particular
focus on the Balkans and Rwanda; and in-depth critiques of prevailing gender
framings in academic scholarship, mass media, and the policy sphere.
Joudrard, Sidney M.
1971 Some Lethal Aspects of the Male Sex Role. In The Transparent Self, ed. S.
Jourard. New York: D. Van Nostrand Company.
18
Kimmel, Michael S., Jeff R. Hearn, and Robert W. Connell (Eds.)
2004 Handbook of Studies on Men and Masculinities. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage
Publications.
This is an interdisciplinary and international culmination of the growth of men’s
studies that offers insight about future directions for the field. It provides a broad
view of masculinities primarily across the social sciences, with the inclusion of
important debates in some areas of the humanities and natural sciences. The
various approaches presented range across different disciplines, theoretical
perspectives, methodologies, and conceptualizations in relation to the topic of
men. It examines the construction of masculinities in four different frames: the
social organization of masculinities in their global and regional iterations; the
institutional reproduction and articulation of masculinities; the ways in which
masculinities are organized and practiced within a context of gender relations; and
the ways in which individual men express and understand their gendered
identities. The Handbook is organized in a way that moves from the larger global
and institutional articulations of masculinities, to the more intimate and personal
expressions.
Kynoch, Gary
2001 ‘A Man Among Men’: Gender, Identity and Power in South Africa’s Marashea
Gangs. Gender & History 13(2): 249-272.
This article explores gender and power relations in a South African criminal
society through an examination of the legend surrounding a prominent leader.
Tseule Tsilo achieved a great deal of notoriety in South Africa in the 1960s and
1970s. Tsilo’s legend lives on in the lore of the Marashea, the criminal
organization to which he belonged. However, rather than being embraced by the
entire Marashea, Tsilo is a hero only to men. The legend was created, and is
sustained, by men and for men, a discursive development that mirrors the
gendered nature of power within the Marashea.
Lambert, Helen and Kate Wood
2005 A Comparative Analysis of Communication About Sex, Health and Sexual Health
in India and South Africa: Implications for HIV Prevention. Culture, Health and
Sexuality 7(6): 527–541.
This paper provides a comparative analysis of modes of dialogue, non-verbal
communication, and embodied action relating to sex and health in two contrasting
countries, India and South Africa, which have the world’s two most heavily HIVaffected populations (in terms of numbers of people living with HIV). Drawing on
material derived from multiple studies, including ethnographic and other forms of
qualitative and multi-disciplinary research, the paper identifies commonalities as
well as differences in communication relating to sex and sexual health in these
diverse settings. The paper considers: first, how and by whom sex is and is not
talked about, in public discourse and private conversation; second, how sexual
intention and desire are communicated through indirect, non-verbal means in
everyday life; and third, how references to sexuality and the sexual body re-enter
within a more explicit set of indigenous discourses about health, such as semen
19
loss in India and womb ‘dirtiness’ in South Africa. The concluding section
reflects on the implications of a comparative analysis such as this for current
policy emphases on the importance of promoting verbal communication skills as
part of ‘life skills’ for HIV prevention.
Leach, Fiona
2003 Learning to be Violent: The Role of the School in Developing Adolescent
Gendered Behavior. Compare 33(3): 385-400.
The author examines the role of the school and the peer group culture in
constructing male and female identity among adolescents within the context of
high levels of gender violence, specifically in African countries.
Leach, Fiona and Claudia Mitchell
2006 Combating Gender Violence in and Around Schools. Staffordshire, England:
Trentham Books.
The book increases awareness and understanding of gender violence in school
settings and presents innovative strategies to address it. Many chapters focus on
participatory methodologies for working with young people on reducing violent
and abusive behavior in school, including through curriculum development and
teacher education. Other chapters deal with gender, youth, and sexuality in the
context of HIV/AIDS.
Lemon, Jennifer
1995 Masculinity in Crisis? Agenda 24: 61-71.
With the attempt to claim back their masculinity and to define their place within a
new South Africa, some men in have established groups where masculinity is
promoted and celebrated. The author notes the creation of the country’s first male
liberation movement, the South Africa Association of Men, and its tendency to be
anti-feminist, oppositional, and inflammatory. She outlines what a critical debate
on gender and sex should consist of in the reformation of the country.
Unfortunately, the question is being asked if at what point does this new
celebration of being a man come in conflict with gender equality and feminist
studies? While some male groups have identified with the feminist views of antiviolence, others seem to be in conflict with women and the fight for gender
equality for both sexes.
Lindsay, Lisa A. and Stephen Miescher (Eds.)
2003 Men and Masculinities in Modern Africa. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
This collection is the first to analyze the concepts and issues involved in exploring
African men and the constructions of masculinity in sub-Saharan Africa. Major
themes include men as gendered actors, the social construction of masculinity,
masculinity as a relational category, and hegemonic and subordinate
masculinities. This book challenges stereotypes of African men as savages,
patriarchs, or emasculated colonial victims. Essays establish the centrality of
gender to the social and political transformation of 20th-century Africa.
Chronologically and regionally diverse, the collection moves from the early
20
colonial period through the era of independence and includes local studies
throughout the continent, as well as the work of both junior and senior scholars.
Luyt, Russell
2005 The Male Attitude Norms Inventory – II: A Measure of Masculinity Ideology in
South Africa. Men and Masculinities 8(2): 208-229.
This article describes the development of the Male Attitude Norms Inventory-II
(MANI II), with empirical findings and theoretical debates contributing to the
development of a measure of South African masculinity ideology. Three hundred
and thirty-nine male participants, drawn from universities across greater Cape
Town, were included in the study. Exploratory factor analysis rendered a threefactor model of traditional masculinity and the MANI-II offers a contextually
sensitive and multidimensional measure of masculinities. Future research should
include a representative sample, establish test-retest reliability, and further
examine total and subscale construct validity.
Luyt, Russell and Don Foster
2001 Hegemonic Masculine Conceptualization in Gang Culture. South African
Journal of Psychology 31(3): 1-11.
This research sought to investigate the relationship between gang processes and
differing forms of masculine expression. Three hundred and sixteen male
participants, drawn from secondary schools within Cape Town, were included in
the study. These schools were in areas differentially characterized by gang
activity. The questionnaire included the newly devised Male Attitude Norm
Inventory designed to explore hegemonic conceptualizations of masculinity.
Factor analytic procedures rendered a three-factor model stressing the importance
of male toughness, success, and control. Through a series of t-tests for
independent samples, as well as supporting qualitative data, participants from
areas characterized by high gang activity were found to support these hegemonic
elements to a significantly greater extent.
MacPhail, Catherine
2003 Challenging Dominant Norms of Masculinity for HIV Prevention. African
Journal of AIDS Research 2(2): 141-149.
Within South Africa there is a growing HIV epidemic, particularly among young
heterosexual people. A recent report indicated that levels of HIV infection among
young people aged 15-24 years rests at 9.3%, although other studies in more
specific locations have shown levels to be higher. One of the best means of
developing successful and innovative HIV prevention programs for young people
is to enhance our understandings of youth sexuality and the manner in which
dominant norms contribute to the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. Social
norms of masculinity are particularly important in this regard, as the manner in
which ‘normal’ men are defined, such as through acquisition of multiple partners,
power over women, and negative attitudes towards condoms, are often in conflict
with the true emotional vulnerabilities of young men. Given the strong influence
of peer groups on young people and the belief that one of the solutions to
21
behavior change lies in peer renegotiation of dominant norms, there is the need to
begin to investigate young men who challenge dominant norms of masculinity. It
is in investigating their points of view that a platform for the deconstruction of
stereotypical masculinities and the reconstruction of new norms can be formed.
The paper begins to consider these counter-normative ideas by highlighting the
discussions of South African men, aged 13-25 years, in focus groups and in-depth
individual interviews conducted in Gauteng Province. It is apparent that among
this group there are young men challenging normative views of masculinity in a
manner that could be harnessed within HIV prevention initiatives.
Mager, Anne
1996 Sexuality, Fertility and Male Power. Agenda 28: 12-24.
In the mid-twentieth century, new ways for young men to define their masculinity
emerged, straying from the traditional views that classified a man based on his
rural homestead and herd of cattle. Instead, young men began constructing their
identities from a combination of factors, including inter-group rivalry, aggressive
behavior, and control over females. These new dimensions generated negative
consequences over time, resulting in violence, distrust, and insecurity that
permeated young men’s social groups and contributed construction of their gender
identity’s.
———
1997
Youth Organisation and the Construction of Masculine Identities in the Ciskei and
Transkei, 1945-1960. Journal of Southern African Studies 24(4): 653-667.
Organizations of Xhosa-speaking youth — predominantly boys and young men
— in the 1950s and 1960s were critical spaces for the construction of masculine
identities in rural Ciskei and Transkei. In the context of post-Second World War
industrialization, collapsing reserve agriculture, and apartheid rule, these
organizations were critical sites for filtering influences and fashioning values and
lifestyles. While boys and young men constantly reconstructed a distinction
between boyhood and manhood around the axis of circumcision, they reinvented
notions of masculinity in the shadow of decreasing prospects of establishing
themselves as men with rural homesteads and herds of cattle. Moreover, in the
absence of migrant fathers, youth organizations operated with considerable
autonomy in rural localities. Concomitantly, the terrain on which boys and young
men constructed their identities was shaped more by inter-group rivalry,
aggressive behavior, and control over girls than by generational conflict.
Maharaj, Pranitha
2000 Promoting Male Involvement in Reproductive Health. Agenda 44: 37-47.
Recent conferences have turned a focus on men’s involvement in the arenas of
responsible parenting, sexual and reproductive behavior, and prevention of
sexually transmitted disease, including HIV/AIDS awareness. All of these
measures also called for emphasis on the prevention of violence against women
and children. This article evaluates why increased attention needs to be placed on
men’s roles in these topics if change is expected to occur, especially considering
22
that men frequently hold much of the power in heterosexual relationships. The
author argues that the development of strategies for encouraging male
participation in reproductive health is essential to improving women’s health
status.
Mane, Purnima and Peter Aggleton
2001 Gender and HIV/AIDS: What Do Men have to Do with it? Current Sociology
49(6): 23-37.
The world is facing an unprecedented crisis as a result of HIV/AIDS. The global
epidemic is the most devastating in human history - shortening many lives and
affecting the economic and social structure of many countries. Central among the
factors influencing vulnerability to infection and its consequences are systems and
structures of gender. Dominant ideologies of gender influence how women and
men see themselves and the social relations into which they enter. While growing
attention is being given to the position of women in the epidemic, less attention
has been focused on men. This article explores the usefulness of concepts of
masculinity for our understanding of HIV/AIDS-related risk and vulnerability. It
examines the variable nature of masculinity, as well as its dominant, subordinate,
alternative, and oppositional forms, and how these impact on the vulnerabilities of
men in this epidemic. It highlights the necessity for a more balanced
understanding of gender as a set of structures created by, and affecting, both
women and men. Some strategies and options for change are also discussed.
McIlwaine, Cathy and Kavita Datta
2004 Engendered Youth? Youth, Gender and Sexualities in Urban Botswana. Gender,
Place and Culture 11(4): 483-512.
Age is now recognized as a significant social cleavage in research on youth in the
global South. Using participatory urban appraisal methodologies, this article
explores constructions of sexualities among urban youth in Botswana, a country
that is currently experiencing an HIV/AIDS epidemic and high levels of teenage
pregnancy. The authors argue that not only are young people sophisticated sexual
beings, but that there is a need to adopt more holistic approaches to examining
sexualities among them so as to appreciate that constructions of sexualities are
multi-faceted, highly diverse, and heavily gendered. This appreciation must then
be integrated into a multi-sectoral policy approach that moves beyond information
provision towards one that addresses changes in gender, cultural, and sexual
identities.
Meintjes, Louise
2004 Shoot the Sergeant, Shatter the Mountain: The Production of Masculinity in Zulu
Ngoma Song and Dance in Post-Apartheid South Africa. Ethnomusicology Forum
13(2): 173-201.
Maitse, Teboho
1998 Political Change, Rape, and Pornography in Post-Apartheid South Africa. Gender
and Development 6(3): 55-59.
23
The author argues that in post-apartheid South Africa, perceptions of what it
means to be a woman are changing. Men are finding it difficult to adapt to these
changes and, fuelled by the ready availability of pornography, are reacting with
increased rape and violence against women.
Moffett, Helen
2006 ‘These Women, They Force Us to Rape Them’: Rape as Narrative of Social
Control in Post-Apartheid South Africa. Journal of Southern African Studies
32(1): 129–144.
South Africa has the worst known figures for gender-based violence for a country
not at war. At least one in three South African women will be raped in her
lifetime. The rates of sexual violence against women and children, as well as the
signal failure of the criminal justice and health systems to curtail the crisis,
suggest an unacknowledged gender civil war. Yet narratives about rape continue
to be rewritten as stories about race, rather than gender. This stifles debate,
demonizes black men, hardens racial barriers, and greatly hampers both disclosure
and educational efforts. As an alternative to racially-inflected explanations, the
author argues that contemporary sexual violence in South Africa is fuelled by
justificatory narratives that are rooted in apartheid practices that legitimated
violence by the dominant group against the disempowered, not only in overtly
political arenas, but in social, informal, and domestic spaces. In South Africa,
gender rankings are maintained and women regulated through rape, the most
intimate form of violence. Thus, in post-apartheid, democratic South Africa,
sexual violence has become a socially endorsed punitive project for maintaining
patriarchal order. Men use rape to inscribe subordinate status on to an intimately
known ‘Other’ - women. This is generally and globally true of rape, but in the
case of South Africa, such activities draw on apartheid practices of control that
have permeated all sectors of society.
Mooney, Katie
1998 ‘Ducktails, Flick-knives and Pugnacity’: Subcultural and Hegemonic
Masculinities in South Africa, 1948-1960. Journal of Southern African Studies
24(4): 753-774.
The Ducktails were a white youth gang subculture which emerged within postSecond World War South Africa. They were rebellious, hedonistic, apolitical, and
displayed little respect for the law, education, or work. Collectively, their identity
was shaped by specific racial, class, and gender elements. Within gender studies,
femininity has been at the forefront, whereas investigations into masculinities
have rarely been featured. This article contributes towards a better understanding
of masculinity, and particularly white masculine identities within a historical
context. Particular attention is given to the way male members of the subculture
constructed, sustained, and practiced their masculinity. Specifically, this article
argues that Ducktail masculinity was not static or homogeneous, but was rather
multifarious, embracing characteristics such as image, territoriality, loyalty,
pugnacity, competitiveness, virility, and homophobia. This sets the context for an
exploration of the relationship of conformity, conflict, and control that emerged
24
between Ducktail masculinity and other more accepted and dominant
masculinities.
Moore, Henrietta L.
1994
Fantasies of Power and Fantasies of Identity: Gender, Race and Violence. In A
Passion for Difference: Essays in Anthropology and Gender, ed. Henrietta Moore,
49-70. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
The author examines the limitations of the theoretical languages used by
anthropologists and others to write about sex, gender, and sexuality. The book
begins by discussing recent feminist debates on the body and the notion of the
non-universal human subject. It then considers why anthropologists have
contributed relatively little to these debates, suggesting that this reflects the
history of anthropology’s conceptualization of “persons” or “selves” crossculturally. The author also pursues a series of related themes, including the links
between gender, identity, and violence; the construction of domestic space and its
relationship to bodily practices and the internalization of relations of difference;
and the links between the gender of the anthropologist and the writing of
anthropology. By developing a specific anthropological approach to feminist poststructuralist and psychoanalytic theory, the author demonstrates anthropology’s
contribution to current debates in feminist theory. Of specific interest is the
chapter listed in this entry.
Morrell, Robert
1997 Masculinity in South African History: Towards a Gendered Approach to the Past:
Colloquium Report. South African Historical Journal 37(1): 167-177.
———
1998
Gender and Education: The Place of Masculinity in South African Schools. South
African Journal of Education 18(4): 218–225.
———
1998a Introduction: The New Man? Agenda 37: 7-12.
With all of the changes occurring in South Africa in the past few decades, there
are opportunities to change the gender dimensions that have historically existed in
the country and persist even to this day. The author identifies how men can
remake themselves and move away from the many types of violence, criminal
activities, and abusive tendencies that are often used to label them and their
gender.
———
1998b Of Boys and Men: Masculinity and Gender in Southern African Studies.
Journal of Southern African Studies 24(4): 605-630.
Southern African historiography has become increasingly gender-sensitive in the
last decade. Primarily as a result of the impact of feminism in the world of work
and in universities, research on women has burgeoned. The inclusion of women in
the study of the past and the recognition of their agency has filled an important
25
gap, but also has made evident the corresponding absence in knowledge about
men. The dominance of men in the public record has obscured the fact that little is
known about masculinity. The socially constructed nature of masculinity is
widely acknowledged and it is this insight that needs to be applied to a study of
the region’s history. This article introduces readers to the inter-disciplinary work
on masculinity, reviews how research on gender in South Africa has handled
issues of men and masculinity, and then suggests how insights taken from Men’s
Studies might help to broaden gender analysis and enrich the study of the South
African past. In this article, a range of masculinities are identified. Colonialism
created new and transformed existing masculinities. Race and class featured
prominently in the configuration of these masculinities. Under colonialism
positions of domination and subordination were created along the lines of race,
bequeathing to the region the language of white men and black ‘boys’. The
particular trajectory of colonialism ended the political independence of the
indigenous polities and destroyed their economic independence, but the success of
the defeated polities in retaining possession of land and of the policies of
segregation and apartheid meant that key African institutions survived. These
were the basis for an African masculinity that in certain geographical and social
areas disputed hegemony with white masculinities.
——— (Ed.)
2001
Changing Men in Southern Africa. New York: Zed Books.
The political transition from apartheid to democracy disturbed the established
gender order of South Africa. This book looks at the way in which men, under
apartheid and in the transition period, responded to, were affected by, and
themselves contributed to the transitions in Southern Africa. Men in South Africa
are still dominant in the domestic and public realm, but masculinities have shifted,
and in many cases, become more inclusive. The book examines different forms of
masculinity, highlighting the importance of race and class.
———
2002
Men, Movements, and Gender Transformation in South Africa. The Journal of
Men’s Studies 10(3): 309-327.
South Africa is a country of movements, spectacularly in the 1980s and 1990s
when populist and nationalist movements were particularly active in the struggle
to overthrow apartheid. These were by and large militant groups of young black
men who had borne the brunt of state repression. Yet despite this, women
participated, though seldom in leadership positions other than in organizations
designed exclusively for women such as the ANC Women’s League. Elsewhere in
the continent, women have been particularly marginalized. Despite the fact that
many South African women are still denied a voice in domestic decision-making,
prevented from occupying leadership positions, and, in very general terms, underrepresented in the public sphere, they are in a substantially more powerful
position than their sisters elsewhere on the continent. Part of the reason for this is
the success of the women’s movement in the country. The political participation
of women in women’s only and mixed gender movements has as its corollary the
26
participation of men working together with women. The goals of such movements
vary a lot. Church and civic movements, which draw mixed gender participation,
for example, may have goals that range from support for existing patriarchal
relations to commitment to gender emancipatory practices. For the purposes of
this paper, it needs to be noted that some men work for gender justice in
movements not exclusively male and which therefore cannot be considered
strictly speaking as men’s movements.
Nagel, Joane
1998 Masculinity and Nationalism: Gender and Sexuality in the Making of Nations.
Ethnic and Racial Studies 21(2): 242-269.
This article explores the intimate historical and modern connection between
manhood and nationhood, including: the construction of patriotic manhood and
exalted motherhood as icons of nationalist ideology; through the designation of
gendered ‘places’ for men and women in national politics; through the domination
of masculine interests and ideology in nationalist movements; through the
interplay between masculine microcultures and nationalist ideology; through
sexualized militarism, including the construction of simultaneously over-sexed
and under-sexed ‘enemy’ men (rapists and wimps) and promiscuous ‘enemy’
women (sluts and whores). Three ‘puzzles’ are partially solved by exposing the
connection between masculinity and nationalism: why are many men so desperate
to defend masculine, monoracial, and heterosexual institutional preserves, such as
military organizations and academies; why do men go to war; and the ‘gender
gap’, that is, why do men and women appear to have very different goals and
agendas for the ‘nation’?
Nair, Sumati
2001 Violence Against Women: Initiatives in the 1990s. Development 44(3): 82-84.
This article looks at how the decade of the 1990s saw the women’s movement
making enormous inroads into the struggle against violence against women
(VAW). At different levels women have posed challenges to make visible the
issues of violence and abuse of women and to make public what had been held as
a private matter. Using the Women’s Global Network for Reproductive Rights
Newsletter as a source, the author shares some of the innovative ideas for analysis
or actions undertaken to fight VAW.
Niehaus, Isak
2000 Towards a Dubious Liberation: Masculinity, Sexuality and Power in South
African Lowveld Schools, 1953-1999. Journal of Southern African Studies 26(3):
387-407.
This article investigates how masculine sexuality featured as a political issue
during the liberation struggle in Impalahoek, a village on the South African
lowveld. The starting point of the analysis is the repressive regime in primary and
high schools during the period of Bantu Education, from 1953 to 1986. The
author shows that whilst teachers strictly prohibited and harshly punished all
forms of sexuality between students, male teachers freely engaged in sexual
27
liaisons with schoolgirls. The revolt by Comrades in the schools between 1986
and 1992 was inspired in part by students’ discontent about sexuality. Comrades
demanded an end to corporal punishment, expelled teachers who engaged in sex
with schoolgirls, and celebrated their own sexual virility in a local campaign to
‘build soldiers’. Since 1994, the management of sexuality by the African National
Congress (ANC)-led government has not inaugurated sexual liberation. Rather,
sex education and new medical discourses about sexuality in the era of AIDS
have generated new forms of surveillance and contestation. Such historical
experiences inform the links between democratization and changing notions of
sexuality in South Africa.
Odendal, Willem
2001 The Men Against Violence Against Women Movement in Namibia. Development
44(3): 90-93.
This article illustrates the experience of The Men Against Violence Against
Women Campaign in Namibia, initiated by concerned Namibian men to combat
violence against women (VAW). The National Conference on Men Against
Violence Against Women in Namibia, held in February 2000, brought men from
all walks of life in Namibia together to develop strategies of how men in Namibia
can sensitize fellow men to the problem of VAW. The Namibian Men for Change
(NAMEC) was brought to life after the National Conference. NAMEC functions
as an awareness-raising group among young adult men on issues such as
masculinity, relationships, parenthood, sexual abuse, and the creation of a nonviolent culture in Namibia. Despite its lack of financial resources, NAMEC has
already achieved a significant degree of awareness-raising during its brief period
of existence. The organization is currently active in most of Namibia, where its
members visit schools and organize a range of forums for discussions amongst
men.
O'Sullivan, Lucia F., et al.
2006 Gender Dynamics in the Primary Sexual Relationships of Young Rural South
African Women and Men. Culture, Health and Sexuality 8(2): 99–113.
A substantial body of South African research describes the importance of gender
dynamics within sexual relationships as factors underlying HIV risk, yet we know
little about these factors among young adults—a group at exceptionally high risk
of infection. The authors primary objective was to explore the ways that young
adult men and women interpret and enact gender roles within their established
primary partnerships, and how these dynamics influence sexual behavior in
relation to HIV risk. They employed script theory to frame their analysis of the
dynamics of gender. Fifty students (25 women, 25 men) at secondary schools in a
rural district of KwaZulu/Natal, South Africa completed in-depth interviews about
sexual interactions with their primary partner. While many participants indicated
that the standards of sexual conduct within relationships reflect dominant gender
role norms, their findings indicate that there are important variations in these roles
with some male and female respondents accepting and reinforcing the rights of
women to determine the nature of sexual interactions. Efforts aimed at improving
28
acceptance and adoption of alternative scripts for women and men may help to
broaden young people’s repertoire of HIV prevention options.
Outwater, Anne, Naeema Abrahams, and Jacquelyn C. Campbell
2005 Women in South Africa: Intentional Violence and HIV/AIDS: Intersections and
Prevention. Journal of Black Studies 35(4): 135-154.
In South Africa, violence has become normative and, to a large extent, accepted
rather than challenged. Unusual for sub-Saharan Africa, there is a strong national
research institute and rigorous data-based scientific literature describing the
situation. Much of the research has focused on violence against women. This
article reviews the intersection of HIV/AIDS and violence in the lives of women
in South Africa. The evidence for the need for positive change is solid. The
potential for positive change in South Africa is also very strong. There are
suggestions that an African renaissance based on the principle of ubuntu has
already begun on national, community, family, and individual levels. If so, it can
lead the way to a society with decreased levels of violence and HIV transmission.
Ouzgane, Lahoucine and Robert Morrell (Eds.)
2005
African Masculinities: Men in Africa from the Late Nineteenth Century To
Present. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
While masculinity studies enjoy considerable growth in the West, there is very
little analysis of African masculinities. This volume explores what it means for an
African to be masculine and how male identity is shaped by cultural forces. The
editors believe that to tackle the important questions in Africa – the many forms
of violence (wars, genocides, familial violence, and crime) and the AIDS
pandemic – it is necessary to understand how a combination of a colonial past,
patriarchal cultural structures, and a variety of religious and knowledge systems
creates masculine identities and sexualities. The work done in the book
particularly bears in mind how vulnerability and marginalization produce
complex forms of male identity.
Oyegun, Julie
1998 Working Masculinities Back into Gender. Agenda 37: 13-23.
Gender equity programs have started to encourage the participation of men, in
addition to the continued presence of women, with the continued goal of
eradicating gender inequality and discrimination against women. Old methods of
only including women in this discussion has perpetuated their isolation and kept
them in the position of the victim. With the inclusion of men, a better
understanding of how we become gendered has the potential to lead a better
understanding of the inequalities that continue to exist. The author presents her
argument about why this dual engagement has great potential for gender relations.
Oyekanmi, Felicia (Ed.)
2000 Men, Women and Violence. East Lansing, MI: Michigan State University Press.
Gender based violence is alarmingly widespread across cultures, but research is in
its initial stages in Africa, with few statistics and resources. This selection of
29
papers from the 1997 CODESRIA Gender Institute gathering, which included
participants from eight African countries, highlights different perspectives of the
topic of violence between men and women. The six contributors highlight how
universal attitudes of male dominance and patriarchy can literally engender a
culture of violence in which women and children are the victims. Case studies
from East and West Africa are included.
Parpart, Jane L. and Marysia Zalewski
2008 Rethinking the Man Question: Sex, Gender and Violence in International
Relations. New York: Palgrave MacMillan.
This book is a crucial investigation and reinvigoration of debates about gender
and international relations, looking at the increasingly violent and ‘toxic’ nature
of world politics post 9/11. Contributors consider the diverse theoretical and
practical implications of masculinity for international relations in the modern
world. It covers theoretical issues, including masculine theories of war,
masculinity and the military, cyborg soldiers, post-traumatic stress disorder, and
white male privilege. It also focuses on the ways in which masculinity configures
world events from conscientious objection in South Africa to ‘porno-nationalism’
in India, from myths and heroes in Kosovo to the makings of Zimbabwe.
Pattman, Rob
2005 ‘Boys and Girls Should Not Be Too Close’: Sexuality, the Identities of African
Boys and Girls and HIV/AIDS Education. Sexualities 8(4): 497–516.
This article explores the significance of sexuality in relation to the ways boys and
girls in southern and eastern Africa construct their identities. It draws on a
UNICEF-funded study conducted in the region with 6-18-year-olds from 2001 to
2002. It addressed young people as active and intelligent beings and encouraged
them (in interviews and diaries) to elaborate upon their interests, pleasures, and
anxieties, and their relations with contemporaries and adults of either sex. It
seemed impossible, at times, for the young people not to allude to sexuality, and
this and their emotional engagement when addressing sexuality in the interviews
suggested that sexuality was fundamental in their lives. Focusing in particular on
young people’s accounts of contemporaries and others of the opposite sex, the
article investigates how sexuality was invoked (and contested) by boys and girls
and the sorts of identities they assumed in relation to the ways they spoke and
wrote about sexuality. In the conclusion, the author argues that the issues raised
by Carole Vance about female sexuality are extremely pertinent for understanding
and working with both girls and boys in sex education, being introduced in many
African countries in response to HIV/AIDS. The implications of this research for
developing student-centered, gender-sensitive, and relevant forms of HIV/AIDS
and life skills education which address the sexual and non-sexual cultures,
pleasures, and anxieties of girls and boys are discussed in some detail.
Pease, Bob and Keith Pringle (Eds.)
2002 A Man’s World? Changing Men’s Practices in a Globalized World. New York:
Zed Books
30
Much has been produced in recent years regarding the critical studies of men’s
practices utilizing various feminist and pro-feminist perspectives. This book
widens what has previously been a dialogue primarily within the Western
democracies. The editors have brought together a number of established and new
scholars to provide a broader critical analysis of men’s practices across a wide
range of socio-cultural settings. Two chapters of significance include Michael
Kauffman’s article, “The White Ribbon Campaign: Involving Men and Boys in
Ending Global Violence Against Women,” and Ira Horowitz’s article, “Cultural
Practices of Masculinity in Post-apartheid South Africa.”
Posel, Deborah
2004 ‘Getting the Nation Talking About Sex’: Reflections on the Discursive
Constitution of Sexuality in South Africa Since 1994. Agenda 62: 53–63.
———
2005
The Scandal of Manhood: ‘Baby Rape’ and the Politicization of Sexual Violence
in Post-Apartheid South Africa. Culture, Health & Sexuality 7(3): 239-252.
This paper traces the genealogy of sexual violence as a public and political issue
in South Africa, from its initial marginalization and minimization during the
apartheid era, through to the explosion of anguish and anger which marked the
post-apartheid moment, and most dramatically the years 2001 and 2002. Of
particular interest is the question of how and why the problem of sexual violence
came to be seen as a scandal of manhood, putting male sexuality under crucial
public scrutiny. The paper argues that the sudden, intense eruption of public
anxiety and argument about sexual violence which marked the post-apartheid
period had relatively little to do with feminist analysis and politics (influential
though this has been in some other respects). Rather, the key to understanding this
politicization of sexual violence lies with its resonances with wider political and
ideological anxieties about the manner of the national subject and the moral
community of the country’s fledging democracy.
Ragnarsson, Anders, et. al.
2008 Young Males’ Gendered Sexuality in the Era of HIV and AIDS in Limpopo
Province, South Africa. Qualitative Health Research 18(6): 739-746.
This article is focused on young males’ sexual identity and behaviors in rural
South Africa. The study comprised 19 focus group discussions with adolescents
aged 12 to 14. The informants depict male sexuality as biologically
predetermined, where physical needs and practices such as circumcision
legitimize early sexual debut. Furthermore, the construction of male sexual
identity and power imbalances in relationships are already evident at an early age,
and age and economics are pertinent factors affecting social relations. Violent
behavior and sexual abuse are supported by constructed gender inequalities
forming an often negative and non-supportive environment for young people. The
authors stress the importance of planned HIV and sexuality education for young
adolescents with support structures that can help endorse individual actions and
informed choices. This is especially important in resource-poor settings where
31
young people are likely to be less empowered than is the case in more affluent
settings.
Ratele, Kopano
2006 Ruling Masculinity and Sexuality. Feminist Africa 6: 46–64.
This article is concerned with the public ‘psycho-political theatre’, and what it
tells us about sexualities, gender, and, in particular, masculinities in contemporary
South Africa. A range of moments from the rape trial of Jacob Zuma point to the
links between sexualities and a ruling masculinity, including: the fact that Zuma,
who was at one time tasked with leading the anti-HIV/AIDS campaign,
knowingly had unprotected sex with a woman he knew to be HIV-positive; that
he stated in court that he had sex even though no condoms were available because
in his culture, a man could be accused of rape for leaving a woman sexually
aroused; and that he testified that he had taken a shower after the incident because
he believed this would reduce the risk of infection. However, given the import of
the idea of “a better life for all”, and with the intention of thinking of development
beyond political sloganeering and electioneering, at the same time as assessing the
events that continue to take place around Zuma in particular and other African
political leaders more generally, what is called for is considered reflection on the
question of the use of politics for human betterment. The author looks at this
question of a better life for all as it relates to sexual and gender life. In this
reflection, research from pro-feminist studies of men and masculinity are drawn
on, with the arguments informed by discourse analysis. It is therefore not the rape
trial of Zuma, or even his corruption trial, but rather a less publicized moment to
which attention is drawn, in order to think about the interconnections between
sexualities, masculine power, and the notion of “a better life”. It is at this moment
that Zuma’s discursive political and psychological practices reveal themselves as
unable to inspire confidence in some sections of South African society.
Reddy, V. and C. Potgieter
2006 ‘Real Men Stand up for the Truth’: Discursive Meanings in the Jacob Zuma Rape
Trial. South African Linguistics and Applied Linguistics Studies 24(4): 511–521.
The focus of this paper is a preliminary analysis of the representation of meanings
in relation to some aspects of the Jacob Zuma rape trial. The argument uses
illustrative public evidence (notably media reports) of events and relates these to
discourses generated by the trial. Drawing upon such data, the argument
foregrounds a feminist discursive reading of some central meanings articulated by
events and players in the trial. Rather than offering a detailed analysis of all
aspects of this trial (for instance, the argument excludes in-depth assessments of
the legal context), it instead prioritizes the performative dimension of meanings.
In so far as such meanings open up thinking about rape as a crime of violence,
about its ideology of victimization, and the possible limitations that accrue in
relation to representations of victims, the paper concludes by asking what
meanings about ‘justice’ circulate through the way discourses of rape articulate
interests, and often privilege the accused.
32
Reid, Graeme and Liz Walker
2005 Men Behaving Differently: South African Men Since 1994. Cape Town: Double
Storey
Recent years have seen a growing world-wide concern about men and boys. Do
boys have appropriate role models at home? Are girls outperforming boys at
school? Is men’s health under undue pressure? The nature of masculinity has been
brought into question by a radical reorganization of gender relations. Indeed,
many now speak of a ‘crisis in masculinity’. South Africa has made a rapid shift
from a male-dominated patriarchal society, to a new social order based on ideals
of equality between men and women. How have men responded to these changes?
How do men achieve successful masculinity in this new context? These are some
of the questions that are explored in this book by leading researchers in the field.
Redman, P
1996
Empowering Men to Disempower Themselves: Heterosexual
Masculinities, HIV, and the Contradictions of Anti-Oppressive Education. In
Understanding Masculinities, ed. Mac an Ghaill, 168-179. Buckingham: Open
University Press.
Ritcher, Linda and Robert Morrell (Eds.)
2006 Baba: Men and Fatherhood in South Africa. Cape Town: Human Sciences
Research Council Press
This collection explores the centrality of fatherhood in the lives of men and in the
experiences of children, showing that fathers’ involvement contributes to the
well-being of children. The authors argue that men can make a major contribution
to the health of South African society by caring for children and producing a new
generation of South Africans for whom men will be significant by their positive
presence rather than by their absence or their abuse. In this collection, authors
examine the conceptual and theoretical questions posed and attempt to map the
field. In the second section, fathers and fatherhood are examined from a historical
perspective, showing how race and class have shaped fatherhood in South Africa,
and how understandings of fatherhood have changed over time. In the third
section, authors discuss the way in which fathers appear in the media and how
men as fathers are often ignored or portrayed in narrow ways which inhibit
alternative forms of fatherhood emerging. In the fourth section, authors offer
answers to how men experience fatherhood and what obstacles bar men from
expanding their engagement with children. Finally, the book offers examples of
local and international programs that have been initiated to promote fatherhood
and to work with fathers.
Robins, Steven
2008 Sexual Politics and the Zuma Rape Trial. Journal of Southern African Studies
34(2): 411–427.
This article focuses on post-apartheid developments in relation to the sexual
politics that surrounded the 2006 rape trial of South Africa’s former Deputy
President, Jacob Zuma. The trial and its aftermath highlight contested
33
interpretations of rights, morality, religion, culture, and political leadership in
post-apartheid South Africa. It also serves as a mirror reflecting the tension
between sexual rights and patriarchal cultures. Whereas race and class concerns
dominated oppositional politics during the apartheid era, sexual and gender rights
now compete for space in the post-apartheid public sphere. There is a glaring gap
between the progressive character of ‘official’ state, constitutional, and NGO
endorsements of gender and sexual equality on the one hand, and the deeply
embedded ideas and practices that reproduce gender and sexual inequality on the
other. Idealized conceptions of ‘civil society’ fail to adequately acknowledge its
‘unruly’ and ‘uncivil’ character. The responses of Zuma supporters, including
NGOs, activists, academics, and journalists attending the trial reveal a chasm
between the sexual and gender equality ideals enshrined in the Constitution and
promoted by progressive civil society organizations, and the sexual conservatism
within the wider South African public. The article also examines how ideas about
‘traditional’ Zulu masculinity were represented and performed in the Zuma trial,
thereby highlighting a tension between constitutional conceptions of universalistic
sexual rights on the one hand, and claims to particularistic sexual cultures on the
other. This tension, the author argues, is reproduced by the rhetorical productivity
of a series of binaries: modern and traditional, rights and culture, liberal
democracy and African communitarianism.
Rude, Darlene
1999 Reasonable Men and Provocative Women: An Analysis of Gendered Domestic
Homicide in Zambia. Journal of Southern African Studies 25(1): 7-27.
This article is based on 150 cases of killings and alleged killings of women and
girls by intimate partners and male family members in Zambia from 1973 to 1996.
The female victims range from infancy to old age, but half were women in their
child-bearing years. The alleged perpetrators represent men of all ages, all social
classes, and from all parts of Zambia. They used a variety of weapons and
methods that parallel state-sanctioned torture, to beat, burn, stab, or shoot their
victims to death. Power and control are underlying factors in these cases of
gender-based homicide. Suspected adultery appears to be a leading ‘motive’ of
the killings, as does any threat or challenge to a husband or male relative, or
refusal to obey orders or perform domestic tasks. For many of the victims, the
punishment for deviating from their expected gender roles was death. Newspaper
accounts of such killings create a secondary level of silence about domestic
violence and homicide by blaming the victims and concealing the brutality of the
attacks. Cases are described simply as ‘domestic disputes’, thus obscuring what
are actually violent and deadly assaults by men against women. A lack of detail
about the victims, who are sometimes not even named, ensures they are erased,
both literally and in the public eye. Comments by the judiciary, as reported in the
press, reflect certain attitudes about gender roles and appropriate behavior. The
women are judged to have ‘provoked’ their perpetrators, whose violent reactions
are all too often seen as inevitable, understandable, and therefore somewhat
pardonable. Comments which legitimize men’s violent behavior could be said to
sanction violence against women in the home.
34
Salo, Elaine
2003
Negotiating Gender and Personhood in the New South Africa: Adolescent
Women and Gangsters in Manenberg Townships on the Cape Flats. European
Journal of Cultural Studies 6(3): 345-365.
This article examines the shifts in young men’s and women’s racial and gendered
identities in Manenberg, a predominantly colored, Afrikaans-speaking township in
Cape Town, South Africa. It explores how male and female youth destabilize,
renovate, and transform local racial and gendered identities in relation to the local
histories, repertoires, and ideals of masculinity and femininity and in relation to
global cultural forces such as soap operas, rap music, and international brand
name clothes. Youth obtain access to these global features through electronic
media such as television, radio, or visits to trendy city nightspots and
cosmopolitan beachfront neighborhoods. This study challenges the idea that
cultural flows from the North necessarily lead to cultural hegemonization and
homogenization in the South. Instead, it suggests that the meanings that these
cultural forms assume in this non-western context are shaped by specific local
histories and cultural practices.
Scully, Diana
1998 Convicted Rapists’ Perceptions of Self and Victims: Role Taking and Emotions.
Gender and Society 2(2): 200-213.
This article is an attempt to bridge the gap between feminist structural
explanations for rape and the social psychological mechanisms that make it
possible for some men in patriarchal societies to feel neutral about sexual violence
toward women. The concept of role taking is used to analyze the perceptions of
self and victim held by 79 convicted rapists. Men who defined their behavior
during sexual encounters as rape saw themselves from the perspective of their
victim through reflexive role taking, had inferred their victims’ experience
through synesic role taking, and used this awareness to further their plan of
action. Men who did not define their behavior as rape did neither reflexive nor
synesic role taking and appeared incapable of understanding the meaning of
sexual violence to women. The majority of both groups did not experience roletaking emotions, that is, guilt, shame, or empathy, which symbolic interactionists
posit are the mediators of self-control. The author argues that the gender
imbalance of power and the status of women as property are the social factors that
render normative emotions inoperative in sexual violence.
———
2006
Young Men and Masculinities: Global Cultures and Intimate Lives. New York:
Zed Books
The lives of young men in a globalized world are influenced by the mass
circulation of images of men’s bodies, desires, and sexualities, and the cultural
masculinities of particular histories, cultures, and traditions. Questioning
universalist theories of ‘hegemonic masculinities’, this book argues that young
men often feel caught between prevailing masculinities and how they want to
35
define themselves. It explores how the idea of men as ‘the First Sex’ has been
established within the West and how young men affirm their male identities in
different cultures and societies. It draws on the experience of young men in
different continents in creating their own male identities and establishing more
equal relationships within a world of intense inequalities.
Shaw, Mark
2002
Crime and Policing in Post-Apartheid South Africa: Transforming under Fire.
Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
Since the mid-1990s, South Africa has experienced a crime wave of such
unprecedented proportions that the ability of the new democracy to form a stable
civil society and govern effectively has been called into question. In this book, the
author describes how a police force that was so effective under apartheid became
so ineffectual in the face of rising crime. It shows how an increase in violent
crime shapes society, police, and government, and discusses possible solutions for
the current crisis. International crimes such as war, terrorism, and organized crime
are explored along with crimes that affect individual security, such as armed
robbery, murder, and rape.
Shefer, Tamara, et al. (Eds.)
2007 From Boys to Men: Social Constructions of Masculinity in Contemporary
Society. Cape Town: UCT Press
Representing the work of some of the best-known theorists and researchers in
masculinities and feminism in South Africa, this highly original work is
comprised of a collection of papers presented at the “From Boys to Men”
conference held in January 2005. Based on rich ethnographic studies in South
Africa and elsewhere in the continent, this collection addresses the argument that
because South African feminine studies are fraught with problems, boys and men
should be included in all research and intervention work studying gender equality
and transformation. Chapters examine several issues of the African male psyche,
such as varying identifiers of manhood, teenage masculinity, paternal
responsibility, and the impact of HIV/AIDS in the region.
Shefer, Tamara, et al.
2008 Gender, Power and Resistance to Change among Two Communities in the
Western Cape, South Africa. Feminism & Psychology 18(2): 157-182.
This study investigates how women and men in the Western Cape, South Africa,
construct their gender identities and roles. As part of the development of an HIV
prevention intervention for men, key informant interviews and focus group
discussions were conducted. Several themes regarding the construction of gender
were identified. First, participants reported that traditional gender relations of
male dominance and female subservience were still in evidence, along with
traditional gender roles that mandated a division of labor between the household
and paid workforce. Second, participants reported a shift in gender roles and
relations in the direction of increased power for women. Last, hostile resistance to
changes in gender power relations was evident in the discussions. Redefining
36
masculinity and femininity and shifting gender relations in the direction of ‘power
with’ instead of ‘power over’ is perhaps a necessary prelude to lasting social
change and curbing the HIV epidemic in South Africa.
Shelton, A. J., et al.
2005 The Prevalence of Partner Violence in a Group of HIV-Infected Men. AIDS Care
17(7): 814-818.
There is a paucity of literature regarding partner violence among males that
identifies the sex and relationship of their partner(s). The authors studied a sample
of 54 HIV-infected men, recruited from HIV/AIDS service organizations. Using a
standard questionnaire, they collected data on HIV risk behaviors and self-reports
of acts of partner violence and forced sex. Physical violence perpetrated by a
primary or a casual partner was reported by 39% and 17% of the sample,
respectively. Life-time forced sex by a primary or casual partner was reported by
32% and 15% of the sample, respectively. Forced sex was more commonly
reported by participants who were non-white and reported a higher number of
primary partners in the previous 12 months. The authors recommend that health
care providers be aware of the high rates of intimate partner violence among men
infected or at risk of infection with HIV.
Sideris, Tina
2004 ‘You Know You Have To Change and You Don’t Know How!’: Contesting What
It Means to be a Man in a Rural Area of South Africa. African Studies 63(1): 2949.
In a remote corner of South Africa, a group of men are negotiating more caring
and equal relationships with their wives and children. It is not remarkable that
there are caring men in Nkomazi, where they live. What is notable is that these
individuals are mindful of their intimate relationships and define themselves as
different to other men. They are concerned about how they treat women and
children, reflect on their roles in family life, consciously attempt to create more
equal ways of sharing domestic tasks and decisions, and explicitly reject violent
methods of resolving conflicts. Yet they live in a social context where traditional
notions of the family hold sway. According to these ideas, gender and age
hierarchies dictate the rights, duties, and obligations of men, women, and children
in the family. Biology and “God’s will” are invoked to justify these structures of
hierarchy and in this way they are presented as the natural order of family
relations, in addition to popular ideas about gender that permit the use of violence
to maintain male authority. It is of interest to understand men who explicitly cast
themselves as different to the norm, something that has a practical purpose since
South Africa is plagued by alarmingly high levels of domestic violence. Ideas and
values, as well as social and institutional practices that affirm gender inequalities,
still hold currency, despite the political endorsement of equal constitutional rights
for men and women. In this context, the most obvious question that arises is what
we might learn from examining the lives of these men about factors that
discourage violent conventions and promote greater equality in intimate
relationships.
37
Simpson, Anthony
2009 Boys to Men in the Shadow of Aids: Masculinities and HIV Risk in Zambia. New
York: Palgrave Macmillan.
The AIDS epidemic has afflicted Sub-Saharan Africa disproportionately,
affecting every aspect of culture and society. In this intimate, longitudinal study,
the author analyzes the lives of a group of men who studied together at a Catholic
mission school in Zambia and explores how the risk of HIV infection has shaped
sexual practices. It reveals the dangerous fragility of masculinity in many men’s
attempts to act out the ideal of the “real man.” It also looks at their search for
meaning, and their response to both prevention and HIV testing campaigns, to
suggest how to refigure masculinity and redesign gender relationships.
Singh, D.
2004
Male Rape: A Real Crime with Real Victims. Acta Criminologica 17(1): 129-138.
The current South African law defines rape as “consist[ing] in a male having
unlawful and intentional sexual intercourse with a female without her consent,”
failing to address the occurrence of male-on-male rape which is found to be much
wider spread than previously believed. Sex is used as an instrument for control
and power, and the male victim frequently experiences shame, embarrassment,
stigma, and homophobia. Five predominant psychological stimuli have been
identified in the offenders: conquest and control; revenge and retaliation;
aggression becoming eroticized; conflict and reaction; and status and affiliation.
Suttner, Raymond
2005 Masculinities in the African National Congress-Led Liberation Movement: The
Underground Period. African Historical Review 37(1): 71-106.
This article aims to uncover elements of the formation and manifestations of
masculinities within the African National Congress (ANC) and its allies. While
notions of masculinity or masculinities have been examined in other literature,
this work tries to specify the precise character of a distinct process and
phenomenon in an organization, primarily in its period of illegality. This bears
resemblances to that found in other situations, but ANC masculinities have
specificities that need to be brought into the foreground. This enquiry locates
masculinity formation in situations and complexities that have not previously
emerged. In certain ways, these relate to a past that is in some respects a warrior
tradition. In part, ANC masculinities also interface with belief systems that
precede and coexist with the organization’s existence, for example the
relationship between initiation and other rites of passage to manhood.
Unterhalter, Elaine
2000 The Work of the Nation: Heroic Masculinity in South African Autobiographical
Writing of the Anti-Apartheid Struggle. European Journal of Development
Research 12(2): 157-179.
The study draws on autobiographical writings of the South African anti-apartheid
struggle to investigate representations of masculinity, work, and gender relations.
38
It identifies a common construction of masculinity in many texts across race,
class, and generation. This construction stresses autonomy, adventure,
comradeship, and a self-conscious location in history. This heroic masculinity is
identified with a particular understanding of work as political work and links with
a discourse that neglects the political interests and differently contoured forms of
political work by women. The study considers some similarities and differences
between heroic masculinity and forms of work associated with violent
masculinity, the subject of much more extensive research in South Africa to date.
Usdin, Shereen
2002 State of Siege. New Internationalist 346.
This article presents, in an easy-to-read format, the inter-connectedness of the
rising HIV/AIDS infection rate and the prevalence of domestic violence,
particularly male-on-female violence. Various suggestions are given by experts in
the field as to how progress can be made to reduce and prevent both of these
epidemics, both of which are paralyzing Sub-Saharan Africa, and South Africa
especially. Ultimately, the realization is made that in order for any progress to be
made, men and women must be brought together to begin the discussion of
prevention and change.
Vetten, Lisa
2007
Violence Against Women in South Africa. In State of the Nation South Africa,
eds. Sakhela Buhlungu, et al., 425-447. Cape Town: HSRC Press.
The contradiction of women’s status in post-apartheid South Africa is quite clear:
it is a woman-friendly state with a vision and plans for the achievement of gender
equality, including a constitutional commitment to such equality and some of the
highest numbers in the world of women holding office, yet marked by the
intractable, stubborn persistence of violence against women. The argument in this
chapter then is that this state of affairs represents not so much a contradiction as
an illustration of the contingent, conditional, and contested nature of gender
equality in South Africa. The chapter first sets out what is seen as the
contradiction: state responses to violence against women and a Bill of Rights
enabling the advancement of women’s rights, and the statistics for such violence.
It analyzes how particular responses have constructed the problem of violence
against women and also critically examines the relationship between law and
policy reform and the incidence of violence.
Vincent, Louise
2006 Destined to Come to Blows? Race and Constructions of ‘Rational-Intellectual’
Masculinity Ten Years After Apartheid. Men and Masculinities 8(3): 350-366.
The present paper sets out to read South Africa’s transformation drama through
the lens of contested conceptions of masculinity. It focuses on one particular
version of masculinity, termed “rational-intellectual man,” with the argument that
a legacy of racism and the persistence of racialized modes of reasoning continue
to marginalize black men from this and other powerful, high-status forms of
hegemonic masculinity.
39
Waetjen, Thembisa
2004 Workers and Warriors: Masculinity and the Struggle for Nation in South Africa.
Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press
This analysis explores how gender structured the mobilization of Zulu nationalism
as anti-apartheid efforts gained momentum in South Africa in the 1980s, as well
as the dilemma of feminist politics when culture and gender compete as categories
of loyalty and identification. It also functions as a study of patriarchy from a Zulu
context to the male-dominated world of capitalist economies. This study provides
a complex and historically informed view of how masculinity and gender power
are articulated within the politics of nationalism and nation-building. The popular
appeal of Zulu masculinity, with its martial reputation, makes Zulu nationalism a
relevant case through which to explore these crucial critical questions.
Waetjen, Thembisa and Gerhard Maré
1999 Workers and Warriors: Inkatha’s Politics of Masculinity in the 1980s. Journal of
Contemporary African Studies 17(2): 197-216.
This article suggests that Inkatha’s invocations of Zulu manhood are best
understood as constructed against modern, contemporary social realities, as “the
crystallization of new (identities) suitable for the conditions now prevailing”
(Gellner 1984:49) and not as the encroachment of primordialism on an otherwise
clearly modern bid for statehood by a ‘bantustan’/‘homeland’ elite. The authors
examine how masculinities, “men’s places and practices in the large social
framework of gender relations” (Connell 1993:601), are accommodated and
newly defined within the political discourse of Inkatha.
Walker, Liz
2005
Men Behaving Differently: South African Men since 1994. Culture, Health and
Sexuality 7(3): 225-238.
Liberal versions of sexuality, which mark South Africa’s new democracy, have
had a number of highly contradictory consequences for women and men, as old
notions of masculinity and male privilege have been destabilized. The transition
to democracy has precipitated a crisis of masculinity. Orthodox notions of
masculinity are being challenged and new versions of masculinity are emerging in
their place. Some men are seeking to be part of a new social order, while others
are defensively clinging to more familiar routines. Drawing on in-depth
interviews with young African working class men, this paper explores new
masculinities in contemporary South Africa. It examines how men negotiate their
manhood in a period of social turbulence and transition. Masculinity, male
sexuality, and the expectations which men have of themselves, each other, and
women are contested and in crisis.
Walsh, Shannon and Claudia Mitchell
2006 ‘I’m too Young to Die’: HIV, Masculinity, Danger and Desire in Urban South
Africa. Gender and Development 14(1): 57-68.
40
In the South African urban areas of Atlantis and Khayelitsha, men and boys see
gang membership and violence (including gang-related violence) as part of ‘being
a man’. In this context, life itself is perilous and vulnerable. This article draws on
the narratives of boys about their lives, and explores some key questions relating
to gender, development, and HIV. These include: how are men’s and boy’s ideas
about sexuality created, and what does this suggest about the kinds of HIV
interventions that should be offered? In particular, how does the reality of
everyday life in urban South Africa affect male perceptions of risk in relation to
HIV/AIDS? How can men and boys best be targeted in HIV prevention and
treatment work?
Win, Everjoice
2001 Men Are Not My Project: A View from Zimbabwe. Development 44(3): 114-116.
The author argues that women still need their own space to work on their own
agenda. She endorses a strong resistance by women’s groups of the donor push to
their organizations which often desire the inclusion of men, oftentimes without a
clear strategy of how to effectively involve them.
Wood, Katherine, Fidelia Maforah and Rachel Jewkes
1998 ‘He Forced Me to Love Him’: Putting Violence on Adolescent Sexual Health
Agendas. Social Science and Medicine 47(2): 233-242.
Violence against women within sexual relationships is a neglected area in public
health despite the fact that, in partially defining women’s capacity to protect
themselves against STDs, pregnancy, and unwanted sexual intercourse, it directly
affects female reproductive health. This paper presents the findings of a
qualitative study conducted among Xhosa-speaking adolescent women in South
Africa which revealed male violent and coercive practices to dominate their
sexual relationships. Conditions and timing of sex were defined by their male
partners through the use of violence and through the circulation of certain
constructions of love, intercourse, and entitlement to which the teenage girls were
expected to submit. The legitimacy of these coercive sexual experiences was
reinforced by female peers who indicated that silence and submission was the
appropriate response. Being beaten was such a common experience that some
peers were said to perceive it to be an expression of love. Informants indicated
that they did not terminate the relationships for several reasons: beyond peer
pressure and the probability of being subjected to added abuse for trying to end a
relationship, teenagers said that they perceived that their partners loved them
because they gave them gifts of clothing and money. The authors argue that
violence has been particularly neglected in adolescent sexuality arenas, and
propose new avenues for sexuality research which could inform the development
of much-needed adolescent sexual health interventions.
Wood, Katherine and Rachel Jewkes
1997 Violence, Rape, and Sexual Coercion: Everyday Love in a South African
Township. Gender and Development 5(2): 41-46.
41
A research project with pregnant teenagers in a South African township revealed
widespread male coercion and violence within sexual relationships. If
reproductive health interventions are to be effective, practitioners need to be
aware of the level of gender inequity and powerlessness women experience in
particular social contexts and design interventions which challenge male violence.
Miscellaneous
Abrahams, Naeemah and Rachel Jewkes
1997 Men on Violence Against Women. Urbanization and Health Newsletter #34.
Cape Town: Medical Research Council.
Abrahams, Naeemah, Rachel Jewkes, and Ria Laubsher
1999 ‘I Do Not Believe in Democracy in the Home’: Men’s Relationships With and
Abuse of Women. Cape Town: Medical Research Council Technical Report.
http://www.mrc.ac.za//gender/nodemocracy.pdf
Violence against women has for too long been seen only a women’s problem
despite the fact that it involves men abusing women, offering some explanation as
to why men have not been targeted in prevention strategies. At the same time,
nobody knows the extent of the problem in South Africa. The aim of this study
was to investigate the prevalence of abuse as reported by men, as well as the risk
factors associated with abuse which can be used in the development of programs
aimed at reducing violence against women. No single deterministic factor for
male violence against women has been identified and preventive interventions are
required at many levels, from changing personal perceptions and behavior of
gender and gender roles to addressing the historical and social realities of a deep
rooted patriarchal society which accepts violence as a means of resolving conflict.
Since men are the primary instigators they should bear the primary responsibility
to reverse their behavior and intensive investment should be directed to working
directly with men to address violence in general and violence and men in
particular.
Barker, Gary and Christine Ricardo
2005 Young Men and the Construction of Masculinity in Sub-Saharan Africa:
Implications for HIV/AIDS, Conflict, and Violence. World Bank Social
Development Papers: Conflict Prevention and Reconstruction #26.
Washington, DC: World Bank.
http://tinyurl.com/8xs7qb
Gender is increasingly used as an analytical framework in program and policy
development for youth in Africa, but in most cases gender refers almost
exclusively to the disadvantages that women and girls face. Given the extent of
gender inequalities in sub-Saharan Africa, an almost exclusive focus on women
and girls has been appropriate. However, a gender perspective and gender
mainstreaming have too often ignored the gender of men and boys. The aim of
this paper is to explore what a gender perspective means when applied to young
men in Africa focusing on conflict, violence and HIV/AIDS. It explores the
42
construction of manhood in Africa and argues for the application of a more
sophisticated gender analysis that also includes men and youth.
Budlender, Debbie and Julia Kuhn
2007 Where is the Money to Address Gender-Based Violence? Gender-Based Violence
Programme: The Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation.
http://tinyurl.com/ybemsbf
This report discusses the trends and patterns of funding for organizations in South
Africa that address gender-based violence. Of particular importance to this report
is the context in which funding occurs. Worldwide funds have tended to decrease
for gender-specific initiatives over the past ten years (Association for Women’s
Rights in Development (AWID), 2005). Various authors, including the
international NGO AWID, suggest that this decline may be due partly to the
corporatization of some donor agencies according to neo-liberal capitalist agendas
and the increasing marginalization of women’s rights in a political environment
characterized by religious fundamentalism, militarism, and global capitalism. The
widespread shift to a “mainstreaming” approach has also contributed to the
decrease in funding. In addition to being affected by these worldwide trends,
funding in South Africa has its own specific challenges. After 1994, official
funding shifted from civil society to government. The total amount of overseas
development assistance (ODA) increased in the first years. However, since 1998,
ODA in general has been declining in South Africa. CSOs in the GBV sector have
not been unaffected by this. The South African government has shown
commitment to addressing gender inequality and GBV. It has also recognized
CSOs’ role in providing services to communities. However, state support for
these initiatives is uncoordinated and difficult to access.
Campbell, Catherine
1992 Identity and gender in a changing society: the social identity of South African
township youth. Ph.D. diss., University of Bristol.
Chant, S. and M. Gutmann
2000 Mainstreaming Men into Gender and Development: Debates, Reflections and
Experiences. Oxfam Working Papers. London: Oxfam GB
http://tinyurl.com/ybdjyc9
Based on research commissioned by the World Bank, this book’s primary focus is
on incorporating men in gender and development interventions at the grass roots
level. It draws attention to some of the key problems that have arisen from “male
exclusion” as well as to the potential benefits of, and obstacles to, men’s
inclusion. The book then moves on to explore how far “men in development” has
been a feature in the practices of development organizations. The book concludes
with suggestions on the ways in which gender and development policy might
realistically move towards a more gender-based, male-inclusive approach.
Ferguson, Harry et al.
2004 Ending Gender-Based Violence: A Call for Global Action to Involve Men.
Stockholm: Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency.
43
http://www.sida.se/shared/jsp/download.jsp?f=SVI34602.pdf&a=3108
In this report, seven masculinity researchers write about masculinity in different
parts of the world and about how masculinity is often linked to violence. These
acts of violence are committed not only against women and children, but also
against other men. The writers suggest a number of ways in which men can be
involved in working to combat men’s violence.
Greig, Alan, Michael Kimmel, and James Lang
2000 Men, Masculinities and Development: Broadening our Work towards Gender
Equality. Gender and Development Monograph Series # 10. United Nations
Development Programme.
http://www.health.columbia.edu/pdfs/men_masculinities.pdf#search=%22greig%
20men%20and%20masculinities%22
The purpose of this paper is to discuss men’s possible relationships to the process
of transformative change by exploring the meanings and uses of ‘masculinity’.
Discussions of masculinity provide a place in which men’s involvement in
producing and challenging inequalities and inequities in gender and other social
relations can be investigated. Masculinity renders gender visible to and for men.
Understanding the definitions and discourses surrounding masculinity can help in
the analysis of how political, economic, and cultural inequalities are produced and
distributed not only between but also within the genders. Above all, an inquiry in
to the ‘politics of masculinity’ offers an opportunity to rethink men’s strategic
interest in challenging the values and practices that create gender hierarchy.
Hearn, J.
1997
“Searching for the Centre of Men and Men’s Power”. Paper presented at the
Colloquium, “Masculinities in Southern Africa”. Durban: University of Natal.
International HIV/AIDS Alliance
2003 Working with Men, Responding to AIDS: Gender, Sexuality and HIV – A Case
Study Collection. Brighton, U.K.: International HIV/AIDS Alliance
http://synkronweb.aidsalliance.org/graphics/secretariat/publications/wwm1103_w
orking_with_men.pdf
This case study collection helps projects conduct work with men by presenting
experiences and lessons from a range of different projects. By showcasing
experiences and lessons from the field in the form of case studies, this collection
offers inspiration, ideas, and models for working with different kinds of men in a
range of contexts. These case studies not only describe HIV/AIDS projects that
are working with men, but also other kinds of projects that address other issues
and problems relating to men (e.g., gender identity, sexuality, violence).
Jackson, Louise
1997 Recent Initiatives in Addressing Gender Violence in South Africa. Occasional
Paper #14. Crime and Policing Policy Project, Institute for Security Studies.
http://tinyurl.com/yemg8mj
44
The National Crime Prevention Strategy has expressed a commitment to victims,
and particularly women and children. The central importance of addressing the
needs of victims of crime has been emphasized elsewhere in the world, and in
South Africa these needs have primarily been recognized by non-government
organizations. A small number of special police units have been set up to deal
with the needs of victims of gender violence, but for the most part, the response of
the South African Police Service (SAPS) has been inadequate. In response to
growing concern, training programs aimed at addressing the needs of victims of
gender violence have been initiated. This paper concentrates on the existing
support systems for victims of gender violence and those envisaged by the
Ministry of Safety and Security. It also examines training programs for SAPS
members that seek to change bias among policemen and enable officers to deal
more effectively with those who have suffered gender crimes.
Jewkes, Rachel, L. Penn-Kekana and J. Levin
1998 Gender Violence in South Africa: An Emerging Public Health Issue. Paper
presented at the National Conference of the Epidemiological Society of South
Africa, October.
Jewkes, Rachel, et al.
2009a Understanding Men’s Health and Use of Violence: Interface of Rape and HIV in
South Africa. Medical Research Council Policy Brief. Cape Town: Medical
Research Council.
http://www.mrc.ac.za/gender/violence_hiv.pdf
South Africa has one of the highest rates of rape reported to the police in the
world and the largest number of people living with HIV. The rate of rape
perpetration is not known because only a small proportion of rapes are reported to
the police. There is considerable concern about the links between these two
problems. Obviously HIV can be transmitted in the course of rape and this
compounds the human rights violation of the rape. Research has established that
men who rape and are physically violent towards partners are more likely to
engage in sexual risk taking than other men and this has raised a concern that they
are more likely to be infected with HIV. The aim of this research was to
understand the prevalence of rape perpetration in a random sample of communitybased adult men, to understand factors associated with rape perpetration, and to
describe intersections between rape, physical intimate partner violence, and HIV.
Jewkes, Rachel, et al.
2009b Preventing Rape and Violence in South Africa: Call for Leadership in a New
Agenda for Action. Medical Research Council Policy Brief. Cape Town: Medical
Research Council.
South Africa faces a globally unprecedented problem of violence against women
and girls, as well as men and boys, which is undermining the national
development and hindering the achievement of the Millennium Development
Goals. With rates of homicide, rape, and childhood and domestic violence well
above those of comparable other countries, the problem of violence is
45
undermining the nation’s health, economic, and social development. These high
levels of violence are an enduring legacy of a colonial and apartheid past, driven
by social dynamics formed during the years of racial and gender oppression, with
systematic impoverishment, under-education, rampant violence, and destruction
of normal family life. Preventing and reducing levels of violence has been a
missing piece in the national transformation agenda. It needs now to be addressed
vigorously as a cross-cutting national priority.
Kaufman, Michael
2004 Transforming our Initiatives for Gender Equality by Addressing and Involving
Men and Boys: A Framework for Analysis and Action. In Gender Equality and
Men: Learning from Practice, ed. S. Ruxton, 19-27. London: Oxfam GB.
http://www.oxfam.org.uk/what_we_do/resources/downloads/gem -6.pdf
Among NGOs, governments, and international institutions such as the United
Nations, there has been a tremendous surge of interest in the last few years in the
subject of men and boys. This interest reflects several overlapping perspectives.
There are those who understand we must reach men so that interventions for
women and girls are not derailed by male resistance. There are those who see the
quest for gender equality as being enhanced by specific initiatives aimed at men
and boys, such as awareness campaigns to end gender-based violence. And there
are those who realize that meeting certain needs of men and boys will actually
enhance an equity and equality agenda (and vice versa). This chapter endorses all
these approaches, and therefore rejects the competing view that the rush to
improve the lives of women has resulted in males being ignored or even harmed.
It also discusses a framework for such approaches, drawing on some examples
from the White Ribbon Campaign, a campaign that aims to engage men and boys
in the struggle to end men’s violence against women.
Lazarus, Sandy et al.
2008 An Exploratory Study into the Theoretical Frameworks for Investigating Risk and
Protective Factors to Male Interpersonal Violence. Cape Town: Medical
Research Council Technical Report.
http://tinyurl.com/yz7rops
This research project focused on identifying the risk and protective factors to male
interpersonal violence, for the purposes of developing a firm theoretical and
methodological foundation for follow-up studies aimed at developing a
prevention intervention framework for male interpersonal violence in South
Africa. The exploratory study had a two-fold aim and therefore two parallel
processes. First, it aimed to identify and understand the risk and protective factors
to interpersonal violence in youth and adult South African men, and to investigate
theoretical and metatheoretical approaches linked to this focus, based on an
analysis of national and international literature and documents. Second, it aimed
to determine the feasibility of using various existing data sets in order to
determine risk and protective factors to violence in South Africa, using statistical
analysis, and to map the results using Geographical Information System (GIS)
46
technology. This Executive Summary provides an overview of the findings linked
to the first of the two aims.
Mathews, Shanaaz et al.
2004 “Every Six Hours a Woman is Killed by Her Intimate Partner”: A National Study
of Female Homicide in South Africa. Medical Research Council Policy Brief.
Cape Town: Medical Research Council.
http://www.mrc.ac.za/policybriefs/woman.pdf
The killing of women by intimate partners (also known as intimate female
homicide or intimate femicide) is the most extreme form and consequence of
violence against women. Globally, gender differences are found in homicide
patterns. Men are at greater risk of being killed than women and this is mainly
done by other men. Women, on the other hand, are primarily killed by the
opposite gender (Goetting, 1988). The murder of women by an intimate partner
accounts for between 40-70% of all female homicides (Dahlberg & Krug, 2002).
This form of violence has received very little attention and the few studies that
have been conducted have been mainly in developed countries. The only previous
study conducted in South Africa was a pilot study in the Gauteng region which
found that a woman is killed every six days in by an intimate partner (Vetten
1996). Given the high levels of gender-based violence and the excessive rates of
homicide in South Africa, it is critical to establish the size of the problem and the
pattern of intimate femicide in South Africa. This policy brief reports on the
finding of the first national homicide study.
Pattman, Rob and D. Bhana
2005 How Bad are Black Boys in South Africa? Paper presented at the Childhood
Conference, June 29-July 3, in Oslo.
Peacock, Dean
2003 Men as Partners: Promoting Men’s Involvement in Care and Support Activities
for People Living with HIV/AIDS. Paper prepared for the The Role of Men and
Boys in Achieving Gender Equality United Nations Expert Group Meeting,
October 21-24, in Brazil.
http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/egm/men-boys2003/EP5-Peacock.pdf
Contemporary gender roles increase women’s vulnerability to HIV/AIDS in a
number of well-documented ways. Much attention has been paid to the ways in
which contemporary gender roles condone men’s violence against women and
compromise women’s ability to make choices about their sexual and reproductive
health. As a result, many programs across the world have begun to work with men
to end male violence and to encourage men to negotiate the terms and conditions
of sex. Less attention, however, has been granted to the ways in which gender
roles also create the expectation that women will assume the burden of
responsibility for taking care of family and community members weakened or
made ill by HIV/AIDS. As such, little has been done to date to develop
interventions that explicitly encourage men to play a more active role in care and
support activity.
47
Peacock, D. and B. Khumalo
2007 ‘Bring me My Machine Gun’: Contesting Patriarchy and Rape Culture in the
Jacob Zuma Rape Trial. Paper presented at the Linking Lessons from HIV,
Sexuality and Reproductive Health with Other Areas for Rethinking AIDS,
Gender and Development International Symposium, October 15-18, in Dakar,
Senegal.
Rasool, S. et al.
2002. Violence Against Women: A National Survey. Pretoria, South Africa: Institute for
Security Studies.
Rivers, K. and P. Aggleton
1999 Gender and the HIV Epidemic: Adolescent Sexuality. New York: HIV and
Development Program, UNDP.
Salo, Elaine
2005
Simpson, G.
1991
Mans is Ma Soe: Ideologies of Masculinity, Gender and Generational Relations,
and Ganging Practices in Manenberg, South Africa. Paper presented at Men and
Masculinities meeting, January 26-27, at University of the Western Cape, Cape
Town, South Africa.
Explaining Sexual Violence: Some Background Factors in the Current SocioPolitical Context. Johannesburg, South Africa: Project for the Study of Violence.
Simpson, Graeme and Gerald Kraak
1998 The Illusions of Sanctuary and the Weight of the Past: Notes on Violence and
Gender in South Africa. In Development Update 2(2).
http://tinyurl.com/yh2xvpq
It is axiomatic that violence against women in South Africa is endemic. Most
observers attribute it to the disintegration of the social fabric under apartheid and
during the violent upheavals of the political transition. The authors argue that
while the experience of apartheid may have exacerbated the levels of violence
against women, it has been an enduring feature of the social order, equally
prevalent in pre-colonial and contemporary societies. They also contend that
skewed gender relations are not only expressed through violence against women
in particular, but are an aspect of all social violence. Violence has become a
vehicle for men to assert their authority, which they perceive to have been
undermined by economic and social change. Unless it is recognized that this is
what violent men are trying to do, and unless strategies to redress gender
inequality include engaging with the insecurities of younger men in particular, the
violence may not diminish.
Widmer, M., G. Barker, and C. Buchanan
2006 Hitting the Target: Men and Guns. Revcon Policy Brief. Centre for Humanitarian
Dialogue: Geneva, Switzerland.
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This policy brief explores the diverse roles that men and boys play in relation to
guns, as perpetrators, victims, survivors, and agents of change, and suggests the
need to encourage more positive and peaceful expressions of masculinity. It calls
on States gathered at the Review Conference on the implementation of the
Program of Action on small arms to adopt a more holistic approach to gender in
their statements and in the outcome document, in order to recognize the diverse
roles and needs of men and women, girls and boys. Rectifying the omission of the
alarming rates of victimization of men and boys from small arms related violence
is well within the reach of government officials. The focus of this brief on men
and boys does not minimize the particular impacts of the uncontrolled arms trade
and armed violence on women and girls, including sexual violence at gunpoint of
small arms and light weapons. Nor does it underestimate the diverse roles played
by women and girls in armed conflict and violent crime, as victims, carers,
perpetrators, and survivors. The distinction between ‘victim’ and ‘perpetrator’ is
not always clear in the case of gun violence, and does not necessarily follow
gender fault lines. In sum, it challenges the common but inaccurate view that
women and girls are always the victims of gun-related and other forms of genderbased violence, and that boys and men are always the perpetrators.
Xaba, Thokozani
1997 Masculinity in a Transitional Society: The Rise and Fall of "The Young Lions.”
Paper presented at Masculinities in Southern Africa conference, June, in Durban,
South Africa.
On-Line Resources
EngenderHealth
http://www.engenderhealth.org/our-countries/africa/south-africa.php
Since 1995, EngenderHealth’s work in South Africa has focused most notably on
transforming men’s attitudes and behaviors to reduce gender-based violence.
They have also worked to improve reproductive health services, including
screening for and treating sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and HIV.
Involving Men As Partners®
In an effort to address gender-based violence – part of a larger effort to reduce the
spread of HIV – EngenderHealth launched its
landmark Men As Partners® (MAP) in South Africa in 1996. The program, which
includes a series of workshops, peer-education initiatives, and media outreach,
challenges men’s attitudes and behaviors that compromise their own health and
safety, as well as the health and safety of women and children. Through its
groundbreaking work, this program works with men to play constructive roles in
promoting gender equity and health in their families and communities.
Gender and Women’s Studies for Africa’s Transformation
http://www.gwsafrica.org/
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The African Gender Institute (AGI) at the University of Cape Town has
established a website with detailed resources pertaining to a range of gender
topics with hopes of promoting their inclusion in teaching and research. One of
the teaching resources offered focuses exclusively on gender based violence and
provides an overview of the subject, a fully accessible position paper on the
subject, profiles of organizations and activists who concentrate on gender
violence, and a bibliography with key publications.
One Man Can Campaign
http://www.genderjustice.org.za/onemancan/home/index.php
The One Man Can Campaign supports men and boys to take action to end
domestic and sexual violence and to promote healthy, equitable relationships that
men and women can enjoy passionately, respectfully, and fully. The campaign
encourages men to work together with other men and with women to take action,
to build a movement, to demand justice, to claim their rights, and to change the
world.
Sonke Gender Justice Network: HIV/AIDS, Gender Equality, Human Rights
http://www.genderjustice.org.za/
The Sonke Gender Justice Network works with men, women, youth, and children
in southern, eastm and central Africa to achieve gender equality, prevent gender
based violence, and reduce the spread of HIV and the impact of AIDS.
One Man Can Campaign
The One Man Can Campaign supports men and boys to take action to end
domestic and sexual violence and to promote healthy, equitable relationships that
men and women can enjoy passionately, respectfully, and fully. The campaign
encourages men to work together with other men and with women to take action,
to build a movement, to demand justice, to claim their rights, and to change the
world.
XYonline.net
http://www.xyonline.net/
XY is a website focused on men, masculinities, and gender politics. It serves as a
space for the exploration of issues of gender and sexuality, the daily issues of
men’s and women’s lives, and practical discussion of personal and social change.
Included is a forum for debate and discussion, including commentary on
contemporary and emerging issues in gender and sexual politics; a resource
library/clearinghouse for key reports, manuals, and articles; and a toolkit for
activism, personal transformation, and social change. Over 200 articles on key
‘men’s issues’, from fathering and men’s health to the relationships between
masculinity, class, race and sexuality, to domestic violence are featured. XY
makes available key national and international guides and manuals to working
with men and boys and engaging men and boys in projects of building gender
equality, ending violence against women, and striving for social justice. There are
also personal stories, book reviews, and links to related websites.
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