The (in)visible gay in academic leadership:
implications for re-imagining inclusion and
transformation in South Africa.
In Daisy Pillay, Inbanathan Naicker, Kathleen Pithouse-Morgan (Eds.) 2015. Inside Teaching in Higher
Education: South African Academic Autoethnographies. Sense Publishers.
Seminar to Sociology, Faculty of Arts, NWU
By Robert J. Balfour, PhD (Cantab), FCCS
Faculty of Education Sciences, 13 May 2014
What's the issue?
Rancière argues that “… the rights of (people) and of the citizen are the
rights of those who make them a reality. They were won through
democratic action and are... guaranteed through such action” (2006,
p.74).
De Vos (2004) argues that “A mere
extension of marriage rights to some
same-sex couples will also not lead to
a necessary and fundamental re-imagining
of …..our society” (p.182) on the grounds
that “Because of homophobia, gender inequality and patriarchy in our
society, gay men, lesbians and many women ….do not have the social
or economic power to freely ‘choose’ to set the terms of their
relationships” (De Vos, p.183).
Appiah argues that the need for such measures arises from the fact
that the simple right to human dignity is not sufficient protection in a
State where a group or individual might still be attacked on the basis
of not conforming, amongst others, to a heternormative
ideal (2005, p.109).
Where identity cannot be considered
as chosen (gay people do not choose
their desires), and where the consequences
of such identities are severe, rights and
protection cannot be assumed.
The question this paper addresses is:
why are gay people as a vulnerable and minority group, rendered
invisible in the world of work when it comes to considerations
affecting transformation or affirmative action?
Identity, theory and the individual's choices….
Appiah in The Ethics of Identity (2005, 45) and Cosmopolitanism
(2006) argues…
that…conceptions of autonomy (as a key feature of identity) are
based on a false binary of self and other and distinctions made
between full or partial autonomy of the agent do not cohere (2005,
52).
Appiah draws upon psycho-social theory
of identity associated with the work of
Erikson and Gouldner stating that
“ideas (and values) shape the way
people conceive of themselves and
their projects (their choices)” (2005, 66).
Three arguments that suggest gay rights have not
yet been fully recognised….
First, the struggle is not yet won…
The struggles in South Africa to ‘assert’ gay identity to enable the
individuation for gay people, suggests that acceptance is neither
unproblematic, nor cause for (legal or other) restitution (for example,
employment equity).
The Employment Equity Act (EEA) 55 of 1998 defines 'designated
groups' as black people, women and people with disabilities.
Thus, whilst explicitly mentioned in the Constitution, no further
provision concerning the status of gay people as a group, is made.
Second, identifying as gay is still dangerous…
• Identifying as gay in academic leadership is rare, but also risky.
• Michael Warner (1993) defines heteronormativity as arising from
heterosexual culture’s ability to interpret itself as co-extensive with
society, as
the elemental form of human
association, as the very model of
inter-gender relations, as the
indivisible basis of all community,
and as the means of reproduction
without which society wouldn’t exist
(viii & xxi).
Third, higher education institutions don't protect
vulnerable groups….
Higher education makes few other provisions even for spaces that are
considered safe, or ‘gay friendly’. The choices for gay people seem
binary: marginalisation and othering, or assimilation and invisibility.
Soudien (2008) confirms that discrimination against gay persons exists
and is silenced:
However, although sexism has been raised in ...interactions with
institutional constituencies in relation to employment equity, with
a few exceptions there has been a deafening silence on sexual
harassment in general and in residences... The silence... does
not mean that the problem does not exist... it is clear that sexual
harassment, of women and gays and lesbians, is rife (Soudien
et al, 2008, p.95).
Perspectives on power and
difference…or why difference still
makes a difference?
Morley (2012) argues that equality does not equal quantitative change:
there is sacrifice, punishment; there is an unstable relationship to
power.
Barad (2007) states that differences are made and re-made depending
on the relationship between observer and observed. Leaders are made
via the politics of difference.
Botha (2004) suggests that rather than focusing predominantly on
issues of personhood and identity, the Court[s] should concentrate on
questions of domination and access to the means of political and
economic power.
Why does race ace gender?
Dealing with gender within the context of race-based prejudice has
been more complex because as Fraser (1996, p.218) argues, gender
equity is best understood as “a complex notion comprising a plurality of
distinct normative principles”.
Beyond biological sex its not easy to see gender.
Gender without disclosure is
thus invisible.
Unsurprisingly, queer theory (Diana Fuss and Jeffrey Weeks) focuses
on the politics of disclosure and identity.
Being out (of the closet)
Coming out (of the closet)
Being outed (from the closet)
Why auto-ethnography?
Quantitative modes do not account for the experience of difference.
Qualitative methods (interview, survey) can distort agency even while
describing the experience of difference.
In a post-Apartheid South Africa still trying to be
free, the voices and experiences of people
Still drives the current preoccupation
in higher education with qualitative research
in the social sciences.
Autoethnography:
1) inserts the political agency of the subject into scholarship as a valid
source of data;
2) and is a subjective contestation of the normative objectifying
discourse of research which seeks cases, studies, and
generalisations;
3) and allows a refusal of non-disclosure.
Experiential accounts…telling on authority
Political-identity experience:
Who I am/ who am I?
Who you think I am/ what do I think of you?
Psycho-spatial experience:
Without creating space, people become invisible
in order to fit into the spaces that are available.
Migrants move, immigrants seek to stay,
emigrants seek to move; refugees are compelled
to move.
Discursive-spatial experience:
Finding myself in your text (script);
Concealing myself in text (script);
Not fitting the texts (script).
Gay people are often migrants from themselves, immigrants in the land of
heteronormativity, and the refugees of heterosexism.
Acceptance (as leader comes) at the price of concealment.
A tale of three (univer) sities…
What is a totem?
An animal with which the person or group identifies
in terms of traits and values.
Evans-Pritchard, E.E. 1953. "The Sacrificial Role of Cattle among the Nuer", Africa: Journal of the International African Institute
(Edinburgh University Press) 23 (3): 181–198, retrieved 20 November 2011.
A totemic experience?
An incident which confirms the group or individual identity and values.
Ebony and ivory together in disharmony: race and sexuality at KwaZulu
University
Private dancer: values and sexual orientation at Angelis University
Go West young man: Western University and the leader’s erasure
Refusing conclusions …
1) Transformation as concept is applied selectively in higher education
institutions because of the ambiguities between the Constitution and
legislation. It is for this reason that South African interpretations of
gender in EEA terms remain inadequate.
2) Rendering gay people invisible as a historically disadvantaged group
remains a form of symbolic violence that encourages, by default,
real violations, because no accountability for what occurs to gay
people is expected.
3) Higher education institutions do not challenge interpretations of
transformation to include all historically disadvantaged groups
because this would challenge heteronormative practices and make
sexism unacceptable.
4) The problematic of disclosure is only problematic because of the
social stigma ascribed to sexuality as site for political contestation.
Thank you