Intersectional citizenship, violence, and lesbian resistance in South Africa

Abstract

There is a growing body of literature on intersectionality and citizenship, with scholars positing a need to analyze multiple identities simultaneously in order to understand both the legal incorporation and embodied experience of citizenship for marginalized groups. Building upon this central insight, I contribute to this literature by articulating the components of an intersectional citizenship framework to better understand the way multiple identities mediate citizenship, with particular reference to black lesbians in South Africa. Based on in-depth interviews with eighteen members of the black lesbian organization Free Gender, in Khayelitsha, Cape Town, I argue that Free Gender’s organizational goals can usefully be understood as asserting the commensurability of the identity “black lesbian” with “community member,” “African,” and “woman.” In applying a theoretical framework of intersectional citizenship to South Africa, it becomes clear that Free Gender’s activism reveals differential access to identities necessary to be seen as citizens entitled to rights. More than just extending juridical citizenship, black lesbians must have socially and politically legitimate access to multiple identity categories simultaneously in order to live free of violence.

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank the editors and two anonymous reviewers for their insightful feedback on earlier versions of this article. She is also grateful to all the members of Free Gender.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

¹ Marianne Thamm, “Not Just Another Murder,” Mail & Guardian Online, February 26, 2006, available online at: <http://mg.co.za/article/2006-02-26-notjust-another-murder> (accessed July, 29 2013).

² Author’s notes, Khayelitsha Magistrate Court, Khayelitsha, October 7, 2011.

³ Jacklyn Cock, “Engendering Gay and Lesbian Rights: The Equality Clause in the South African Constitution,” Women's Studies International Forum 26:1 (2003), pp. 35–45.

⁴ Combahee River Collective, “A Black Feminist Statement,” in Cherrie Moraga and Gloria Anzaldúa (eds), This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color (New York: Kitchen Table, Women of Color Press, 1983), pp. 210–218; Patricia Hill Collins, “Toward a New Vision: Race, Class, and Gender as Categories of Analysis and Connection,” Race, Sex & Class 1:1 (1993), pp. 25–45.

⁵ Leah Bassel, “Intersectional Politics at the Boundaries of the Nation State,” Ethnicities 10:2 (2010), pp. 155–180; Ann-Dorte Christensen, “Belonging and Unbelonging from an Intersectional Perspective,” Gender, Technology and Development 13:1 (2009), pp. 21–41; Daniel Conway, “Struggles for Citizenship in South Africa,” in Engin F. Isin‬ and Peter Nyers, (eds), Routledge Handbook of Global Citizenship Studies (New York: Routledge, 2014), pp. 240–249; Andrea Daley, Steven Solomon, Peter A. Newman, and Faye Mishna, “Traversing the Margins: Intersectionalities in the Bullying of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Youth,” Journal of Gay & Lesbian Social Services 19:3–4 (2008), pp. 9–29; Steven Epstein and Héctor Carrillo, “Immigrant Sexual “Citizenship: Intersectional Templates among Mexican Gay Immigrants to the USA,” Citizenship Studies 18:3–4 (2014), pp. 259–276; Nadia Y. Kim, “Citizenship on the Margins: A Critique of Scholarship on Marginalized Women and Community Activism,” Sociology Compass 7:6 (2013), pp. 459–470; Joe Rollins, “Embargoed Sexuality: Rape and the Gender of Citizenship in American Immigration Law,” Politics & Gender 5:4 (2009), pp. 519–544; Susan B. Rottmann and Myra Marx Ferree. “Citizenship and Intersectionality: German Feminist Debates about Headscarf and Antidiscrimination Laws,” Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State & Society 15:4 (2008), pp. 481–513; João Costa Vargas and Jaime Amparo Alves, “Geographies of Death: An Intersectional Analysis of Police Lethality and the Racialized Regimes of Citizenship in São Paulo,” Ethnic and Racial Studies 33:4 (2010), pp. 611–636; Sandy Welsh, Jacquie Carr, Barbara MacQuarrie, and Audrey Huntley, “‘I’m Not Thinking of It as Sexual Harassment:’ Understanding Harassment across Race and Citizenship,” Gender & Society 20:1 (2006), pp. 87–107; Nira Yuval-Davis, “Intersectionality, Citizenship and Contemporary Politics of Belonging,” Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy 10:4 (2007), pp. 561–574.‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬

⁶ Nikol G. Alexander-Floyd, “Disappearing Acts: Reclaiming Intersectionality in the Social Sciences in a Post-Black Feminist Era,” Feminist Formations 24:1 (2012), pp. 1–25.

⁷ Sirma Bilge, “Intersectionality Undone,” Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race 10:2 (2013), pp. 405–424.

⁸ Yuval-Davis, “Intersectionality, Citizenship and Contemporary Politics,” pp. 561–574.

⁹ Conway, “Struggles for Citizenship in South Africa,” pp. 240–249; Kim, “Citizenship on the Margins,” pp. 459–470; Birte Siim and Judith Squires, “Contesting Citizenship: Comparative Analyses,” Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy 10:4 (2007), pp. 403–416.‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬.

¹⁰ Kimberlé Crenshaw, “Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics,” University of Chicago Legal Forum (1989), pp. 139–167.

¹¹ Patricia Hill Collins in Leela Fernandes, Transnational Feminism in the United States: Knowledge, Ethics, Power (New York: NYU Press, 2013), p. 186.

¹² Fernandes, Transnational Feminism in the United States, p. 188.

¹³ Alexander-Floyd, “Disappearing Acts,” pp. 1–25; Bilge, “Intersectionality Undone,” pp. 405–424; Julia S. Jordan-Zachery, “‘I Ain’t Your Darn Help’: Black Women as the Help in Intersectionality Research in Political Science,” in Nikol Alexander-Floyd and Julia S. Jordan-Zachery (eds), Black Women in Politics: Identity, Power, and Justice in the New Millennium (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 2014), pp. 59–85.

¹⁴ Kimberlé Crenshaw, “Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence Against Women of Color,” Stanford Law Review 43:6 (1991), pp. 1241–1299; Jasbir K. Puar, ““I Would Rather Be a Cyborg Than a Goddess”: Becoming-Intersectional in Assemblage Theory,” PhiloSOPHIA 2:1 (2012), pp. 49–66.

¹⁵ Sumi Cho, Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw, and Leslie McCall, “Toward a Field of Intersectionality Studies: Theory, Applications, and Praxis,” Signs 38:4 (2013), pp. 785–810.

¹⁶ Kathryn Henne and Emily Troshynski, “Mapping the Margins of Intersectionality: Criminological Possibilities in a Transnational World,” Theoretical Criminology 0:0 (2013), pp. 1–19.

¹⁷ Ibid.

¹⁸ Kim, “Citizenship on the Margins,” pp. 459–470.

¹⁹ Nikol Alexander-Floyd and Julia S. Jordan-Zachery, “Guest Editors’ Note,” in Nikol Alexander-Floyd and Julia S. Jordan-Zachery (eds), Black Women in Politics: Identity, Power, and Justice in the New Millennium (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 2014), pp. 16–25; Alexander-Floyd, "Disappearing acts," pp. 1–25; Bilge, "Intersectionality Undone," pp. 405–424; Catharine A. MacKinnon, "Intersectionality as Method: A Note," Signs 38:4 (2013), pp. 1019–1030.

²⁰ Welsh, Carr, MacQuarrie, and Huntley, “‘I’m Not Thinking of It as Sexual Harassment’” pp. 87–107; Natalie J. Sokoloff, “Expanding the Intersectional Paradigm to Better Understand Domestic Violence in Immigrant Communities,” Critical Criminology 16:4 (2008), pp. 229–255.

²¹ Jewel L. Prestage, “In Quest of African American Political Woman,” The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 515:1 (1991), pp. 88–103.

²² Crenshaw, “Mapping the Margins,” pp. 1241–1299.

²³ Conway, “Struggles for Citizenship in South Africa," p. 246.

²⁴ Mikki Van Zyl, “Beyond the Constitution: From Sexual Rights to Belonging,” in Melissa Steyn and Mikki van Zyl (eds), The Prize and the Price (Cape Town: HSRC Press, 2009), pp. 364–387.

²⁵ Ibid., 365.

²⁶ Ibid., 370.

²⁷ Ibid.

²⁸ The brief descriptions of lesbian gender provided here are simplifications due to space constraints. Lesbian gender in South Africa is complex and multifaceted, as demonstrated by Zethu Matebeni, “Exploring Black Lesbian Sexualities and Identities in Johannesburg” (PhD diss., University of the Witwatersrand 2011) and Amanda Lock Swarr, “Stabane, Intersexuality, and Same-Sex Relationships in South Africa,” Feminist Studies 35:3 (2009), pp. 524–548.

²⁹ Amanda Lock Swarr, “Paradoxes of Butchness: Lesbian Masculinities and Sexual Violence in Contemporary South Africa,” Signs 37:4 (2012), pp. 961–986.

³⁰ Ibid., 962.

³¹ Zethu Matebeni, “Deconstructing Violence towards Black Lesbians in South Africa,” in Sokari Ekine and Hakima Abbas (eds), Queer African Reader (Nairobi: Pambazuka Press, 2013), pp. 343–353.

³² Sisipho Mthathi, “Forward,” What’s in a Name? Language, Identity, and the Politics of Resistance (One in Nine Campaign, 2013), p. i.

³³ Crenshaw, "Demarginalizing the Intersection," p. 149.

³⁴ K. Sue Jewell, From Mammy to Miss America and Beyond (New York: Routledge, 1993); Julia S. Jordan-Zachery, Black Women, Cultural Images, and Social Policy (New York: Routledge, 2009).

³⁵ Ange-Marie Hancock, The Politics of Disgust (New York: NYU Press, 2004), p. 21.

³⁶ Crenshaw, “Mapping the Margins,” p. 1247.

³⁷ Umot Ozkaleli, “State of the State in their Minds: Intersectional Framework for Women's Citizenship in Turkey,” Women's Studies International Forum 48 (January–February 2015), pp. 93–102.

³⁸ Ibid., 94.

³⁹ Susan Holland-Muter, “How to Name and Describe the Problem,” What’s in a Name? Language, Identity, and the Politics of Resistance (One in Nine Campaign, 2013), p. 57.

⁴⁰ Matebeni, “Deconstructing Violence Towards Black Lesbians,” p. 343.

⁴¹ Ibid., 344.

⁴² Ibid.

⁴³ Nira Yuval-Davis, “Intersectionality, Citizenship and Contemporary Politics,” p. 562.

⁴⁴ M. Jacqui Alexander, “Not Just (Any) Body Can Be a Citizen: The Politics of Law, Sexuality and Postcoloniality in Trinidad and Tobago and the Bahamas,” Feminist Review 48 (Autumn 1994), pp. 5–23.

⁴⁵ Ibid., 11.

⁴⁶ Ibid., 13.

⁴⁷ Ibid., 18.

⁴⁸ John Grundy and Miriam Smith, “The Politics of Multiscalar Citizenship: The Case of Lesbian and Gay Organizing in Canada,” Citizenship Studies 9:4 (2005), pp. 389–404; Epstein and Carrillo, “Immigrant Sexual Citizenship,” pp. 259–276; Vargas and Alves, "Geographies of Death," pp. 611–636.

⁴⁹ Andrew Tucker, Queer Visibilities: Space, Identity and Interaction in Cape Town (Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009).

⁵⁰ Adryan Wallace, “Influencing the Political Agenda from the Outside: A Comparative Study of Hausa Women’s NGOs and CBOs in Kato, Nigeria,” in Nikol Alexander-Floyd and Julia S. Jordan-Zachery (eds), Black Women in Politics: Identity, Power, and Justice in the New Millennium (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 2014), pp. 142–171.

⁵¹ Ibid.,149.

⁵² Lock Swarr, “Paradoxes of Butchness,” p. 962.

⁵³ Neville Hoad, “Between the White Man's Burden and the White Man's Disease: Tracking Lesbian and Gay Human Rights in Southern Africa,” GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies 5:4 (1999), pp. 559–584; Graeme Reid, "The Canary of the Constitution: Same-Sex Equality in the Public Sphere," Social Dynamics 36:1 (2010), pp. 38–51; Ashley Currier, Out in Africa: LGBT Organizing in Namibia and South Africa (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2012).

⁵⁴ Hoad, “Between the White Man's Burden,” pp. 559–584.

⁵⁵ Ibid., 565.

⁵⁶ Zanele Muholi, “Thinking through Lesbian Rape,” Agenda 18:61 (2004), pp. 118–119.

⁵⁷ All names provided are pseudonyms. Interviews took place between August 2011 and May 2012 in Cape Town. Because I name the organization, I have omitted demographic details about the individual members and the specifics of the interview in order to help ensure the anonymity of the participants.

⁵⁸ This is not to say that the assertion of a disjuncture between “woman” and “lesbian” cannot be of political value. See Monique Wittig, “One is Not Born a Woman,” in Henry Abelove, Michelle Aina Barale and David M. Halperin (eds), The Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader (New York: Routledge, 1993), pp. 103–109. However, given their reading of the current political climate, members of Free Gender find it politically useful to insist that “woman” and “lesbian” go together. The framework of intersectional citizenship I present points toward consideration of the relational nature of various identities, or how they are constructed as similar or different, compatible or incompatible, in a given social field.