Masculinity, sexual citizenship and religion in post-apartheid South Africa: a field-theoretical approach

ABSTRACT

With regard to notions of legitimate masculinity, Black South African men are torn between two antithetical discourses: one organized around liberal notions of rights and freedoms and driven by secular civil society, the other grounded in the values of ‘traditional’ masculinity. In this article, I draw on Bourdieu’s theory of social fields as well as recent ethnographic work in Cape Town and substitute this dichotomy with a fourfold matrix of liberal, traditional, youth gang-oriented and religiously based masculinities. Employing a relational methodology, the article explores how Pentecostal men in Cape Town’s townships position themselves within this field of masculinities and the shifting implications of this positioning for the politics of sexual citizenship. I argue that Pentecostal masculinity is not a stable and fixed configuration of gendered attitudes, values and performances, but a set of cultural distinctions that shift with the problem-space these distinctions address as well as the values they are meant to articulate.

KEYWORDS:

• Pentecostalism
• religion
• South Africa
• masculinity
• sexual citizenship

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. The name of the church, the pastor and all other individuals mentioned in this article are pseudonyms used to protect their identity.

2. The practice of kneeling is a traditional display of respect and deference in Zulu society and not limited to the AmaNazarites.

3. Quote taken from my field notes.

4. See http://allafrica.com/stories/201511200811.html; accessed 29 July 2017.