Male Peer Talk About Menstruation: Discursively Bolstering Hegemonic Masculinities Among Young Men in South Africa

Abstract

In this paper, we show how male peer talk about menstruating women may be used to discursively bolster hegemonic masculinities and denigrate women. Focus group discussions among 37 young isiXhosa-speaking men from two South African schools were facilitated by two young men; statements garnered from a sexuality education class about menstruation conducted in the same schools were used as cues. Data were analyzed using discourse analysis. The interactive talk constructed a bifurcation: “disgusting” menstruating women versus “reasonable” non-menstruating women who abide by idealized feminine behavior and are available sexually. We argue that as the non-menstruating woman cyclically become the other (menstruating woman) in women of particular ages, the trace of disgust inhabits the signifier “woman” for these men. Menstruation also disrupted a core identity strategy of local hegemonic masculinities: virile (hetero)sexuality. Given this, discursive distancing of the self from the very topic of menstruation is necessary. Small moments of resistance to these constructions were quickly closed down, and caring masculinity emerged only in the context of negotiating sex during menstruation. Involving men in menstrual hygiene management programs may provide spaces for resistance to denigrating discourses about menstruation.

Keywords:

• Menstruation
• hegemonic masculinities
• South Africa
• gender
• menses

Acknowledgements

We thank the Eastern Cape Department of Education and the school principals for permission to conduct the research. We thank the participants for their time and honesty.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 Of course, not only cisgender women menstruate. In this paper, however, we examine the construction of hegemonic cisgender masculinities in relation to the menstrual embodiment of cisgender femininities.

2 South Africa is a diverse country, divided along (socially constructed) racial lines (Black African; people of Khoi, San descendance; people of mixed race; Asian South Africans; Whites) and language lines (Zulu, Tsonga, Xhosa, Northern Sotho, Southern Sotho, Tswana, Pedi, Venda, English, Afrikaans, Swati, Ndebele).

3 This refers to the role of the ancestors in the lives of amaXhosa people. The male “head of household” serves as a link between current members of the homestead and the ancestors, officiating at ritual events.

4 Macleod (2007) argues that femininities form, in Derridean terms, the absent trace of masculinities.

5 The schools were reserved for Black learners during the Apartheid era. Typically, they have poorer educational quality when compared to schools reserved for White learners.

6 The life skills program included discussions on sexualities, relationships, substance use, and so on.

7 This is the term used for high school students in South Africa.

8 Numbers indicate separate extracts from the FDGs.

9 This concept has been used by Bridges and Pascoe (2014) in their description of hybrid masculine practices.

10 The full saying goes: “Meat is meat and a man must eat; a duck is a duck and a man must still eat.”

Additional information

Funding

This work is based on research supported by the South African Research Chairs initiative of the Department of Science and Technology and National Research Foundation of South Africa (grant No. 87582).