“We are a collective, a lot of us together, standing up”: South African black lesbian women’s activism against discourses of blackwashing homophobia

abstract

Research centring South African black lesbian women’s identities has increased significantly in recent years. However, a politics of visibility (in academic and public spaces) has not secured equal status and human rights for many of these women. Instead, dominant discourses of blackwashing homophobia (re)produce colonial strategies of othering, associating their identities with violence, fear, shame and victimhood. Black lesbian women are often constructed as inevitable targets of special crimes – particularly that of ‘corrective rape’ in township settings (in the case of South Africa). This repeated, negative stereotype conceals the effects of historical and contemporary inequalities that constrain the constitutional protection and social sanctioning of black, queer identities. An increasingly relevant, but under-examined area of study is the potential for collective political action to disrupt reductionist discourses, recognising these women’s identities as whole, plural, fluid, complex and contradictory. This article thus focalises one exemplar of such resistance, using a feminist, intersectional methodological framework to explore secondary, textual data. The findings contribute to a growing body of research that foregrounds intersectionality theory as a valuable lens through which contemporary South African identities can be viewed. Counter-discourses that challenge blackwashing strategies are also offered. The findings allude specifically to the significance of black lesbian women’s community-level mobilisation against gender-based violence, and its intersections with racial and sexual inequalities. Where blackwashing discourses tend to essentialise and divide these identities into parts, findings suggest that for some black lesbian women, racial, gendered and sexual identities are indivisible: connected particularly to joy, solidarity, pleasure, power, resilience and strength.

keywords:

• intersectionality
• gender
• sexuality
• race
• activism

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1. The terms ‘black’ and ‘white’ refer to racial categories that were devised during the apartheid regime (as part of pseudo-classification methods) to create multi-level divisions between South Africans. These terms are still used in SA in 2019. In this article, however, identity terms such as black, lesbian and woman do not refer to homogenous groups of people, or to stable characteristics: identities are fluid and plural, especially in relation to different spaces (Crenshaw, 1991). Further, situating black, lesbian and woman next to one another in this particular order is not to suggest that these identities are triply oppressed, or that one construct is more significant than the other(s) (Bowleg, 2008). Rather, this syntax is used to symbolise the complex interplay within and between these constructs.

2. “A woman who has sexual, romantic and intimate feelings for or a love relationship with another woman (or women)” (Lynch and Sanger, 2016:7).

3. Afrikaans word meaning ‘separateness’. Refers generally to the system of institutionalised racism that was implemented by the National Party in SA, from 1948 to 1994 (see Seekings and Nattrass, 2005).

4. Moreau (2015) uses the term “intersectional citizenship” to denote the attainment of equal status and legitimacy for black lesbian identities, not only juridically but socially and politically.

5. “Heteronormativity refers to the privileged position associated with heterosexuality, based on a normative assumption that there are only two genders, that gender always reflects the person’s biological sex as assigned at birth, and that only sexual attraction between these ‘opposite’ genders is considered normal or natural” (Lynch and Sanger, 2016:7).

6. Townships are locations that were originally created by the apartheid government, as part of the Separate Development policy. These areas were intended to exclude non-white South Africans from urban, ‘white’ areas (Seekings and Nattrass, 2005).

7. Identities that challenge or subvert hegemonic heteronormativity; for example, LGBTQIA+ identities.

8. See https://mg.co.za/article/2013-07-15-00-violence-against-black-lesbians-is-a-struggle-for-power.

9. For these reasons, the term ‘corrective rape’ (in inverted commas) is used throughout the paper, to indicate that it has been problematised and contested.

10. A socio-political system that condones the dominance of heterosexual, cisgender males over some women and individuals who do not conform to heteronormative, binary configurations of genders and sexualities (Van Zyl, 2005).

11. “An inclusive term that refers not only to lesbian and gay persons, but also to any person who feels marginalised because of her or his sexual practices, or who resists the heteronormative sex/gender/sexual identity system” (Lynch and Sanger, 2016:8).

12. An umbrella term that includes domestic, economic, physical, emotional and sexual manifestations of abuse that transgress – to varying degrees and across different settings – a person’s human rights, based on gender and/or sexual orientation (Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation, 2016). Types of offences range from ‘milder’ manifestations (e.g. verbal harassment) to criminal offences (such as rape).

13. NCGLE is an organisation that advocates for the constitutional protection of same-sex South Africans under the Constitution and Bill of Human Rights.

14. Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, Asexual and others. A broad term that intends to increase awareness of the diverse range of sexual and gender identities expressed by individuals worldwide.

15. See: http://johannesburgpride.co.za/.

16. A qualitative research method that features mainly in community-based participatory research, involving the use of cameras to document varying phenomena.

17. Available at: https://blacklivesmatter.com/.

18. Available at: https://inkanyiso.org/.

19. Available at: http://juliagunther.com/portfolio/proud-woman-of-africa/rainbow-girls

20. Khayelitsha township was established in Western Cape Province in 1983, as part of the apartheid government’s Separate Development policy (Seekings and Nattrass, 2005). By 1995 the population of Khayelitsha had reached half a million. Since then, the population has continued to grow, making Khayelitsha the second-largest township in SA, after Soweto township in Johannesburg (South African History Online, 2013a).

21. The township of Gugulethu was established in 1958, under the apartheid government’s Group Areas Act (Seekings and Nattrass, 2005). Located in the Western Cape Province, this township was intended to support racial segregation, with many black South Africans being forcibly relocated there (South African History Online, 2013b).

22. “People who have a gender identity, and often a gender expression, that is different to the sex they were assigned at birth. Some transgender people opt for gender-affirming treatment, while others choose not to, or to only partially undergo such treatment. ‘Transgender man’ refers to a female-to-male trans person, and ‘transgender woman’ to a male-to-female trans person. Transgender people can be heterosexual, bisexual or homosexual” (Lynch and Sanger, 2016:8).

23. A term that, stereotypically, denotes a lesbian woman whose physical stylisation and/or behaviour appear ‘masculine’ (Matebeni, 2013).

24. “The configuration of gender practice which embodies the currently accepted answer to the problem of the legitimacy of patriarchy, which guarantees the dominant position of men and the subordination of women and other men [ … ] considered [ … ] weak” (Connell, 1995:77).

25. Understood, stereotypically, to be the ‘feminine’ counterpart to a ‘butch’ woman, in a lesbian relationship. A lesbian woman whose physical stylisation and/or behaviour appear ‘feminine’ (Matebeni, 2013).

26. “Involves an identity [ … ] process, whereby a homosexual individual explores his/her sexuality in a predominantly heterosexual environment” (Smuts, 2011:24). Being ‘out’ has connotations of being open and expressive about one’s identification as ‘gay’, ‘lesbian’, ‘queer’, etc.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Gabriela Pinheiro

GABRIELA PINHEIRO is a social and psychological researcher. She completed her Master’s at the University of the Witwatersrand and is currently interning at the UNISA Institute for Social and Health Sciences. Her research background includes work in the South African Higher Education sector and community engagement. She is interested primarily in critical social psychology, gender and sexuality, and student health/wellbeing. Email: [email protected]

Clare Harvey

CLARE HARVEY is a clinical psychologist, lecturer and researcher in Psychology at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. Clare's PhD explored maternal subjectivity when a mother's child is physically disabled, utilising an intersubjective psychoanalytic lens to understand this particular experience. She has worked in clinical settings in the UK and SA, including as Head of Psychology at Rahima Moosa Mother and Child Hospital, Johannesburg. Her research interests are primarily in the areas of disability, motherhood, gender and psychoanalysis. Email: [email protected]