Currents against gender transformation of South African men: relocating marginality to the centre of research and theory of masculinities

Abstract

South African research on men, boys and masculinities appears to be underachieving. The article presents a number of research-related and socio-political discursive cross-currents tied to this unconvincing performance. These are currents within and against which masculinities are produced and masculinities research conducted. They are seen as opposed to changing gender power relations and the transformation of boys, men and masculinities in post-apartheid society. The inventory of these currents is intended to be taken as signposts of the ongoing struggle for dominance among the forces pressing against the project of changing gender power relations and men's transformation. The article suggests that while there are obvious hegemonic ideas about masculinity in the country, these ideas are complicated by the marginality of (South) African society in juxtaposition to powerful multinational capitalist ideologies. It is contended that what we might be in need of are culturally-intelligent studies and activism on men in their locatedness in their marginal worlds. A door into gaining better access into masculinities located in this zone of marginality and representing pro-feminist work with men and boys as pro-African is the critical re-deployment of the notion of ‘(the) tradition/al’ as constitutive of masculinity.

Keywords:

• culture
• gender
• marginality
• masculinities
• tradition
• South Africa

Notes on contributor

Kopano Ratele is Professor in the Institute for Social and Health Sciences at the University of South Africa (Unisa) and co-director of the Medical Research Council-Unisa Safety and Peace Promotion Research Unit. He writes mainly on African boys, men and masculinity. His last book was There Was This Goat (2009), co-authored with Nosisi Mpolweni and Antjie Krog. He is chairperson of the board of Sonke Gender Justice Network and past president of the Psychological Society of South Africa.

Notes

1. Black and African are used interchangeably, with the specific focus on black men and masculinities in South Africa.

2. It is of interest that Mfecane subsequently received an invitation from the deputy president of South Africa, Kgalema Motlanthe, to present his views at a government-initiated forum on issues related to his opinion piece. Mfecane, S, personal communication, 15 July 2013.

3. Amadhlozi/badimo means ancestors in Zulu/Sotho.

4. Gift-giving.