‘Cheese boys’ resisting and negotiating violent hegemonic masculinity in primary school

ABSTRACT

In this paper we draw from a case study of a primary school in a low income setting in South Africa and focus on black African boys aged between 10 and 12 years old identified as ‘cheese boys’ as they negotiate hegemonic masculinity. In this context the ‘bosses’ displayed hegemonic masculinity defined by violence. Cheese boys negotiate their different position within gender relations as they reject violence, engage in cross-gender friendships and identified as being ‘clever’ with support from teachers. We argue that different masculinities and practices of masculinity are evident amongst young boys. Whilst their versions of masculinity were resistant and differed from hegemonic masculinity there were also some parallels with hegemony as they showed potential to do violence and disparaged gay and the feminine as weak. Whilst attempts to address new versions of masculinity are being accelerated in South Africa, we offer some caution in relation to the link with dominant notions of masculinity based on gender inequalities and violence.

KEYWORDS:

• Primary school boys
• resistant masculinity
• violence
• hegemony
• South Africa

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Deevia Bhana is the DST/NRF South African Research Chair in Gender and Childhood Sexuality at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. Her interests are in children, gender, young masculinities, schooling and sexuality.

Emmanuel Mayeza, PhD was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of KwaZulu-Natal between 2016 and 2017. His interests are in children, masculinities and sexuality.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the South African Research Chairs Initiative of the Department of Science and Technology Republic of South Africa and the National Research Foundation of South Africa [grant number 98407].