How the ‘cult of femininity’ and violent masculinities support endemic gender based violence in contemporary South Africa

Bibliographic Data

ID6030909
AuthorsPumla Dineo Gqola (0000-0001-9005-0148, corresponding author)
Year2007
Volume5
Issue1
Pages111-124
Publication date2007-04-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueAfrican Identities (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1472-5843 • E-ISSN: 1472-5851
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/14725840701253894
OpenAlexW2067992274
LanguageEN
Citations received90
References cited7

This essay draws on South African history in order to deepen understanding of the high level of gender based violence in that country, post‐apartheid. Demonstrating the limitations of current public discourses about gender, violence and sexuality, its writer argues that events like the recent rape trial of former national vice‐president, Jacob Zuma, are unsurprising. Rather, such moments are enabled by the continuum through which masculinities and feminities are thought and sanctioned in contemporary South Africa. The patterns of complicity that prop up gender based violence require historicized feminist undoing. Keywords: Ideology of militarismJacob Zuma trialhomophobiasexualitygender‐talk'South African contradiction'national gender discourse Acknowledgements A version of this paper was initially presented as the fifth Ruth First Lecture at Constitutional Court, Constitution Hill, Braamfontein, South Africa on 15 November 2006. An edited and shortened version of the lecture appeared in the Mail & Guardian, 24–30 November, as 'The hype of women's empowerment' and Cape Times, 27 November under the title 'Gender talk is seriously flawed'. The support of the Ruth First Fellowship committee and the Heinrich Böll Stiftung is hereby acknowledged. Notes 1. In her opening statement to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's Special Hearings on Women, in July 1998. 2. I borrow 'gender‐talk' from Johnetta Betsch Cole and Beverly Guy‐Sheftall's book (2003 Cole, Johnetta Betsch and Guy‐Sheftall, Beverly. 2003. Gender Talk: The Struggle for Women's Equality in African‐American Communities, New York: One World. [Google Scholar]) of the same name. 3. See her 1992 Interview with People's Video Network on 'What Chris Hani contributed to the ANC's victory', archived at http://www.peoplesvideo.org/hani.htm (accessed 1 November 2006). 4. Nadine Hutton's photographic exhibition, Madeleine's Story, accompanied the Ruth First lecture when this paper was first presented on 15 November 2006. 5. FRELIMO was the Mozambican anti‐colonial movement, which has been the majority party in a democratic Mozambique since its first parliament under President Samora Machel. FRELIMO is also credited historically with having developed guerrilla tactics. 6. The photographer, Ingrid Masondo raises this question in an interview with Pumla Dineo Gqola, filmed as part of Lindiwe Nkutha's documentary segment of the mixed media exhibition, Umzansi through the eyes of amadodakazi awo, Women's Jail, Constitution Hill, August 2006. 7. Iintsara were Black youths from Nyanga township in Cape Town in the late 1980s and 1990s. These gangs were famous for stabbing, rape and other violent crime. 8. Ukuthwala is an older 'cultural' practice of abducting young women in order to force them into marriage. It is still found in remote rural areas of South Africa. 9. Jackrolling is the name given to the high level of gang‐raping that became endemic in townships around Johannesburg and Pretoria in the 1980s and 1990s

Criminology · Cult · Femininity · Gender violence · Masculinity · Political science · Sociology · Gender Studies · Intimate Partner and Family Violence · Law · Sex work and related issues · South African History and Culture

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