South Africa has seen a rapid
increase in scholarship and programmatic interventions focusing on gender and
sexuality, and more recently on boys, men and masculinities.
In this paper, we
argue that a deterministic discourse on men's sexuality and masculinity in
general is inherent in many current understandings of adolescent male
sexuality, which tend to assume that young women are vulnerable and powerless
and young men are sexually powerful and inevitably also the perpetrators of
sexual violence. Framed within a feminist, social constructionist the oretical
perspective, the current research looked at how the masculinity and sexuality
of South African young men is constructed, challenged or maintained.
Focus
groups were conducted with young men between the ages of 15 and 20 years from
five different schools in two regions of South Africa, the Western and Eastern
Cape. Data were analysed using Gilligan's listening guide method.
Findings
suggest that participants in this study have internalised the notion of themselves
as dangerous, but were also exploring other possible ways of being male and
being sexual, demonstrating more complex experiences of manhood. We argue for
the importance of documenting and highlighting the precariousness,
vulnerability and uncertainty of young men in scholarly and programmatic work
on masculinities.
Purchase full article at: http://goo.gl/xzYtHM
By:
- 1 Faculty of Arts , Women's and Gender Studies, University of the Western Cape , Cape Town , South Africa.
- 2 Psychology Department , Stellenbosch University , Matieland , South Africa.
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