Contemporary masculinities within the political sphere: a reading of ANCYL's Julius Malema
Date
2012-10-08
Authors
Mokoena, Dikeledi Andronica
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Abstract
Masculinity performances of black men during the era resistance against apartheid were characterized by negative attitude towards women as well as violent. For instance, in pre-democratic South Africa, Mandela enactments were militant but the transition to a new South Africa heralded a different definition of manhood, Mandela became a representation of peace. The South African constitution was designed in a way that upholds the status of women. However, the new constitutionally bound South Africa witnessed the escalation of violence against women. It was even more alarming when a public figure went on trial for rape. This event evoked a lot of debate regarding the status of women in South Africa despite having the most progressive constitution in the world. The issues surrounding women’s positions in South Africa that were sparked by the Jacob Zuma trial were slightly reignited by Julius Malema’s remarks about the Rape accuser.
Malema’s remarks and responses reveal the existence of various forms of violence against women as well as the patriarchal engine which characterises post-apartheid South Africa. This project provides a descriptive analysis of the performance of masculinity by Malema. The paper is driven by the desire to understand the underlying connotations of the enactments of Julius Malema around the rape trial event. Because of the limiting nature of a research project, the author commenced with a hypothesis to test regarding the model of masculinity Malema performs. The hypothesis stipulated that Malema model of masculinity is that of Thokozani Xaba’s model of masculinity. The project yielded the conclusion that Malema’s performance is indeed an enactment of struggle masculinity however the concept was insufficient in covering some features of Malema’s performances. Through a fusion of an inductive and deductive approach, a concept of rebel masculinity was formulated to supplement the shortfall of ‘struggle masculinity’. The school of thought characterizing this project is the qualitative approach.
Description
M.A. University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Humanities, 2012