With the increasing focus on the problem of ‘corrective rape’ in South Africa, representations of black lesbian women have largely become about victimhood. The increasing media focus on ‘corrective rape’ has also resulted in the... more
With the increasing focus on the problem of ‘corrective rape’ in South Africa, representations of black lesbian women have largely become about victimhood. The increasing media focus on ‘corrective rape’ has also resulted in the ‘hyper-visibility’ of black lesbian bodies. These representations of victimhood can be problematic, as they erase the agency, political activism, pleasure and multidimensionality of black lesbian lives. Furthermore, although there has been increased attention on the lives of black lesbian women, the experiences of black lesbian youth remain marginal. In this paper we present findings from a participatory, photovoice project with young, black lesbian women in the Western Cape. The project involved the development of photo stories and the collection of interview and focus group data from 14 young women between the ages of 13 and 17 years who identify as lesbian or bisexual. We discuss the young women’s experiences of violence and discrimination at school, and how they resist that discrimination. We also discuss how the young women construct and negotiate safety in their community, zoning in on the young women’s agency in their resistance and negotiation of safety, and their defiance of dominant narratives of victimhood. We further discuss how the photovoice methodology can be used as an empowering method to research issues around violence and safety with young people and those who may be stigmatised or marginalised.
Violence is a serious problem in South Africa with many effects on health services; it presents complex research problems and requires interdisciplinary collaboration. Two key meta-questions emerge: (i) violence must be understood better... more
Violence is a serious problem in South Africa with many effects on health services; it presents complex research problems and requires interdisciplinary collaboration. Two key meta-questions emerge: (i) violence must be understood better to develop effective interventions; and (ii) intervention research (evaluating interventions, assessing efficacy and effectiveness, how best to scale up interventions in resource-poor settings) is necessary. A research agenda to address violence is proposed.
This paper aims to investigate the responses available to urban and rural community members in the Western Cape Province of South Africa after witnessing, experiencing, or hearing about intimate partner violence (IPV) against women. It... more
This paper aims to investigate the responses available to urban and rural community members in the Western Cape Province of South Africa after witnessing, experiencing, or hearing about intimate partner violence (IPV) against women. It explores the social and material spaces that make IPV against women possible in these communities, which have a complex history of multiple forms of violence, including institutional, symbolic, and interpersonal. Seven focus group discussions with community members are analysed, using thematic narrative analysis, to explore the social and collective features of IPV and how it emerges within community responses to this violence. Constructions of IPV as an “everyday” event surfaced in the data, and mutualising language was often employed to construct IPV as a reciprocal activity with no clear distinction between attacker and victim. Also, a reconciliatory “kiss-and-make-up” narrative emerged in the data, representing how community members responded to t...
Acknowledgements 1. Women Living with HIV 2. An Introduction to South Africa with a Focus on the Cape Colored Community 3. Setting the Stage for Exploring a Support Group for HIV Positive Women in a Coloured Community in Cape Town 4.... more
Acknowledgements 1. Women Living with HIV 2. An Introduction to South Africa with a Focus on the Cape Colored Community 3. Setting the Stage for Exploring a Support Group for HIV Positive Women in a Coloured Community in Cape Town 4. Marginalizing the Marginalized Through Multiple Stigmas 5. Disclosure for Better or Worse 6. Staking a Claim as Normal Through Work and Relationships with Men 7. Care Work 8. Care Work and Violent Men 9. Women's Bodies 10. Lessons for the World References References Index
South Africa has one of the most advanced constitutions in the world. Several progressive laws that promise the protection of women, including the Domestic Violence Act, and a range of state-funded bodies have been established to promote... more
South Africa has one of the most advanced constitutions in the world. Several progressive laws that promise the protection of women, including the Domestic Violence Act, and a range of state-funded bodies have been established to promote women’s rights. Despite these signs of transition to democracy in the post-apartheid era, violence against women remains problematically high. The dominant perspective in both South African and international literature on the high rate of violence against women has been that of women’s ‘powerlessness’. This article goes beyond approaches that emphasise women’s victimhood. It explores women’s agency from the perspective of the narratives of 16 women in two shelters in Cape Town. Drawing from Scott’s (1990) concept of power and resistance, and using a feminist poststructuralist analytic lens, the article provides insight into the complexity of women’s subjectivities ‘post-abuse’. It highlights women’s shifting sense of power in relation to their abuse...
Intimate partner violence (IPV) in sub-Saharan Africa affects 36% of the population. Several African countries rank among the highest globally. In this article, we present evidence on the prevalence, determinants, and impact of IPV across... more
Intimate partner violence (IPV) in sub-Saharan Africa affects 36% of the population. Several African countries rank among the highest globally. In this article, we present evidence on the prevalence, determinants, and impact of IPV across several sub-Saharan African countries interpreted against the backdrop of social ecological theory. We also describe prevention or intervention programs tested in different regions of Africa, selecting only those programs which were published in a journal outlet and which met a high criteria of implementation and methodology (n = 7). Based on our review of the empirical literature, some risk factors for violence documented in Western societies are the same in Africa, including poverty, drinking, a past history of child abuse or posttraumatic stress disorder, and highly traditional gender role beliefs. Low education is also associated with IPV for both women and men. In Africa, partner abuse intersects with the HIV pandemic, making violence preventi...
pointed out by a facilitator working in a perpetrator programme in Sweden during Gottzén’s fieldwork in 2010. The facilitator wondered if a focus on masculinity really could contribute to interventions on intimate partner violence. The... more
pointed out by a facilitator working in a perpetrator programme in Sweden during Gottzén’s fieldwork in 2010. The facilitator wondered if a focus on masculinity really could contribute to interventions on intimate partner violence. The programme was one of the first in the country working with partner-violent men and combined a feminist perspective with therapeutic and cognitive behavioural interventions. Despite his own feminist standpoint, and despite the fact that the majority of the perpetrators they worked with were men, the programme had in recent years started to refer to their clients in gender-neutral terms. They were called ‘perpetrators’, ‘users of violence’ or ‘clients’, but never ‘violent men’ and definitely not ‘woman batterers’. The semantic change expressed a desire to make the programme more LGBTQ inclusive, but it also indicated a wish to offer abusive heterosexual cis women treatment. As a consequence, not only did this obfuscate the fact that their perpetrators w...
Sex work remains highly stigmatised throughout the world. This is particularly true in South Africa, where legal, academic, and popular discourses continue to construct sex workers and their clients as responsible for the spread of... more
Sex work remains highly stigmatised throughout the world. This is particularly true in South Africa, where legal, academic, and popular discourses continue to construct sex workers and their clients as responsible for the spread of HIV/AIDS, thereby exacerbating the public panic and stigma related to sex work. Through the lenses of feminist decolonial and queer theories, this paper explores how male clients manage the stigma associated with the purchase of sex and how they negotiate their gendered identities by enlisting discourses of race and class. Drawing on excerpts from in-depth interviews with 43 men who identify as clients of women sex workers, we show how men evoked racist colonial tropes to construct the black body as lower class, dirty and diseased. We argue that this denigration of the black Other allowed men to construct their own masculine identities favourably. To conclude, we reflect upon how legislation that criminalises sex work in South Africa operates in tandem wi...
The act of intimate partner violence (IPV) is a social event, shaped by a complex web of social conditions and intersections. Consequently, a theory that is sensitive to the socio-historical context in which IPV occurs is necessary, as... more
The act of intimate partner violence (IPV) is a social event, shaped by a complex web of social conditions and intersections. Consequently, a theory that is sensitive to the socio-historical context in which IPV occurs is necessary, as well as recognition that a man who perpetrates violence against a woman partner, does so in relationship to other men and women, to a family, community and society. In this paper, we employ the theory of social representations to gain new insight into this multifaceted phenomenon, and to unearth representations of partner violence against women amongst male perpetrators and their social networks in Cape Town, South Africa. Individual interviews were conducted with eleven men, recruited from a men’s programme at an NGO, and focus group discussions were conducted with the men’s social networks. The findings shed light on the polarity of human thought in defining gender-appropriate performances for men and women, whilst excluding the ‘other’ who fails to...
English Abstract: In this paper we argue that social representations are a key mechanism through which knowledge about intimate partner violence is shared and understood. We draw on in-depth interviews with 11 men who had perpetrated... more
English Abstract: In this paper we argue that social representations are a key mechanism through which knowledge about intimate partner violence is shared and understood. We draw on in-depth interviews with 11 men who had perpetrated violence against an intimate woman partner and analyse the social representations of masculinities, femininities and violence that emerge from men’s narratives about their lives and relationships. We analyse men’s social representations of violence primarily through the lens of respectability involving both masculine and feminine forms of respectability, which contribute to the maintenance of patriarchy. We show how the narrative of respectability is held together by representations of masculine heroism and feminine masochism and the findings cast light on how acts of violence are shaped by a range of intersections and structural oppressions. Social representations of gender and intimate partner violence also show how individual men’s narratives about v...
