By: Dr Sibusiso Ngubane
Violence exists in various forms in South Africa, with the recently released Human Sciences Research Council's (2024) first national gender-based violence (GBV) study showing its magnitude.
The significance of focusing on the gendered nature of violence cannot be emphasized enough as it allows a more nuanced analysis of violence that reveals its source.
The term gender-based violence, which I also used for my study on the connections between violence and masculinities working with male university peer-educator students, gives this structural violence the necessary attention and avoids generality.
South Africa continues to be faced with multiple incidents of GBV perpetrated by men against women, even at institutions of higher learning.
The questions: ‘Why are some South African men violent?’ and ‘Why is gender at the centre of most violence perpetrated by men?’ are different sides of the same coin.
While the former is the primary question, the latter is its answer worth framing as a question due to its complexity.
Therefore, what we should concern ourselves with is no longer GBV perpetration but its production (what not who produces it).
The attention I draw to men as perpetrators of violence is not aimed at problematizing them but at the way they construct themselves, raising issues of masculinity and femininity.
The question of why some men (not males) are violent allows masculinity lenses that enable us to view them beyond their biological into their socio-cultural makeup in order to scrutinize the traditional masculine norms on which their troubling attitudes and behaviours are predicated.
My study with university peer-educator students revealed that not only are masculinities connected to GBV perpetration but also its possible reduction through gender transformation.
The findings show that GBV against women and gender-non-conforming men emanates from asymmetrical gender power, suggesting that hetero-patriarchal norms create grounds for violence. Such socio-cultural conditions reinforce gender norms that promote male privilege and dominance over women and other males who portray feminine elements, leading to these conditions being misinterpreted by some men as a social mandate prescribing their expected behaviour.
While multiple masculinities are observable at different levels of society, it is critical to understand male power through hegemonic masculinities (Connell, 2005;Messerschmidt, 2019), highlighting how some male expressions are regarded as more powerful than others. Hegemonic masculinities are perceived desirable enough for men to gauge themselves against but, more troublingly, to be gauged by society against these, giving rise to such masculine notions as a ‘real’ man.
Men construct hegemonic masculinities in relation to more subordinate masculinities and women, thereby maintaining unequal gender relations in society that become a fertile ground for GBV.
Focusing on how some South African men construct hegemonic forms of masculinity that are considered more powerful enables us to understand how they use the perceived power to perpetrate violence against other men to maintain internal dominance and against women for external dominance within gender relations.
If we genuinely want to address GBV, we should, through various social institutions, facilitate the reconstruction of hegemonic masculinities and challenge their traditional legitimacy.
Given multiple masculinities, research has shown that some men do reflect varyingly on their attitudes and practices. For example, my study findings show that some men acknowledge that women empowerment is vital to dismantling GBV facilitating masculine privileges. This suggests that problematizing masculinities is plausible, not least when it involves appreciating the shifts by some men towards more gender-transformative versions that support gender equality.
Masculinity reconstructions, which result in more progressive versions, are a required means to an end, not the end itself(gender equality).
Therefore, violence perpetrated by men as they do gender is a masculinity issue and should be strictly treated as such to inform relevant formal and informal interventions at all levels of society.
Gender is indeed at the centre of violence perpetrated by some South African men. While other spheres of society may require different interventions that encourage exemplary practices by men, organizing boys/young men at educational institutions as peer educators with a specific mandate on social issues can allow them to constantly renegotiate their masculinities and pave the way for more equitable gender relations.
Persistent incidents of GBV are indicative of the requirement for constant masculinity reconstructions driven by gender-focused engagements with men that encourage reflective gender practices until gender equality is achieved.
Sibusiso Ngubane is a University of KwaZulu-Natal PhD graduate with a research interest in masculinities.
** The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of IOL or Independent Media.