Living Our Lives on the Edge: Power, Space and Sexual Orientation in Cape Town Townships, South Africa

Abstract

Much of social science literature about SouthAfrican cities fails to represent its complex spectrum of sexual practices and associated identities. The unintended effects of such representations are that a compulsory heterosexuality is naturalised in, and reiterative with, dominant constructions of blackness in townships. In this paper, we argue that the assertion of discreet lesbian and gay identities in black townships of a South African city such as Cape Town is influenced by the historical racial and socio-economic divides that have marked urban landscape. In their efforts to recoup a positive sense of gendered personhood, residents have constructed a moral economy anchored in reproductive heterosexuality. We draw upon ethnographic data to show how sexual minorities live their lives vicariously in spaces they have prised open within the extant sex/gender binary. They are able to assert the identities of moffie and man-vrou (mannish woman) without threatening the dominant ideology of heterosexuality.

Are Same‐Sex Marriages UnAfrican? Same‐Sex Relationships and Belonging in Post‐Apartheid South Africa

“…Several couples confirmed the normative gender division of labor among same‐sex couples; in particular the traditional marriage between Puleng as “husband” and Anna as “wife” reproduces the social roles of the heteronormative gender order (see also Salo et al, 2010). This is consistent with traditional same‐sex marriages among women in other African societies (Morgan & Wieringa, 2005).…”

“…Therefore, the discourse claiming that homosexuality is unAfrican is embedded in wider hegemonic relations of power centering “true” African identities in contrast to perceived colonial identities or “Western imports.” This discourse has, paradoxically, created an opportunity to challenge the hegemonic norms by the (re)emergence of more fluid African identities—an alternative modern African identity. This symbolic refashioning of identities is a site of hegemonic struggles in the politics of lgbtiq belonging and same‐sex relationships in South Africa (see also Salo, Ribas, Lopes & Zamboni, 2010).…”

“…Several Black participants noted that queers who conform to dominant gender images, that is, gay men who project hegemonic masculinities and lesbians who conform to emphasized femininities (Connell & Messerschmidt, 2005), are more camouflaged in heteronormative society. However, this does not necessarily mean greater social acceptance (see Salo et al, 2010). Thereby they are more likely to escape stigmatization of people who project a nonnormative gender identity, and also less likely to elicit violence, showing how fear of violence keeps people in their “place.” Generally, lesbians as women are also more at risk of sexual assaults than men.…”

Teacher as learner: a personal reflection on a short course for South African university educators

“…I found myself, in other words, a feminist in a space devoted to promoting social justice where gender (let alone other subjectivities) was barely acknowledged -and this in a society in which women have been described as 'under siege' (Gqola 2007, see also Lewis 2009;Ratele 2006;Hassim 2009;Gouws 2005;Steyn and van Zyl 2009;Isike and Uzodike 2011;Salo et al 2010;Hunter 2011;Bak 2008). I found myself furthermore a feminist historian in a space where the centrality of gender and sexuality to racialised and racist processes of imperialism, colonialism, industrialisation, urbanisation and, more recently, apartheid, were dismissed.…”

Fathers, adolescent daughters and gender in a low-income South African community

“…Furthermore, little research exists on Coloured, 1 low-income fathers as they have been subsumed under the Black African South African population group (Ratele et al, 2012). This incorporation is problematic as it can be argued that Coloured people have a different historical and current social context than other Black South African groups (Field, 2001;Salo et al, 2010). Existing knowledge about Black South African fathers can therefore not be assumed to be relevant for Coloured South African fathers.…”