Embodied difference in manhood: A sociological analysis of the intersection of visible physical impairments and manhood among Xhosa men in the Eastern Cape
- Authors: Sipungu, Thoko Andy
- Date: 2021-10-29
- Subjects: Masculinity South Africa Eastern Cape , Sex role South Africa Eastern Cape , Sex role Psychological aspects , Men with disabilities South Africa Eastern Cape , People with disabilities Social conditions , Xhosa (African people) South Africa Eastern Cape Social life and customs , Male domination (Social structure) South Africa Eastern Cape , Circumcision Social aspects South Africa Eastern Cape
- Language: English
- Type: Doctoral theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/191658 , vital:45145 , 10.21504/10962/191658
- Description: In this thesis, I outline possible answers to the question of what it means to be a Xhosa man living with a visible physical impairment. Drawing on 17 one-on-one in-depth interviews and through an interpretive phenomenological thematic analysis, this thesis explores the intersection of physical disabilities and manhood masculinity in Xhosa men in selected rural areas in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. The intention for this study is to better our understanding concerning the creation, negotiation, maintenance, and recreation of manhood identities by traditionally circumcised Xhosa men in the Eastern Cape who by birth, accident, or illness find themselves at the intersections of masculinity and physical disability. Research notes that the bodies of men with disabilities serve as a continual reminder that they are at odds with the expectations of the dominant manhood cultures. The main argument from this area of research is that men with disabilities are outside the hegemony because they undermine the normative role and shape of the body in Western cultures. However, this line of argumentation stands in sharp contrast to arguments that the hegemony in Xhosa manhood masculinity is primarily and conclusively achieved by having a traditionally circumcised penis without any consideration of the full embodiments of men. Therefore, this study, in the first instance, seeks to bring embodiment into the analyses of manhood by focusing on physical disability amongst traditionally circumcised Xhosa men. Through an embodied theoretical approach to their disabilities that accounts for the corporeal experience of impairment, and theories of masculinity that centre the context, this thesis establishes, in the first instance, the significance of embodiment in doing Xhosa manhood. Concerning the research aims and objectives, this study sheds light on what it means to be a Xhosa man living with visible physical impairment. In this regard, the original findings are classified according to each research aims and objective, as outlined below. Concerning the first research aim, I found that the participants struggle to speak about their bodies outside of physical labour/work despite their impairments. I explain their inability to talk about their disabled bodies by looking at traditional Xhosa initiation as a grantor of equality and sameness. Secondly, I argue that there is a higher premium on social bodies rather than physical bodies in this context, thus their inability to speak about their conditions. Lastly, I make connections between the participants’ inabilities to talk about their bodies and the lasting impact of colonial and apartheid histories. Concerning the second research aim, I explore ways and strategies they employ to respond to and negotiate Xhosa manhood masculinity's dominant cultural demands. In this regard, I note that the participants who acquired their impairments after initiation consider their disability as a second initiation because they see it as having set them back to square one regarding their manhood responsibilities. In contrast, the participants who acquired their disabilities post-initiation saw initiation as a gateway to a more respectable personhood status. I also note that there is an emergence of alternative Xhosa manhood masculinities. Lastly, I also found that contrary to western scholarship on disability and manhood, the participants distinguish between threatened manhood identity versus threatened status as a man. I outline how they arrive at this distinction. In terms of researching the last research aim, this thesis explores how the participants negotiate their ‘embodied difference’ in mundane everyday living. I explore their taken-for-granted routines in doing and being disabled Xhosa men every day. In this regard, this study presents original and interesting findings regarding sex and intimacy, social interactions and sociability, and everyday home living. , Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Humanities, Sociology, 2021
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- Date Issued: 2021-10-29
A sociological analysis of the experiences of acceptance of Christian gay men within the Methodist Church of Southern Africa (MCSA) in Grahamstown
- Authors: Sipungu, Thoko Andy
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/3961 , vital:20573
- Description: Buffington, Luibhéid, & Guy (2014: 1) argue that “in the contemporary world, our own sexuality and our sense of the sexualities of others colour all aspects of contemporary life, from interpersonal relations to foreign affairs.” In line with this statement, this study provides an account of how a person’s gay sexuality can possibly colour that person’s experience of acceptance by the Methodist Church of Southern Africa (MCSA) in Grahamstown. Samuel Hill (2008: 6) notes that there is an urgent need to create a dialectic between religious and secular discourse with regards to furthering our understanding of sexuality. Thus this thesis seeks to contribute to the body of scholarship that explores and discusses the disjuncture between one’s homosexual identity and one’s religious identity. Barton (2012: 2) notes that “gay people are often talked about but seldom listened to; rarely are they asked about their own oppression and the individuals and institutions oppressing them.” While adopting a qualitative approach utilising interviews to explore the stories of the respondents, this study applies Bourdieu’s concepts of field, habitus, social capital and symbolic violence in order to analyse the experiences of acceptance of gay men within the Methodist Church of Southern Africa (MCSA) in Grahamstown. With regard to the use Bourdieu’s concepts in the analysis of the experiences, the following dimensions were considered: i) construction of a gay identity within the field of Christianity as represented by the MCSA in this context, ii) the impact the field has on the ‘gay habitus’, iii) Social capital as an advantageous strategy in constructing a gay identity within the church, and iv) symbolic violence that gay men experience within the church. In analysing the conditions of the acceptance that gay men receive within the church, this study also uses Jacques Derrida’s concept of hospitality.
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- Date Issued: 2016