Young men’s talk about menstruation and hegemonic masculinity in the South African context: a discursive analysis
- Authors: Glover, Jonathan M
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: Menstruation -- Social aspects -- -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Hegemony -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Masculinity -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Sex role -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Men -- Attitudes , Men -- Psychology , Human body -- Social aspects -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Men's studies -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/60244 , vital:27758
- Description: Current research in the sub-Saharan and other resource poor contexts indicates the largely negative social constructions of menstruation and menstruating women. Young men have been shown to reproduce these negative constructions and reinforce the stigmatized status of menstruation in these contexts. To my knowledge no studies have examined the ways in which young men talk about menstruation and menstruating women in South Africa. In this research, I aimed to explore the ways in which young men (in a resource poor area in the Eastern Cape) talk about menstruation in with their male peers in a focus group context and how this talk serves to enable specific subject positions (both masculine and feminine) that may reproduce, comply with and resist constructions of hegemonic masculinity (as outlined in previous South African research). By drawing on Raewyn Connell’s influential framework of masculinities and augmenting this with Margaret Wetherell and Nigel Edley’s contributions, this research adds to the growing body of research on masculinities in the South African context. I utilized a discursive framework in which to understand the interpretative repertoires drawn on in everyday talk about menstruation and the specific subject positions made available by these. Purposive sampling was used to recruit a total of 37 participants from two former Department of Education and Training schools in the Eastern Cape. Participants were young ‘black’ men with a mean age of 18.3 In analyzing and interpreting the data two overarching patterns emerged. In the first, the participants discursively distanced themselves from menstruation (and femininity in general) in order to avoid possible marginalisation and subordination in relation to local hegemonic masculine ideals. In doing this, the participants drew on a number of interpretative repertoires including: a dualistic repertoire, a bad (versus ideal) femininity repertoire and an abject femininity repertoire, which assisted in creating numerous subject positions. These subject positions allowed the young men to align themselves closer to hegemonic masculine ideals, and create distance by positioning menstruating women as the ‘other’. In the second overarching pattern, menstruation was constructed as a threat to masculine identity; within this construction, the young men discursively negotiated the ideological dilemmas surrounding this ‘highly feminine’ topic in ways that bolstered their positions within the gender hierarchy. Overall, hegemonic masculinities in this context were discursively reproduced and complied with in the participants’ accounts.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Glover, Jonathan M
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: Menstruation -- Social aspects -- -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Hegemony -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Masculinity -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Sex role -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Men -- Attitudes , Men -- Psychology , Human body -- Social aspects -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Men's studies -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/60244 , vital:27758
- Description: Current research in the sub-Saharan and other resource poor contexts indicates the largely negative social constructions of menstruation and menstruating women. Young men have been shown to reproduce these negative constructions and reinforce the stigmatized status of menstruation in these contexts. To my knowledge no studies have examined the ways in which young men talk about menstruation and menstruating women in South Africa. In this research, I aimed to explore the ways in which young men (in a resource poor area in the Eastern Cape) talk about menstruation in with their male peers in a focus group context and how this talk serves to enable specific subject positions (both masculine and feminine) that may reproduce, comply with and resist constructions of hegemonic masculinity (as outlined in previous South African research). By drawing on Raewyn Connell’s influential framework of masculinities and augmenting this with Margaret Wetherell and Nigel Edley’s contributions, this research adds to the growing body of research on masculinities in the South African context. I utilized a discursive framework in which to understand the interpretative repertoires drawn on in everyday talk about menstruation and the specific subject positions made available by these. Purposive sampling was used to recruit a total of 37 participants from two former Department of Education and Training schools in the Eastern Cape. Participants were young ‘black’ men with a mean age of 18.3 In analyzing and interpreting the data two overarching patterns emerged. In the first, the participants discursively distanced themselves from menstruation (and femininity in general) in order to avoid possible marginalisation and subordination in relation to local hegemonic masculine ideals. In doing this, the participants drew on a number of interpretative repertoires including: a dualistic repertoire, a bad (versus ideal) femininity repertoire and an abject femininity repertoire, which assisted in creating numerous subject positions. These subject positions allowed the young men to align themselves closer to hegemonic masculine ideals, and create distance by positioning menstruating women as the ‘other’. In the second overarching pattern, menstruation was constructed as a threat to masculine identity; within this construction, the young men discursively negotiated the ideological dilemmas surrounding this ‘highly feminine’ topic in ways that bolstered their positions within the gender hierarchy. Overall, hegemonic masculinities in this context were discursively reproduced and complied with in the participants’ accounts.
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Men's repression of their emotional life as a counterpart of their oppression of women
- Authors: Hine, Grant Burnett
- Date: 1988
- Subjects: Men -- Psychology , Masculinity , Sex role , Oppression (Psychology) , Stereotype (Psychology)
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3112 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1004593 , Men -- Psychology , Masculinity , Sex role , Oppression (Psychology) , Stereotype (Psychology)
- Description: Masculinity and femininity are taken for granted as being a natural part of everyday existence forming acceptable images of what it means to be a man and a woman. It is revealed that in conforming to the sexual stereotype of what it means to be masculine and feminine, men's repression of their emotional life forms a counterpart of their oppression of women, for the repression of men's emotional life as a process, manifests itself through the oppression of women. The socioeconomic relations, being exploitative in nature, having been obscured and mystified by masculine and feminine forms of false consciousness, justify the prevalent social circumstances by portraying them as natural and inevitable, thus serving to hide the fact that men and women comprise of both, masculine and feminine characteristics. Disclosing the quality of the experience of men's repression of their emotional life as a counterpart of their oppression of women, through qualitative description and reflection, it is evident that individuality and human social relationships are restricted by the constraints of masculine and feminine stereotypes. It is clearly highlighted, that women help to perpetuate the repression of male emotional life and in turn their own oppression through supporting the successful work, status and power oriented 'macho' male. Through the recognition of the pressures, and a re-evaluation of the masculine role, men will no longer see cause to oppress women and through that there will no longer be a need to repress their own emotional life. There is a need for self-reflection in those individuals and groups restricted by the constraints of masculinity and femininity for the realization of new possibilities of enlightened social action and individuality.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Hine, Grant Burnett
- Date: 1988
- Subjects: Men -- Psychology , Masculinity , Sex role , Oppression (Psychology) , Stereotype (Psychology)
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3112 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1004593 , Men -- Psychology , Masculinity , Sex role , Oppression (Psychology) , Stereotype (Psychology)
- Description: Masculinity and femininity are taken for granted as being a natural part of everyday existence forming acceptable images of what it means to be a man and a woman. It is revealed that in conforming to the sexual stereotype of what it means to be masculine and feminine, men's repression of their emotional life forms a counterpart of their oppression of women, for the repression of men's emotional life as a process, manifests itself through the oppression of women. The socioeconomic relations, being exploitative in nature, having been obscured and mystified by masculine and feminine forms of false consciousness, justify the prevalent social circumstances by portraying them as natural and inevitable, thus serving to hide the fact that men and women comprise of both, masculine and feminine characteristics. Disclosing the quality of the experience of men's repression of their emotional life as a counterpart of their oppression of women, through qualitative description and reflection, it is evident that individuality and human social relationships are restricted by the constraints of masculine and feminine stereotypes. It is clearly highlighted, that women help to perpetuate the repression of male emotional life and in turn their own oppression through supporting the successful work, status and power oriented 'macho' male. Through the recognition of the pressures, and a re-evaluation of the masculine role, men will no longer see cause to oppress women and through that there will no longer be a need to repress their own emotional life. There is a need for self-reflection in those individuals and groups restricted by the constraints of masculinity and femininity for the realization of new possibilities of enlightened social action and individuality.
- Full Text:
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