Graham Lindegger

Hegemonic Masculinity/Masculinities in South Africa: Culture, Power, and Gender Politics

The concept of hegemonic masculinity has had a profound impact on gender activism and has been taken up particularly in health interventions. The concept was part of a conceptual gendered vocabulary about men which opened up analytical space for research on masculinity and prompted a generation of gender interventions with men. Academic work focused primarily on relations between men, to the neglect of relations with women, while paradoxically acknowledging the power that men had over women. Interventions that drew on theories of masculinities focused on the content of hegemonic masculinity, identifying hegemony with oppressive attitudes and practices. Hegemonic masculinity was considered singular and universal, with little acknowledgment given to research-based work that argued for a model of multiple hegemonic masculinities. An unintended consequence of efforts to promote gender equity through a focus on men and hegemony has been a recent popular discursive backlash. In this, Jacob Zuma and Julius Malema, presidents of the African National Congress (ANC) and the ANC youth league respectively, have sought to valorize an African masculinity that is race-specific, backward-looking, and predicated on the notion of male superiority. In this article, the authors argue that the concept of hegemonic masculinities retains a utility in both scholarship and activism but that its use needs to be located within a broader gendered understanding of society which in turn needs to confront race and class-based national realities.

Beyond the checklist: assessing understanding for HIV vaccine trial participation in South Africa.

Objectives:Informed consent and understanding are essential ethical requirements for clinical trial participation. Traditional binary measures of understanding may be limited and not be the best measures of level of understanding. This study designed and compared 4 measures of understanding for potential participants being prepared for enrollment in South African HIV vaccine trials, using detailed operational scoring criteria. Methods:Assessment of understanding of 7 key trial components was compared via self-report, checklist, vignettes, and narrative measures. Fifty-nine participants, including members of vaccine preparedness groups and 1 HIV vaccine trial, took part. Results:There were significant differences across the measures for understanding of 5 components and for overall understanding. Highest scores were obtained on self-report and checklist measures, and lowest scores were obtained for vignettes and narrative descriptions. Conclusions:The findings suggest that levels of measured understanding are dependent on the tools used. Forced-choice measures like checklists tend to yield higher scores than open-ended measures like narratives or vignettes. Consideration should be given to complementing checklists and self-reports with open-ended measures, particularly for critical trial concepts, where the consequences of misunderstanding are potentially severe.

‘Building a Wail around Themselves’: Exploring Adolescent Masculinity and Abjection with Photo-Biographical Research:

This study examined the male identity ‘positions’ of South African adolescent boys in relation to the unconscious, dialogical, and discursive construction of masculinities. Multi-method approaches were used within a qualitative methodology to generate triangulated data consisting of 371 photographs, individual interviews, and focus group discussions. The participants were 29 boys aged 15 to 17, drawn from a rural and an urban school in KwaZulu-Natal. Our findings suggested that the male peer group was a crucial context for the construction of masculine ‘acceptability’ that involved performative acts of displayed toughness, risk-taking, and emphasised heterosexuality. Norms of ‘acceptability’ were organised around the visible objectification of girls through ‘non-relational heterosexuality’. Race identities played a significant role in the construction and subjectivity of masculinity, and there were changing constructions of masculine identities in relation to race identities, particularly in the context of a ‘multiracial’ urban school. Adolescent boys sometimes experienced significant distress in response to processes of alienation and homophobic harassment that were enacted in peer-group cultures. Crucial in our discussion of racialised identities and homophobia was the notion of abjection, the social and unconscious process whereby iterated and disavowed otherness becomes the means by which the boundaries of acceptability are policed. Participants in this study situated, negotiated, and defended multiple subject positions at varying distances from an illusory ‘acceptable’ masculinity through social and unconscious processes such as abjection, projection, and denial.

The AIDS Crisis: Review of Psychological Issues and Implications, with Special Reference to the South African Situation

AIDS represents a major challenge to the health care industry. The behavioural sciences, especially psychology, have important contributions to make to various aspects of AIDS and its prevention. This article reviews the stages in the development of AIDS, examining the psychological issues and implications at each stage. Special attention is given to the unique South African situation with respect to AIDS. The article concludes by examining the present and prospective position of psychology in SA with respect to AIDS.

Hegemonic Masculinity: Reviewing the Gendered Analysis of Men's Power in South Africa

ABSTRACT The study of men and masculinity has become a strong feature of gendered research and scholarship in South Africa in the last twenty years. Gender policy frequently includes consideration of men and masculinity, marking a significant shift from the days when ‘gender’ was synonymous with women. The gendered focus on men owes its origins to feminist theory and thus centres on the subordination of women. The concept of hegemonic masculinity is part of a theoretical framework developed to analyse mens power (Carrigan, Connell & Lee 1985). It proposes a multiplicity of masculinities and hierarchies of power and shows how men exercise power over women and other men. In this paper we discuss the concept as it has been developed and then explore how it has been used in the South African context. What is significant is that it was initially adopted to explain the countrys high levels of violence and to analyse the gender relationships under colonialism, apartheid and post-apartheid. Among the reasons that the concept of ‘hegemonic masculinity’ has become widely used in gender research in South Africa is because it can broaden the understanding of questions of gender inequality. The concept is multidimensional and allows consideration of mens power over women, the multiple and unequal location of men themselves, fluidity in power relations and the persistence of patriarchal trends. The pliability of the concept encouraged its adoption across a wide range of disciplines and fields. However, the concept is controversial. Its analytical and pragmatic utility and political potential are questioned and its exact meaning debated. In this paper we reflect on the use of the concept in gender research conducted in southern Africa. We select from a wide range of publications and projects with no claim that this selection is exhaustive or representative. The work on masculinity and men has grown dramatically in the last twenty years and it is not possible in an article of this length to cover all of this work. Instead we have chosen to examine four areas roughly defined by methodology and disciplinary location – in societal analyses, psychology, education and in health. We highlight the diverse and sometimes confusing ways that the concept is used, while also explaining why it is misused. In the process we identify aspects of the concept that seem more or less valuable and show what value it gives to theory, social analysis, research and practice.

Hegemonic masculinity: combining theory and practice in gender interventions

The concept of hegemonic masculinity has been used in gender studies since the early-1980s to explain men’s power over women. Stressing the legitimating power of consent (rather than crude physical or political power to ensure submission), it has been used to explain men’s health behaviours and the use of violence. Gender activists and others seeking to change men’s relations with women have mobilised the concept of hegemonic masculinity in interventions, but the links between gender theory and activism have often not been explored. The translation of ‘hegemonic masculinity’ into interventions is little examined. We show how, in South Africa and Sweden, the concept has been used to inform theoretically-based gender interventions and to ensure that men are brought into broader social efforts to build gender equity. We discuss the practical translational challenges of using gender theory broadly, and hegemonic masculinity in particular, in a Swedish case study, of the intervention Machofabriken [The Macho Factory], and illustrate how the concept is brought to life in this activist work with men. The concept has considerable practical application in developing a sustainable praxis of theoretically grounded interventions that are more likely to have enduring effect, but evaluating broader societal change in hegemonic masculinity remains an enduring challenge.

Consent and community engagement in diverse research contexts: reviewing and developing research and practice

Consent and community engagement (CE) in health research are two aspects of a single concern—that research is carried out in a respectful manner where social value is maximized. There are important overlaps and interdependencies between consent and CE; for example, CE can provide insights into how best to tailor consent to context and can be an important component of consent processes. Engaging communities can also have intrinsic and instrumental value beyond consent; for example, as a means of showing respect and identifying appropriate ways of working respectfully. In this paper we critically examine how CE and consent processes are characterized, conducted, and evaluated in diverse health research contexts, and propose a preliminary research agenda to support future learning in these critical areas.Consent and community engagement (CE) in health research are two aspects of a single concern-that research is carried out in a respectful manner where social value is maximized. There are important overlaps and interdependencies between consent and CE; for example, CE can provide insights into how best to tailor consent to context and can be an important component of consent processes. Engaging communities can also have intrinsic and instrumental value beyond consent; for example, as a means of showing respect and identifying appropriate ways of working respectfully. In this paper we critically examine how CE and consent processes are characterized, conducted, and evaluated in diverse health research contexts, and propose a preliminary research agenda to support future learning in these critical areas.

STAKEHOLDER PERSPECTIVES ON ETHICAL CHALLENGES IN HIV VACCINE TRIALS IN SOUTH AFRICA

There is little published literature on the ethical concerns of stakeholders in HIV vaccine trials. This study explored the ethical challenges identified by various stakeholders, through an open-ended, in-depth approach. While the few previous studies have been largely quantitative, respondents in this study had the opportunity to spontaneously identify the issues that they perceived to be of priority concern in the South African context. Stakeholders spontaneously identified the following as ethical priorities: informed consent, social harms, collaborative relationships between research stakeholders, the participation of children and adolescents, access to treatment for participants who become infected with HIV, physical harms, fair participant and community selection, confidentiality, benefits, and payment. While there is some speculation that research in developing countries poses special ethical challenges, overall no issues were identified that have not been anticipated in international guidance, literature and popular frameworks. However, the South African context affords a distinctive gloss to these expected issues; for example, respondents were concerned that the predominant selection of black participants may perpetuate racist practices of apartheid. Stakeholders should be aware of contextual factors impacting on the implementation of ethical principles. We make a series of recommendations for South African trials, including amendments to the ethical-legal framework and research policies, and, for further research.

Masculinity and HIV/AIDS

In the early stages of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, it was primarily men who were infected with HIV, but that trend has now reversed (WHO, 2003). In many countries the infection rates for young women are five times higher than young men (RHO Archives, 2005), and young women are generally infected at an earlier age than young men (Walsh cited in RHO Archives, 2005) (see Jewkes, Chapter 3 of this volume). In South Africa, over 50% of new infections of HIV occur among the 15–24 years age group, with black women affected significantly more than other demographically defined groups (Health24, 2006). Further, more women are dying of HIV/AIDS than men (Matlin and Spence cited in RHO Archives, 2005). In South Africa, the mortality rate for young women in the 25–30 years age group has increased 350% over the past 10 years, almost exclusively as a result of AIDS-related deaths.

Local Knowledge and Experiences of Vaccination: Implications for HIV-Preventive Vaccine Trials in South Africa

This study forms part of the preparation of communities for HIV-preventive vaccine trials in South Africa. On the basis of the assumption that attitudes to any HIV vaccine or vaccine trials will partly be influenced by experiences of vaccination in general, this study aimed to investigate knowledge of, attitudes to, and experiences of vaccination in a small semirural community in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The study also sought to investigate the effect of traditional, cultural, and religious beliefs on attitudes to vaccination, as well as to get some indication of willingness to participate in potential HIV vaccine trials. Overall, the findings reveal a good knowledge of, and positive attitudes to, vaccination, with little negative effect of traditional, cultural, and religious beliefs. The findings also reveal a generally positive attitude to HIV vaccines and vaccine trials. Barriers identified, such as anxiety about safety, were not surprising.