Pub Date : 2023-05-04DOI: 10.25159/2412-8457/10349
Jeanne Ellis
In this paper, I argue that the cross-fertilising entanglements of narrative/literature, theory, and embodiment that constitute Margaret E. Toye’s concept of “narrative as embodied theory” in “Towards a Poethics of Love: Poststructuralist Feminist Ethics and Literary Creation” are especially appropriate to revisionary historical fiction written by women in which silenced histories of trauma are recovered and given voice. I refer to examples from Margaret Atwood’s Alias Grace (1998) and Yvette Christiansë’s Unconfessed (2006) as illustrations of what I term “an embodied feminist poethics of improper speech,” a theoretical and methodological reconfiguration of Toye’s terms.
{"title":"An Embodied Feminist Poethics of Improper Speech in Atwood’s Alias Grace and Christiansë’s Unconfessed","authors":"Jeanne Ellis","doi":"10.25159/2412-8457/10349","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.25159/2412-8457/10349","url":null,"abstract":"In this paper, I argue that the cross-fertilising entanglements of narrative/literature, theory, and embodiment that constitute Margaret E. Toye’s concept of “narrative as embodied theory” in “Towards a Poethics of Love: Poststructuralist Feminist Ethics and Literary Creation” are especially appropriate to revisionary historical fiction written by women in which silenced histories of trauma are recovered and given voice. I refer to examples from Margaret Atwood’s Alias Grace (1998) and Yvette Christiansë’s Unconfessed (2006) as illustrations of what I term “an embodied feminist poethics of improper speech,” a theoretical and methodological reconfiguration of Toye’s terms.","PeriodicalId":297162,"journal":{"name":"Gender Questions","volume":"3 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-05-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135011594","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Gloria Mfeka-Nkabinde, N. Mntambo, R. Moletsane, A. Voce
This article reports on a qualitative study that sought to examine understandings of sexuality and fertility among 18–19-year-old adolescent boys in rural northern KwaZulu-Natal. Adolescent boys’ constructions of sexuality and fertility in this study reflect a complex fusion of sociocultural processes, religion and unequal gender norms. How young men understand these factors tends to encourage risky sexual behaviour, and often leads to pregnancies among adolescent girls. In-depth individual interviews and a focus group discussion were conducted with six adolescent boys attending primary healthcare clinics in northern KwaZulu-Natal. Central to the adolescent boys’ discourses about sexuality and fertility was the desire to achieve the status of manhood. The findings suggest that adolescent boys were “inducted” into manhood as they learnt to wield gendered power in heterosexual relationships. In assuming patriarchal power and attaining the status of manhood, adolescent boys objectified girls and reduced them to unequal sexual partners whose role is to bear them children.
{"title":"Rites of Passage to Patriarchy: Adolescent Boys’ Narratives of Sexuality and Fertility in Rural Northern KwaZulu-Natal","authors":"Gloria Mfeka-Nkabinde, N. Mntambo, R. Moletsane, A. Voce","doi":"10.25159/2412-8457/9953","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.25159/2412-8457/9953","url":null,"abstract":"This article reports on a qualitative study that sought to examine understandings of sexuality and fertility among 18–19-year-old adolescent boys in rural northern KwaZulu-Natal. Adolescent boys’ constructions of sexuality and fertility in this study reflect a complex fusion of sociocultural processes, religion and unequal gender norms. How young men understand these factors tends to encourage risky sexual behaviour, and often leads to pregnancies among adolescent girls. In-depth individual interviews and a focus group discussion were conducted with six adolescent boys attending primary healthcare clinics in northern KwaZulu-Natal. Central to the adolescent boys’ discourses about sexuality and fertility was the desire to achieve the status of manhood. The findings suggest that adolescent boys were “inducted” into manhood as they learnt to wield gendered power in heterosexual relationships. In assuming patriarchal power and attaining the status of manhood, adolescent boys objectified girls and reduced them to unequal sexual partners whose role is to bear them children.","PeriodicalId":297162,"journal":{"name":"Gender Questions","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-11-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130958746","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Beyond the Mountain: Queer Life in “Africa’s Gay Capital,” edited by B Camminga and zethu Matebeni","authors":"Mbali Mazibuko","doi":"10.25159/2412-8457/9969","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.25159/2412-8457/9969","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":297162,"journal":{"name":"Gender Questions","volume":"30 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-11-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115433219","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-11-08DOI: 10.25159/2412-8457/10220
C. Westman
Rape is often thought of as a crime that is incidental to the general violence of a nation. However, in order to understand the causes and consequences of rape more thoroughly, it is necessary to examine the ways in which rape is used systematically and strategically in the service of certain ideologies and national/group imperatives. It is also vital to comprehensively explore the collective or communal effects of rape. The extensive research into rape committed during times of war and/or conflict proves very valuable in developing understandings of the systematic and collective nature of rape. The aim of this article is, thus, to draw from the knowledge related to war rape to more thoroughly understand the ways in which rape in South Africa is carried out systematically and strategically in the service of developing a national identity and upholding heteropatriarchal ideologies, as well as to understand the communal effects of rape in this context. In so doing, the paper focuses on two main aspects of war rape and rape in South Africa, these being the socio-symbolic positioning of women as central to the efficacy of rape and rape as a form of social control. In addition, drawing on the correlations around war rape and rape in South Africa, the article argues that rape in South Africa could be classified and legislated as a crime against humanity, as is war rape.
{"title":"Lessons from War Rape: How Can War Rape Help Understandings of Rape in South Africa?","authors":"C. Westman","doi":"10.25159/2412-8457/10220","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.25159/2412-8457/10220","url":null,"abstract":"Rape is often thought of as a crime that is incidental to the general violence of a nation. However, in order to understand the causes and consequences of rape more thoroughly, it is necessary to examine the ways in which rape is used systematically and strategically in the service of certain ideologies and national/group imperatives. It is also vital to comprehensively explore the collective or communal effects of rape. The extensive research into rape committed during times of war and/or conflict proves very valuable in developing understandings of the systematic and collective nature of rape. The aim of this article is, thus, to draw from the knowledge related to war rape to more thoroughly understand the ways in which rape in South Africa is carried out systematically and strategically in the service of developing a national identity and upholding heteropatriarchal ideologies, as well as to understand the communal effects of rape in this context. In so doing, the paper focuses on two main aspects of war rape and rape in South Africa, these being the socio-symbolic positioning of women as central to the efficacy of rape and rape as a form of social control. In addition, drawing on the correlations around war rape and rape in South Africa, the article argues that rape in South Africa could be classified and legislated as a crime against humanity, as is war rape.","PeriodicalId":297162,"journal":{"name":"Gender Questions","volume":"54 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-11-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126623977","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-11-08DOI: 10.25159/2412-8457/10181
G. Ncube, Margret Chipara
This article focuses on selected literary texts from francophone and lusophone Africa, parts of the continent that are often dwarfed and marginalised by anglophone literary production. The article analyses the following texts: Infidels by Abdellah Taïa (Morocco), Femme nue femme noire by Calixthe Beyala (Cameroon), Niketche by Paulina Chiziane (Mozambique) and O Último Voo do Flamingo by Mia Couto (Mozambique). The article examines how female protagonists find agency in and through sex and sexuality. Female protagonists in the selected novels use their voices as well as the physical and the erotic potentialities of their bodies to destabilise, resist and challenge patriarchal notions of women’s sexuality as subservient to, and serving the pleasure of, men. These texts show that hegemonic masculinity is not as untouchable and sacrosanct as is commonly considered. Theoretically, this article draws on Kopano Ratele’s ideas on contested masculinities and Pumla Dineo Gqola’s thoughts on dismantling patriarchy. Through comparative analyses, this article imagines how women can liberate themselves from the oppressive yoke of patriarchy by undermining the perceived dominance of masculinity.
这篇文章的重点是选择文学文本从法语和葡语非洲，大陆的一部分，往往是矮化和边缘化的英语文学作品。本文分析了以下文本:Abdellah Taïa(摩洛哥)的《异教徒》，Calixthe Beyala(喀麦隆)的《Femme nuue Femme noire》，Paulina Chiziane的《Niketche》(莫桑比克)和Mia Couto(莫桑比克)的《O Último Voo do Flamingo》。这篇文章探讨了女性主人公是如何在性和性欲中找到代理的。这些小说中的女性主人公用她们的声音以及身体和情欲的潜力来动摇、抵制和挑战男权观念，即女性的性行为屈从于男性，为男性的快乐服务。这些文本表明，霸权的男子气概并不像通常认为的那样不可触及和神圣不可侵犯。从理论上讲，本文借鉴了科帕诺·拉特雷关于有争议的男性气质的思想和普姆拉·迪奥·戈拉关于拆除父权制的思想。通过对比分析，本文设想女性如何通过破坏男性的主导地位来将自己从父权的压迫枷锁中解放出来。
{"title":"“Dominating the Man’s Cock”? (Re)Imagining Femininities and Masculinities in Selected Francophone and Lusophone Literary Texts","authors":"G. Ncube, Margret Chipara","doi":"10.25159/2412-8457/10181","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.25159/2412-8457/10181","url":null,"abstract":"This article focuses on selected literary texts from francophone and lusophone Africa, parts of the continent that are often dwarfed and marginalised by anglophone literary production. The article analyses the following texts: Infidels by Abdellah Taïa (Morocco), Femme nue femme noire by Calixthe Beyala (Cameroon), Niketche by Paulina Chiziane (Mozambique) and O Último Voo do Flamingo by Mia Couto (Mozambique). The article examines how female protagonists find agency in and through sex and sexuality. Female protagonists in the selected novels use their voices as well as the physical and the erotic potentialities of their bodies to destabilise, resist and challenge patriarchal notions of women’s sexuality as subservient to, and serving the pleasure of, men. These texts show that hegemonic masculinity is not as untouchable and sacrosanct as is commonly considered. Theoretically, this article draws on Kopano Ratele’s ideas on contested masculinities and Pumla Dineo Gqola’s thoughts on dismantling patriarchy. Through comparative analyses, this article imagines how women can liberate themselves from the oppressive yoke of patriarchy by undermining the perceived dominance of masculinity.","PeriodicalId":297162,"journal":{"name":"Gender Questions","volume":"100 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-11-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131638844","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-11-08DOI: 10.25159/2412-8457/10234
Jodi Mikalachki
Roland Rugero’s 2012 novel, Baho!, introduces its mute protagonist from the perspective of a one-eyed old woman, raising questions of embodied trauma in relation to narrative issues of voice and point of view. Critical discussion of Baho! has focused on its mute protagonist, exploring issues of voicelessness, post-colonial subalternity and scapegoating in relation to political violence, an emphasis that tends to reduce Rugero’s complex novel to a victim narrative. This article examines how Rugero embodies trauma in his narrative, both to acknowledge a wounded and wounding body politic and to explore literary strategies for imagining a future beyond the impasse of recurrent national violence. Drawing on Burundian humanism, which understands humanity as both weak and strong, arousing simultaneous and inseparable responses of pity and admiration, it discusses how the embodied trauma of Baho!’s point-of-view characters informs perspective and shapes its narrative. It also considers how these characters represent national spaces and stories as they redirect a post-conflict narrative of violence toward a vision of life that integrates trauma without being disabled by it. This vision represents a political choice to reject a victim identity, affirming instead survival and resilience, as in the lines Rugero quotes from the Burundian anthem as his epigraph, which boasts that the nation, however crushed by histories of violence, yet survives. Ending with a generative femininity that transfigures the abjectly feminised setting of the novel’s opening, Baho! embraces life, arousing compassionate admiration for Burundi and Burundians as they journey beyond war.
{"title":"Embodying Burundi after War: Roland Rugero’s Baho!","authors":"Jodi Mikalachki","doi":"10.25159/2412-8457/10234","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.25159/2412-8457/10234","url":null,"abstract":"Roland Rugero’s 2012 novel, Baho!, introduces its mute protagonist from the perspective of a one-eyed old woman, raising questions of embodied trauma in relation to narrative issues of voice and point of view. Critical discussion of Baho! has focused on its mute protagonist, exploring issues of voicelessness, post-colonial subalternity and scapegoating in relation to political violence, an emphasis that tends to reduce Rugero’s complex novel to a victim narrative. This article examines how Rugero embodies trauma in his narrative, both to acknowledge a wounded and wounding body politic and to explore literary strategies for imagining a future beyond the impasse of recurrent national violence. Drawing on Burundian humanism, which understands humanity as both weak and strong, arousing simultaneous and inseparable responses of pity and admiration, it discusses how the embodied trauma of Baho!’s point-of-view characters informs perspective and shapes its narrative. It also considers how these characters represent national spaces and stories as they redirect a post-conflict narrative of violence toward a vision of life that integrates trauma without being disabled by it. This vision represents a political choice to reject a victim identity, affirming instead survival and resilience, as in the lines Rugero quotes from the Burundian anthem as his epigraph, which boasts that the nation, however crushed by histories of violence, yet survives. Ending with a generative femininity that transfigures the abjectly feminised setting of the novel’s opening, Baho! embraces life, arousing compassionate admiration for Burundi and Burundians as they journey beyond war.","PeriodicalId":297162,"journal":{"name":"Gender Questions","volume":"20 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-11-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128185975","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-11-08DOI: 10.25159/2412-8457/10102
T. McCormick
Leathermen communities have been documented in the Global North since the 1970s. In this article, I introduce, for the first time, the gay leathermen of Johannesburg to scholars of alternative sexualities. I argue that the leathermen subculture was brought ashore by global flows of culture in the 1950s and 1960s, as well as by international travellers in the 1970s, but is hidden in furtive gay and lesbian communities. A definable local subculture emerged between 1983 and 2000, and in 2001 leathermen coalesced around Metropolis, a bar in downtown Johannesburg. Drawing data from Exit, South Africa’s longest running gay newspaper, as well as the owners of Metropolis, I map the development of the leathermen subculture between 1983–2006. I argue that their BDSM (bondage, discipline, sadism, masochism) ethos and their public sex in leather bars are met by resistance and harassment from conservative elements in the gay and lesbian community, as well as police and public health officials.
{"title":"Finding Johannesburg’s gay Leathermen 1983–2006","authors":"T. McCormick","doi":"10.25159/2412-8457/10102","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.25159/2412-8457/10102","url":null,"abstract":"Leathermen communities have been documented in the Global North since the 1970s. In this article, I introduce, for the first time, the gay leathermen of Johannesburg to scholars of alternative sexualities. I argue that the leathermen subculture was brought ashore by global flows of culture in the 1950s and 1960s, as well as by international travellers in the 1970s, but is hidden in furtive gay and lesbian communities. A definable local subculture emerged between 1983 and 2000, and in 2001 leathermen coalesced around Metropolis, a bar in downtown Johannesburg. Drawing data from Exit, South Africa’s longest running gay newspaper, as well as the owners of Metropolis, I map the development of the leathermen subculture between 1983–2006. I argue that their BDSM (bondage, discipline, sadism, masochism) ethos and their public sex in leather bars are met by resistance and harassment from conservative elements in the gay and lesbian community, as well as police and public health officials.","PeriodicalId":297162,"journal":{"name":"Gender Questions","volume":"31 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-11-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132214756","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-11-08DOI: 10.25159/2412-8457/10874
Joshua Bell, S. Matthews
This study examined the experiences of women farmworkers on South African wine farms, which have a troubling history of paternalism and dependency. This article discusses the enactment of patriarchal norms on South African wine farms today, especially concerning women of colour. Our qualitative study draws on the experiences of 30 farmworkers on five wine farms in the Western Cape. We argue that the women on these farms are reduced to the most exploited participants in the production network and that their exploitation and dependency subsidise the functioning of farm production networks. Our study finds that farms are able to secure the reproductive and casual labour of women through their dependency on men as their partners and farmers, with their partners sometimes acting as informal labour brokers. Increased labour casualisation on wine farms places women at risk, exposing them to the danger of financial control and abuse. We conclude that current norms and practices on South African wine farms rely on the continued oppression of women farmworkers.
{"title":"Dependency, Paternalism and Financial Control of Women on South African Wine Farms","authors":"Joshua Bell, S. Matthews","doi":"10.25159/2412-8457/10874","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.25159/2412-8457/10874","url":null,"abstract":"This study examined the experiences of women farmworkers on South African wine farms, which have a troubling history of paternalism and dependency. This article discusses the enactment of patriarchal norms on South African wine farms today, especially concerning women of colour. Our qualitative study draws on the experiences of 30 farmworkers on five wine farms in the Western Cape. We argue that the women on these farms are reduced to the most exploited participants in the production network and that their exploitation and dependency subsidise the functioning of farm production networks. Our study finds that farms are able to secure the reproductive and casual labour of women through their dependency on men as their partners and farmers, with their partners sometimes acting as informal labour brokers. Increased labour casualisation on wine farms places women at risk, exposing them to the danger of financial control and abuse. We conclude that current norms and practices on South African wine farms rely on the continued oppression of women farmworkers.","PeriodicalId":297162,"journal":{"name":"Gender Questions","volume":"15 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-11-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129523404","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-11-08DOI: 10.25159/2412-8457/11223
N. Mapukata
Centring a Black narrative in post-apartheid South Africa, in this paper I pursue epistemic knowledge that is grounded on reflexivity, relationism and research, as described by Pierre Bourdieu. Navigating through a transforming habitus, I employ a narrative approach to reflect on lived experiences as I explore intuition development in facilitating a shift from situated habituated practice to a more conscientised evaluation of the self in relation to context. Secondly, I consider the role of intersecting identities in creating opportunities and spaces for the voices of marginalised students of rural origin to be heard. Having disrupted my own habitus in pursuit of scientific capital, I examine the role of a higher education institution for its propensity to be a field of struggle and a field of liberation.
{"title":"Centring a Black Narrative: The Role of a Higher Education Institution in Facilitating a Transforming Habitus","authors":"N. Mapukata","doi":"10.25159/2412-8457/11223","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.25159/2412-8457/11223","url":null,"abstract":"Centring a Black narrative in post-apartheid South Africa, in this paper I pursue epistemic knowledge that is grounded on reflexivity, relationism and research, as described by Pierre Bourdieu. Navigating through a transforming habitus, I employ a narrative approach to reflect on lived experiences as I explore intuition development in facilitating a shift from situated habituated practice to a more conscientised evaluation of the self in relation to context. Secondly, I consider the role of intersecting identities in creating opportunities and spaces for the voices of marginalised students of rural origin to be heard. Having disrupted my own habitus in pursuit of scientific capital, I examine the role of a higher education institution for its propensity to be a field of struggle and a field of liberation.","PeriodicalId":297162,"journal":{"name":"Gender Questions","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-11-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131952961","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-11-08DOI: 10.25159/2412-8457/10204
Naomi Nkealah
This article is an African feminist analysis of the short story “Love Interrupted” by South African writer Reneilwe Malatji in terms of how it deepens our understanding of why abused wives stay in marriage. Drawing on African cultural conceptions of marriage, motherhood and family relationships—as elucidated in African feminisms—the analysis unravels several reasons why women stay in marriage despite persistent abuse: 1) they stay to meet cultural expectations of a good wife; 2) they stay because of feelings of indebtedness to husbands who married them at great cost; 3) they perceive marriage as the sole means of accessing and maintaining respectability in society; and 4) they stay out of a sense of responsibility towards children born to perpetuate the patrilineal line. Malatji’s story shows that these reasons do not exist in isolation of each other but rather inform and reinforce each other. Thus, this article argues that the intricate connectedness of these reasons illustrates the ubiquity of cultural gender roles, values and beliefs in compelling women to manage abusive marriages rather than end them.
{"title":"“People just Didn’t Respect Women who Were not Married”: Revisiting the Question of why Abused Wives Stay in Marriage in Reneilwe Malatji’s Short Story “Love Interrupted”","authors":"Naomi Nkealah","doi":"10.25159/2412-8457/10204","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.25159/2412-8457/10204","url":null,"abstract":"This article is an African feminist analysis of the short story “Love Interrupted” by South African writer Reneilwe Malatji in terms of how it deepens our understanding of why abused wives stay in marriage. Drawing on African cultural conceptions of marriage, motherhood and family relationships—as elucidated in African feminisms—the analysis unravels several reasons why women stay in marriage despite persistent abuse: 1) they stay to meet cultural expectations of a good wife; 2) they stay because of feelings of indebtedness to husbands who married them at great cost; 3) they perceive marriage as the sole means of accessing and maintaining respectability in society; and 4) they stay out of a sense of responsibility towards children born to perpetuate the patrilineal line. Malatji’s story shows that these reasons do not exist in isolation of each other but rather inform and reinforce each other. Thus, this article argues that the intricate connectedness of these reasons illustrates the ubiquity of cultural gender roles, values and beliefs in compelling women to manage abusive marriages rather than end them.","PeriodicalId":297162,"journal":{"name":"Gender Questions","volume":"9 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-11-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122727286","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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