Repositioning the problematic gender formation of a generation of white South African men through performance art
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Authors
Swanepoel, Andrew Peter
Issue Date
2018-08
Type
Dissertation
Language
en
Keywords
Aesthetics , Apartheid , Auto-ethnography , Baby Boomer generation , Being , Dasein , Deconstruction , Ethnography , Existentialism , Feminism , Generation X , Ideology , Intersubjectivity , Intertextuality , Langue , Lichtung , Masculinities , Militarisation , Parole , Performance ethnography , Performativity , Phallic , Phallogocentrism , Phenomenology , Reflexive , Whiteness
Alternative Title
Abstract
An overview of global statistics on violence, country to country and worldwide, indicates that men are the main perpetrators of violence in our societies. Furthermore, the behavioural traits of risk-taking and self-harm are also associated with men. It is my contention that the formative processes involved in gender identity are at the root of these dysfunctions.
In an attempt to present a positive alternative, I focus on a group I name the X- Men: white South African Generation X males. Drawing on Judith Butler‟s theory of performativity and its allowance for agency and resistance, I argue that they are not necessarily trapped by how their gender identities were formed through Apartheid‟s gendered institutions. These included schools, sport and the military.
I posit that within the institution of art, self-aware artists may present visual representations of resistance and transformation. Acknowledging art as signifying text, the X-Men situate signs differently in an effort to accomplish a social and intersubjective raising-of-awareness. Additionally, this new identity and its associated positive performance have the potential to undermine certain stereotypical perceptions harboured by the broader society as a result of problematic behaviour associated with men.
Description
Citation
Swanepoel, Andrew Peter (2018) Repositioning the problematic gender formation of a generation of white South African men through performance art, University of South Africa, Pretoria, <http://hdl.handle.net/10500/25347>