Masculinities without Tradition
Authors
Ratele, Kopano
Issue Date
2013-02-04
Type
Article
Language
en
Keywords
masculinities
Alternative Title
Abstract
The fear of being perceived as gay, as not a real man, keeps men
exaggerating all the traditional rules of masculinity, including sexual predation
with women’. This view on men’s sexual (Following feminists such as Tamale
[2011. African Sexualities: A Reader. Nairobi: Pambazuka Press] that thinking
on ‘sexuality without looking at gender is like cooking pepper soup with
pepper’, meaning that they are mutually imbricated with and shape one
another, unless I wish to stress a point or indicate otherwise, whenever
sexuality and associated concepts are used here it is meant gendered sexuality)
and gender practices in relation to ‘the traditional’ expressed by Kimmel is
shared with other leading scholars on masculinities. Yet, in situating queer
sexualities against ‘the traditional’ or outside tradition, studies on masculinities
have engendered a paradox which needs untangling in any serious attempt to
unsettle traditionalist positions that clash with claims for the recognition of
sexual equality. The main purpose of this article is to offer a different reading
of the relation between masculinities and ‘the traditional’. Arguing that it is at
the moment that the word ‘critical’ or its equivalents is uttered that a tradition
leaks through, the article offers a critique of anti-‘traditional masculinity’
critiques which reinforce the homogenisation and retribalisation of African
(While acknowledging the complexity accompanying the use of the terms in
South Africa, as well as recognising their ideology-ladenness, in this article
African and black are used interchangeably and refer to those historically
defined as Bantu.) tradition and culture. At the same time, the article examines
and seeks to undo some of the arguments of patriarchal hetero-masculinist
traditionalism resistant to the recognition of desires and rights of women and
men who are attracted to others of the same sex through foregrounding claims
for equality for queer attraction and recognition.
Description
Citation
Publisher
Routledge