Mothers, fathers, or parents : same-gendered families in South Africa

Abstract

Advances and changes in globalised culture compel psychologists to take cognisance of the wide variety of ways in which families are formed and in which children grow up. Although members of the gay community have in the past usually been associated with a childless lifestyle, gay people are increasingly opting for motherhood and fatherhood by creating families of their own or by continuing to live with their children from former heterosexual relationships. This article addresses the concept of same-gendered families as an example of the changing face of families, relating it to the heteronormativity that is embedded in Westernised societies. The dichotomies of sexuality are confronted and used to illuminate the cultural assumptions embedded in the concept ‘family’ from a postmodern perspective. An overview is given of available research from a South African perspective. Trends evident in local research are related to international perspectives to provide a brief synopsis of available knowledge on same-gendered families. Special attention is given to a postmodern and social constructionist perspective on the concept of family, by examining the gendered and sexualised perceptions that underlie same-gendered families. The interfaces between parenting, gender, sexuality, and reproduction are examined and critically scrutinised. Implications of this for the profession of psychology are briefly discussed. The same-gendered couple as a family challenges the normative conceptions of the traditional model of the two-parent (hetero-gender) family because the latter is socially and legally constructed from a biological model of reproduction. The article concludes that structural variables, such as the gender composition of families and the division of parental performances, are less important than process variables such as the quality of relationships and the quality of care given to the children.