Young boys at play? Gender relations and township primary school learners’ construction of masculinities in South Africa

Abstract

This study explores the social construction of masculinity among young boys and its impact on gender relations at two township primary schools in South Africa. Drawing from the conceptual ideas of Critical Studies on Men and Masculinities this study explores the views and experiences of boys and girls on what it means to be a ‘real boy’. The inclusion of girls in the social construction of masculinity and the use of multi-data collection methods sets this study apart from the other studies carried out with young boys. A purposive sampling method was used in selecting the 37 boys and girls who participated in this qualitative study. Focus group discussions, diaries and detailed individual interviews were used to explore how masculinities are socially and individually constructed amongst Grade 7 peers. Focus group discussions helped in understanding the social face of male gender identity construction while the diaries gave insight into its private face. The fear of being labelled gay resulted in some boys adopting contradictory positions in the production of their public and private selves. During focus group discussions they argued against homosexuality but in diaries they refer to it in affirming ways. Various themes with violence and sexual objectification perpetrated by the boys being central were identified in this study. Failure to privilege male homosocial relations alongside hierarchical heterosexual relations results in boys being relegated to an inferior status within the gender hierarchy. Some boys in this study verified certain girls as ‘beautiful’ while feminising those boys who failed to endorse this division as ‘permanent cows with blind eyes’. Some boys also adopted bravery bravado to portray themselves as real boys to other boys and to acquire heterosexual partners. Social differences based on the binary of belonging and not belonging were also adopted to create and recreate dominant positions and inferiorise gendered ‘others’. Gender-based violence by these boys against girls reflects the violence against women in general in South Africa. However, some boys and girls deviated from the dominant positions on being a real boy by resisting the imposition of unequal and dehumanising gender and sexual designs. The views of some girls, mostly in their diaries, show that they were not passively accepting male domination as they denounced and also acted against certain practices of hegemonic masculinities.