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| Boys in a classroom.
Schools are institutions where “masculinities”
are actively made, negotiated and regulated.
Photo Credit:
USAID Photo Gallery |
Introduction
It is hard to be a boy in South Africa these days.
A recent survey of 30 schools in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN)
province found that, across all races, male students
and teachers experience uncertainty about their role
and status and a sense of displacement due to the
loss of their privileged space in society.
White males feel threatened by the advancement of
blacks and women, embodied in affirmative action programmes.
Among black males, women's new status, coupled with
poverty and unemployment, reportedly fuels a sense
of futility and hopelessness.
The Study
The study by Graham Lindegger and Pamela Atwell, from
the School of Psychology at Natal University,
examined how masculinity is constructed and maintained
in schools to better understand how deeply-held notions
of masculinity lead to high-risk behaviour for HIV
infection among men and women.
The findings were presented [recently] at a conference
on men and AIDS, organised in Pretoria by the Regional
AIDS Initiative of Southern Africa of Voluntary Services
Overseas. Activists and researchers from Southern
and East Africa discussed how to enlist men in the
response to the pandemic.
Troubled Manhood
Twenty years into the AIDS pandemic, the bulk of studies
and interventions have focused on women and girls.
While a key theme has been "men drive the epidemic",
little funding and effort has gone into working with
men, especially young men.
Schools being institutions where "masculinities"
are actively made, negotiated and regulated, the KZN
study throws light on the troubled perception of manhood
in the new South Africa. "Men and boys carry a burden
of anxiety about being a man," said Lindegger.
Conflicting Views
A key finding was that both teachers and students
hold varied and conflicting views about masculinity.
They are aware of changes in gender relations, but
still hang on to old notions.
Among these, certain elements in the concept of masculinity
appear to transcend racial, cultural and class boundaries.
These include heterosexuality, an "uncontrollable"
sex drive, multiple sexual conquests, danger and risk
taking, success and responsibility, dominance and
control.
"It is difficult for boys to look at girls as equals,"
said a pupil quoted in the study. "Teenage boys are
hot flesh," said a principal. "To be a real man is
to be a person who is not afraid to take risks," said
a teacher.
Among white students, risk taking centres on alcohol
abuse, fast driving, heterosexual success and breaking
rules. In black township schools, it includes sexual
prowess, criminal activity and violence, the study
said.
At the same time, conscious of changing patterns
of masculinity, teachers speak of the need to be gentle
and caring, to respect women and to accept gender
equality as expressed in South Africa's constitution.
Most white teachers said that the traditional macho
stereotype is restricting and damaging, but at the
same time they assume a biologically rooted male sexuality
and superiority.
Teachers at black township schools in KZN reported
a conflict between traditional Zulu beliefs on masculinity
and more Western notions in intellectual thought of
sexual equality.
HIV/AIDS
Noting the conflicting discourses about gender, the
findings suggested that the dominant form of masculinity
was changing. However, the study found "a deep level
of conservatism" in the notion of masculinity, which
does not bode well for HIV/AIDS prevention.
On the positive side, the study found "some reassuring
evidence" that both black and white girls act more
assertively and refuse to comply with traditional
stereotypes. But their assertive behaviour could provoke
aggression from boys.
Overt sexual harassment of girls remains a problem,
especially at township schools. Interviewees attributed
this behaviour to the need for boys to prove themselves
in front of their peers. "For boys, sex is still a
huge conquest thing," said one teacher.
Similar conclusions from other Southern African countries
were presented at the conference.
In Malawi, a survey among 3,000 students in 50 secondary
schools by Population Services International reported
that the mean age for a first sexual encounter among
boys was under 15 and just over 15 for girls. Nearly
half of the girls and three-quarters of the boys were
sexually active. Risk perception, however, was low:
47 percent of girls and 43 percent of boys expressed
no concern about becoming infected with HIV.
According to the Southern Africa HIV/AIDS Information
Dissemination Service, boys in the region start experimenting
with sex as early as aged 10 or 12, marry later than
women and spend more time unmarried, experimenting
with many sexual partners and becoming vulnerable
to sexually transmitted diseases and HIV.
Challenging Stereotypes
"We need to challenge this destructive concept of
manhood that men make all decisions, men need many
sex partners, men don't feel comfortable discussing
our sexuality," said Regis Mtutu, of Zimbabwe's Men
Forum Padare/Enkudleni.
Padare seeks to change gender stereotypes, reaching
boys and men in schools, pubs, sports clubs and churches,
where they can debate, in a non-threatening space,
issues of sexuality, masculinity and power.
Participants agreed that such efforts should be grounded
in a culture of human rights that can bridge cultural
differences and span the variety of situations men
experience, for example, rural and urban, old and
young, heterosexual and gay, single and married. The
notions set out in the UN Declaration of Human Rights
provide a common ground for the complex task of renegotiating
gendered power relations, they said.
"Besides deep changes in structures of society, what
we need is a deeply spiritual transformation in the
identity of men," concluded Lindegger.
* Culled from culled from IRINNEWS.ORG
- (http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=32407&SelectRegion=Southern_Africa),
March 15, 2005.
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