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South African studies on rape culture have examined this issue in relation to heterosexuality. They demonstrate how toxic masculinity exercises sexual power by victimizing women and girls. However, little is known about manifestations of rape culture in contexts where both victims and perpetrators are same-sex attracted young people within intimate relationships. Thus, this article extends the scope of the scholarly discussions on rape culture by exploring how rape culture manifests itself in the social and intimate lives of sexually diverse South African youth. It will also reflect on some of the ways that could be explored to address rape culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractViolence remains a persistent challenge in South African schools, prompting investigations into underlying risk factors and mitigation strategies. However, an under-explored aspect of this violence is the potential link between the consumption of Internet porn via cellphones among girls and boys, and girls’ risks to sexual violence inside the classroom. To address this gap, we used focus group discussions with 14–17-year-old South African girls to examine their experiences of porn access via cellphones and their accounts of sexual violence at school. The study illuminates the nuanced ways in which the girls experience risks and express agency. First, the girls illustrate a link between sexual harassment and boys accessing porn on their cellphones during class. Second, the findings show how girls negotiate their sexual agency and safety through contesting sexual violence. Third, there are conflicting views about porn: while some girls admitted liking and viewing porn, others objected to it as harmful and degrading. Finally, this study offers crucial insights into strategies to create safer school environments and gender equality by drawing attention to the intersections between cellphone porn consumption, sexuality, and girls’ negotiations of sexual agency amidst sexual risk in the classroom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores two orphaned girls' accounts of victimization and vulnerability to child sexual abuse in their family homes. Interviews with these girls revealed a trend of neglect, adversity and processes of adultification which involved accounts of sexual abuse within their family homes. According to the data, the participants are vulnerable and they experience victimization as they are routinely sexually abused by older male relatives and non‐related men and boys inside their family homes – where they are supposed to feel safe and protected. We argue that these two young girls' experiences need to be understood as consequences of the prevailing cultures of toxic heteropatriarchal masculinities which have produced and normalized the distribution of male power over girls. The kinds of interventions required to address toxic masculinities and to insulate orphan girls from sexual abuse and neglect are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ending gender violence against girls in South African schools is an ongoing challenge. In this paper, we report on findings from focus groups and in-depth interviews that explore girls' accounts of gender violence in a South African township high school. Our findings illuminate the normalization of violence instigated by boys against girls: such violence is highly sexualized and complex in its manifestations. Girls were sexually harassed, subjected to violence and sexual coercion by their male peers in different spaces at school. Beyond simplistic binary positions through which girls are constructed as merely victims, some girls in the study engaged in the problematic discourse of victim-blaming; girls who frequent school spaces dominated by boys and girls who use drugs, such as dagga, were often stigmatized and blamed for the violence they experienced. Furthermore, evidence of female-on-female violence (fights and humiliation) that occurred in the context of heterosexual competition came to light during the study. This kind of violence reinforced the subordination of girls in the broader hetero-patriarchal system. We conclude the paper by providing some recommendations towards addressing the complex manifestations of school-based violence against girls. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study engages with several lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, pansexual and queer (LGBTPQ) identifying youth in South Africa to explore their perceptions and realities regarding coming out to their parents and parental reactions. In-depth interviews were utilized to engage with the 17 participants, aged 19 to 32 years old, all of whom were students at the same university in South Africa. The study found that participants who have not come out tended to view coming out as a problematic act that reproduces the heteronormative discourse of sexuality in which heterosexuality is normalized, while same-sex sexuality is seen as odd and as deviant. The study also found that many participants perceived coming out as an individual choice. However, the choice of whether or not to come out, when to come out, and which parent to come out to, is dependent on 1. the nature of the relationship the participants have with their parents, and 2. perceived parental reactions. Analysis reveals how religion, gender norms based on heteronormativity, and parent-child relationship dynamics intersect to shape participants' perceptions regarding parental reactions. This intersectionality also shaped the realities of coming out. Such realities involved a variety of reactions from parents, including acceptance, rejection, forms of violence, and silence. Parents reacting with silence was a common, yet complex experience among the participants. The participants' experiences suggest ways through which they could be empowered to cope better with their parents' silence and other non-supportive reactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we draw on data from focus group discussions to examine the ways in which some young boys in a South African township primary school construct and negotiate hegemonic masculinity through bullying, and other forms of violence, within the school. Deviating from the simplistic victim-bully binary, we draw from critical masculinity studies to show how younger boys exert power over girls through violence but are, themselves, also victims of violence which, they say, is perpetrated by girls. Boys are often identified as bullies at school, but when we gave them the opportunity to talk about what it meant to be a bully, we gained a far more complex picture of how bullying behaviour manifests between learners at school. Indeed, our participants' accounts of violence at school gave us great insights into the complexities of gender violence and highlighted the broader socio-cultural and economic conditions that produce it. We conclude that it is vital to understand the mechanisms of gender power relations among primary school learners, if primary school violence prevention interventions are to be effective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we contribute to the understandings of young masculinities by turning attention to the South African schooling primary school context. In the context of scarcity of interventions around violence in the primary school, we focus on how young boys construct, negotiate and experience violence. Notwithstanding dominant discourses around childhood innocence we argue that young boys are active participants in violent gendered cultures at school. We show how boys' bodies are key sites for the enactment of violence and is especially a valuable resource in the context of food insecurity. The paper also shows the fluidity of masculinity as boys who are regarded as 'victims' can also defend and resuscitate masculinity that endorses violence. Implications for addressing young masculinities in the primary school within local context are considered in the conclusion of the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the views of male and female learners regarding how Life Orientation (LO) sexuality education is taught at their schools. Learners in the study were selected from five former 'Black' schools in the Eastern and Western Cape Provinces of South Africa. Focus groups were used to identify what learners could recall about their LO sexuality education classes. The strong trend in the data speaks to how LO sexuality education implies a gendered, heteronormative and moralistic approach to youth sexuality which silences and negates same sex relationships and girls' accounts of sexuality. Although LO sexuality curricula are, as crafted on paper, often sophisticated learning programmes, participants point to a disjuncture between the official LO sexuality education curriculum and how LO sexuality education is taught in the studied schools. The paper concludes with some specific recommendations for teachers to promote a non-judgemental approach to sexuality education that challenges heteronormativity and other gendered injustices as part of the teaching of LO sexuality education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the ways in which five- to seven-year-old primary school children in a Black/African township in South Africa construct and experience 'free play' in the classroom. Findings highlight the gendered manner in which play is constructed and constantly policed by these young children during 'free play'. By foregrounding the young children's gendered constructions and experiences of 'free play', the paper challenges the common sense teacher perceptions and constructions of children's play that suggest children have 'free choice'. The paper reveals that play is far from a 'free' activity as it is heavily constrained by specific contextual gender norms and expectations which limit possibilities by reproducing polarised versions of gender and perpetuate gender inequalities. Implications focus on the ways in which teachers can work with children to challenge the boundaries of gender during 'free play'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

South African research on young children’s constructions of social identities illuminates the significance of play in the construction of gender identities. However, what remains largely understudied are the children’s construction of sexualities through play. The dominant discourse of ‘childhood innocence’ obscures the variegated understandings of the meanings children attach to sexualities. This paper will explore how some South African boys and girls aged 9–10 years construct themselves as active heterosexual subjects through football talk and play during break-time at school. The paper will demonstrate how the school playground is constructed by the ‘charmer boys’ as a ‘football space’ where they use football performance to impress and charm the ‘cream girls’ who are relegated to the margins as spectators of the football games. However, the paper will also argue that gender power relations are complex and that the position of the ‘creamers’ is infused with power as reflected in the role that they play as assessors of the boys’ performance. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper explores how teachers in a poor township primary school in South Africa construct meaning regarding gender violence among children, and how they talk about addressing that violence. The paper argues that major influences on the endemic violence include complex societal structures that are inscribed with cultures of violent masculinities, extreme socio-economic conditions and gender inequality. It shows how primary school teachers recognise violent masculinities and gender power imbalances but simultaneously uphold the notion of children’s innocence as a rationale for refuting the primary school as a site of violence. The paper explores contradictions embedded in some of the solutions which the teachers suggest as a way of addressing violence. For example, while they highlight the importance of teaching peace, respect and equality, they also advocate the use of corporal punishment as an effective means of dealing with violent conduct among school children. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper is based on an ethnographic study conducted between 2012 and 2014 with a group of 64 boys and girls aged 6–10, all attending the same township primary school in South Africa. The paper explores how the young children construct gender ‘boundaries’ and ‘police’ gender ‘transgressions’ on the school playground during break-time. The findings illustrate the ways in which these young boys and girls learn to ‘do’ gender through practices of inclusion, exclusion and ‘policing’ during play. The findings challenge dominant teacher constructions of the playground as a ‘free space’ and demonstrate how the playground operates as a site of learning gender through forms of ‘policing’ that involve boys bullying girls and boys who do not conform to gender norms. The findings raise implications for the development of curriculum material and teaching practices that would assist primary schoolteachers to reflect more deeply on young learners’ personal experiences and perspectives around gender and play. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Whenever masculinity and school violence are considered in South African research, the focus is often on the high school. In this paper, we consider a different direction by drawing on Connell’s (1995) concept of hegemonic masculinity to understand the workings of power and violence amongst a group of South African primary school boys. Little is known about how forces of hegemonic masculinity operate to shape every day gender relations amongst younger boys. Against this background, this paper focuses on a particular group of boys, between 10 and 13 years old, who attend a ‘black’, working-class primary school in South Africa. In addition, they identify themselves as ‘real boys’, where being a ‘real boy’ is inextricably linked to violent ‘performances’ of hegemonic masculinity on the school playground during break time. The paper explores how these boys use forms of violence to claim control of the playground space and to exclude, marginalise and denigrate the other group of boys whom they construct as ‘unmasculine’ and ‘gay’. The findings raise implications for ways of curbing the violence, such as working with the boys to promote non-violent interpretations of performing, being and becoming a ‘real boy’. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, I engage the argument of getting around adult power in child-centered ethnographic research by presenting and discussing my experiences as a man researching with South African children in the early years of schooling. I present and discuss the different strategies I used in order to try and disassociate myself from the presumed position of adult male formal power and authority among children who were in my study. In Gender Play, Barrie Thorne coined the term “learning from the children” to describe a critical child-centered ethnographic approach which seeks to engage children as experts in their everyday social lives. However, Thorne acknowledged that when adults seek to learn from the children, the major challenge for the researcher is reducing the perceptions of adult formal power while establishing child-centered relations with the children. While Thorne discussed the issues of gender power in her relationships and interactions with boys and girls during her ethnographic research, this article considers a different perspective. It provides a male perspective on the relational issues and dynamics around adult–child power relations during child-centered ethnographic research on Gender Play in a South African primary school. The focus is on my attempts to reduce perceptions of adult male power so as to establish child-centered relations with young boys and girls in my research. I highlight the challenges encountered in my attempts to reduce these perceptions, given the children’s variegated expressions of agency that manifest by way of resistance—serving to reinforce adult–child power differentials. The article highlights how adult–child power relations operate in complex ways during fieldwork. It highlights how this complexity compelled the adult male researcher to acknowledge that power is not the sole preserve of adults. Rather, power is fluid and is constantly in flux between the adult male conducting the research and the young boys and girls who are actively participating in the research process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores how some South African teenage fathers in rural KwaZulu-Natal engage in heterosexual relationships. Drawing on findings from a qualitative based study with twenty teenage fathers aged between seventeen and nineteen years old, we examine how they talk about two highly sexualised gatherings - umhlalaphansi (an overnight Zulu dance ceremony) and inkwari (a weekend-long rave-like party). We find that these social and cultural gatherings provide opportunities to express gender and sexuality whilst simultaneously increasing the risk for early childbearing. Umhlalaphansi is produced at the cultural nexus which supports respect and cultural norms that prohibit sexual secrecy and unregulated sexuality. Paradoxically, umhlalaphansi is a key site in which teenage men and women engaged in courtships, sexual relationships and risky sexual conduct. Inkwari lacks cultural scripts and is based on partying, alcohol, drug use and engagement in spontaneous sexual encounters. We show how these two sites provide opportunities for young men to pursue sexuality in ways that are risky as they increase vulnerability for unplanned teenage fatherhood. Our conclusion provides some implications for school-based interventions to tackle sexual risk within rural contexts in South Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]