Browsing by Department "African Feminist Studies"

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
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    Exploring Community Creation: Conversations of Young Black Women
    (University of Cape Town, 2024) Ngandi, Asemahle; Bennett, Jane; Hurst Ellen
    In order to showcase the significance of the often-trivialised act of women talking to each other, the purpose of this research project was to explore how young black women use talking to create community with each other. The purpose of this research is to explore how young black South African women talking to each other, having conversations with each other, work to create bonds and ultimately community with each other – or, in bell hooks' (2000) terms, a Sisterhood. This act of women talking – black women, no less – to each other goes against the grain, it is a revolutionary act that they have been conditioned against precisely because of its revolutionary nature and because of the power that lies in the unpredictability of it. Along with staying silent, women are conditioned into not having bonds or relationships with each other because they are natural enemies, because all that would come from such relations would be unimportant, because they would tear each other down – as such, women cannot and should not bond with each other (hooks; 2000:43). This is reflected in the literature, particularly literature on Africa. The literature available on the socio-linguistic study of language and language varieties is expansive on the embodiment of these varieties by young African men. This solidifies the notion that [young African] women are not talking – not to young men, not to each other, not to anyone. Due to the COVID-19 induced travel restrictions, the research used virtual ethnography principles applied to past synchronous one-one-one WhatsApp chats to collect data. Using a Speech Act Analysis on the emojis used in the chats, it was discovered that these play various roles in these conversations, including mitigating serious conversations, to contextualise seemingly negative messages and to convey emotions between the interlocutors. Additionally, focussing on and analysing the code switches that occurred in the conversations revealed that switches were also used to provide comedic relief in heavy conversations and/or to make the other person laugh and code switches did friendship maintenance work. From the WhatsApp conversations, one can therefore deduce that these young black women's use of language and linguistic matter – albeit in a virtual space – play an important role in creating community in that both emojis and code switches insist on the fragility of the people in conversation and create a community that not only accommodates this fragility, but one that allows and accepts it.
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    Exploring discourses of masculinity within women track athletes' lives in South Africa
    (University of Cape Town, 2022) Sauzier, Regine Françoise Eva Gabrielle; Bennett, Jane
    This research dissertation explores discourses of masculinity among university-level women track athletes across South Africa. Many scholars have delved into the narratives of racialization and masculinity among black women athletes, muscularity as a premise of athleticism, ‘tomboyism' and gender fluidities, as well as the policing and disciplining of women athletes' bodies in accordance with gender ideals. Nonetheless, as it stands, literature on women's masculinities within sports in South African contexts, along with the idea of meshing masculinities and women's experiences together remains scarce. Interviews were conducted with women sprinters attending universities across South Africa on the online platforms, Microsoft Teams and Zoom, due to the state of the COVID-19 pandemic and restrictions in place at the time. An analysis of their narratives surrounding experiences and discourses of masculinity as cisgendered heterosexual women athletes was carried out. The research concludes that upon reaching adulthood and maturation, the gender binary recloses around the women track athletes so that a "temporary boyhood" is no longer granted to them, and they must negotiate their performative proximity to discourses of masculinity without the safety of the "tomboy" label. Rigid power structures continue to dominate, leaving little to no room for the women track athletes within South Africa to explore a heteronormative female masculinity as part of their gender identities.
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    Narratives of how young men raised in lesbian and gay families navigate South African Heteronormativities
    (University of Cape Town, 2022) Matabane, Bongani Samuel; Bennett, Jane
    South Africa is currently the only country in the continent to fully legally recognise same-sex marriage. While this is a post-apartheid nationalism feat that needs and should be celebrated, those who live openly as gay/lesbian continue to be despised by a large portion of the population (Gouws, 2005). There is an overwhelming body of research in the continent, including South Africa, that focuses on the narratives of homophobia and violence experienced by gay/lesbian individuals (see Mkhize, Bennett, Reddy & Moletsane, 2010; Judge, 2018). Despite the growing visibility of gay/lesbian headed families in the country, little is known about children raised in such families. Existing literature often focuses on the impact homosexuality has on children from the perspective of the gay/lesbian parents while ignoring the importance of giving a voice to children who come from such families. Using a qualitative approach, this study explored narratives of how young men raised in gay/lesbian families navigate heteronormative communities in South Africa. Queer theory and theory on Radical Democracy were adopted as theoretical frameworks while the data was produced through semi-structured interviews conducted in person and virtually with eight men raised in gay/lesbian families. Themes and sub-themes emerged through a narrative thematic analysis, highlighting the intricacies and tensions in how these men navigate heteronormative environments. Constructing narratives about (counter)heteronormative environments, encounters of disclosure, self-identification narratives, and growing up as a boy/man in counter-heteronormative families were the themes that arose from their narratives. Their narratives revealed that there is no such thing as a universal moment of disclosure and that ‘coming out' is a complex family process that sometimes occurs in the context of divorce and parental conflict and that sometimes, ‘coming out' was irrelevant for these men because the narrative of disclosure was not allowed. The men learned to represent a positive alternative masculinity that challenges mainstream sexist ideas of women and girls as objects as a result of growing up in counter-heteronormative families. The research suggests that living ‘the laws of democracy' within intimate family settings is a complex and multidetermined business, demanding both continuous vigilance around wide-spread homophobia and attunement to new modes of masculinity formation in the country.
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    Playing with power & possibility: Exploring the ways in which gameplaying can be used as a decolonial feminist tool in the African Feminist Studies (AFS) classroom
    (2025) Alexander, Andrea; Seedat, Fatima; Hurst Ellen
    Within the academic realm, a hierarchical structure prevails, giving rise to discernible power differentials between students and academic staff. These hierarchical power dynamics permeate the interactions between students and academic staff within the context of teaching and learning. Concurrently, language and racial identity emerge as formidable gatekeepers, significantly influencing students' sense of belonging and their capacity to engage in knowledge production within the academic domain. This research endeavours to unpack the role of gameplaying as a decolonial pedagogical approach in the African Feminist Studies (AFS) department. Moreover, the purpose of this study thus aims to explore the ways in which playing games functions as a decolonial pedagogic method for teaching and to include students as co-producers of knowledge together with academic staff. This examination takes the form of a qualitative study, underpinned by the theoretical framework of decolonial feminism. The data for this study originates from gameplaying sessions facilitated during lectures, tutorials, and postgraduate seminars. Specifically, the boardgame "Clue & A" was used it was created to foster discussions pertaining to diversity, transformation, and decolonization within the academia. Participants in this research include students and academic staff affiliated with courses offered by the African Feminist Studies (AFS) department at the University of Cape Town (UCT). Additionally, two students and two academic staff members from the University of the Western Cape who participated in the UCT postgraduate seminar series are included. For the purpose of analysis, thematic analysis has been used