‘Men value their dignity’: securing respect and identity construction in urban informal settlements in South Africa

Abstract

BackgroundUrban informal settlements remain sites of high HIV incidence and prevalence, as well as violence. Increasing attention is paid on how configurations of young men's masculinities shape these practices through exploring how men build respect and identity. In this paper, we explore how young Black South Africans in two urban informal settlements construct respect and a masculine identity.MethodsData are drawn from three focus groups and 19 in-depth interviews.ResultsWe suggest that while young men aspire to a ‘traditional’ masculinity, prioritising economic power and control over the household, we suggest that a youth masculinity emerges which, in lieu of alternative ways to display power, prioritises violence and control over men's sexual partners, men seeking multiple sexual partners and men's violence to other men. This functions as a way of demonstrating masculinity and their position within a public gender order.DiscussionWe suggest there are three implications of the findings for working with men on violence and HIV-risk reduction. First, there exist a number of contradictions in men's discourses about masculinity that may provide spaces and opportunities for change. Second, it is important to work on multiple issues at once given the way violence, alcohol use, and sexual risk are interlinked in youth masculinity. Finally, engaging with men's exclusion from the capitalist system may provide an important way to reduce violence.

‘Life under the tent is not safe, especially for young women’: understanding intersectional violence among internally displaced youth in Leogane, Haiti

“…Our findings corroborate literature that elucidates how social processes that (re)produce gender hierarchies are complicated by intersecting social positions such as poverty and age [27]. Young men living in poverty who do not hold the idealized and desirable forms of power represented in the construct of hegemonic masculinity may view violence as one of the only pathways to access power [25].…”

“…Violence in this context was a medium for internally displaced men with subordinated masculinities to access power through money and sex. Youth masculinity is constructed in relation to inclusion/exclusion from the capitalist economy [27]. Young men excluded from economic opportunities may seek out, and navigate, alternative ways of achieving masculinity and power, such as sexual violence [20,27].…”

“…Relational approaches [25] enhance understanding of the complexity of gender power dynamics, including diversity within genders, and the intersection of gender and other identities that produce different experiences of masculinity and femininity. For example, factors such as poverty can shape how masculinities are constructed and enacted [26–28]; gender hierarchies are produced in the construction of masculinities that contribute to GBV and compromise men and women’s health and wellbeing [27]. …”

“…Gibbs, Sikweyiya, and Jewkes [27] discuss the importance of recognizing that poverty can create feelings of powerlessness, vulnerability, and despair, and GBV can be a method used by men who experience marginalization (e.g. through poverty) and do not experience the ideals of hegemonic masculinity to regain power and control.…”

Attitude towards gender roles and violence against women and girls (VAWG): baseline findings from an RCT of 1752 youths in Pakistan

“…Research among Pakistani adults and South African children shows an association between poverty and more patriarchal gender attitudes [19,24]. This may be an indication of the gender norms that prevail in more impoverished communities that in multiple settings have often been described as highly patriarchal [25,26]. It is also possible that the patriarchal endorsement of women’s limited participation in income generating activities, endorsed by more than a third of boys and nearly a quarter of girls in our study, reflects ideas from the home and impacts on food availability in the home.…”