Performing gendered identities: In search of the masculine voice in siSwati popular music

Abstract

This paper analyses the voices, and subjectivities that are constructed in songs about men and women within siSwati traditional popular music. These songs position men and women in different ways. This positioning contradicts some of the gender stereotypes of male versus female identities. Discourses of male domination, subjugation of women, inferiority of women, and asymmetrical power relations between men and women are very common in traditional popular music and gender studies. Women are often portrayed as silenced in the public spheres, such as the political, economic and sociocultural spheres. However, this paper aims to destabilize some of the gendered cultural stereotypes through the masculine identities that are depicted in music, and proposes that women are able to criticize and ridicule their male counterparts with impunity in these songs, sometimes through performing masculine subjectivities.

Masculinities and femininities through teachers’ voices: Implications on gender-equitable schooling for vulnerable children from three primary schools in Swaziland

“…The irony is that, according to Swazi culture, preparing food and cooking is not only boys' responsibility but also that of women and girls (Fielding-Miller et al 2016). Ndlangamandla (2010) says the kitchen is not only perceived as a space inhibited by girls and women but also it symbolises their subjugation and taming within a patriarchal society. These findings denote a deviation from this cultural norm and dominant discourse in these schools, particularly because it bestowed the boys a position of power, control and responsibility (Connell 1995).…”