Gender in Flux: Young Adults Deployment of Cultural Scripts in Cape Town, South Africa

• In Event: 236 - Regular Session. Cultural Studies

Abstract

In pluralist “modern” South Africa, influential social institutions – the family, media, and religion – offer two sharply conflicting types of cultural scripts for sexual relationships: those that promote gender egalitarian norms and others that ascribe different roles and values for men and women. In this paper, I draw on qualitative data to examine how young men and women make sense of conflicting scripts and manage these divergent messages in a variety of ways. Data include 17 single- and mixed-sex focus group discussions and 22 individual interviews with a racially and economically diverse group of men and women between 20 and 30 years old in Cape Town, South Africa, and participant observation for 15 months between 2011 and 2014. Several recent applications of sexual script theory propose that young adults’ gender ideals either cluster around “traditional” gender models endorsing male dominance or “modern” gender models favoring gender equality in sexual relationships. This binary framework can obscure tensions in people’s expressions and experiences of gender. In this study, I found that the majority of participants describe gender ideals that cluster in the middle, embracing some cultural messages on gender equality while simultaneously rejecting others. Participants also draw upon race and class scripts in discussing their endorsement of or opposition to gender equality in sexual relationships. I argue that tensions among young adults in describing ideals of masculinity and femininity and internal inconsistencies within their personal ideals reflect conflicting cultural scripts that they struggle to disentangle and incorporate in their lives and relationships.

Author

• Althea D Anderson, Columbia University