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7 White Men: An Exploration of Intersections of Masculinity, Whiteness and Colonialism and the Engagement of Counter-Hegemonic Projects1 Claire Kelly This study presents the case for the study of white masculinities in South Africa. White men, long seen as hampering gender and race transformation in South Africa, are seen here as engaged as potential allies in an exercise which, while locating whiteness and masculinity in a particular history, allows for the notion of multiple masculinities and whitenesses, and for alternative ways of being a man and white to emerge. Through exploring life stories, this study presents moments that illustrate the intersections of masculinity, whiteness and colonial legacy in the construction of these men’s identities. It illustrates how these identities are complex and contradictory and that the ascendance into hegemony is heavily weighted with cost. Furthermore, it shows how different men, at different moments, inhabit these intersections differently. Some challenge the master narratives of masculinity and whiteness, some accept and perpetuate them. These challenges may manifest in the simple naming of power to a call to action to challenge it. The most important thing, however, is that master narratives are being ‘interrupted’ and the hegemony challenged. Academic and popular interest in the study of masculinities is growing worldwide. In March 2004, the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women released its first set of agreed conclusions on The Role of Men and Boys in Achieving Gender Equality (UN 2004). In South Africa, these processes are echoed by endeavours such as the Fatherhood Project headed by the Human Sciences Research Council. It is becoming accepted that gender equality ‘demands that men take on the challenge of changing themselves’ (Morrell 2003). The struggle for men to see the privilege they have is central to this process (Wildman and 111 Kelly: White Men: An Exploration of Intersections of Masculinity Davis 2002; Steyn 2001; Frankenberg 1993), and it can only be achieved through the inclusion of men in the struggle towards gender justice. Although radical feminisms have been criticized for the demonization and exclusion of men, more inclusive feminisms have emerged. These acknowledge the value of men’s involvement in the project of realizing gender justice. A ‘third wave’ (Frankenberg 1993) of feminism has endeavoured to undertake this project in the context of other axes of oppression, especially race2 and racism,3 the driving rationale being that gender and race do not simply present versions of each other but actively constitute each other (Lerner 1997). African feminisms have pointed out that African women’s realities are shaped by a ‘plurality of values of which Africa consists’ and that sound scholarship around gender needs to be ‘located in that history’ (Modupe-Kolawole 2000: 93). The reality of African women’s oppression is criss-crossed by factors such as culture, nationalism, religion, globalization, colonialism4 and race. Gender is but one layer in the fight for equality. Modupe-Kolawole (2000: 92) goes on to say ‘feminism’ is viewed by many African men as a ‘divisive concept’ employed by the West to undermine the struggle against racism. It is also viewed with scepticism by some women, perceived by some to have been imported to’ruin nice African homes’ (Aidoo, cited in ModupeKolawole 2000: 93). The concerns of African feminists ‘draws attention to the diversity of experiences amongst women’ (Morrell and Swart 2005: 99) and illustrates the very intersectional nature of gender and racial oppression. It also underlines the ‘need to theorise multiple forms of oppression, particularly where inequalities of race, gender and class are evident’ and ‘the need to highlight imperialism’ (Oyewumi 2002: 3) in the study of gender in Africa. In the same way that mainstream academic focus is shifting from women as the ‘problem’, the ‘problem’ of race can no longer be seen as ‘coming from blacks’ (Lipsitz, cited in Steyn 2001: xxix) but rather needs to be ‘located and addressed in the discourses, socialization, political and economic privilege of white people’ (Steyn 2001: xxix). In the past the analysis of race has focused largely on black people (Giroux 1997) but as bell hooks (cited in Giroux 1997: 291) argues, very little has been done ‘to investigate and justify all aspects of White culture from a standpoint of difference’. More recently, however, for those engaged in critical analysis, just as men have become gendered, whiteness has become raced (Steyn 2001; Frankenberg 1993) and the primary task of those whites who are committed to transformation is to ‘deterritorialize the territory of the White, to expose...

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