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"Gunkel, Henriette"
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Undutiful daughters : new directions in feminist thought and practice
\"This exciting collection offers a range of undutiful feminist voices of our time. Employing experimental modes of thinking and writing, the contributors remain faithful to the feminist tradition of subversion and resistance, while refusing to submit to its political tradition of a loving sisterhood or dutiful daughterhood. Through productive disagreement and cognitive dissonance, the essays presented here reflect the specific circumstances of our present, and attempt to dream and envision possible alternatives for the future. The volume thus invites us to think of the becoming of feminism itself, and the possibilities of future feminisms-to-come. Contributors include Rosi Braidotti, Judith Butler, Claire Colebrook, Elizabeth Grosz, and Jack Halberstam\"-- Provided by publisher.
Book
The Cultural Politics of Female Sexuality in South Africa
Sexual identity has emerged into the national discourse of post-apartheid South Africa, bringing the subject of rights and the question of gender relations and cultural authenticity into the focus of the nation state’s politics. This book is a fascinating reflection on the effects of these discourses on non-normative modes of sexuality and intimacy and on the country more generally. While in 1996, South Africa became the first country in the world that explicitly incorporated lesbian and gay rights within a Bill of Rights, much of the country has continued to see homosexuality as un-African. Henriette Gunkel examines how colonialism and apartheid have historically shaped constructions of gender and sexuality and how these concepts have not only been re-introduced and shaped by understandings of homosexuality as un-African but also by the post-apartheid constitution and continued discourse within the nation.
Henriette Gunkel is post-doctoral Research Fellow at the Fort Hare Institute of Social and Economic Research, South Africa.
Introduction 1. ‘Homosexuality is Un-African’: Unfolding the Colonial Legacy within Post-Apartheid Homophobia 2. Is Pink Really White in South Africa? Reflections on Discourses of Homosexuality in the Post/Apartheid State 3. Homosociality and the Technologies of Homophobia 4. ‘I Didn’t Think of It as Lesbian’: Mapping out Intimacy and Homo/Sociality 5. Aftermath
eBook
Some Reflections on Postcolonial Homophobia, Local Interventions, and LGBTI Solidarity Online: The Politics of Global Petitions
In the last two decades we have witnessed an increase in online petitions and campaigns emerging from Europe and North America against homophobia in various African countries, creating a particular form of visibility with some remarkable global success. Based on these online petitions and postings as well as the responses of African activists, this article reflects on the politics of this global queer solidarity. By suggesting a restrategizing of antihomophobia politics, it contributes to the ongoing debate about LGBTI politics in a transnational and global framework, pointing to the challenges but also the possibilities for the future. Dans les dernières décennies nous avons été témoins d’une augmentation sur internet de pétitions et de campagnes provenant d’Europe et d’Amérique du Nord contre l’homophobie dans plusieurs pays d’Afrique, créant une forme particulière de visibilité avec un succès mondial remarquable. En se basant sur ces pétitions et messages Internet ainsi que les réponses des activistes africains, cet article offre une réflexion sur ce mouvement gay international. En suggérant une réorientation des stratégies politiques anti-homophobes, il contribue aux débats présents concernant la politique LGBTI dans un contexte mondial et transnational, indiquant les difficultés mais aussi les possibilités pour son avenir.
Journal Article
The cultural politics of female same-sex intimacy in post-apartheid south africa
In 1996 South Africa became the first country in the world that explicitly incorporated lesbian and gay rights within the Bill of Rights of the post-apartheid constitution. Since then the discussion and proclamation of sexual identities has increasingly emerged. This has brought not only the subject of rights but also the question of gender relations and cultural authenticity, as visible for example in the emerging populist notion of homosexuality as un-African, into the focus of the nation state's politics. The thesis examines the politics behind the claim homosexuality is un-African and its historical anchorage in the history of colonialism and apartheid. The thesis explores how colonialism and apartheid have historically shaped constructions of gender and sexuality and how these concepts are not only re-introduced by discourses of homosexuality as un-African but also through the post-apartheid constitution itself. As the interpretation of rights in relation to sexuality generally focuses on gay identities this thesis reflects on the effects of these discourses on non-normative modes of sexuality and intimacy. More specifically the thesis focuses on the interviews that I have conducted in Johannesburg on 'mummy-baby' relationships. By contextualizing these relationships in the historical and cultural framework of sexual cultures and cultures of intimacy this thesis argues that the South African history and cultures provided/provide a space which accommodates forms of female same-sex intimacy that are not necessarily linked to metropolitan sexual cultures. The thesis discusses the tensions between nonlesbian same-sex intimacy and metropolitan lesbianism and it explores the extent that these forms of intimacy are further marginalized by a post-apartheid constitution which reinforces a homosexual/heterosexual binarized identity. Therefore, the thesis questions the regulatory functions of identity and (Western) notions of sexual subjectivities and problematizes the practice of 'coming out' as always being a liberating moment. To do this the thesis pays attention to cultural and historical categories of sexualities, to normative and/or subversive forms of masculinities and femininities, and to social inclusion and exclusion on the basis of gender, sexuality and race. By doing so the thesis explores the suitability of queer theory in the South African context.
Dissertation
“I didn’t think of it as lesbian”—Mapping Out Intimacy and Homo/Sociality
Bongie’s narrative, titled True Confessions of an Amachicken, is one of
fi ve accounts of lesbian life captured by Tanya Chan Sam in the context
of ‘The Lesbian Forum’ within GLOW in Johannesburg.1 Elsewhere in
her account, Bongie defi nes ‘amachicken’ as an old word referring to the
younger girl in a friendship between two girls of different ages. The younger
girl is cared for and supported by an older girl in the school, helping the
younger one to adjust to the new life. According to Bongie another term
that is used is ‘sweeties’ or ‘sweethearts,’ which in itself indicates a certain,
not necessarily sexual level of intimacy. In this extract, Bongie talks about
the process of becoming sexual, a process which she links to the sweetie/
amachicken relationship that she had in a girls-only boarding school in
semi-rural Nelspruit, Mpumalanga. For Bongie the intimacy that she experienced in the amachicken relationship is important for the development of
her lesbian identity, as it is at this point that she fi rst becomes aware of a
sexual identity. However, while this intimacy is returned by the girl Bongie
desires, it can only take place within the amachicken discourse. Bongie distinguishes an amachicken identity from a lesbian identity, since the desired
girl would not engage with Bongie intimately if Bongie was a lesbian. This
shows that discourses are productive.2 Bongie’s sweetheart feels comfortable holding hands and kissing because this is congruent with the terms of
the amachicken discourse, however, more sexualized contact is not. For
her, there is a distinction between an amachicken relationship and a lesbian
relationship. If Bongie had been a lesbian her sweetheart literally would not
have known how to constitute herself within it.
Book Chapter
Aftermath
In conclusion I want to return to Muholi’s image Aftermath. As I have
argued in the introduction, this image starkly reveals the tension between,
on the one hand, the post-apartheid constitution where gay and lesbian
rights (based on international human rights) are protected and, on the other
hand, the (increasing?) violence against lesbians. The murder of Nkonyana,
which I discussed in the third chapter of the book, similarly reveals this
tension. In this conclusion I want to return to the subject’s body in Aftermath and in doing so bring together the different power relations that are
inscribed into this body. I then turn towards a broader discussion of (sexual) politics in the country, especially in relation to nationalism. In the
second half of the conclusion I turn the focus onto the title of the image and
explore the meaning of the word ‘aftermath.’ ‘Aftermath’ not only relates
to the particular traumatic experience of the subject in the image itself, but
also points to the possibility of a growing cultural archive that enables an
imaginary and movement towards an ‘after apartheid’ while pointing to a
constant awareness of the dangers of, and resisting, a postcolonial imaginary based on hetero-and homonationalism.
Book Chapter
Is Pink really White in South Africa? Refl ections on Discourses of Homosexuality in the Post/Apartheid State
In January 1966 the gay community was raided during a large party in one
of Johannesburg’s affl uent suburbs, a party that was attended by approximately 350 white gay men. Until that point the gay subculture had been
subject to constant, but not severe surveillance. The Forest Town raid was
one of the biggest raids in South African gay history and certainly the most
well known. Gay private parties were not unusual at the time. These parties were a crucial element of the subculture at a time in which there were
not many public spaces available and it was not possible to be openly ‘gay’
or ‘lesbian;’ disclosure of such an identity was likely to bring social and
economic, but also legal hardship. As such, parties like the one in Forest
Town-in this case a ‘bring your own bottle party’—generally took place
in the white suburbs, in private, and thus beyond the scope of the law,
since the Immorality Act of 1956 covered only public offences of the ‘antisodomy law.’ As this was a private venue, in which few men were actually
caught in a sex act, the raid posed no real possibility of legal prosecutionthat is, except against nine men for “masquerading as women,”1 one man
for “indecent assault on [a] minor,” and the two hosts for selling liquor
illegally (Gevisser 1995).
Book Chapter