“Lazy bugs, homosexuals, softies and dumb fools”: Exploring what it means to be a male emotional labourer across community-based AIDS care sites in rural and urban South Africa

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Interviews conducted with 25 community-based AIDS caregivers highlight the gender-based stigma directed at black men involved in community-based AIDS care. Male caregivers are labelled as lazy, unintelligent, homosexual or too feminised to be ‘real’ men. As the eight men in this sample indicate, none of them embarked upon AIDS care by choice, since most were forced into it by poverty and poor scholastic performance. Male and female caregivers alike perpetuated societal gender binary views by dubbing care work as feminised. In spite of the fact that all men and women carers reported emotional labour techniques, carried out in the course of their care work. women were defined as naturally emotionally fit to perform care. The continued search for an idealised masculinity coloured most of the coping strategies adopted by the gender-stigmatised men. In most cases, they sought to leave the AIDS care domain and obtain stereotypically masculine jobs in the professional sector. In constantly seeking this idealised masculinity, the much needed presence of these men in community-based AIDS care is prohibited, as it perpetuates the myth that certain types of work are gender specific. The most promising finding was obtained from a male caregiver who defined himself as a ‘worker’, albeit in the informal sector. He also sought to remain in the world of community-based NOS care for the foreseeable future. This man was masculine on his own terms and he defined his emotional labour as ‘work’. Thus, he defined himself as masculine, whilst simultaneously defining himself as a worker. His self valuation was possible as he placed a gender-neutral recognition upon his chosen form of work. Such identification is crucial, as these caregivers work in trying circumstances, and bear emotional, social and financial costs with little or no benefits and legal protection. As the majority of men saw this work as temporary, a worker identity was not claimed. As a result, little could happen by way of collective action to improve and regulate their conditions. By using emotional labour process theory as a lens, the experiences of black male care workers are better understood. More research of this nature needs to be carried out with a larger sample to verify these sorts of conclusions.