Men’s narratives of gender-based violence during the COVID-19 pandemic: Oppressor and oppressed

Abstract

This article explores men’s narratives as perpetrators of gender-based violence (GBV) during the COVID-19 pandemic. While there was a surge in gender-based violence during the pandemic, femicide and gender-based violence were a problem in South Africa even before the pandemic. Despite research indicating that men are statistically the perpetrators of GBV, there is a paucity of research on engaging men in South Africa. We wanted to understand the context in which GBV took place during a national disaster, to inform GBV prevention strategies. The study therefore aimed to explore men’s narratives of GBV during COVID-19 and the professionals working with the men to include the views of perpetrators in GBV policy and practice. A qualitative case study design was employed, and postcolonial feminism was used as the theoretical framework. The target population consists of men who have committed GBV, social workers, community workers and police. Eleven men who committed acts of GBV during the pandemic were interviewed, as well as 15 social workers and police officers who work in three rural regions in the Western Cape, South Africa. The results show that the participants were perpetrators of GBV, but that they returned to the same relationship after having been arrested for GBV. There was a lack of resources for perpetrators of GBV during the pandemic. The findings also reveal men’s normative role expectations and their positionality during the COVID-19 pandemic, where the legacy of racialized oppression persists in rural communities. The implications are that GBV prevention should consider the postcolonial context of men who are violent.