Normalising violence? Girls and sexuality in a South African high school

Abstract

ABSTRACT Ending gender violence against girls in South African schools is an ongoing challenge. In this paper, we report on findings from focus groups and in-depth interviews that explore girls’ accounts of gender violence in a South African township high school. Our findings illuminate the normalization of violence instigated by boys against girls: such violence is highly sexualized and complex in its manifestations. Girls were sexually harassed, subjected to violence and sexual coercion by their male peers in different spaces at school. Beyond simplistic binary positions through which girls are constructed as merely victims, some girls in the study engaged in the problematic discourse of victim-blaming; girls who frequent school spaces dominated by boys and girls who use drugs, such as dagga, were often stigmatized and blamed for the violence they experienced. Furthermore, evidence of female-on-female violence (fights and humiliation) that occurred in the context of heterosexual competition came to light during the study. This kind of violence reinforced the subordination of girls in the broader hetero-patriarchal system. We conclude the paper by providing some recommendations towards addressing the complex manifestations of school-based violence against girls.