Smoking, swearing and strong muscles: Becoming boys in the primary school

Abstract

In the context of gender and sexual violence in South Africa, there are growing efforts in the country to engage with and transform harmful patterns of masculinity. Whilst efforts to promote gender equitable versions of masculinity are ongoing and highlight the role of male culpability, questions about the experiences of younger boys are rarely the focus of attention. Given the value of problematising masculinity in boyhood, this article focuses on the ways in which 8–9-year-old boys construct their masculinity in a low-income South African primary school. Adopting a feminist poststructural lens to understanding children's agency, the article shows how a group of Indian and black boys established masculine status through the identification with adult male smoking practices, verbal abuse and swearing, and the idealisation of strong muscles. These strategies and practices were performed in relation to the understanding the boys had of status, bodily strength, heterosexual domination and the disparagement of femininity. Taken together, smoking, swearing and muscularity were mobilised to produce a competitive and stylised performance of young masculinity and demonstrates the pressures that boys face to uphold hegemonic and dominant masculinities. Through paying close attention to the specific manifestation of gendered practices and performances of young boys in the primary school, the findings foreground the need for educative practices to problematise and address harmful masculine practices at an early stage.