IP0603 Patriarchy, Gender-Based Violence, and the Architecture of Fear in South Africa

7–10 minutes

To read

https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-yywap-1a5bb10

Content Note: This episode discusses gender-based violence, rape culture, and femicide. Please take care of yourself while listening.

South Africa doesn’t just have a “violence problem.” It has a patriarchy problem.

In this episode, Aurora unpacks how gender-based violence is sustained — not only through individual perpetrators, but through systems: colonial legacies, racial capitalism, religious discourse, media narratives, workplace hierarchies, and everyday gender socialisation.

🎁 Support the podcast and get exclusive bonus content at Patreon.com/IntersectionalPsychology.

🌈 If this episode resonates, please share it, rate the show, and send us your thoughts. 

📄 Download a transcript of this episode on IntersectionalPsychology.com.

⏳ Chapter Timestamps

| 00:00:00 Content note 
| 00:00:24 Pre-credit teaser 
| 00:02:08 Land acknowledgement
| 00:02:36 Title credits: Patriarchy, gender-based violence, and the architecture of fear in South Africa 
| 00:03:00 Welcome and introduction
| 00:04:53 Patriarchy as a system, not a personality flaw
| 00:06:14 “#MenAreTrash” and why “#NotAllMen” misses the point
| 00:08:58 Toxic gendering starts early — and it stays loyal 
| 00:11:05 Colonial patriarchy vs African patriarchy: a false binary
| 00:14:28 Calling out offenders: Justice, risk, and survival
| 00:17:37 Religion: Tool of control or site of resistance? 
| 00:24:16 Patriarchal institutions and structures
| 00:31:34 Media, fear, and the psychology of spectacle 
| 00:35:11 GBV as a racial and class phenomenon 
| 00:39:08 What do we do with all this?
| 00:43:00 End credits

Stay connected

🔗 Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts
📮 Got feedback or questions? Reach out at @IntersectionalPsychology or IntersectionalPsychologyPod[@]gmail.com

You can contribute to the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund at https://www.pcrf.net/ 

References 

Ademiluka, S.O. (2018) ‘Patriarchy and Women Abuse: Perspectives from Ancient Israel and Africa’, Old Testament Essays, 31(2), pp. 339-362 [online]. Available at: https://scielo.org.za/scielo.php?pid=S1010-99192018000200004&script=sci_abstract (Accessed 21 July 2024)
Adisa, T.A., Cooke, F.L. and Iwowo, V. (2020) ‘Mind your attitude: the impact of patriarchy on women’s workplace behaviour’, Career Development International, 25(2), pp. 146-164 [online]. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1108/CDI-07-2019-0183 (Accessed 21 July 2024)
Akala, B.M. (2018) ‘Challenging Gender Equality in SA Transformation Policies – a Case of the White Paper: A Programme for the Transformation of Higher Education’, SA Journal of Higher Education, 32(3), pp. 226-48. Available at: https://doi.org/10.20853/32-3-1521 (Accessed 21 July 2024)
Bhana, D., Moosa, S., Xu, Y., and Emilsen, K. (2022) ‘Men in early childhood education and care: on navigating a gendered terrain’, European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 30(4), pp. 543–556 [online]. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/1350293X.2022.2074070 (Accessed 21 July 2024)
Boonzaier, F. (2014) ‘Talking against dominance. SA women resisting dominant discourse in narratives of violence’, in Lafrance, M.N. and McKenzie-Mohr, S. (eds.), Creating counter-stories: Women voicing resistance, pp. 102–120. Routledge Press.
Boonzaier, F. (2017) ‘The Life and death of Anene Booysen: Colonial discourse, GBV and media representations’, SA Journal of Psychology, 47(4), pp. 470–481 [online]. Available at: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0081246317737916 (Accessed 21 July 2024)
Boonzaier, F.A. (2023) ‘Spectacularising narratives on femicide in South Africa: A decolonial feminist analysis’, Current Sociology, 71(1), pp. 78-96 [online]. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/00113921221097157 (Accessed 21 July 2024)
Burchardt, M. (2018) ‘Saved from hegemonic masculinity? Charismatic Christianity and men’s responsibilisation in South Africa’, Current Sociology, 66(1), pp. 110-127 [online]. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/0011392117702429 (Accessed 21 July 2024)
Canham, H. and Maier, C. (2018) ‘Women bankers in black and white: exploring raced, classed and gendered coalitions’, Social Dynamics, 44(2), pp. 322–340. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/02533952.2018.1487749 (Accessed 21 July 2024)
Coetzee, A. and du Toit, L. (2018) ‘Facing the sexual demon of colonial power: Decolonising sexual violence in South Africa’, European Journal of Women’s Studies, 25(2), pp. 214-227 [online]. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/1350506817732589 (Accessed 21 July 2024)
Dawood, Q. and Seedat-Khan, M. (2022) ‘The unforgiving work environment of black African women domestic workers in a post-apartheid South Africa’, Development in Practice, 33(1), pp. 168-179 [online]. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/09614524.2022.2115977 (Accessed 21 July 2024)
du Toit, L. (2012) ‘Sexual specificity, rape law reform and the feminist quest for justice’, SA Journal of Philosophy, 31(3), pp. 465–483 [online]. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/02580136.2012.10751788 (Accessed 21 July 2024)
du Toit, L. (2014a) ‘Shifting Meanings of Postconflict Sexual Violence in South Africa’, Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 40(1), pp. 101-123 [online]. Available at: https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/676895 (Accessed 21 July 2024)
du Toit, L. (2014b) ‘Human rights discourse: friend or foe of African women’s sexual freedoms?’, Acta Academica, 46(4), pp. 49-70.
Dube, B. (2019) ‘The Exclusion of Black Men in SA Gender Discourses: Rethinking Gender, Patriarchy and Male Privilege’, Africa Insight, 49(1), pp. 37-51.
Dunham, C.C. and Flores-Yeffal, N.Y. (2019) ‘Household Decision-Making Between Older Adult Women and Men in the Western Cape of South Africa’, Gender Issues 36(3), pp. 253–268 [online]. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12147-018-9220-6 (Accessed 21 July 2024)
Elboubekri, A. (2015) ‘Is patriarchy an Islamic legacy? A reflection on Fatima Mernissi’s Dreams of Trespass and Najat El Hachmi’s The Last Patriarch’, Journal of Multicultural Discourses, 10(1), pp. 25-48 [online]. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/17447143.2015.1008496 (Accessed 21 July 2024)
Fakunmoju, S.B., Abrefa-Gyan, T., Maphosa, N. and Gutura, P. (2021) ‘Rape Myth Acceptance: Gender and Cross-National Comparisons Across the United States, South Africa, Ghana, and Nigeria’, Sexuality & Culture, 25(1), pp. 18–38 [online]. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12119-020-09755-z (Accessed 21 July 2024)
Fakunmoju, S.B. and Rasool, S. (2018) ‘Exposure to Violence and Beliefs About Violence Against Women Among Adolescents in Nigeria and South Africa’, Reproductive Health in Sub-Saharan Africa, 8(4), pp. 1-17 [online]. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244018817591 (Accessed 21 July 2024) 
Gqola, P.D. (2015) Rape: A SA Nightmare. Johannesburg: MF Books.
Gqola, P.D. (2021) Female Fear Factory: Gender and Patriarchy Under Racial Capitalism. Johannesburg: MF Books.
Gouws, A. (2022) ‘Rape is endemic in South Africa. Why the ANC government keeps missing the mark’, The Conversation [online]. 4 August 2022. Available at: https://theconversation.com/rape-is-endemic-in-south-africa-why-the-anc-government-keeps-missing-the-mark-188235 (Accessed 23 July 2024)
Haddad, B. (2004) ‘The Manyano Movement in South Africa: Site of Struggle, Survival, and Resistance’, Agenda: Empowering Women for Gender Equity, 61, Religion & Spirituality, pp. 4-13 [online]. Available at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/4066591 (Accessed 21 July 2024)
Inggs, J. (2021) ‘Weak or Wily? Girls’ Voices in Tellings and Retellings of African Folktales for Children’, Children’s Literature Education, 52(3), pp. 342–356 [online]. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10583-020-09421-w (Accessed 21 July 2024)
Jakobsen, W. T. and Pillay, M. N. (2022) ‘Re-membering Tutu’s liberation theology: Toward gender justice from theo-ethical feminist perspectives’, Anglican Theological Review, 104(3), pp. 330-340 [online]. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/00033286221079226 (Accessed 21 July 2024)
Jarvis, J. (2020) ‘Empathetic-Reflective-Dialogical Restorying for decolonisation: an emancipatory teaching-learning strategy for Religion Education’, British Journal of Religious Education, 43(1), pp. 68–79 [online]. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/01416200.2020.1831439 (Accessed 21 July 2024)
Khelghat-Doost, H. and Sibly, S. (2020) ‘The Impact of Patriarchy on Women’s Political Participation’, International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 10(3), pp. 396–409 [online]. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.6007/IJARBSS/v10-i3/7058 (Accessed 21 July 2024)
Lecoutere, E. and Wuyts, E. (2021) ‘Confronting the Wall of Patriarchy: Does Participatory Intrahousehold Decision Making Empower Women in Agricultural Households?’, Journal of Development Studies, 57(6), pp. 882-905 [online]. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/00220388.2020.1849620 (Accessed 21 July 2024)
Mayeza, E., Bhana, D. and Mulqueeny, D. (2021) ‘Normalising violence? Girls and sexuality in a SA high school’, Journal of Gender Studies, 31(2), pp. 165-177 [online]. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/09589236.2021.1881460 (Accessed 21 July 2024)
Mayson, C. (2004) ‘A New Re-Formation: Religion, the State and Gender’, Agenda: Empowering Women for Gender Equity, 61, Religion & Spirituality, pp. 53-59 [online]. Available at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/4066600 (Accessed 21 July 2024)
Mfecane, S. (2020) ‘Decolonising Men and Masculinities Research in South Africa’, SA Review of Sociology, 51(2), pp. 1-15 [online]. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/21528586.2020.1803763 (Accessed 21 July 2024)
Mitchell, L.M. (2023) ‘Hashtag Activism and #MeToo in South Africa: Mobilisation, Impact, and Intersectional Feminism’, in Cheema, I.S. (ed.), The Other #MeToos. New York: Oxford Academic [online]. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197619872.003.0008 (Accessed 23 July 2024)
Mokwena, M. (2004) Interrogating Traditional African Spirituality through a Gendered Lens’, Agenda: Empowering Women for Gender Equity, 61, Religion & Spirituality, pp. 86-91 [online]. Available at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/4066608 (Accessed 21 July 2024)
Molefe, L. (2004) ‘Turning up the Volume on Gender Equity’, Agenda: Empowering Women for Gender Equity, 61, Religion & Spirituality, p. 25 [online]. Available at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/4066594 (Accessed 21 July 2024)
Moothoo-Padayachie, N., Verity, C.L., Nadar, S., Indlovu, L.A., Mvambo-Dandala, N., Scott, A., Hassim, S. and Bell, D. (2004) ‘Women Reclaiming Their Spiritual Spaces’, Agenda: Empowering Women for Gender Equity, 61, Religion & Spirituality, pp. 42-52 [online]. Available at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/4066598 (Accessed 21 July 2024)
Mshweshwe, L. (2020) ‘Understanding domestic violence: masculinity, culture, traditions’, Heliyon, 6(10) [online]. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e05334 (Accessed 21 July 2024)
Naicker, V. (2023) ‘The problem of epistemological critique in contemporary Decolonial theory’, Social Dynamics, 49(2), pp. 220–241 [online]. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/02533952.2023.2226497 (Accessed 21 July 2024)
Ndlazi, T. (2004) ‘Men in Church Institutions and Religious Organisations the Role of Christian Men in Transforming Gender Relations and Ensuring Gender Equality’, Agenda: Empowering Women for Gender Equity, 61, Religion & Spirituality, pp. 62-65 [online]. Available at: http://www.jstor.com/stable/4066602 (Accessed 21 July 2024)
Ogunyemi, C.B. (2019) ‘Phallocentrism versus Feminism: A (Re)-Conceptualisation of Afrocentrism in African Subjectivity’, Africa Insight, 49(1), pp. 112-121 [online]. Available at: https://hdl.handle.net/10520/EJC-17a0ae6cdb (Accessed 21 July 2024)
Phiri, I. (2004) ‘African women’s theologies in the new millennium’, Agenda: Empowering Women for Gender Equity, 61, Religion & Spirituality, pp. 16–24 [online]. Available at: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4066593 (Accessed 21 July 2024)
Prah, E. and Maggott, T. (2020) ‘The role of feminisms in building a transformation framework for institutions of higher learning in South Africa’, Social Dynamics, 46(3), pp. 515–539 [online]. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/02533952.2020.1858541 (Accessed 21 July 2024)
Quayle, M., Lindegger, G., Brittain, K., Nabee, N. and Cole, C. (2018) ‘Women’s ideals for masculinity across social contexts: patriarchal agentic masculinity is valued in work, family, and romance but communal masculinity in friendship’, Sex Roles, 78(1), pp. 52-66 [online]. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/%2010.1007/s11199-017-0772-9 (Accessed 21 July 2024)
Rakoczy, S. (2004) ‘Religion and violence: the suffering of women’, Agenda: Empowering Women for Gender Equity, 61, Religion & Spirituality, pp. 29-35 [online]. Available at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/4066596 (Accessed 21 July 2024)
Rasethaba, L. (dir.) (2018) The People vs. Patriarchy. MTV South Africa [online]. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAoPFeObqe4 (Accessed 21 July 2024)
Raymond, Z. and Canham, H. (2022) ‘Women’s refusal of racial patriarchy in SA academia’, Gender and Education, 34(8), pp. 991–1008 [online]. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/09540253.2022.2101201 (Accessed 21 July 2024)
Sikweyiya, Y., Addo-Lartey, A.A., Alangea, D.O., Dako-Gyeke, P., Chirwa, E.D., Coker-Appiah, D., Adanu, R.M.K. and Jewkes, R.  (2020) ‘Patriarchy and gender-inequitable attitudes as drivers of intimate partner violence against women in the central region of Ghana’, BMC Public Health 20, 682 [online]. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-020-08825-z (Accessed 21 July 2024)
van Niekerk, T. J. (2019) ‘Silencing racialised shame and normalising respectability in “coloured” men’s discourses of partner violence against women in Cape Town, South Africa’, Feminism & Psychology, 29(2), pp. 177-194 [online]. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/0959353519841410 (Accessed 21 July 2024)
West, G., Zondi-Mabisela, P., Maluleke, M., Khumalo, H., Smadz Matsepe, P. and Naidoo, M. (2004) ‘Rape in the House of David: The Biblical Story of Tamar as a Resource for Transformation’, Agenda: Empowering Women for Gender Equity, 61, Religion & Spirituality, pp. 36-41 [online]. Available at: http://www.jstor.com/stable/4066597 (Accessed 21 July 2024)
Wilén, N. and Heinecken, L. (2018) ‘Regendering the SA army: Inclusion, reversal and displacement’, Gender, Work & Organisation, 25(6), pp. 670–686 [online]. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12257 (Accessed 21 July 2024)
Wood, H.J. (2019) ‘Gender inequality: The problem of harmful, patriarchal, traditional and cultural gender practices in the church’, HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies 75(1), [online]. Available at: https://doi.org/10.4102/hts.v75i1.5177 (Accessed 22 July 2024)
Zulu, N.T. (2020) ‘The Struggles and the Triumphs of SA Black Women Professors’, SA Journal of Higher Education, 35(6), pp. 239-57 [online]. Available at: https://doi.org/10.20853/35-6-4272 (Accessed 21 July 2024)

See Privacy Policy at https://intersectionalpsychology.com/privacy-policy/ 

Leave a comment

Ama Ndlovu explores the connections of culture, ecology, and imagination.

Her work combines ancestral knowledge with visions of the planetary future, examining how Black perspectives can transform how we see our world and what lies ahead.