For better or worse? Same-sex marriage and the (re)making of hegemonic masculinities and femininities in South Africa

This briefing explores the implications of the achievement of formal marriage rights for same-sex couples in South Africa for masculine and feminine subjectivities. It assumes as its starting point the regulatory character of marriage equality and its role in the reproduction of normative masculine/feminine binaries. Marriage, as a legal and social discourse, is fundamental to the (re)production of hegemonic masculinities and femininities, and related constructions of homosexual on the one hand and heterosexual on the other. Does same-sex marriage destabilise dominant forms of ‘the masculine’ and ‘the feminine’? Do marriage equality rights change the cultures of femininity and masculinity available to gay and lesbian citizens? Through the lens of marriage and murder, this briefing is a preliminary interrogation of the tensions and slippages between the achievement of formal equality on the one hand, and the realities of murderous abjection on the other. It proposes that the subversive character of non-conforming sexualities has the potential for a politics that pushes the limits of the masculine/feminine binary and associated powers and desires.