5.2 CHILDREN’S CONSTRUCTION OF GENDER
5.2.1 Construction of femininities within the school context
The findings reveal that traditional Zulu cultural beliefs play a significant role in the children‟s constructions of femininities. These were thought to be the characteristic attributes of girls. All children who have been regarded as girls have been expected and exhorted to perform gender in ways that uphold the dominant constructions of femininities. The manner in which femininities have been constructed reflects patterns of gender behaviour that have been intricately intertwined with what was regarded as girls‟ role in society, and thus have defined what girls could or could not do or be. Indeed, the study found how culture has embodied certain societal gender- appropriate norms which have not only defined what the girls could do, but also who they could possibly become. These constructions, based on patriarchal values which affirm a problematic ideology of „rule by father head‟, generally relegate girls to subservience and meniality, meaning
144 that girls have been constructed as being weak, subordinated and with no preparation for them to play critical decision-making roles in their future lives. This is because femininities are mostly juxtaposed to masculinities – constructed as boys‟ attributes, which have been exalted above femininities, thus shaping both present and future power relationships between girls and boys.
In this context, femininities have been also associated with hyper-sexuality, wherein girls have been expected to stylise their bodies in ways that display heterosexual attractiveness. The findings reveal how the girls have spent a lot of time and their meagre financial resources beautifying themselves in line with the dominant constructions in a context that associates girlhood with hyper-heterosexual attractiveness. The culmination of such attractiveness has been for girls to get married so their natal parents could get the lobola (pride price) in the form of twelve cows; as the adults would saying “silindele izinkomo la kuwena”, we are waiting for the cows from you. Therefore, being heterosexually attractive has been one of the main way through which girls experienced and performed femininities, and this was evident in how they wore their school uniform and stylizations of the body like wearing of make-up and „relaxing‟ – using chemical hair softeners and straighteners, thought to beautify the hair. Being beautiful is an important expectation of being a girl in the culture of amaZulu, as exemplified in this girls‟
picture, as well as in the focus group interviews at uZalo Primary School below.
145 Picture 1
Kaise: Tell me, why did you take this picture
Bongiwe (girl, 13 years old, uZalo Primary): I took this picture on Monday morning when we arrived as you can see we are happy to see each other after a weekend so we are hugging each other, that is how we greet. You can also see in the picture our faces are fresh and the hair style is neat unlike after break. The hair style is a pressure to maintain but it is what makes the girl beautiful just like to be slim. But Sazi got into trouble on this day because she did not plait her hair, sometimes we struggle to get money to do our hair because it is expensive. Eyi, this pressure brought Nana into trouble as she had to be sexual active to get money. As for me I am not doing it for anyone but for me.
146 Sindy (girl, 13 years old, uZalo Primary): But madam, some of our teachers do not like it as we are this clean, they believe we are doing it because we want boyfriends. We are not clean because of boys, it is for us
Kaise: It is for you; now tell me (pointing at the photo): Why is she putting her hand on someone else‟s shoulder?
Sindy: We hug each other to show how much we love each other.
Kaise: Oh, is showing love important?
Bongiwe: Oh, yes love is important to us as girls.
Kaise: I hear you.
The data illustrates that to be a girl meant being beautiful and keeping up with fashion as girls had to plait and relax their hair. Moreover, Bongiwe and Sindy were firm and confident to tell me the stories that showed that somehow girls and women are being treated unfairly. This means girls did not straightforwardly conform to the dominant discourses of femininities that give power and wellbeing to masculinities over femininities. I say they were not straightforwardly conforming because they seemed to be aware of such societal stereotypes that, for instance, they were beautifying themselves for boys, whereas they knew they were doing it for themselves. It was expensive to maintain the hair style, therefore these girls had no option but to do anything to get the money and keep up with the societal expectation of being a girl. In other words, they were victims of social pressures; they wanted to be accepted. This was disturbing, especially at uZalo Primary, where most of the parents were not working hence they could not afford to pay school fees. The fact that teachers did not discourage this practice perpetuated the dominant discourses of femininities. Even when indications of danger were there, teachers did not put a stop to this pressure facing girls. The fact that Sazi and Nana became the victims of the pressures of gender
147 construction should have alarmed teachers to have a talk with girls so as to break this cycle of socialisation. Eventually this societal expectation placed girls in a vulnerable position of HIV/AIDS infection and unwanted pregnancy as they were coerced to be submissive to males as providers.
The mixed gender group interviews below further illustrate:
Siya (boy, 13 years old, uZalo Primary): You know mam that is why girls get into trouble, they want to be loved.
Kaise: What kind of trouble?
Vusi (boy, 15 years old, uZalo Primary): Like sexually transmitted diseases, HIV/AIDS and money pressure.
Masie (boy, 14 years old, uZalo Primary): But mam, girls put pressure on themselves.
Kaise: Why?
Nkanyiso (boy, 13 years old, uZalo Primary): They think too much, they have their natural beauty but they want more. That‟s why we see them falling in love with taxi drivers, they need money for face cream and hair relaxer.
The study found that girls did not beautify themselves to advance boys‟ attentions, despite the assumptions of the prevailing gender discourse. The limiting nature of these values might be an indication of girls‟ inventive willpower to perform gender beyond the boundaries of these stereotypic perceptions. During formal schooling girls acted in conformity to dominant discourses of femininity. This was because of the school rules which they had to follow otherwise they endured the pain of detention which parents agreed on. I witnessed a number of
148 fights after school as I stayed behind with girls and boys who I worked with. I observed that after school girls were ready to fight back boys who tried to take advantage over them. The data below illustrate:
I had come to arrange with Mrs Mdluli (Grade 7 teacher, who the principal delegated to work with me) about remixing the groups since I was ready for the next round of interviews with the second group of learners the following day. On my way back I saw a crowd of boys and girls gathered in a Grade 7 classroom and screaming. I entered and realised that there was a fight. It was a girl and a boy brutally hitting each other. Some boys who were watching shouted uyincence lo (meaning he is weak). The girl was sitting on top of him beating the boy and he was powerless. I looked around, there was no adult.
I decided to intervene and stop the fight. Some children ran away but the four boys who volunteered in my study were in the room and did not run away because they trusted that I would not get them into trouble.
(Field notes: Isibaya Primary School)
The following day, when we were in the playground during break I made a follow up on the fight. Therefore, the following notes I made while making playground observations illustrate:
Kaise: Sizwe, why was that girl and boy fighting yesterday?
Sizwe (boy, 13 years old, Isibaya Primary): [Looking down] Eish! Madam Uyabhayisa (meaning he is not thinking properly) uBongani, he associated that girl with Nomzamo.
Kaise: Who is Nomzamo?
149 Sizwe: She is a girl in our isiZulu reading book.
Kaise: So, what is wrong with Nomzamo?
Sizwe: She and her brother‟s parents died now Nomzamo lives all over the place and his brother has to absent himself from school looking for him. His brother is protecting her against boys like us who are rude and always teasing girls because they are weak and crying babies.
Mthoko (boy, 15 years old, Isibaya Primary): Madam, I make sure that I do not tease them when there is no teacher or any adult around. You know our parents and teachers defend us and girls are afraid of them.
The data revealed that contrary to the construction of girls being „softer‟ and „gentler‟, it appeared that girls in these schools had created the stance of protecting themselves against boys.
They took a stand to fight boys who undermine them as a means to defend themselves. It was a worrying factor to me that teachers‟ and parents‟ perceptions of gender conformed to the inequalities of gender between males and females, and associated girls as being physically weak.
When I analysed the incident report book I realise that girls mostly reported that boys beat them during break times. This denoted how children‟s experiences in the schools were severely constrained by teachers‟ perceptions of gender. The data also illustrate that core values of femininities do not reflect girls‟ genuine potentialities. For instance, the behaviour of the girl who I found brutally fighting a boy in class was contradictory to dominant perceptions of gender.
This meant that girls in these schools do not necessarily conform to dominant values of femininities such as being physically weak, soft, gentle and so forth. Girls are not passively
150 socialised into these constraining patterns of gender behaviour. They also learn things from their schooling experiences which, regrettably, included performing gender violently.
Meyer (2009), writing from a feminist standpoint, shares these sentiments, maintaining that the patriarchal values embodied in the school curriculum disadvantage girls and increase the risk of being infected with HIV/ AIDS. In concurrence with this view, I assert that in South Africa boys are also disadvantaged as they are pressured by the dominant discourses of masculinities to be dominant. The ideology of gender construction seems to be embedded in the school curriculum especially through text books, the teaching strategies (pedagogy) adopted and teachers‟ attitudes and expectations of children‟s‟ gender roles. The most profound effects of gender construction are evident in the discourses and practices that girls are exposed to at school. These discourses determine girls‟ appearance and the ways they walk, talk, sit and behave. These practices also reinforce the societal expectation of who is a girl.