(Page 19 of 32) - Feminist Social Movements: The Politics of Inclusion & Exclusion authored by Hebert, Laura.

claim is not borne out empirically. Rather, this is an insufficiently tapped area of research,
particularly in terms of studies of masculinity/ies that look beyond Northern contexts. In
Malaysia, for example, work on masculinities is entirely non-existent, while in South Africa, it
has only slowly begun to emerge.

One area meriting far more interdisciplinary, contextual study – particularly for those addressing
gender violence in their work – is the relationship between the construction of gender
subjectivities and violence. Numerous research studies have demonstrated that, globally, it is
men who most often act violently – with their violence targeted most often towards other men.

Moreover, studies of men’s violence against women and other men have demonstrated how the
violent behavior of males often reflects a “performance” of dominant notions of masculinity.

While cognizant of the need to consider the gendered dimensions of how violence is
experienced, given that men are primarily responsible for perpetrating violence – whether against
women or men – rather than treating gender violence as a separate case, it would appear to be far
more productive to ask the question, why are (some) men violent? What is the relationship
between violence and the construction of identities? How has the use of violence as a means of
resolving conflict and maintaining power/control come to be intertwined with dominant cultural
and social expectations of masculine gender roles? How has toleration of violence come to be
intertwined with dominant cultural and social expectations of feminine gender roles? How do
violence and dominant notions of masculinity intersect with other bases of identity, such as
ethnicity, class, and sexual orientation? To date, the superficial treatment of gender common
among women’s activists in Malaysia and South Africa and the subsequent failure to engage
with men on a more direct and sustained basis has precluded the asking of these questions. It has
thus also precluded the exploration of alternative subjectivities that aren’t tied to relations of
dominance and subordination, or to the acceptability of violence.

Conclusion

Moving beyond “noticing,” “questioning,” and “causing trouble” is necessary if women’s
activists are to subvert masculinism and the gender-based relations of dominance and
subordination that give rise to acts of violence. Women acting alone are not enough to “oppose
the momentum” of the prevailing social arrangement or to galvanize a critical mass of society
willing to adopt new behaviors and interactions. Men also have a vital role to play, both as
facilitators and targets of pro-women initiatives.

As noted earlier, gender is only one of the lines of fracture associated with the gender violence
movements in Malaysia and South Africa that I identify in my study. If a critical mass of support
for an alternative to the existing gender hierarchy is going to be generated, it will require
mending multiple lines of fracture. This will require activists to tackle the sensitive issue of
competition within the movement that has resulted from resource scarcity and that has impeded

See the U.S. Department of Justice 2001; WHO 2002.

See Hurst 2001; Katz 1995; Marshall 1993; and Miedzian 1991.