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The Identity Construction of Gay Male Academics and Students in South African Tertiary Education

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The Identity Construction of Gay Male Academics and Students in South African Tertiary Education (De)constructing the heterosexual/homosexual binary: The identity construction of gay male academics and students in South African tertiary education J Rothmann 21081719 Thesis submitted for the degree Doctor Philosophiae in Sociology on the Potchefstroom Campus of the North-West University Promoter: Prof JF Cronjé Co-promoter: Prof R Smit September 2014 As with all my work, I dedicate this to my mother, Annatjie. Without your unconditional love, support and strength, particularly during this past year, I would not have been able to make as much progress as I have. Because of you, I will never be ‘reflexively defeated’. Thank you! And I love you. i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to take this opportunity to express my appreciation and gratitude towards the following individuals: . Firstly, to my supervisor, Prof Freek Cronjé. Thank you for ‗soldiering‘ through page-after- page of my work during your busy schedule. Your conscientious supervision and support mean a great deal to me, and I will be forever grateful; . my co-supervisor and mentor, Prof Ria Smit. As always, your humility, kindness and considerate inclination is only surpassed by your consumate professionalism, immaculate feedback and detailed reading of my work; . everyone at the Ferdinand Postma Library who has assisted me during the last three years. But, in particular, I would like to express my sincere appreciation towards Marieta Buys, Isabel Blom and the ladies at Interlibrary Loans; . Elsabeth Marnitz for her language editing; . the loving members of my family; Poplap, Boetie and Héléné. Your support and encouragement touch me deeply; . my dear friend Carma Geldenhuys for always being there for me; . my Lord and Saviour for carrying me through the past three years of the PhD; and . finally to all those participants who permitted me to ‗steal‘ a few precious moments or hours from their lives. Your willingness to participate provided me with the opportunity to voice your life stories in order to emphasise the importance of such studies in the South African context. Your narratives recentred the taken-for-granted ‗normality‘ of heteronormativity in contemporary academia – something in need of immediate attention and definite remedy. No longer should sexual minority academics, whether educators, researchers and/or students, remain in the shadows. I wish to rather appeal to you to challenge, what Ki Namaste (1996) calls ―the engendered paradox‖ of the closet, through writing, teaching, researching and advocating your ―queer selves‖ (Grace, 2006) in order to destabilise heterosexist ignorance and homophobia. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES ix LIST OF TABLES ix LIST OF ACRONYMS x SUMMARY xii KEY WORDS xiii OPSOMMING xiv SLEUTELWOORDE xv CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION AND PROBLEM STATEMENT 1.1 INTRODUCTION 1 1.2 BACKGROUND AND PROBLEM STATEMENT 5 1.3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS 10 1.4 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES 11 1.4.1 General research objective 11 1.4.2 Specific research objectives 11 1.5 RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY 12 1.6 CONCLUSION 14 CHAPTER TWO GAY MALE IDENTITY CONSTRUCTION ACROSS THE CONTESTED TERRAIN OF LESBIAN AND GAY STUDIES AND QUEER THEORY: A THEORETICAL CONTEMPLATION 2.1 INTRODUCTION 16 2.2 THE WORK OF MEAD AND GOFFMAN: THE CENTRAL THEORETICAL ARGUMENT 19 2.2.1 A link between the individual and the social 19 2.2.2 The self as self-consciously constructed dramatic performance: The contributions of Mead and Goffman 21 2.3 LESBIAN AND GAY STUDIES ON EMOTION, BEHAVIOUR AND CATEGORISATION 31 2.3.1 Same-sex emotion and behaviour as binary-free 32 2.3.2 Identity as medical category: The emergence of ―the homosexual‖ as ‗other‘ 41 2.4 IDENTITIES AS DEPENDENT ON COMMUNAL BELONGING 51 2.4.1 ‗Sexual orientation and the city‘: The need for gay spatial identification 53 (a) The Western city as redeeming gay space between the 1900s and 1940s 54 iii (b) Post war: The ‗gay ghetto‘ as influential space for gay communal identification 58 (i) The visible gay cultural space: The homosexual bar and health club 64 (ii) The invisible gay residential space: Gay homes 69 2.4.2 The lesbian and gay movement: A case of ‗pathology abandoned‘? 71 (a) The origin and development of Western homophile and liberationist movements 72 (b) South African gay and lesbian liberationist movements: Towards a case for democratisation 77 2.4.3 The ghettoised gay male epitomised as ethnic minority 85 2.5 LEARN YOUR LINES: THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF A „HOMOSEXUAL ROLE‟ 89 2.5.1 McIntosh and the ‗homosexual role‘: A critical reflection 90 2.5.2 ‗The long and winding road‘: Gay identity as rationalised theme 95 (a) Theme 1: A sensitised acknowledgement 97 (b) Theme 2: Identity confusion and shame 99 (i) Factors which inhibit homosexual identification 99 (ii) Responsive strategies to identity confusion 101 (c) Theme 3: Identity tolerance through marginality 106 (d) Theme 4: Identity acceptance and assumption 107 (e) Theme 5: Identity synthesis 109 2.6 THE GAY ACTOR AS HETERONORMATIVE PUPPET: THE „PERFORMATIVE‟ QUALITIES OF QUEER THEORY 110 2.6.1 Defining ‗queer theory‘ 111 2.6.2 Queer theoretical themes 113 (a) Reclamation of the concept ‗queer‘ 113 (b) Denaturalising heterosexuality 117 (c) The symbolic dualism of ‗the closet‘ 127 (d) Anti-assimilation and homogenisation 130 2.6.3 Critiquing the ‗queer‘ 134 2.7 CONCLUSION 137 CHAPTER THREE THE „(DE)PROFESSIONALISATION‟ OF THE GAY MALE IN ACADEMIA: A CASE OF ASSIMILATION OR TRANSGRESSION – A THEORETICAL OVERVIEW 3.1 INTRODUCTION 140 3.2 HETERNORMATIVITY = HETEROSEXISM + HOMOPHOBIA: AN EXPLICITLY DESTRUCTIVE FORMULA FOR GAY MALE EXPERIENCE IN ACADEMIA 143 3.3 EXPERIENCES OF THE GAY MALE ACADEMIC AND STUDENT IN TERTIARY EDUCATION 146 3.3.1 Marginalisation through homophobia: Gay students at risk 147 iv (a) The troublesome state of contemporary homophobia in secondary and tertiary education: The GLSEN and UNESCO-reports 148 (b) Principal consequences of homophobia for the gay male student 151 (c) The state of affairs in South Africa: From legislation to the civil society 155 3.3.2 The ‗invisibility‘ of the gay male academic: From interaction to curricula content 163 (a) Professionalising the gay male academic : Censorship, collegiality and mentoring 163 (i) Censoring the disclosure of a gay identity at work 163 (ii) Collegiality as gendered 171 (iii) Mentoring the heterosexual and gay identified student 176 (b) (De)professionalising the gay male academic through an interrogation of the ‗normative‘ in academia: ―Critical pedagogy‖ through queer life narratives, balanced nuance, exclusivity and inclusivity 179 3.3.3 The university campus as safe(r) space for the sexual minority student: Fact or fiction? 193 (a) Principles associated with a ‗safe space‘ or ‗safe zone‘ 194 (b) The effects of a safe space or zone on campus climate, faculty and students 196 (c) The relativity concerning the ‗safe zone‘: A critical reflection on the perceived (non)democratisation of sexual orientation 200 3.4 CONCLUSION 204 CHAPTER FOUR RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY 4.1 INTRODUCTION 207 4.2 RESEARCH BASES: “WRITING THE QUEER SELF” THROUGH EPISTEMOLOGY AND ONTOLOGY 208 4.2.1 The metatheoretical paradigms of the study 208 4.2.2 Merging metatheory with a potentially self-reflexive project 213 4.3 THE QUALITATIVE RESEARCH DESIGN 217 4.4 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 221 4.4.1 Sampling procedures 221 4.4.2 Data collection 224 (a) In-depth interviews 225 (b) Self-administered questionnaires 228 4.4.3 Data analysis 229 4.5 BIOGRAPHICAL DESCRIPTION OF PARTICIPANTS 233 4.6 ETHICAL PROCEDURES 236 4.7 CONCLUSION 239 v CHAPTER FIVE (DE)CONSTRUCTING THE IDENTITY OF THE GAY MALE ACADEMIC AND STUDENT IN SOUTH AFRICAN TERTIARY EDUCATION: FINDINGS 5.1 INTRODUCTION 240 5.2 THE GAY MALE ACADEMIC AS POTENTIALLY RATIONALISED AND REFLEXIVE AGENT 240 5.2.1 Defining the gay identity 241 5.2.2 A choice of individualisation or collectiveness: The (in)visibility of the gay group 243 (a) The public persona of the gay male academic 243 (i) Contexts of public gay male association 245 (ii) Positive and negative features associated with overt gay male identification 248 (b) The private persona of the gay male academic 251 5.2.3 The gay male stereotype: Internal versus external scripting 254 (a) The gay male stereotype as blueprint for ―gay sensibility‖ 255 (b) Sources of the gay male stereotype 260 5.2.4 The symbolism of the closet in practice: (Hiding) the gay male academic 262 5.2.5 Themes associated with the construction of the gay male identity 267 (a) Acknowledging same-sex attraction 267 (b) Confusion and shame 269 (c) Tolerance through marginal involvement 272 (d) Accepting and authenticating the gay male identity 275 (e) Gay male identity pride and synthesis 276 5.2.6 The gay male academic in the tertiary educational context 278 (a) Discrimination as overt or covert 278 (b) The tertiary academic context as safe space 282 (c) (Un)Locking the closet door in the tertiary environment 284 (d) Collegiality as gender performance 287 (e) Assimilating homosexuality into South African academia 288 (i) The influence of academic specialisation on being gay 289 (ii) The role of the gay male in academia 291 (iii) The necessity for including homosexual themes in tertiary curricula 292 (f) The university as safe(r) space in South Africa 294 (i) The university as central role player in advocating sexual diversity 294 (ii) The role of the safe(r) space in academia: Assimilation versus transgression 296 5.3 THE GAY MALE STUDENT AS POTENTIALLY RATIONALISED AND REFLEXIVE AGENT 300 5.3.1 Defining of the gay identity 300 5.3.2 A choice
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