Who needs a father? South African men reflect on being fathered
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Date
2013
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Taylor & Francis
Abstract
The legacy of apartheid and continued social and economic change have meant that many
South African men and women have grown up in families from which biological fathers
are missing. In both popular and professional knowledge and practice this has been posed
as inherently a problem particularly for boys who are assumed to lack a positive male
role model. In drawing on qualitative interviews with a group of South African men
in which they speak about their understandings of being fathered as boys, this paper
makes two key arguments. The first is that contemporary South African discourses tend to
pathologize the absence of the biological father while simultaneously undermining the
role of social fathers. Yet, this study shows that in the absence of biological fathers
other men such as maternal or paternal uncles, grandfathers, neighbours, and teachers
often serve as social fathers. Most of the men who participated in this study are able to
identify men who - as social rather than biological fathers - played significant roles in
their lives. Secondly, we suggest that while dominant discourses around social
fatherhood foreground authoritarian and controlling behaviours, there are moments
when alternative more nurturing and consultative versions of being a father and/or being
fathered are evident in the experiences of this group of men.
Description
Keywords
Father, Fatherhood, Patriarchy, Masculinity, Gender, South Africa
Citation
Clowes, L., Ratele, K. & Shefer, T. (2013). Who needs a father? South African men reflect on being fathered. Journal of Gender Studies, 22(3): 255-267