In pursuit of a theory of individual and social accountability : a critical engagement with responses to perpetrators of sexual and gender-based violence in higher education

Abstract

South African universities are in the midst of rising sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV). In the face of a lack of wider institutional commitment to effectively tackle the issue, we have seen an increase in calls to find, name, punish, shame, and expel perpetrators, that is, offending men. While appropriate at times, we propose that this current response to SGBV in tertiary education runs the risk of unintentionally essentialising problematic constructs of masculinity and, due to changing demographics of universities in South Africa, reproducing problematic colonial ideas of Black African cisgender male sexuality. As queer people, we are deeply aware of the machinery of othering, and that individual and systemic dynamics operate in interdependent ways to structure our personal and social relations. Using reflexive action research and autoethnographic memory work, we locate our own experiences of shame and being shamed, calling for dialogue to move beyond simplistic and individualistic solutions towards a theory of individual and social accountability. We invite SGBV practitioners to come together to think more systemically about the social construction of gender and race, the role of institutional systems and cultures, and pedagogical strategies that could bring male perpetrators into a relationship of engagement towards rehabilitation, change, and growth.