Saved from hegemonic masculinity? Charismatic Christianity and men's responsibilization in South Africa

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Periodical article

Title:	Saved from hegemonic masculinity? Charismatic Christianity and men's responsibilization in South Africa
Author:	Burchardt, Marian
Year:	2018
Periodical:	Current Sociology (ISSN 0011-3921)
Volume:	66
Issue:	1
Pages:	110-127
Language:	English
Geographic term:	South Africa
Subjects:	religion gender masculinity Pentecostalism
External link:	https://doi.org/10.1177/0011392117702429
Abstract:	In this article, the author explores the role of religion in social constructions of heterosexual masculinity in South Africa in the context of civil society driven programs to fight sexual and gender-based violence and the spread of HIV. Critically engaging with the concept of hegemonic masculinity and the sociological literature on gender relations in conservative Christian communities, the author examines how Charismatic Christian and Pentecostal communities in the townships of Cape Town negotiate their model of masculinity and gender authority in the context of the prevailing hegemonies of 'traditional' and 'liberal' masculinity. Based on ethnographic observations and qualitative interviews with Pentecostal men, the author specifies the concrete mechanisms whereby Pentecostalism both contributes to transform but also to reproduce rather than undermine hegemonic masculinity. He finds that Pentecostalism responsibilizes men not because men adopt its sexual ideology but because they adopt its model of personhood. (Journal abstract).