Reflective masculinities: black boys contesting hegemony in peri-urban South Africa

Abstract

This article introduces the concept of reflective masculinities to explore how Black adolescent boys in a peri-urban South African community make meaning of masculinity in ways that defy dominant, deficit-based representations. Drawing on a critical African masculinities framework and participatory visual methodologies, the study engaged 15 teenage boys through photo-elicitation and focus group discussions to examine how they navigate gender in relation to aesthetics, spirituality, friendship, and future aspirations. Rather than framing masculinity as inherently hegemonic or violent, the paper foregrounds the everyday, agentive strategies boys use to rework gendered expectations within contexts shaped by racialized inequality, poverty, and post-apartheid transitions. The findings reveal complex, often contradictory performances of care, ethical self-fashioning, and relational identity, which challenge monolithic constructions of Black boyhood. By centering boys as co-constructors of knowledge, the article contributes to gender transformative youth scholarship in the Global South and calls for more nuanced, youth-led approaches to studying masculinities.