Today is Valentine’s Day — a day when capitalist consumption and heteronormative myth-making are in full swing: red roses (for the women, of course), images of happily-ever-after coupling (mostly of a heterosexual bend), and the coming together of brand “Hetero-Love” in a frenzy of consumerism and schmaltz. This day is yet another consummation of a […]
Melanie Judge
Melanie is a feminist activist and scholar. She collaborates with NGOs and donors on strategy, communications and research to advance social justice. Melanie has been extensively involved in advocacy to advance the rights of LGBTI people. She is widely published on matters of sexuality and gender. Her doctoral studies focus on violence against lesbians. Melanie has co-edited two books: To Have and To Hold: The Making of Same-sex Marriage in South Africa and Striking the Rights Chord: Perspectives on Advancement from Human Rights Organisations in South Africa. Melanie is an associate of Inyathelo: The South African Institute for Advancement and serves on the governing board of the Gay and Lesbian Memory in Action. See Melanie's previous blogs at www.queery.oia.co.za.
Posted inEquality, Gender violence
Mandela’s lesson of reconciliation applies to gender divides
As a society on a long walk to making reconciliation a reality, we have already taken significant and decisive strides. Yet, everyday in South Africa is still marked by violence, particularly that of a gendered nature. Today, I offer some reflections on how we might bring reconciliation closer in our everyday experience of being and […]
Posted inEquality, Gender violence
We need to ‘man down’
On the eve of 16 days of activism for no violence against women, Percy Mabandu got his knickers — sorry, XXL boxers — in a knot. “Manhood is under attack”, was the gist of his protestations in his column (“Why give macho men such a hard time?”). He lamented that masculinity — well, the kind […]
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
Methodist in the madness
Ecclesia de Lange, a minister axed by the Methodist church because of her sexuality, has embarked on a David and Goliath-type battle in taking the church to court for discriminatory actions. By doing so she is holding the church to account — in the eyes of both the public and the law — for its […]
Posted inEquality, Gender violence, News/Politics
Behind the shock and awe, the violence is ‘normal’
The murders of miners at Marikana by brutal state apparatus, the rape and murder of Anene Booysen by a group of men, and the killing of Reeva Steenkamp by her male lover have common threads. All three reflect a confluence of systems of violence that span centuries. Each is a product of past and prevailing […]