Being a born-again man: engaging the masculinity construction and negotiation of pentecostal men in KwaZulu-Natal, midland’s region.

Abstract

This study explores how born-again Pentecostal men in Kwa-Zulu Natal navigate, negotiate, and construct their masculinities within the intersecting contexts of media, religion, and culture. Informed by the theoretical underpinnings of African masculinity theory, redemptive masculinity theory and media theory, the research employs a qualitative participatory methodology as a systematic method of enquiry and direct collaboration with those affected by the phenomenon being studied for the purpose of change or action. Individual interviews, focus group discussions, and auto-photography were as data collection tools. The findings reveal that despite adopting a born-again identity framed by Pentecostal redemptive theology, men remain deeply influenced by dominant heteropatriarchal discourses that frame masculinity through roles such as provider, protector, and leader. The study highlights the persistent tension between religious expectations, cultural norms, and lived realities, particularly as men attempt to reconcile their faith-based transformation with enduring patriarchal privileges. Furthermore, the study highlights the complex process in which born again-men navigate the negotiation and construction of masculinity in their everyday life. Through the engagement with data collected from the study and analysis, it is evident that critical men and masculinity scholarship within the South African context does not provide an alternative methodology to studying masculinity, thus offering one singular dimension based on a cis-heteropatriarchal framework. The study proposes queering masculinities as an alternative, which refers to queer as form a systematic resistance to the hegemony that is stuck and to counter the cis-heteronormative hegemonic masculinity while creating space for all men as it interrogate the normativity of gender and masculinity. Instead of constructing masculinities within a heteronormative framework that does not give men autonomy, agency and space to envision an alternative masculinity, we must then queer masculinities. Queering redemptive masculinities within the Pentecostal context creates space where men can explore alternative ways of being a man while also giving them language in which they express their lived masculine experiences.