In postapartheid South Africa, a “crisis of masculinity” has become the most prominent explanation for high rates of violence against women and the gendered nature of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. This article offers a critique of such an analysis, and suggests that the sexualization of politics in the postapartheid era allows both state actors and impoverished community members to manage and negotiate the paradoxes of postcolonialism. Combining a discourse analysis and ethnographic study, the article analyzes the various ways in which the tropes of “modernity” and “traditionalism” are deployed (and resignified) in and through discursive struggles over masculinity and sexuality. Overall, the article argues that gender has become a primary terrain upon which colonial and postcolonial conflicts are played out. As such, rather than a “crisis of masculinity,” the sexualization of politics signifies and masks deep-seated concerns about the “success” of liberation.
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