Silencing the Tamar(s) to Frame the politics of Black Masculinities and Rape Culture Discourse in South Africa

• Slindile Thabede University of the Free State https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6245-4831

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7833/125-1-2272

Keywords:

Rape Culture, Hegemonic masculinity, Kyriarchy, Decoloniality, Power and knowledge production

Abstract

Using the rape of Tamar in 2 Samuel 13 as a hermeneutical lens, this article interrogates rape culture and the discourse of sexual violence in South Africa. This article mobilises Tamar’s silenced voice to critically expose the hegemonic structures that sustain gendered violence within broader socio-political formations. While the narrative necessarily engages male actors, the analysis does not seek to centre perpetrators as subjects of sympathy; rather, it examines how systems of power produce and sustain conditions in which violence becomes normalised. Furthermore, the article interrogates colonial and racialised constructions of Black masculinity, challenging the enduring stereotype of Black men as primary perpetrators of sexual violence. It argues that such representations obscure the structural and historical conditions that underwrite rape culture while simultaneously reinforcing racialised logics of othering.