Performing Queer

This volume explores the social constructions of sexuality in South Africa as articulated in the tensions between margin and mainstream during the transition to democracy. The nuances between how people experience their own sexuality, how that sexuality differs over time, and how they speak about it are discussed in the context of the homosexual communities of South Africa. Using the hierarchy of heteronormativity, this work argues that centralized constructions of sexuality are generally taken for granted, and tend to gain invisibility through their pervasiveness, while marginalized social positions are often visibly pathologized.

Melissa Steyn is the director of iNCUDISA, the Institute for Intercultural and Diversity Studies of Southern Africa, University of Cape Town. She is the editor of Cultural Synergy. Mikki van Zyl runs her own business Simply Said and Done, and is a guest lecturer on sexuality at the University of Cape Town.