Age is nothing but a number: Ben 10s, sugar mummies, and the South African gender order in the Daily Sun’s Facebook page

Mlangeni, Ntombikayise Lina

Title: Age is nothing but a number: Ben 10s, sugar mummies, and the South African gender order in the Daily Sun’s Facebook page
Creator: Mlangeni, Ntombikayise Lina
Subject: May-December romances -- South Africa
Subject: Women in mass media
Subject: Men in mass media
Subject: Sex role in mass media
Subject: Masculinity in mass media
Subject: Feminism and mass media
Subject: Critical discourse analysis
Subject: Unemployment -- Social aspects -- South Africa
Subject: Daily Sun (South Africa)
Subject: Ben 10
Date Issued: 2020
Date: 2020
Type: Thesis
Type: Masters
Type: MA
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/167077
Identifier: vital:41435
Description: This thesis examines how meanings of masculinity and femininity are negotiated by South Africans on a social media platform linked to a popular local tabloid newspaper. In particular it explores conversations surrounding the Ben 10 phenomenon on the Daily Sun’s Facebook page. A Ben 10 is commonly understood as a young man who enters into a sexual relationship with an older woman, mostly in township settings, and readers engage vociferously over the meanings of such relationships. Using a constructivist understanding of gender, a thematic analysis is used to examine the Facebook comments on the Daily Sun’s most popular Ben 10 stories. South Africa’s constitution promotes the right to gender equality and freedom, which contributes to the normalisation of sex in public conversations and political debate. However, with high levels of unemployment and poverty in South Africa, the narrative of masculine success through work remains relatively unattainable. This tension between the narrative of male-bread winner through work and the reality of South Africa’s poverty and unemployment has been referred to as the crisis of masculinity. This thesis will argue that tabloids can play a strong political role by providing an alternative public sphere and that they can also assist their readers in coping with life in a democratic society by creating an imagined community of people sharing common experiences.
Format: 169 leaves
Format: pdf
Publisher: Rhodes University
Publisher: Faculty of Humanities, RU School of Journalism and Media Studies
Language: English
Rights: Mlangeni, Ntombikayise Lina

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