Two, Easy to Conquer: Questioning the binaries of sex, gender and sexuality identities in South African online advertising

Abstract

Our everyday lives carry a richness of knowledge due to our everyday experiences. This richness of knowledge is why Edward Said asserts, “Narratives defeat armies”. To unpack the depth of this quote, the research proposal poses the overarching question: To what extent do current advertisements in the mainstream online South African media reproduce and reinforce dominant binaries of sex, gender, and sexuality, and how do these intersect with binaries in a raced, classed society? By locating itself in the research areas of binaries of sex, gender and sexuality and media representations, the proposed research uses a decolonial feminist perspective to unearth possible reproductions and disruptions of the binarized colonial discourse of sex, gender and sexuality. By using the case study methodology of South African advertisements on social media, this research hopes to uncover if the oversimplified divide into two of a highly pluralistic society allows the reproduction of the ever-present white-supremacist capitalist heteropatriarchal that Bell Hooks refers to in trying to understand the structures of oppression in society. The research further questions the intricacies of this structure that could manifest in ways that are possibly different to other societies and how they remain accepted in a society that prides itself in being a “Rainbow Nation”.