Intimate partner violence as masculine accomplishment: resistance to victimhood in accounts of violence by gay men in urban South Africa

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a significant public health concern. Much research on the topic has focused on heterosexual relationships where men are frequently perpetrators and woman the victims of IPV as a function of systemically gendered inequality embedded in pervasive forms of patriarchy. However, IPV is also a concern in same-sex relationships. While the forms and functions of sexuality and gender in talk about IPV in heteronormative relationships are well documented, research on the ways that these key social categories feature in accounts of Same-Sex Intimate Partner Violence (SSIPV) has been limited. The current study advances this important area of violence scholarship by exploring the ways in which self-identified gay men describe violence in their intimate relationships. Our critical discourse analysis of accounts of IPV elicited through in-depth, semi-structured interviews demonstrates the ways in which the participants framed violence as unintimidating, tolerable, natural, erotic or even actively sought-after as part of an overarching strategy aimed at making claims on agency and resisting victimhood. The analysis suggests that researchers and policymakers should take cognisance of the local meanings and range of moral positions used by gay men to account for IPV when setting scholarship agendas and developing interventions.