Gendered Endings: Narratives of Male and Female Suicides in the South African Lowveld
Abstract
Durkheim's classical theory of suicide rates being a negative index of social solidarity downplays the salience of gendered concerns in suicide. But gendered inequalities have had a negative impact: worldwide significantly more men than women perpetrate fatal suicides. Drawing on narratives of 52 fatal suicides in Bushbuckridge, South Africa, this article suggests that Bourdieu's concepts of 'symbolic violence' and 'masculine domination' provide a more appropriate framework for understanding this paradox. I show that the thwarting of investments in dominant masculine positions have been the major precursor to suicides by men. Men tended to take their own lives as a means of escape. By contrast, women perpetrated suicide to protest against the miserable consequences of being dominated by men. However, contra the assumption of Bourdieu's concept of 'habitus', the narrators of suicide stories did reflect critically upon gender constructs.
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Qualitative studies suggest threats to masculinity (e.g., loss of the role of breadwinner or household head) are associated with depression and suicidality.
“Qualitative studies have suggested that threats to masculinity (e.g., loss of the role of breadwinner or household head) are associated with depression and suicidality [10,11]”
From Masculinity and suicidal thinking (2017) · cites this paper as [10]
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References 50 · Cited by 26
Research works printed but not linked: 4
- 2001 Masculine Domination . Stanford: Stanford University Press.
- 2000 An Essay on Suicide and Disease in Canadian Indian Reserves: Bringing Durkheim back in. The Canadian Journal of Native Studies XX (2): 309345.
- - 1951 [1897] Suicide: A Study in Sociology . Glencoe Il: The Free Press.
- - 1979 Machismo: A Psychodynamic Approach (Spain). Journal of Psychoanalytic Anthropology 2 (3): 281-299.
- Authors
- Niehaus, I.
- Affiliations
- Brunel University of London (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Niehaus, Isak
- ORCID
- Niehaus, Isak
- Venue
- Culture, Medicine, and Psychiatry
- Published
- 2012-03-23
- Volume
- 36
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 327-347
- ISSN
- 0165-005X (ISSN-L)
- 1573-076X
- OpenAlex
- W2098712745
- Cited by
- 26
- References
- 50
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 1 · 2020: 5 · 2019: 1 · 2018: 4 · 2017: 1 · 2016: 3 · 2014: 3 · 2012: 2
- FWCI
- 1.82
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Licence
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- Culture Medicine and Psychiatry (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Brunel University Research Archive (BURA) (Brunel University London) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Suicide and Self-Harm Studies
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Homicide, Infanticide, and Child Abuse
- Social Sciences › Gender Studies › Gender Roles and Identity Studies
- Keywords
- suicide, gender differences in suicide, male suicide, female suicide, symbolic violence, male hegemony, habitus, Émile Durkheim, social solidarity, gender inequality, Bushbuckridge, suicide narratives
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Adult, Female, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Sex Factors, Social Dominance, South Africa, Stress, Psychological, Suicide, Causality, Narration, Young Adult, Masculinity
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