When Horniness Becomes Policy: Masculinity, State Power, and the Politics of Gendered Violence

Abstract

In post-apartheid South Africa, the female body has become a battleground where state failure, toxic masculinity, and generational violence collide. This article interrogates how cisheteropatriarchal structures and state institutions enable rape culture under the guise of silence and selective justice. Through the tragic cases of Uyinene Mrwetyana, Cwecwe, and recently, Olorato—a prominent Fees Must Fall activist murdered on a date—the analysis exposes the continuity of gender-based violence across generations, and the state’s role in scripting this brutality into social policy. Drawing on Michel Foucault’s theory of biopolitics and Paul B. Preciado’s pharmacopornographic critique, the article reveals how female bodies are politically constructed and commodified in a system that thrives on their subjugation. It calls for a radical reimagination of masculinity, justice, and institutional accountability in South Africa’s fractured democracy.