UKZN student reveals the impact of fear and the feminine lived experience in SA

GENDER-based violence (GBV) is widely described as a national crisis in South Africa, and has compelled a UKZN philosophy graduate to study the pervasive fear that shapes the lives of women and other feminised individuals.

Kayleigh Timmer, explored how fear of sexual violation informs the everyday lived experience of those deemed "feminine" in society’, and includes non-binary individuals, transgender men, homosexual men and anyone who is feminised under patriarchy. 

She unpacked how “feminine subjects” are often hyper-aware of their surroundings, try to make themselves physically smaller, or change  their routes and routines to minimise risk. “Fear is in the way women sit on public transport, how they navigate space, how they’re constantly calculating the risk of being harmed,” she said. “It’s a bodily experience, not just a mental one.” 

Drawing on phenomenology, a philosophical method that analyses lived experience, Timmer’s thesis showed that fear is not only internalised, but socially manufactured to reinforce patriarchal power. “It was really just breaking down these normalised things that we take for granted and showing that it’s actually not natural, it's not beneficial, and that it has socio-political implications because it does keep women passive, which makes them easy to dominate.”She says this cements the narrative that femininity equals vulnerability.  Deeply inspired by ‘Female Fear Factory’, a book by Pumla Dineo Gqola, Timmer used a philosophical and qualitative research approach to unpack this deeply embedded fear of male violence.

“So women and girls are taught to follow scripts, to act in such a way as to avoid gender-based violence. We know not to go out at night by ourselves, we know not to go to certain places, that if you dress a certain way, you may be more likely to be safe. So it's really this fear of sexual violation by men.”

She found that while women adopt this behaviour to protect themselves, they also pass this fear onto others. “You can't really blame anyone because all women are afraid and they're wanting to keep themselves and each other safe. You're regulating yourself constantly, you can't go to certain places, these scripts are there to keep you safe, in inverted commas, but you're never completely safe.”

Timmer notes that this fear displayed by all women, even in other countries is justified. “The fact that there are so many women who are raped, who are hurt, it just shows that it could be you, it could be anyone. You don't know who's going to be that aggressor that actually ends up hurting you, so I think it is justified. I've had someone once say that maybe it's paranoia, it's not rational. But actually it is rational because you don't know when it could happen and who could do it,” she said. 

While the study was emotionally demanding, Timmer says it was also validating for herself and for others who heard her findings. “So many women told me they recognised themselves in the work,” she said. “Men, too, were often shocked to realise how deeply fear is embedded in everyday life.” Timmer has registered to do her PhD study at the University of Stellenbosch where she aims to continue contributing to feminist thought and action.