text/Li Yubian, graduate student at the Central University for Nationalities, University of Cape Town visiting students
1. The debate between African culture and colonialist culture
Africa, it seems that our impression is always stuck in: beautiful scenery, vibrant wild animals and an underdeveloped economy. However, in the southern tip of Africa, South Africa, we know very little about the concept of sexuality held by this rainbow country. Cape Town is located in the southwest of South Africa and is widely known as the Gay of Capital on the continent. South Africa is different from most African countries in treating homosexual groups. Most African countries have formulated punitive laws and even imposed death penalty on homosexuals; while South Africa uses the constitution to protect the rights and interests of homosexual groups. In 1994, the ANC led by Mandela abolished the cruel apartheid system and formulated a new South African constitution. Society underwent drastic changes, the end of the rule of Afrika Calvinism, and a culture against apartheid gradually formed in South Africa. The spirit of the Constitution in South Africa requires the greatest tolerance of groups with different skin colors and gender identities. South African LGBT activists seized the political opportunity to fight for multiple rights for sexual minority groups, promoted the Lesbians and gay against oppression, and formed various gay groups' public welfare organizations.
But after Dutch , South Africa, which was re-incarnated during the British colonial period, homosexuality was once considered a "fashionable" lifestyle of the upper class of Western whites and an invasion of African culture by Western colonial culture. That is, in the traditional African concept, homosexual behavior is the product of colonial infiltration and does not occur from the traditional African soil. The South African sexual minority community is also repeatedly discussing: Can a black man identify with African culture while also recognizing his homosexual identity? And how to achieve the "inclusive" society advocated by Mandela since the post-apartheid period? In the extremely complex social context of South Africa, the gay black community also faces cross-discrimination and cross-marginalization of multiple factors.
2. Gay carnival in Cape Town
(I) Background of the Pride Parade
In October 11990, Johannesburg, South Africa held the first gay carnival in the history of the African continent, and this year marks the 29th year of celebrating the gay carnival. The Mardi Gras is the most dynamic and exciting event at the Cape Town event yearbook. Between February 22 and March 3, Cape Town held a ten-day gay carnival event, including parades, parties, poetry sharing, book reading, speeches, rainbow running, bar socialization and LGBTQI+ theme comedy performances. The Gay Pride Parade held on March 2 is the highlight of the Carnival, with tens of thousands of people participating in the parade, the largest of the Cape Town Gay Pride Parade in history. The theme of the Gay Pride Parade is: "I am Me. No Excuses. No Regrets. (I am me, no excuses, no regrets)" and opposes discrimination against the LGBTQI+ community and prompts people to pay attention to gender issues.
(II) Preparation for Pride Parade
In the morning, I made an appointment with my local partner to go to her friend’s house to put on makeup, mainly to dress up in some “details”. I dressed neatly and drove to their homes to the agreed location, and my friends greeted each other. The first thing that caught my eye was the table with seven colors of pigments, one by one, corresponding to the seven colors of rainbows. They painted the colorful pigments on their bodies in the order of rainbows. This process requires the help of others. The brush evenly dip the paint, mix the pigments, and dot them with a detailed and slow technique. A rainbow flag on the chest was drawn on the chest; or holding the pigments directly, and painting colorful long vine flowers on their faces with exquisite skills. Not only that, apply fine glitter sequins on your cheeks and eye sockets; wear colorful unicorn headbands and rainbow-colored headbands on your head. Everyone was talking and laughing, dressing up, and finally packing the rainbow flags of different sizes. Everyone put the rainbow flags on or rolled them up, packed them up, and went out together. I took a group photo for everyone while waiting for Uber downstairs.
Photo source: Author, after dressing up, Cape Town college students who are about to march
(III) Parade experience from the perspective of "Drag Queen"
Parade starts at 11:30. The main area of the parade is located in the famous Cape Town Gay Village: "Green Point". Starting from "De Waterkant" in the area, parade to "Reddam Field", gathering in the well-designed city park, and finally a carnival party will be held.
The picture is from Google, the irregular shape circled in the picture is De Warterkant, and the red circle is the Prestwich street where the parade begins.
We drove to De Waterkant, and private vehicles drove in the same direction one after another, and there were traffic on the expressway and highway for a while. The drive was about half an hour, and when we arrived at the Prestwish street in De Waterkant, the parade float was turning around the corner, so we quickly followed. The parade had just begun. March is the summer in the southern hemisphere. Cape Town, with a Mediterranean climate, is hot and dry in summer, with sparse clouds and plenty of sunshine. Today's temperature is not hot, but the sun is very strong. The people who are parading dresses in different colors, mainly in colorful summer clothes, holding or wearing rainbow flags. Drag Queens in the parade are particularly prominent, with huge rainbow feather wings, butterfly-shaped wing decorations and glittering headdresses. A group of gorgeously dressed drag queens stood in the middle of the road to take a photo, and the residents stopped in the street cheered. I followed the source of the cheer and saw Wendy, who won the Western Cape Miss Gay crown. A month ago, we had a conversation at the seminar on the display of Amsterdam in the Netherlands at the Zeith Mooca Museum in South Africa. I walked towards her, and she warmly invited me to parade with her. As far as the observer is concerned as participant itself, the drag queen’s perspective is a novel perspective.
Image source: Author, a black drag queen with colorful feather wings
I waved the rainbow flag at hand, followed to the right of her butterfly wings, observing everything. We walked in the team, and passers-by kept picking up their mobile phones and cameras to take photos of Wendy. The construction workers on the street stopped to work and cheered. Passers-by kept coming forward to take a photo with her, and she stopped to accept the request for a photo. Once she stopped, she just blocked the road of a parade large truck. The large truck stopped slowly, waiting for them to finish taking photos before moving again. She walked in high heels for a long time, but she couldn't walk anymore. The red double-decker sightseeing bus with Cape Town was slowly moving in the crowd. She said to the driver, "Are you going to the park? Take me for a while." The car was still moving slowly, and I made up my mind and jumped into the car in a thrilling way. She placed the rainbow wings on one side of the car door inside and took a rest. At this time, a participant wearing a rainbow flag approached the bus and wanted to photograph the driver and us, and I also photographed him.
Image source: The author, the audience took a photo with Miss Gay from the Western Cape, and the trucks in the parade stopped and waited.
Picture source: The official website of the Cape Town Pride Parade, the author and Wendy were photographed in the parade
Picture source: The author, the participants of the parade approached the double-decker bus and took the driver on Miss Gay and the author. The driver gave him a thumbs up and
Double-decker bus dropped us off at the intersection about to turn the corner. I helped Wendy sort out and put her butterfly wings on her back, and she thanked me. The large procession of the parade walked from one street to another, media from Cape Town, Australian media, American media and other media walked to Wendy to photograph her, and because I followed her, I was also captured in the picture. Local residents poked their heads out of the roadside houses and made waves of cheers. She also asked me in surprise: "Why are the crowd photographing me?" "Because you are the lonely drag queen?" I comforted her so much.
Picture source: Cape Town Pride official website, people participating in the parade
Picture source: Author, LGBTQI+ charity organizations in South Africa took photos together on the roadside of the parade
intersection is the intersection of Cape Town where multiple LGBTQI+ non-governmental charity organizations gathered together to prepare for a photo, and they raised the rainbow flag floating in the wind.At the same time, the passing floats include advertising minibuses that promote election voting and floats of various LGBTQI+ public welfare organizations. The surroundings of the float are decorated with colorful balloons and streamers, and the drag queen and employees of the charity organization stand in the float.
Finally, people gathered at the entrance of the park, and the event organizers set up a charging station at the entrance of the park, each with rand 50 (South African currency), to obtain the qualification to enter the carnival party scene, and stamp a black seal on their arms. The venue is equipped with all the facilities, food shops, drinking water areas and bathrooms; heavy canvas tents are set up in the venue to accommodate people to rest; there is a stage for DJs and rappers to rap, and people relax under the stage to follow the rhythm of the music. Sexual minorities of all skin colors and races gather in one space.
3. Multiple subjects who participate in the Pride Parade
(I) The subjects of the Pride Parade - subcultural group parade
Cape Town Pride Parade viewers include local residents black, white, people of color, Asian and tourists from multiple countries. The LGBTQI+ group is the main participant in the march. The English abbreviation mainly refers to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer ( queer ), Intersex (bian), etc. There are special words all over the world for easy communication. The development of special words for homosexuality is to allow queer groups to communicate secretly and privately, thereby avoiding legal punishment and social discrimination. In South Africa's history, the gay language in the Western Cape was in the form of slang, which consisted of coded words with specified meanings, commonly known as: Gayle or Gail, meaning chat (chat). The slang term for homosexuality in Cape Town in the 1950s is collectively referred to as: Moffie, also refers to gay men, Lettie refers to lesbians, Mavis refers to cross-dressers or gay men, and Affair usually refers to a relationship between gay men for less than one month. Priscill specifically refers to the police. The police are the official representatives, avoiding police interrogation and secret communication in private, and derives special slang for calling police. Sister is a male homosexual group, and friends call each other sisters.
Western feminist scholar Judith Bultler believes that an individual's gender identity is not an essential characteristic of an individual, but is produced by an individual's actions and behaviors. It is the repetitive behavior of an individual that produces an identity that is regarded as essentially a male or female. Society is divided into two categories: masculinity and femininity. Society forces everyone to be divided according to two categories. Gender behaviors include clothing, behavior, various daily activities, sexual activities, and the choice of sexual partners, which determine our perception of our gender. The establishment of gender is the result of the joint construction of state power, social culture and family education. The concept of gender is generally established to satisfy the social division of labor between men and women.
Therefore, the gender identity of LGBTQI+ people is mixed with masculinity and femininity, and is more neutral in appearance and has a sexual orientation that is not just the opposite sex. In order to escape the constraints of gender, the drag queen uses inverted performance behaviors to oppose traditional gender activities, challenging the norms of clothing, high and low rank, black and white boundaries, and the concept of equality follows the concept. It is crucial that it is the performance of gender behavior that violates traditional gender behaviors that constantly shape gender identity. It reflects the structure of gender imitation, reveals that gender norms are produced under social rules, and raises objections to the claims of heterosexuality and so-called "natural".
(II) Emerging activities supported by commercial capital
0 In the 1990s, since the abolition of the apartheid system, whether white, black or people of color, caring for people themselves and the development of personal freedom concepts have become an important part of South Africa's concern. The 1994 Constitution and the 2006 South African legal policy for protecting same-sex marriage were introduced. A series of LGBTQI+ groups and organizations have emerged like mushrooms after a rain. Subcultural groups formed by the intersection of skin color and gender identity need legal ways to express themselves and complete self-identity. For example, the LGBTQI group Jewish Pride, MCC, etc. in the march, they gained higher exposure through the Pride Parade, hoping to receive donations from people in the society to maintain the operation of public welfare organizations.Commercial advertisements can also be seen everywhere in the parade, such as , Microsoft employees wearing employee uniforms with rainbow flags printed on them, pulling the rainbow flags printed on them with Windows marks to make photo backgrounds for the parades. The cost of parade vehicles, main participants, party venue rentals, etc. require the maintenance of funds, and the entry of commercial capital expands the ability of LGBTQI+ groups to run parades; on the other hand, commercial sponsors invest in advertising space, increase their influence through reports from traditional media and self-media, and expand their local popularity among parade participants. (III) Political participation in democratic elections
From the 1950s to the 1960s, the South African apartheid government began to strengthen control of sexual behavior in various parts of South Africa, and the queer people were increasingly oppressed. In the 1960s, the government tried to pass legislation that enforced gay men and lesbians as illegal crimes of mandatory imprisonment. Later, a series of political movements occurred, and the Immorality Amendment Act of 1969 still criminalizes homosexuality. Sexual minorities have undergone historic major policy changes in policy in 1994. In this year's new general election, Team one South Africa's publicity campaign floats can be seen in the Pride Parade. Female parliamentarians use support for homosexual groups as their campaign slogan, consciously use supportive minorities to obtain more votes, increase policy inclusion to connect groups with different skin colors, backgrounds and sexual orientations to realize the vision of South Africa's rainbow society.
4. Discussion
Like the countries in the world that have pride parades, Cape Town's pride parades follow the same rules. LGBTQI+ seizes limited opportunities to show itself in a heterosexual-dominated society, and expresses itself in an orderly and legitimacy; how to express sexual orientation without embarrassment in a silent society, so as to make a wider social circle and more friends. The LGBTQI+ group is more eager to eliminate misunderstandings about holding local traditional concepts and reduce social discrimination and violence.
Social science studies a group living in a community unit. The personal life course is the coordinate point of study, the interweaving of horizontal international exchanges, macro historical background and vertical social structure, forming the spatial coordinate axis for exploring a problem. First, LGBTQI+ is already a global issue, not just a topic discussed in the local area. Pride parades in various European countries, the American Stonewall Movement, and later expanded to the gay movement around the world. The problem of LGBTQI+ in South Africa seems to be unable to view South Africa as a gated community and is discussed in it. Secondly, the rights and interests of sexual minorities in South Africa are difficult to separate from those of vulnerable groups, especially the claims of black female homosexuals are mixed, because they cannot represent any group with pure rights claims, and cannot unilaterally represent race, gender or sexual orientation, thus showing the characteristics of marginal intersecting nature. The law recognizes that it is either to solve the problem of racial discrimination, or to the problem of gender discrimination, and that’s where the intersectionality comes from. Black female homosexuals have uniquely contradictory identities as members of three marginal groups. Third, South African society has huge social gaps between the rich and the poor, the separation of daily communication between different races, and barriers between professional fields; the high crime rate in real society, the difficult commuter blockage problems, urban electricity shortages, water resources shortages, and the high food purchase costs in Cape Town have added heavy pressure to South African residents to protect their rights and interests. It is even more difficult for the LGBTQI+ group to further talk about obtaining social justice and protecting their own physical and mental health. It seems that South Africa still has a long way to go to become a true rainbow country.
