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Verging towards toxic masculinity: exploring young male students’ discourses on masculine norms and their mental health
Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2025.
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Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University
2026
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| _version_ | 1867613980107735040 |
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| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author | Xuba, Thandokazi |
| author2 | Moodley, Dale |
| author_browse | Moodley, Dale Xuba, Thandokazi |
| author_facet | Moodley, Dale Xuba, Thandokazi |
| author_sort | Xuba, Thandokazi |
| collection | Thesis |
| dc_rights_str_mv | Stellenbosch University |
| description | Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2025. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:scholar.sun.ac.za:10019.1/134940 |
| institution | Stellenbosch University (South Africa) |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:44:45.702Z |
| license_str | Other — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from SUNScholar — Stellenbosch University Repository |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| publishDateRange | 2026 |
| publishDateSort | 2026 |
| publisher | Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University |
| publisherStr | Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | SUNScholar — Stellenbosch University Repository |
| spelling | oai:scholar.sun.ac.za:10019.1/134940 Verging towards toxic masculinity: exploring young male students’ discourses on masculine norms and their mental health Xuba, Thandokazi Moodley, Dale Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Department of Psychology. Masculinity Young men -- Identity Discourse analysis -- Psychological aspects Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2025. Xuba, T. 2025. Verging towards toxic masculinity: Exploring young male students’ discourses on masculine norms and their mental health. Unpublished masters thesis. Stellenbosch: Stellenbosch University [online]. Available: https://scholar.sun.ac.za/items/9f8da0b5-9cfd-496d-89be-0eff57c7be66 ENGLISH ABSTRACT: In popular and scholarly knowledge, the term toxic masculinity is frequently and loosely used in the context of mental health to describe men who conceive of masculine emotionality, vulnerability, and help-seeking as a site of weakness and social stigma. This study employs a critical qualitative research methodology, specifically discursive psychology, to explore young men’s discourses regarding socially acceptable versus unacceptable masculine norms that mediate how they talk about their mental health. Six male students were sampled from Stellenbosch University and participated in semi-structured individual and focus group interviews. The interviews were transcribed and interpreted using a discourse analytic method to identify repertoires for speaking that constituted discourses participants produced to talk about masculinity and mental health. Three central discourses were identified from the corpus of data: i) the traditional masculinity discourse, ii) the progressive masculinity discourse, and iii) the traditional-progressive masculinity discourse. Subsequently, these three discourses were compared with a toxic masculinity discourse found in popular and scholarly publications regarding men’s relationship with their mental health. Based on the findings, participants navigated between traditional and progressive masculinity discourses, which constructed two opposing sets of masculine norms that both enable and constrain how they manage their mental health. On one hand, the traditional masculinity discourse enabled participants to position themselves as hegemonic masculine men within their communities and families, but not without constraining them from being emotionally vulnerable and seeking help for their mental health. On the other hand, the progressive masculinity discourse enabled participants to position themselves as responsible young men at university who look after their mental health, yet it constrained their masculinity when they exhibited excessive emotion or vulnerability. Consequently, participants produced a traditional-progressive masculinity discourse that permitted them to position themselves as both traditional and progressive, depending on the social contexts in which these positions were functional and valuable. However, their positioning indicates that masculinity is contested, a site of tension, and it shifts depending on the context they inhabit, especially when the topic of men’s mental health is devalued in their communities and families, while valued within the university context. Moreover, when participants position themselves as traditional men, consistent with hegemonic masculinity, they verge towards reproducing a toxic masculinity discourse, which according to popular and scholarly forms of knowledge, constructs men who resist vulnerability, emotions, and seeking help as toxic; specifically, their mental health is portrayed as a site of pathology. Therefore, participants were mindful about positioning themselves as far away from the sort of man that performs hegemonic and traditional masculine norms because it veers toward labels like toxic masculinity. Instead, participants seized every opportunity to position themselves as progressive men, but not without demonstrating a personal and social investment in traditional masculinity discourse. The findings suggest that the topic of men’s mental health exposes and troubles Stellenbosch University male students’ masculinity as a discursive position or identity that is a site of personal and social conflict, which panders or adjusts to contexts that make conflicting demands on them to be responsible for their mental health, while also assuming a hegemonic masculine identity. AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: In popule re en wetenskaplike kennis word toksiese manlikheid gereeld en losweg in die konteks van geestesgesondheid gebruik om man’s wat manlike emosionaliteit, kwesbaarheid en hulpsoeke beskou as 'n plek van swakheid en sosiale stigma te beskryf. Hierdie studie maak staat op 'n kritiese kwalitatiewe navorsingsmetodologie, spesifiek diskursiewe sielkunde, om jong mans se diskurse oor sosiaal aanvaarbare teenoor onaanvaarbare manlike norme te verken wat bemiddel hoe hulle oor hulk geestesgesondheid praat. Ses manlike studente is van die Universiteit Stellenbosch gekies; hulle het deelgeneem aan semi-gestruktureerde individuele en fokusgroeponderhoude. Die onderhoude is getranskribeer en geï nterpreteer met behulp van 'n diskursusanalitiese metode om repertoire's vir spraak te identifiseer wat die diskurse is wat deelnemers geproduseer het om oor manlikheid en geestesgesondheid te praat. Drie sentrale diskurse is uit die korpus van data geï dentifiseer: i) die tradisionele manskapdiskurs, ii) die progressiewe manskapdiskurs, en iii) die tradisioneelprogressiewe manskapdiskurs. Daarna is die drie diskoerse vergelyk met 'n toksiese manlikheid-diskoers wat in popule re en akademiese publikasies of materiaal oor mans se verhouding tot hul geestelike gesondheid gevind is. Op grond van die bevindinge was deelnemers vasgevang tussen die tradisionele en progressiewe manskap-diskursusse wat twee teenstrydige stelle van manlike norme konstrueer wat hulle in staat stel en beperk in hoe hulle hul geestelike gesondheid bestuur. Aan die een kant het die tradisionele manlikheidsgesprekke deelnemers in staat gestel om hulself as hegemony-manlike mans in hul gemeenskappe en families te posisioneer, maar nie sonder om hulle te beperk om emosioneel kwesbaar te wees en hulp vir hul geestelike gesondheid te soek nie. Aan die ander kant het die progressiewe manskap-diskurs die deelnemers in staat gestel om https://scholar.sun.ac.za 5 hulself te posisioneer as verantwoordelike jong mans aan die universiteit wat sorg dra vir hul geestesgesondheid, maar nie sonder om hul manskap te beperk wanneer hulle te emosioneel of kwesbaar is nie. Daarom het deelnemers 'n tradisioneel-progressiewe manskapdiskoers geproduseer wat hulle in staat gestel het om hulself as gelyktydig tradisioneel en progressief te posisioneer, gebaseer op die sosiale kontekste waarin hierdie posisies funksioneel en waardevol is. Hulle posisionering dui egter aan dat manlikheid betwis word, 'n plek van spanning is, en dit verskuif afhangende van die konteks waarin hulle verkeer, veral wanneer die onderwerp van mans se geestelike gesondheid in hulle gemeenskappe en families minderwaardig geag word, terwyl dit binne die universiteitskonteks waardeer word. Boonop, wanneer deelnemers hulself posisioneer as tradisionele mans, in ooreenstemming met hegemonyse manlikheid, neig hulle om 'n toksiese manlikheidsgesprek te herproduseer, wat volgens popule re en akademiese vorme van kennis, mans konstrueer wat kwesbaarheid, emosies en die soeke na hulp as toksies beskou; spesifiek word hul geestelike gesondheid uitgebeeld as 'n plek van patologie. Daarom was deelnemers bedagsaam oor hoe hulle hulself posisioneer, so ver moontlik van die soort man wat hegemoniese en tradisionele manlike norme vertoon, omdat dit neig na etikette soos toksiese manlikheid. In plaas daarvan het deelnemers elke geleentheid aangegryp om hulself as progressiewe mans te posisioneer, maar nie sonder om 'n persoonlike en sosiale belegging in 'n tradisionele manskap-diskurs te demonstreer nie. Die bevindinge dui aan dat die onderwerp van mans se geestesgesondheid die Stellenbosch Universiteit se manlike studente se manlikheid blootstel en verontrus as 'n diskursiewe posisie of identiteit wat 'n terrein van persoonlike en sosiale konflik is, wat aanpas by kontekste wat teenstrydige eise aan hulle stel om verantwoordelik te wees vir hul geestesgesondheid, terwyl hulle ook 'n hegemoniese manlike identiteit aanvaar. Masters 2026-02-02T09:57:16Z 2026-02-02T09:57:16Z 2025-12 Thesis https://scholar.sun.ac.za/handle/10019.1/134940 Stellenbosch University 180 pages application/pdf Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University |
| spellingShingle | Masculinity Young men -- Identity Discourse analysis -- Psychological aspects Xuba, Thandokazi Verging towards toxic masculinity: exploring young male students’ discourses on masculine norms and their mental health |
| title | Verging towards toxic masculinity: exploring young male students’ discourses on masculine norms and their mental health |
| title_full | Verging towards toxic masculinity: exploring young male students’ discourses on masculine norms and their mental health |
| title_fullStr | Verging towards toxic masculinity: exploring young male students’ discourses on masculine norms and their mental health |
| title_full_unstemmed | Verging towards toxic masculinity: exploring young male students’ discourses on masculine norms and their mental health |
| title_short | Verging towards toxic masculinity: exploring young male students’ discourses on masculine norms and their mental health |
| title_sort | verging towards toxic masculinity exploring young male students discourses on masculine norms and their mental health |
| topic | Masculinity Young men -- Identity Discourse analysis -- Psychological aspects |
| url | https://scholar.sun.ac.za/handle/10019.1/134940 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT xubathandokazi vergingtowardstoxicmasculinityexploringyoungmalestudentsdiscoursesonmasculinenormsandtheirmentalhealth |