Un/becoming viole(t)nce: ecofeminist entanglements in the (un)making of pitbull/caregiver identities in South Africa

Abstract

Central to this study is the well-established ecofeminist thinking that race, gender, and species are deeply entangled and interconnected in the colonial logic. With this as a starting point, this thesis explores the socially constructed political nature of relationships between humans and Pitbulls in South Africa by critically analysing how the individual experiences and personal narratives of a group of women who care for Pitbull dogs reproduce and/or resist and disrupt dominant representations of Pitbulls. An (auto)ethnographic methodological approach was employed to combine semi-structured, qualitative interviews with eight caregivers, more informal conversations with others involved at fieldwork sites and Pitbull welfare, and my own reflections as a Pitbull companion. By wrestling with the deeper underlying meanings in the data, we see beyond the day-to-day narratives of caregivers, and into the coded complexity of South African society, as the Pitbull emerges as a paradoxical set of relations and truths in the local landscape—wild and domestic; both monster and companion—against which Blackness is shaped and Whiteness upheld. In addition, we see aspects of White femininity in South Africa positioned as carer and rescuer, yet also capable of cruelty; and the complexity of colourism through the Pitbull’s connection to South Africa’s Coloured population.