Men Writing Women: A Software Reverse Engineering Perspective

Men who set out to “speak” for women must deal with an insider-outsider dialectic that interrogates their motive and impacts their understanding of the female subject. In African literary studies, conversations about men’s feminist thought and practice have revolved around gender positionality, often leading to the conclusion that men cannot be feminists but can play auxiliary roles as pro-feminists. Through a close reading of David Mungoshi’s The Fading Sun (2009), the article explores the possibilities and limits of “man feminism” within a Zimbabwean context. In the process, it calls for an alternative, non-essentialist grammar for discussing man feminism. Situated within the theoretical framework of Africana Womanism, the article contends that privileging gender positionality in evaluating the feasibility of “man feminism” not only homogenises men’s ideological positions concerning feminism but also obstructs crucial insights into men’s feminist engagements. Although alive to underlying concerns about “man feminisms,” the article further argues that recognising and embracing men’s input can unlock new solidarities and opportunities for nuance in the African feminist discourse. These claims are advanced in a methodologically innovative way by adapting the computer science concept of software reverse engineering as a conceptual metaphor.