Masculinity and Dancehall
Author(s): JARRET BROWN
Source: Caribbean Quarterly, Vol. 45, No. 1 (March 1999), pp. 1-16
Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd.
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40793458
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1
Masculinity and Dancehail
by
JARRET BROWN
"Language represents an attitude toward reality,
and toward others and the limits of our world is
the limit of language."
Ted Chamberlin, Come Back To Me My Language.
Caribbean politics, culture and society are inextricably bound by and linked
to a colonial history and memory that frames and codifies the socio-cultural and
political behaviours. The colonial history and memory are composed of competing
discourses, that are margin and centre and these mediate the cultural diversity that
defines the Caribbean experience. Part of the legacy of colonialism is evident in
the pluralistic landscapes and the attendant cultural diversity that defines the
Caribbean experience. The presence of the various ethnic groups : Africans,
Indians, Chinese, and Euro-West Indians reflects a hybridity that is consistent with
the nature of post-colonial cultures. This hybiidity is part of the definitive texture
that gives meaning and difference to Caribbean culture, aesthetics, literature, art,
and geography. Helen Tiffin in her essay "Post-colonial Literature and Counter-discourse," argues that "post-colonial cultures are inevitably hybridized, involving a
dialectical relationship between European ontology and epistemology and the
impulse to create or recreate independent local identity" (Ashcroft et al. 95). This
'dialectical relationship' is problematized even further by a patriarchal discourse
that privileges masculine interpretations of the relationships and experiences which
characterize the way writers, poets, intellectuals, singers and politicians address
contemporary issues concerning race, class, gender, and politics.
Language use is the conduit of this dialectical relationship in the Caribbean
and as such it assumes a very political role in the life of the peoples especially
those who speak patois1. For the peoples in Jamaica, the locale that will be the
focus of this paper, this marginalized dialect, seen by many as a corruption of the
English Language and viewed by earlier British inhabitants as the language of the
uncivilized (see Chamberlin 68) is the definitive speech for the underclass. Patois
is only one of the many media that is politicized by writers, poets, singers and
politicians to subvert dominant ideologies and advance commentaries on both the
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2
social and political inequalities within the society, with the intent to interrogate the
Eurocentric discourse that acts as a background to their experiences. It is a very
rich socio-cultural discourse that expresses dramatically the lived experiences of
the working class populace. Patois has a performative quality that is an integral
part of its orality - a brash expressionism that challenges the conservative values,
sensibilities, and ideas of middle-class Jamaica. It is this orality that gives the
words and/or expressions a unique quality that ties its meaning, to not just context
but sound. The grounded orality and performance is one of the factors, which
distinguishes its use from that of Standard Jamaican English. The communal use
of patois makes it a medium that houses the tensions that temper the relationships
among the different social classes, ethnic groups, genders, political factions, and
even religious groups. Interestingly, the language, in so far as it makes cultural
representations, is constructed and used in such a way that it others women and
various categories of men. The users of this dialect rely on the power of the "word"
to situate them in a position of privilege within the dominant discourse.
The dialect is used by many who, through their interactions with each
other and descriptions of each other, consciously or unconsciously, perpetuate
patriarchy as a mode of male domination. For instance, the way some male
artistes in the dancehall community in Jamaica describe the female body, sex, and
other categories of men and the way some female artistes respond to this description or even describe themselves, can be seen as a direct result of the patriarchal
views that pervade the society. Sometimes there are descriptions or actions by
both male and female in this community that are not intended to convey sexist or
discriminatory meanings, but because of where the descriptions are coming from,
it carries hidden meanings in them. Patriarchy then looms large because it acts as
a meta-narrative that interacts iteratively with micro-narratives, social milieux and
lived experiences. Indeed, masculinity as a subset of patriarchy is nuanced differently within these smaller realities of ethnicity, social class, and communal beliefs
are important adjectives that impact on its meaning. As a cultural activity and an
action, dancehall music is influenced by the dominant ideologies that are implicit in
language use in the Jamaican society and as such its practice of patriarchy and its
definition of masculinity and femininity differ from other communities within the
society. Women, as a small percentage of this community, because of their lack of
agency or autonomy, sometimes pander to the wishes of this male "crowd" and are
often viewed as complicitous in perpetuating male domination. Yet, there are those
females who act in this way to penetrate the male dominated space to subvert the
dominant ideologies and achieve agency.
The purpose of this paper is to examine how dancehall music, as a locale
defines register and that those who participate in the action of this locale make up
a speech community. This speech community is constitutive of self-conscious
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3
socio-cultural and linguistic masculine codes that are at the heart of what I describe
as patrichology. By this I mean an instructive and constructive masculine system
of beliefs that shape the way members of the society act and think about them-
selves and others who are different. It speaks from a heterosexual and sexist
position of power and has the ability to name things, construct identities and
produce stereotypes about women and sex that render the female body as a site
for violence and sadistic pleasure.
I will investigate how sex as the thematic focus in the songs of two
dancehall artistes, one female and one male, define and promote a certain brand
of masculinity which is premised on the notion of sexual prowess as masculinity. I
will examine the descriptions of the sex act in the content of the songs to highlight
how cultural patrichology has shaped the male psyche and consciousness to
believe and accept that sex is a violent act. I argue that dancehall community
through its music and male domination promotes the belief that inflicting pain on the
female body is the signature sign of pleasure. Furthermore, I examine how female
artistes respond to this patrichology. Are they resistant to this masculine discourse
or are they complicit in perpetuating it? Is the use of patois a subversive engagement of patrichology? In order to lay the ground for providing answers to these
questions, I will now examine the way language functions, why it is a useful and
powerful medium for those who use it and how the speaker and the locale of the
speaker affect the meaning of the word.
Luce Inigaray argues in her essay "Linguistic Sexes and Gender," that
men's appropriation of the linguistic code attempts to do at least three things:
1 .prove they are fathers;
2. prove they are more powerful than mother - woman;
3. prove they are capable of engendering the cultural domain as they have
been engendered in the natural domain of the ovum, the womb, the body of the
woman (Cameron 120).
Working under the assertion presented by several critics whom I will refer to in this
paper that language is a patriarchal structure, Irigaray's propositions impose on this
discussion a set of expectations that are integral in men's conduct, treatment and
description of women. Dale Spender states that language is man made and
implies that there is a patriarchal order that is realized in this construction. She
argues "males, as the dominant group have produced language, thought, and
reality." She adds that from this position of privilege,
they (men) have the potential to order the world to
suit their own ends, the potential to construct a
language, a reality, a body of knowledge in which
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4
they are the central figures, the potential to legitimate their own primacy, and to create a system of
beliefs which is beyond challenge (so that their
superiority is 'natural' and 'objectively' tested.)
The group which has the power to ordain the
structure of language, thought and reality has the
potential to create a world in which they are central figures, while those who are not of their group
are peripheral and therefore maybe exploited
(Cameron 27).
Spender is identifying the component parts of the dancehall music as a
speech community that has the potential to do all these things because of the
"privileged and highly advantageous position" (97), which the community occupies.
As part of the functional dynamic of this patrichology is its ability to name and thus
give meaning and reality to things and people. The ability to name is a mark of
power and autonomy that drives the politics of gender in dancehall music. The
ability to name the female body as other or as nothing gives control to the male
signifier. Spender says, "naming is the means whereby we attempt to order and
structure the chaos and flux of existence which would otherwise be an undifferenti-
ated mass. By assigning names we impose a pattern and a meaning which allows
us to manipulate the world (97). She goes on to point out that naming as a process
can pervert one's vision of something as it is a biased and deliberate process that
has its "origins in the perspective of those doing the naming rather than in the
object or event that is being named" (98). Allan Johnson argues that "for women,
gender oppression is linked to a cultural devaluing of femaleness itself. Women are
subordinated and treated as inferior because they are culturally defined as inferior
as women" (20). Johnson's definition of oppression as, "a social phenomenon that
happens between different groups in a society; ... a system of social inequality
through which one group is positioned to dominate and benefit from the exploitation
and subordination of another" (20) addresses what I find to be a passive activity in
dancehall music. I describe it as "passive" because it is my belief that this
domination is not fully understood by those who engender it and as such they are
as much victims of the system they are representing as much as the groups who
are exploited by their actions or words. I aim to combine Irigaray's three propositions with Spender's argument that language is man-made and Johnson's notion of
female oppression as a social construct to review, critique and contextualize Buju
Banton and Tanya Stevens' lyrics. First I will examine masculinities as they exist in
Jamaica.
According to Linden Lewis, any analysis of the Caribbean male has to
establish a distinction between hegemonic masculinity and other subordinated
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5
forms of masculinity. He implies in his argument that subordinated from of masculinity within the Caribbean spring form hegemonic masculinity, which refers to:
an orientation which is heterosexual and decid-
edly homophobic. It prides itself on its capacity
for sexual conquesi and ridicu'es those men who
define their masculinity in different terms.
Hegemonic masculinity often embraces misogynist tendencies in which women are considered to
be inferior. Departure from this form of masculin-
ity could result in the questioning of one's manhood (11).
This definition of masculinity adequately describes the way masculinity functions
on the Jamaican socio-cultural landscape. This definition, offered by Lewis, char-
acterizes the linguistic activities and cultural philosophies evident in Jamaica's
dancehall community. This brand of masculinity functions as a charismatic voice
that objectifies the woman and her body as a site of sadistic pleasure in the sex act.
In this case sex becomes a ritual for asserting, initiating and producing manhood.
This kind of ritualistic processing of masculinity echoes David Gilmore's idea that
manhood is a rite of passage that males have to pass through2. Indeed, this
definition of masculinity prompts one to think that masculinity as a socio-cultural
construct echoes anthropologist Robert Levine's definition of masculinity as an
"organization of cultural principles that function together as a guiding myth within
the confines of our culture"'(Gi!more 2I). Within the dancehall community, masculinity is an 'organization of cultural principles' that instruct its subjects primarily
through the songs that are produced by the artistes, both male and female. These
songs are the medium that expressly promote masculinity as being "irrevocably
tied to sexuality" (Kimmel 126). The explicit content of these songs - what Jamaica's conservative upper class criticizes as "slackness"3 - describes sex and women
as important ingredients in masculine behaviour.
The songs that come out of the dancehall, especially during the 1 970's and
80's reflected a culture of slackness. DJ music is described as slack because of its
move away from its beginning roots in social, political and historical themes to lewd
and loose descriptions of the female body in the act of sex. Much of the criticisms
on dancehall music fail to address the level of gender "foulplay" that characterizes
its discourse. There is also very little critical examination of the way the discourse
transfers male dominance onto the body of the female to exercise power and
initiate manhood. Carolyn Cooper briefly addresses aspects of gender in dancehall music in a chapter eight of her book Noises in the Blood: Orality, Gender, and
the Vulgar Body in Jamaican Popular Culture. Here she notes that DJ music is a
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6
subversive and rebellious culture that challenges middle-class sensibilities with its
vulgar expressionism. Cooper offers an argument in support of this kind of expressionism. She feels that DJ slackness,
can be seen to represent a radical, underground
confrontation with patriarchal gender ideology
and the pious morality of fundamental Jamaican
society ... For slackness is potentially a politics of
subversion... it is not mere sexual looseness
though it certainly is that. Slackness, is a metaphorical revolt against law and order; an undermining of consensual standards of decency. It is
the antithesis to Culture. (Cooper 1993)
While it is undeniable that dancehall music functions as a metaph
revolt against law and order in Jamaica, it is also fair to observe that
music, which has its roots in patrichology, advances a set of beliefs that
izes the female, promotes violence as control and privileges only violen
sexuality. Additionally, one should assess the subversive role of th
against the background of the dominant ideology's power to allow this s
Allan Johnson appropriately points out "every social system has a certai
of 'give' in it that allows some change to occur, and in the process leav
structures untouched and even invisible. Indeed the give plays a critica
maintaining the status quo by fostering illusions of fundamental change
as a systematic shock absorber" (14). Therefore Cooper's exposition on t
of the music identifies the self-conscious masculine tone of the speech co
but does not elaborate or address seriously the limiting boundaries that
patrichology impose upon women and homosexual men.
Cooper's study must observe more carefully that patriarchy is "
and its roots run deep" and as sudi one has to be very careful that
focusing on the "symptoms" rather than "root causes". Cooper further c
the issue of sexual/gender relations by suggesting that some of th
"celebrate the economic and sexual independence of women, thus ch
conservative gender ideology that is at the heart of both pornographic a
mentalist conception of women as commodity, virgin and whore" (143).
Cooper fails to underscore a fundamental point in her argument which
that 'economic and sexual independence' is governed by and regul
dominant ideology that still refuses to identify women as equals. The di
the songs by Buju Banton and Tanya Stevens, two DJs in the dancehall
takes Cooper's discussion a step further and focuses on gender relation
domination in the dancehall community.
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7
Buju's "Gal fi Beg" seems to be the anthem for manhood. The idea that
woman has to experience immense pain is identifiable in the title of the song. The
title also highlights the hierarchical relationship that exists between the two indi-
viduals, male and female - woman as 'beggar' and male as 'provider' In this case
male is synonymous with power and authority, superiority and strength. The social
stigmas that are inherent in the identity of 'beggar' that the female is relegated to
are also echoed, as a beggar implies a person who is low in social status and
therefore is dependent on others to survive. The idea that as a beggar one has no
choice but to accept what one is given is also present in this title. "Begging" can be
thus understood to be not only a description of what the female does but also who
she is and a marker for the place she occupies in hierarchy of domination. These
general themes are also expressed in the rest of the song.
Gal fi beg
Skin dem out pon yuh hood4 'ead
Sink yuh hood deeper
Mek she rail and beg
Gal fi beg
Anytime yuh hol' dem in yuh bed
Cock dem up high
And sink yuh third leg
Mek she pap out every strawn of hair
From offa yuh 'ead
Craap5 up yuh back
And gwaan like a teggereg
If yuh don't know di lizard
Use di backshot instead
Yuh nuh fi ruff up di punany
Yuh run it red...
There is an unmistakable violence that is not only obvious in the meaning
of the words but also in the "sound" of these words. The invocation of pain is
present in the words "rail" and "beg7' as such a performance should require that the
male as "giver" be asked to stop. Thus "beg" here is a complex signifier of
subordination and place. The male DJ names the woman as a "beggar" and thus
a weak and disabled participant in the act of sex. Furthermore she is othered by
the use of "rail" as this conjures up images of a horse that is terrified of something
that poses a threat to its life or security. Applied to the female in this song, it implies
that she has taken on the qualities of an object, a subhuman person. She is no
longer identified as a woman and therefore her feminine qualities are suppressed
and she is now a thing that is easier to be controlled.
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8
Luce Irigaray qualifies this "othering' as part of the culture of male domina-
tion. She points out that "living things, the animate and the cultured become
masculine; objects that are lifeless, the inanimate and uncultured, become feminine. Which means that men have attributed subjectivity to themselves and have
reduced women to the status of objects, orto nothing" (Cameron 121). Tricia Rose
also confronts this issue in Black Noise by pointing to a similar treatment of women
by black male rappers. She says black male rappers express profound fear and
hostility towards black women in their works in effort to control them. She asserts
that "male sexist narratives often involve devaluing and dominating black female
sexuality and sexual behaviour" (171). Buju's naming and or labelling of the female
as a "teggereg"6, "horse", and "donkey" echo not only the subhuman identity of the
female but the relegation of the female identity, to another class of signification that
introduces latent constellations of meaning onto her body. He is "devaluing and
dominating" her sexuality and sexual behaviour. She becomes ultimately a thing to
be "ridden" and treated with stolid emotional control. The designation of "pickney"7
suggests that she is servile, malleable and dependent. Consequently, the violence
that is inflicted onto her body is justified in the eyes of her male counterpart, her
master.
Inflicting violence onto the female body represents a vulgar and gory
display of power relations. Patriarchal sexuality joins sexuality with control, dominance, and violence. Sexuality is viewed and understood in terms of power and
male privilege and this power and male dominance is routinely conceived in
[violent] sexual terms (see Johnson 152). Violence for the male is the signature
expression of his manhood. It means sexual prowess and a personal sense of
gratification, not necessarily the female, as it is a foregone conclusion that pleasure
for the female means pain. Thus the appealing nature of the female's identity in
Buju's song supports this notion and takes away the ability of the male to "feel
sorry" or "have mercy" on the "gal pickney." The absence of emotion from the male
is yet again part of the masculine ethics that guide his behaviour and the construction of his identity. He has to be careful not to "feel" the pain of the woman as it will
signify that he is in some ways weak and therefore feminine. "Being masculine,"
Johnson says "is not about being unemotional; it is about acknowledging or
expressing only those emotions that enhance men's control and status" (64). The
use of the verbs "jam,"8 "stab, "sink", and "ruff up"9 all conjure up pain and
discomfort. Tied to this is the desire to make the woman "bawl like a horse."
"Bawling" is juxtaposed with "horse" and the two connote different sets of inscriptions on the female identity. This loud, public display tied to the identity of a horse
complicates the identity and helplessness of the female. The "horse" is a masculine symbol in Jamaican dancehall culture that symbolizes the "strength" of the man
and his ability to show stamina, that is to "stay long" in the sex act.
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9
The DJ's naming of the female as the "animal/the horse" in this case, once
again emphasizes the notion that naming "is a powerful ideological tool ... an
accurate pointer to the ideology of the namer (Cameron 97) and that language
when used by the group that holds power has the option, the ability and power to
defer the meanings of a word and create new meanings. Naming is an act of
power and the imposition of a name on an object, person, or thing, invests the
"namer" with unmediated control over this object person or thing. Clearly, the noun
horse does not carry the same symbolic echoes ror the female as it does for the
male. By naming the horse female, it, she corne to signify powerlessness, weakness, domination. During slavery the act of naming a slave by a Master was an
important psychological manipulation that was aimed to suppress the slave's
original identity and impose a new one with a new set of meanings. This act makes
the slave hate his new identity, his new self, as he does not recognize in this new
self, agency or freedom; he is now the property of his Master. Johnson's argument
about the misogyny affects women is analogous to what 'naming' does to the slave.
He says, "misogyny is especially powerful in encouraging women to hate their own
femaleness, an example of internalized oppression. The more women internalize
misogynist images and attitudes, the harder it is to challenge male privilege or
patriarchy as a systemM(39). Buju, in effect makes the woman his property by
naming her.
The command by Buju, "Yuh nub fi ruff up di punany 10 / Yuh fi run dat red"
projects a tone of misogyny. The suggestion is that it is not enough to be just
violent (ruff up) in the act of sex, one must also "draw blood." The desire to have
blood, "yuh fi run dat red", explains the nature of aggression directed at the female
and points to the male's desire to 'injure' the female and thus further subjugate her.
This hostility is also seen in, "So she bawl and kick/ so yuh sink di buddy."11 The
act of "sinking" the "buddy" everytime the female "bawls" implies a punishment for
some wrongdoing but it is ironically a way the male rewards himself for getting a
"sign" from the female that she is "enjoying" the act and that his manhood is intact
and secure. This image of misogyny also implies that there is intent, maybe
subliminal, on the part of the male to metaphorically kill the female and what she
represents. This ironically suggests that the female has certain powers that have
to be contained or eliminated. The fear of rebellion runs deeply through the psyche
of the male and he is playing on the attendant philosophy that every oppressive
system depends to some degree on subordinate groups being willing to go along
with their own subordination (Johnson 1997). The reference to and reliance on
"stone", "brush", and "gungo"12 , examples of aphrodisiacs bear out his points.
It is must be noted that the Jamaican male prides himself on his ability to
perform without the aid of any performance enhancers. Therefore, the idea of
misogyny gains prominence here because it fits the notion that this woman is an
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10
undeclared threat to his masculinity. The idea is that her "powers" are so strong
that ordinary male strength cannot contain her, so metaphysical help is sought.
The performance of the male is given a boost and his propensity for violence is
therefore increased to virtually "kill" the female. Johnson notes, that
"misogyny plays a complex role in patriarchy. It
fuels men's sense of superiority, justifies male
aggression against women, and works to keep
women on the defensive and in their place" (39).
The invocation of manhood is evident in the final line of the song; "yuh no
fi mek nuh young gal/ come laugh after yuh." This line helps explain the oppressive
behaviour of the male and makes clear that his acts towards women are driven by
a fear of emasculation. Masculinity has to be performed to be real or for it to be
authenticated and proven that it is a manifest part of male identity. "Masculinity
must be proved, and no sooner is it proved that it is questioned again and must be
proved again - constant, relentless, unachievable, and ultimately the quest for proof
becomes so meaningless that it takes on the characteristics, as Weber said, of a
sport" (Kimmel 122). Buju is highlighting the fact that "fear" is at the heart of all
masculine behaviours. The fear that other men will unmask him as a fraud, a
weakling who could not perform during the sex act. The fear that other women will
hear about his 'non-performance' and publicly shame him. This fear is his weakness and Buju is implicitly acknowledging this weakness as part of the identity
(crisis) of the Jamaican male. He is afraid that the woman will see his weakness
and will exploit. As such he overcompensates with violence to render the female
body helpless in order to give him the illusion that he has power over his own fear.
This fear is centrally positioned within Jamaican gender politics, which is driven by
the constant fear of being laughed at by a woman. This represents a public erosion
or negation of masculine identity and because of the value placed on sexual
prowess, a man's reputation is at stake every time he takes a woman into his bed.
The negation of his sexual prowess will label him a sissy or a "batty man"13 and by
extension this invokes signs of weakness and emasculation.
The fear of being called a "batty man" in Jamaican society runs deep in the
construction of male identity as the homosexual other becomes the negative that
feeds heterosexual male identities. As such feminine behaviour is condemned in
males and is seen as a "flag" identifying one as being gay. As such Jama
males exaggerate "all the traditional rules of masculinity, including sexual préda
with women," (Kinnnel 133) extreme sexual violence against the female, sexu
promiscuity, and boastful stories about sexual conquests and prowess. "Ho
sexuality is gloriously vilified in graphic excremental imagery in dancehall mu
(see Cooper 142). A male artiste's public vilification of homosexuality asserts
heterosexuality and masculinity. Linden Lewis states that "given the machism
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11
imbued in hegemonic masculinity, the level of hostility directed toward homosexu-
ality is not surprising. It is not surprising precisely because homosexuality in the
Caribbean undermines and fundamentally contradicts hegemonic masculinity.
Thus Shabba Ranks' "Wicked in Bed" is a public display of his masculinity and
heterosexuality and he must make it clear that as a man who is "bad and wicked
inna bed",
Inna firn me14 bed
Mi don't wan' Fred
Don't wan' Tony,
Mi don't wan' Ted
Mi naw promote nuh maama15 man
All maama man fi dead
Pam, pam 16, lick a shot inna di maama man 'ead.
The identification of the homosexual male as a "maama man" invests feminine
qualities in him. For Shabba, the "maama man" is to be not only othered but
"fl dead." Kimmers Freudian analysis of masculinity as the 'flight from the fem
explains Shabba's fear and his ultimate reason for naming the homosexual m
"maama man". He sees in this male the qualities of a woman. "Masculine identit
Kimmel asserts "is born in the renunciation of the feminine, not in the direct
affirmation of the masculine, which leaves masculine gender identity tenuous and
fragile (127).
Female DJ, Tanya Stevens expresses and exploits the fragility of this
masculine identity by showing that "language gains the power to create the 'socially
real' through the locutionary acts of speaking subjects" (Butler 115), is reflected in
Stevens response to the dominance of patrichology in the d jncehall speech
community. She employs language to carry out a direct penetration of male
hegemony and institute female presence as whole, feminine, woman and in power
and with power (see Kimmel 125). Sne uses code-switching as a tool to exercise
autonomy as a female both in the description of the sex act and in describing the
female as an active participant in this act. She reifies the bedroom as a place
where femaleness is not suppressed, but expressed, not challenged but feared, not
questioned but confirmed, not mauled and cauterized but treated with dignity.
Thus sex becomes a medium for subverting masculine dominance and discourse
and challenging existing identities that have been imposed on the female body.
And she names and writes and signifies a set of signs that compel a dialogue with
masculine discourse - a dialogue that is aimed to establish equality and justice and
shared power starting in the bedroom.
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12
She says:
If yuh see mi a flex 17 wid three different man
One a dem a half and two quarter
So dem add up to one.
Yuh might think seh mi flex like a skettel bomb 18
But di three a dem fraction
And dem add up to one.
Stevens is hereby representing a brand of female agency that is not
consistent with Jamaica's conservative expectation of the woman or the masculine
ethos' relegation of her to a place of exclusion and absence. She is invoking a
sense of female autonomy that is indivisible from her new visions for her sexuality
and how that sexuality should perform. She exercises a new-found independence
and identity that is not hinged on masculine representations of her womanhood.
Stevens redefines feminine behaviour and sexuality to mean power to act
and demand what one wants for the purposes of self-fulfilment. She is not concerned that conservative patriarchal society might think of her as a "skettel bomb"
because she can "flex with three different man"1. She is not indicted or under
scrutiny as a slut, whore, promiscuous or fallen woman. In this subversive text, the
accused is the male whose masculinity is shown as fragmented and wanting. What
is attendant here is a serious inversion of masculine ideology. Stevens has placed
the male in the position of the female as a fraction, a fragmented discourse. She
has adopted the language of the group that has power and uses this ability to
code-switch to assume agency. Her exercise of agency turns the politics of gender
upon itself to expose the myth that surrounds masculinity as a monolithic construct.
The notion that it takes three men to be equal to one man has serious
implications for dominant or hegemonic interpretations of sex, sexuality, gender
and the masculine exercising of power. And treating the male as a fraction
weakens the imperialism of patrichology and its philosophy of exploitation of the
weak. Furthermore, the male is emasculated as female appropriates language to
create her identity as the socially real. She is no more the silent object but the
speaking subject questioning, challenging and exposing "truths." Autonomy and
independence are the qualities that are obvious in her ability to construct her own
signs and her own argument for her actions.
Stevens attacks the belief that "pain" is an integral part of sex.
Gadafi this is not a pain thing
And this is not a boas' to yuh fren
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13
Dem down di lane thing
A jus' di works baby.
She is now talking back to an earlier discourse that imposed certain beliefs
concerning sex and women in the society. By naming the male in this instance, she
is publicly exercising authorial control. She is engaging in self-determination, and
sexual and self-representation. She is now the signifier who is critiquing the role of
the male during the sex act and by extension the foundation on which the mascu-
line ideology is perpetuated. She also highlights the action of the male as incompetent evident in the description of each man as a "fraction." The tendency for the
men to boast about his sexual piowess or performance is unmasked on the
grounds that this action is excessive and pretentious.
Stevens is aware that the practice of patrichology projects women as "a
kind of currency that men use to improve their ranking on the masculine social
scale" (Kimmel 129). By problematizing this practice in masculine performance,
she disrupts the masculine assertions of power through speech. Thus she silences
a tradition of male dominance that privileges the word and position of the male
speaker.
Using the metaphor of a "ninja bike" Stevens makes demands not only on
the male caucus but the society at large.
Mi want a man wid a big ninja bike fi mi ride pon
Mi noh want no flim flam19
weh noh have di right gear
Bounce mi whole night pon you divan
Gi mi di right slam
'Cause da gal yah nuh care.
The female here has taken on an identity which is larger than life and which erases
the identity of helpless victim from her. She now demands "a man a big ninja bike
fi ride pon". The appropriation of "ride" is another example of code switching that
she is using to exercise agency. She appropriates the use of ride from a masculine
discourse which uses it to objectify the female as sub human. By naming the man
as an inanimate thing, the female has taken power away from him and has
rendered him useful only if he has the "right gear" to give the "right sfam '. The
meaning of "right" is in keeping with her freedom to choose how she will handle her
sexuality. It is not be controlled or punished and she expresses it as part of her
femininity and not a separate entity. Tricia Rose finds this kind of freedom in black
female rappers as well.
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14
By and large, black women rappers are carving out a female-dominated
space in which black women's sexuality is expressed... They affirm black female
working-class cultural signs and experiences that are rarely depicted in American
popular culture. Black women rappers resist patterns of sexual objectification at
the hands of black men and of cultural invisibility at the hands of the dominant
American culture (170).
Stevens cautions the male,
Before you make anodder speech,
Mek sure yuh bike can reach,
Cause me nuh want yuh pick mi up
Fi carry mi go Negril
An' bruk21 °own a Treasure Beach.
Steven's is making is asserting, as one in control, that she will give in to masculine
dominance and accept any promise of sexual gratification, "carry mi go Negril" if the
man cannot fulfil the promise, "bruk down a Treasure Beach". By cautioning the
male that before he makes another "speech" she is silencing his position of
privilege that the male occupies in society which gives him the freedom to say
anything because he does not have an authority to answer to.
The linguistic privilege that was prior to this subversion that sole propriety
of the male is now reversed and the female is disrupting and troubling the manipu-
lation of the word by the male. As an autonomous signifier/subject she has the
power to "interrupt" and instruct the male recipient/addressee to listen and take her
seriously. Maleness is not synonymous with power anymore and in order to be
taken seriously, "before you make anodder speech" he has to demonstrate that he
can provide the service that she demands. She does not see herself as the
"uninvolved" or the outsider. Her independence will not tolerate his version of "sex"
as she too is involved. She also invokes the female community to laugh at the male
who is shamed by his inability to function under her terms.
Laugh after dem
Cause a time dem waste
Dem disqualify
Wi fling 22 dem outta di race.
The Caribbean has a cultural code of shaming. It is a continuation of
African tradition that women in certain tribes in Africa use to reprimand
husbands by publicly "telling on" or chastising them. In Jamaica, men are terr
of this act of emasculation. This act of shaming is to publicly establish that
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15
individual is an infidel. The person is by extension silenced and demoted in the
eyes of other men and women.
Finally, the notion of hyper-masculinity is a constraining force that impris-
ons Jamaican men. Their desire to prove true to aspects of hegemonic masculinity
forces them to set up ideals that are unachievable. This is what Buju is asserting
as a 'norm' in his song "Gal fi beg" and what Stevens is criticizing in her song "Ninja
Bike". The representation of hyper-masculinity produces a dysfunctional and dis-
eased definition of masculinity. The men who subscribe to Buju's masculine
politics are in a constant battle with themselves, other men and the broader society,
to prove that they are more powerful than women, or that they do not possess
feminine qualities and therefore are not batty men. The female body becomes
instrumental in the exercise of a masculine rite of passage. Language thus
becomes a deliberate component in or accessory to the methods of oppression and
subjugation that women and homosexual men experience. Female artistes' such
as Stevens use language as a tool to disrupt hegemonic discourses to simultaneously facilitate alternative representations of the female body. This exercise and
performance of agency becomes integral for the undermining, inversion and subversion of the outcomes of patrichology.
Notes
1 . Patois is a regional dialect that is largely spoken by the lower class of peoples in the Caribbean
each island it varies from ethnic group to ethnic group. In Jamaica for example it varies from
parish to parish, Ms way of speaking is thought to be a corruption of the English Language be-
cause t uses expressions, words that are not recognized in the English Language or have counterparts in the English Language.
2. David Gilmore, Manhood in the Making: Cultural concepts of masculinity (New Haven: Yale Univ
sity Press, 1990), 12-14.
3. Slackness in this context refers to the explicit and often lewd descriptions in the songs of the D
This lewdness is characterized in the "vulgar' or public detailing of the sex act and lurid descriptions of the male or female genitalia or other body parts. Slackness is in the context of music is
thus understood in opposition to Culture-a more conservative view of society.
4. "hood" is one of many synonyms in the dialect for penis.
5. Means to scratch violently.
6. This is used to describe a person who is rough, uncouth or troublemaker.
7. This means child or children.
8. This means 'to stick forcefully.1
9. This means to 'treat harshly.'
1 0. One of the many synonyms in Jamaican dialect for vagina.
1 1 . One of the many synonyms for the penis.
12 . These are three popular aphrodisiacs that men use in Jamaica.
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1 3. A derogatory term that is widely used by heterosexuals to describe homosexual men in Jamaica.
Many women also use the term to embarrass men who bwhave or act effeminat. It is also used
to drive fear in young boys to assert their masculinity from an early age.
14. Means my or mine.
1 5. This is another derogatory term that refers to homosexuals. It is used to also describe men who
are quarrelsome or who love to argue with women. Men who curse "trace" women are also described by this term.
1 6. These homophonic words that represent the sounds made by a gun.
1 7. Used this way, flex, means to have a relationship with some one. It also means to hang out with
or spend time with someone.
1 8. This refers sexually promiscuous woman.
19. This is a phrase which means inferior or low in quality.
20. Slam" refers to sex which transcends the boundaries of the mundane sexual experience. It implies a very explosive engagement.
21 . This means to break. In this case is it means to malfunction.
22. To throw forcefully and with vengeance.
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