Women: A Mode of Resistance that Empowers Femininity Davina Battistelli

Introduction Trinidadian women have a long and fraught relationship to Calypsonian music; a relationship characterized by both injustice and empowerment. The titles of songs written by Calypsonian women, such as Run Away, Hostage, You’re Hurting Me, Ah Done Wid Dat, Don’t Put Your Hand on Mih Property, and Who’s the Boss, highlight this history.1 In this paper, I demonstrate how calypso culture has been a key site in Trinidadian society to negotiate power relations that intersect gender, class, and race. The main occasions during which is performed are , a seasonal festival of music and dance, and calypso competitions, which occur in venues where artists perform and are judged. These occasions are significant sites for the negotiation of power relations due to their historical relationship to the slave trade within . For instance, both Carnival and calypso competitions were places where freed slaves could express resistance and cultural values in times of oppression.2 Calypso’s role as a means for social commentary and cultural expression made it a target for colonial powers as a critical venue through which to enforce European gendered mores and norms. Importantly, this involved the colonial imposition of a model of respectability for Trinidadian women that valued a conservative, domesticated model of femininity. Femininities that were alternative to the European model – women who were strong, vocal etc. – were condemned in calypso songs as a means for the lower and middle classes to align themselves with the elite class’ norms. Women in Trinidad and , prior to colonial influence, knew a position in calypso music culture as lead singers, dancers and “fighters”, in the literal and figurative competition that characterizes calypso music. After colonization, however, they were excluded from this scene as a patriarchal trend usurped Calypsonian songs. These songs denounced and abused women, painting them as manipulative and deceitful. At the same time, they prized her as a sexual object to be conquered in a demonstration of masculine control and prowess.3 The capacity of calypso music as a genre to produce culture,

1 Cynthia Mahabir, “The Rise of Calypso Feminism: Gender and Musical Politics in the Calypso,” Popular Music 20 (2001): 409-430. 2 Jocelyne Guilbault, “Audible Entanglements: Nation and Diasporas in Trinidad’s Calypso Music Scene,” Small Axe 9, no. 1(2005): 44-45. 3 Hope Munro Smith, “Performing Gender in the Trinidad Calypso,” Latin American Music Review 25 (2004): 37.

64 including gender, through social commentary is allowed for this shift in gender dynamics in Trinidad. In other words, those who control calypso also have control over cultural and gender norms. It has been used primarily to assert the gender identity of the male Calypsonian who is representative of “the man in the street”, an economically unsatisfied Afro- Trinidadian man. The very nature of calypso and its particular influence on the larger culture gives it power to change society. Though it has been used as a means of oppression, women have taken it and transformed it into a mode of resistance.

Description In order to properly situate this research, it is important to look at the overall status of women in more generally. Though this paper uses an historical approach, looking at the status of women in Trinidad today gives us insight into how much has been achieved in terms of gender equality, as well as into how far we have to go. According to the Human Development Index (HDI), Trinidad is a high development country, with a correspondingly low Gender Inequality Index (GII), where women have equal education rates and fairly low maternal mortality, among other indicators.4 Female participation in the labour market is estimated to be 54.9%, compared to men’s at 78.3%. Furthermore, women hold 27.4% of parliamentary seats.5 These statistics demonstrate a relatively high participation of women in economic and political ventures. Nevertheless, there is still a large gap between men and women in Trinidad and Tobago. These indexes, however, although helpful in understanding macro-level phenomena, may obscure the actual lived-experiences of women. We need to be wary of “formal equality masquerading as true equality.”6 A clear example of the way that formal equality doesn’t always lead to lived equality is found in the enactment of the Domestic Violence Act. Although it looks good on paper, it is faulty in its execution: most applications for protection are not carried through and even in instances where they are carried out, they result in minimal punishment for the man but require enormous effort, time and money from the woman.7

4 “The Rise of the South: Human Progress in a Diverse World (Trinidad and Tobago),” http://hdrstats.undp.org/images/explanations/TTO.pdf 5 Ibid. 6 Michele Alexandre, “Dance Halls, Masquerades, Body Protest and the Law: The Female Body as a Redemptive Tool Against Trinidad’s Gender-Biased Laws,” Duke Journal of Gender Law and Policy 13, no. 177 (2006): 191. 7 Alexandre, “Dance Halls, Masquerades, Body Protest and the Law,” 191,199. The domestic violence situation in Trinidad is described by development agencies as a “significant problem…[with] high incidents rates” and women’s groups reporting that 20-25% of women suffered abuse in 2011, most from the working and lower

65 Additionally, in many cases, the laws themselves are very weak in their level of protection for women, setting aside the obviously fraught question I raised above about enforcement and punishment: marital rape has only recently been outlawed, the age of consent is 12 years old, and abortions are illegal and have a higher maximum punishment than statutory rape.8 In general, then, what these indicators tell us is that women face laws and social norms that do not acknowledge the possession or control of their own bodies, despite also being permitted access to a variety of fields of employment. It is in this social context that calypso culture grants women a venue to exert control, voice social commentary and fight for the overall empowerment of women. As discussed above, however, women’s participation in calypso has not been a consistent feature of the genre. The general trend of women’s participation in this genre is high participation at the end of the 19th century, followed by a disappearance of women from the scene in the early 20th century, and a slow resurgence beginning in the 1950s and 60s.9 The disappearance of women from the scene was largely due to the emergence of a new formulation of masculinity in colonial era Trinidad. In a society where “Euro-American bourgeois respectability”10 was being enforced, there was a disconnect for the Calypsonian male who had qualities that did not fit into this model. The Calypsonian man was characterized as a “sweet man”, macho or “the man in the street”, often supported financially by woman, though in control of her.11 The model of masculinity introduced by colonial powers was that of male as dominant provider, which the economically marginalized Calypsonian could not live up to. The Calypsonian man, therefore, turned to alternate ways of expressing this formulation of masculinity: through aggression and control over women, as well as overt sexual behaviour.12 In turn, this alternative masculinity enforced a certain femininity that was in keeping with the cultural values of the colonial administrators. So where calypso had been a venue for men to resist and reformulate European norms of masculinity, it also became a means for the oppression of women. This colonial imposition of normative European gender roles, along with its institutions of slavery and indentured labour, also created a highly complex terrain of inequality in terms of class and race. In terms of middle-classes (Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada 2012). 8 Ibid., 197-8. 9 Mahabir, “The Rise of Calypso Feminism,” 409-30; Smith, “Performing Gender in the Trinidad Calypso,” 32-56. 10 Mahabir, “The Rise of Calypso Feminism,” 411. 11 Mahabir, “The Rise of Calypso Feminism,” 411; Smith, “Performing Gender in the Trinidad Calypso,” 36, 38. 12 Mahabir, “The Rise of Calypso Feminism,” 411.

66 calypso culture, the “coloured” middle-class controlled the calypso competitions and venues, with black men as performers, and white colonial administrators as regulators of Carnival and the competitions (when they can occur, how long etc.).13 Women in calypso became present only through their representation in songs written and performed by male artists. “Landing” a white woman was presented in calypso as a sort of ideal, speaking of her implied economic standing, and unattainable status due to social class barriers. Following this, Indian women as indentured labourers had some economic standing and were desirable, but largely unattainable due to cultural barriers, and finally the Afro-Trinidadian women were presented as loose, unfaithful, and poor, but attainable because of their low status, and thus disposable in a way.14 Explaining the gender injustice that takes place in and through calypso culture will help us understand how women have actually used these same circumstances to empower themselves. Women’s calypso culture reconfigures gender, class, and ethnic boundaries through the use of music to inform and mobilize mass audiences. Denyse Plummer, a prominent Calypsonian, calls this “the power and charisma of this art form…”15

Analysis I will analyze this phenomenon of female empowerment through calypso culture using a historical approach that appeals to certain elements of gender performative theory. The key turning points in calypso culture for women will be treated, primarily colonial rule and Trinidadian Independence. In Smith’s article entitled “Performing Gender in the Trinidad Calypso”, she writes: “gender identity is contested within the calypso arena”.16 This statement indicates both the constructed nature of gender and the nature of the calypso arena as a means of gender construction. The theoretical basis for this notion can be found in West and Zimmerman’s article “Doing Gender”, in which they assert: “[D]oing gender involves a complex of socially guided perceptual, interactional, and micro-political activities that cast particular pursuits as expressions of masculine or feminine ‘natures’”.17 Further, Smith’s idea of calypso as an “arena” coincides with West and Zimmerman’s idea of gender as resulting from

13 Guilbault, “Audible Entanglements,” 44, 45. 14 Alexandre, “Dance Halls, Masquerades, Body Protest and the Law,” 193; Mahabir, “The Rise of Calypso Feminism,” 412; Smith, “Performing Gender in the Trinidad Calypso,” 38. 15 Mahabir, “The Rise of Calypso Feminism,” 410, 413. 16 Smith, “Performing Gender in the Trinidad Calypso,” 24. 17 Candace West and Don H. Zimmerman, “Doing Gender,” Gender and Society 1, no. 2 (1987): 126.

67 particular social arrangements.18 The nature of the calypso competition makes it a place where doing gender occurs, where men and women fight to assert different formulations of masculinity and femininity. This very organization allows it to be both a venue for domination and empowerment, depending on the specific historical and social circumstances. Early in the colonial project, calypso culture was used as a means of resistance to cultural domination, involving both men and women. For example, Carnival is noted as “a place for counter-hegemonic colonial construction of cultural production”.19 This was a time when women were lead singers with a specific type of female banter song and a whole subculture known as “jamette”, which highlighted female sexuality without shame.20 With the imposition of colonial ideals came the restructuring of not only the venues in which calypso cultural practice took place but also the content of this practice, along with a shift in the composition of its practitioners. The idea of “Euro-American bourgeois respectability” infiltrated calypso culture, largely due to the middle-class business owners taking control of Carnival and calypso competitions.21 Where women were once respected and sensual fighters in the calypso arena, the patriarchal colonial ideals depicted these women as morally unrespectable and shameful, reflected in male Calypsonian songs through their attempts to assert alternative masculinity.22 As these patriarchal ideals became ingrained, it was no longer simply a situation of cultural domination, but also one of male domination over women, as men and women alike tried to emulate Euro-American ideals in order to keep up with economic demands. For example, the shift of Carnival and calypso competition into the hands of middle-class businessmen gave them control of the context and content of calypso, encouraging colonial ideals to curry favour from those in power (white administrators). They thus emphasized good behaviour and decency, and denounced former jamette culture as obscene and unrespectable.23 The social hierarchy is clear here, along ethnic lines that are generally directly related to economic status in this period: white elites, “coloured” middle class, and black lower class. During this time, women disappeared as calypso performers and the content of calypso

18 West and Zimmerman, “Doing Gender,” 126-8. 19 Jennifer T. Springer, “: , Female Empowerment, and Calypso,” Meridians: Feminism, Race, Transnationalism 8, no. 1 (2008): 97. 20 Smith, “Performing Gender in the Trinidad Calypso,” 34; Mahabir, “The Rise of Calypso Feminism,” 411. 21 Smith, “Performing Gender in the Trinidad Calypso,” 34-5. 22 Smith, “Performing Gender in the Trinidad Calypso,” 35-6; Springer, “Roll it Gal,” 94. 23 Smith, “Performing Gender in the Trinidad Calypso,” 35.

68 music denigrated women, in particular black women, and shamed them into the private sphere as housewives, the only respectable place for women in this cultural formulation.24 The next important historical moment for calypso and women’s empowerment was Trinidadian Independence, achieved by the People’s National Movement (PNM) lead by in 1962.25 Williams, a black, educated leader, declared calypso Trinidad’s national music, thus giving it renewed importance in defining and performing culture and gender in a newly independent historical circumstance.26 This is mirrored by a resurgence of female singers into the calypso competitions as state patronage of competitions increased women’s access to the scene. Williams and the PNM party focused on a valuation of traditional Afro-Trinidadian norms, and this changed the judging of the calypso as well as enforcing a new set of culture and gender norms in the calypso arena. Williams also shifted the focus of the education system from colonial models to more local traditions, which promoted a higher status of women.27 Among the first women to emerge on the scene were and Singing Francine, and they, as Denyse Plummer puts it, “took all the blows and the licks for us…[and] found a rightful place for women in calypso”.28 These women sang about domestic violence, women’s rights and autonomy, promoting images of Trinidadian women as mothers, breadwinners, and empowered individuals. What was during a particular historical period a venue for the discrimination of women became in this post-Independence period a stage for women to “challenge the politics of manhood.”29 For example, Calypso Rose explicitly tells her audience “to resist male manipulation and exploitation.”30 Calypso Rose’s campaigning for women’s independence through calypso music has helped to alleviate the suffering of women, along with state support, as well as altering the calypsos of men. Mahabir tells us that Rose believes she changed the content of male calypsos away from the mistreatment of women31 and toward female empowerment for Calypsonians.32 A shift in overall gender conception occurred through a change in government at Independence, and through the power of calypso music

24 Ibid., 34-5. 25 Guilbault, “Audible Entanglements,” 48. 26 Guilbault, “Audible Entanglements,” 47-9; Mahabir, “The Rise of Calypso Feminism,” 413. 27 Smith, “Performing Gender in the Trinidad Calypso,” 39. 28 Ibid., 40. 29 Mahabir, “The Rise of Calypso Feminism,” 413-14. 30 Ibid., 413-14. 31 Mahabir, “The Rise of Calypso Feminism,” 416, 425. 32 Smith, “Performing Gender in the Trinidad Calypso,” 43-4.

69 culture. This improved women’s position in micro-level situations in the music industry, which allowed for mass dissemination of these empowering messages, and ultimately helped to improve aspects of discrimination against women. Since then there have been laws such as the Domestic Violence Act and the criminalization of marital rape,33 which are important formal steps towards increased gender equality. Though true equality has yet to be achieved, we can see a shining example of how Calypsonian women transformed a situation of oppression into a mode of resistance against male domination, and on a larger scale, a means of future empowerment for all Trinidadian women.

Conclusion In conclusion, this research shows the complexity involved in the construction and refutation of cultural and gender identities that can occur in specific social and historical circumstances. Though we can see many levels of inequality, the one that spans over all economic and ethnic boundaries is the inequality experienced by women. Calypso has become a way for women to construct alternative femininities to counter the oppressive formulation of women’s identity that male Calypsonians perpetuated under conditions of colonialism. This venue-specific mode of resistance has allowed women to voice and spread messages of empowerment to women all over Trinidad.

Bibliography

Alexandre, Michele. “Dance Halls, Masquerades, Body Protest and the Law: The Female Body as a Redemptive Tool Against Trinidad’s Gender-Biased Laws.” Duke Journal of Gender Law and Policy 13, no. 177 (2006): 177-202.

Guilbault, Jocelyne. “Audible Entanglements: Nation and Diasporas in Trinidad’s Calypso Music Scene.” Small Axe 9, no.1 (2005): 40- 63.

Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, “Trinidad and Tobago: Domestic Violence, Including Legislation, State Protection and Supports Services.” http://www.refworld.org/docid/5072a2572.html.

Mahabir, Cynthia. “The Rise of Calypso Feminism: Gender and Musical Politics in the Calypso.” Popular Music 20 (2001): 409-430.

33 Alexandre, “Dance Halls, Masquerades, Body Protest and the Law,” 177-202.

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Smith, Hope Munro. “Performing Gender in the Trinidad Calypso.” Latin American Music Review 25, no. 1 (2004): 32-56.

Springer, Jennifer Thorington. “Roll It Gal: Alison Hinds, Female Empowerment, and Calypso.” Meridians: Feminism, Race, Transnationalism. 8, no. 1 (2008): 93-129.

United Nations Development Programs/Human Development Report 2013. “The Rise of the South: Human Progress in a Diverse World (Trinidad and Tobago).” http://hdrstats.undp.org/images/explanations/TTO.pdf.

West, Candance and Don H. Zimmerman. “Doing Gender.” Gender and Society 1, no. 2 (1987): 125-151.

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