Soca, Carnival, and Dancehall

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Publications and Research Baruch College

2007

Female Agency and Oppression in Caribbean Bacchanalian Culture: Soca, Carnival, and Dancehall

Kevin Frank CUNY Bernard M Baruch College

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This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] FEMALEAGENCY AND OPPRESSION INCARIBBEAN BACCHANALIANCULTURE: SOCA, CARNIVAL, AND DANCEHALL

KEVINFRANK

" is at is the in which What issue, briefly, the over-all "discursive fact, way " sex is into "put discourse. An ?Michel Foucault, The History of Sexuality, volume 1, Introduction

In I examine and this essay the politics of Caribbean women's agency sexual in of and oppression through performance settings song, dance, bacchanalian. dancehall general revelry?that is, Soca, carnival, and sites are with nihilistic scenes of unabashed risk replete thrill-seeking, taking sexual displays and competing gender politics. One does not need to look too hard into the minutiae of Caribbean social practices to find there the sort of of Black emergent compensatory politics performance identified by Paul Gilroy: "An amplified and exaggerated masculinity a has become the boastful centerpiece of culture of compensation that salves the of the and subordinat self-consciously misery disempowered ed. This and its feminine masculinity relational counterpart become special symbols of the difference that race makes" (1993, 85). Our focus here is less on what Gilroy correctly identifies as the nationalist bent of cultural criticism and more on the articulations of the subordinated within Black Atlantic culture. Caribbean revels are rife with these exhi

bitionistic expressions. In dancehall particularly, dancehall girls or are the "relational feminine referred to "queens" counterpart" by The excessive in dancehall the Gilroy. hypersexuality represents perfor mance of a racial that the colonial her particular identity repudiates for "moral excellence that itage, instance, the and character training" was of the of Victorians such as Thomas Arnold part enabling discourse and continues to be part of the discourse of well-meaning Caribbeans of a certain or with certain Dramatic and class, class aspirations. ritualistic, dancehall are also performances burlesque-carnivalesque practices.

in exhi Somewhat grotesque exaggeration, among other things, these bitions caricature dominant culture, for example, its ideals of beauty and taste. good My interest in this topic stems primarily from thought-provoking as work produced by scholars such Carolyn Cooper and Belinda For most this an Edmondson. the part, work presents overly optimistic view of the potential for female liberation. For example, in Sound Clash, Cooper asserts that in dancehall the "affirmation of the pleasures of the is often misunderstood as a devaluation of female body, which sexuality, also can be theorized as an act of self-conscious female assertion of con

trol over the representation of her person" (2004b, 125-26). Edmondson's "Public a favorable outlook essay Spectacles" possesses similarly regard the of female ing power performance:

main centers My argument around the different meanings accorded to different kinds of female public "performances," a term I use to women's culture describe popular rituals and behaviors in the In that a public sphere. "performance" suggests a a physical gesture made with physical body for passive view it is a term ing audience, particularly apt for my purposes here. "Performance" an act meant to do implies agency, particular kinds of work or make particular kinds of statements. (Edmondson 2003, 2)

The incessant fetishization of women in dancehall and other perfor mance necessitates a reexamination of such Are spaces optimism. these female sexual performances potentially liberating? Equally important, a is there meaningful difference between that potential and actuality? a I contend that, indeed, there is difference. In exhibiting them women are not of selves sexually, Caribbean the agents meaning: they self-control. The ofthat is merely perform necessity performance itself a an indication of lack of control. Three of Judith Bettelheim's cate of female gories performance?costumed public dancing, gender-based our self-performance, and performing royalty (1998, 68)?merge in analysis, which is especially concerned with the issue of agency. As Bet notes a carnival the telheim when interpreting female dancer, "Given which not woman's but also cultural conditions only repress sexuality prohibit her from being sexual, because being sexual is always defined 174 FEMALEAGENCY AND OPPRESSION IN CARIBBEAN BACCHANALIAN CULTURE

in terms the this female uses her as an of patriarchy, performer sexuality active from she adds that or agent" (69). Borrowing Jeanie Forte, sexy sexual their bodies in order to reclaim to performers "'expose them, assert own and thus the fetishistic their pleasure sexuality, denying pur a suit [by men]'" (69). Viewed from psychological perspective, howev Caribbean sexual other than er, women's heightened displays suggest reclamation of the fetishized body and rebellion against authority and mores: infantile sexual to the puritanical they suggest lives, prone manipulation of authority. Furthermore, the inflexible position of male with sexual power associated Caribbean female performances renders such acts almost That are akin to exploitative, pornographic. is, they sex in to is advertising, which, according Jean Kilbourne, pornographic women in that the are by and large objectified and dehumanized (1998, 445). A major key in our study is the politics of control. In fact, it is the critical factor Bettelheim points to in making the case for seeing Baker as a of the female sexual Josephine prototype self-asserting per former: "I believe she [Baker] was firmly in control, using her sexuality as an In bad oppositional practice. many female performance roles?the the rebellious and the entertainer?the woman the girl, diva, sexy is not the of She is a of is agent, carrier, meaning. producer meanings; she an active masquerader, in control of self (Bettelheim 1998, 69). The is also in of women in dancehall. masquerade important Cooper's reading an In interview in the journal Proudflesh she explains: "I look at what I call erotic disguise in the films Dancehall Queen and Babymother?one set in in in Jamaica, the other the UK?and examine the ways which margin alised class women reclaim their in the of working sensuality masquerade on the Dancehall" (Proudflesh, 2004). My own argument hinges the mask am of such masquerades: I particularly interested in what really lies beneath the mask. to "The and According Roberta Clarke, pervasiveness of women has societal acceptance violence against been traced by femi nist to structures of sexual and economic in soci scholars the inequality ety" (1998, 10). Those structures of inequality continue to support the status with men in gender quo, ultimately power. FRANK 175

TEMPTEDTO TOUCH: RITUAL "SONG AND DANCE" OF THEFEMALE BODY INSOCA

To all the ladies in the dance

I lose all control when I see you Standing there infront of me Your style, your clothes, your hair You look so fair woman, you sexy

The way you wine and, the way you dance

And the way that you twist and turn your waist me me Leaves wanting, leaves yearning Leaves me a taste feeling for to ?Rupee, "Tempted Touch"

Fon bedyon floor againstwall We sex dem all till dem callmi Tm di girls dem sugar dats all Welcome di king of di dancehall. ?Beenie of the Dancehall" Man, "King

It been some since world-renowned the has thirty years calypsonian Mighty Sparrow (Slinger Francisco) titillated Caribbean women with foreplaying promise in his brilliant satire of Caribbean men for their dis attitude toward the of a certain of avowing exploration liberating aspect female "It's sweeter than meat / When want sexuality, cunnilingus: you to eat / All saltfish sweet," goes the refrain of his perennial hit "Saltfish" seems as (The Mighty Sparrow 1976). However, after all this time, there not a much if greater distance between Sparrow's encouraging posture and the generally excoriating attitude toward cunnilingus exhibited in as dancehall. Even with the well-orchestrated rise of Sean Paul, the brag above Beenie Man continues gart title of the epigrammatic song suggests, to set as the trend and remains in strong contention King of Dancehall; his lyric from the same song, "Mi stand up and d'weet nuh bow dung and taste" (Beenie Man 2005) is indicative of the male position widely reflect ed in dancehall specifically, and in the Caribbean generally. That is, the sex not song's speaker declares he has standing up (with his penis erect), with his tongue. The following line from Mad Cobra's "Put Gunshot" is an even better example of this hostile attitude: "Boy weh tek bumpa and a taste below waist / Put gunshot in yuh blood clot face" (Mad Cobra 176 FEMALEAGENCY AND OPPRESSION IN CARIBBEAN BACCHANALIAN CULTURE

it 2005). Granted, here, "Boy weh tek bumpa" (boys who take from to while weh taste below waist" refers behind) refers homosexuals, "Boy on women. not to be over to those who go down The first group is looked, especially given the rampant homophobia and threat of violence in dancehall But our concern here is the expressed lyrics. primary equa tion of the second group with the first and the unequivocal pejorative, violent attitude toward both.

is the of the of such on What impact preponderance messages are the and literal Caribbean women's sexuality? What figurative implications for Caribbean women's bodies? Again, Cooper theorizes a that, through sort of carnivalesque signification, dancehall culture is one rare women the of the spaces where Caribbean may have potential In for sexual agency. "Dancehall Dress: Competing Codes of Decency in she Jamaica," posits that:

codes are often misunderstood as of the [Dancehall] signs devaluation of female But this sense of can also sexuality. style seen as Woman as sexual claims the be empowering. being to sexual as an essential marker of her right pleasure identity. women and their more sisters are Both fleshy sinewy equally as entitled to display themselves in the public sphere queens of In the revelry. Exhibitionism conceals ordinary imperfections. dancehall world of make-believe, old roles can be contested new the elaborate of and identities assumed. Indeed, styling and is a of both hair clothes permissive expression the pleasures of disguise. (Cooper 2004a, 77)

One of this view is the of the troubling aspect apparent acceptance atavistic essentialism a projection of sexual upon Africans, significant feature of colonialism's subjugating ideological discourse. But the exhi referred to conceals else. The dominant bitionism something message from the music and of dancehall emanating performances spaces para contests of sexual and to doxically the potential female power attempts reassert a attitude toward macho, paternalistic, disciplining, oppressive women and women's sexuality. The substance ofthat attitude ultimate ly overrides whatever potential exists in the style and stylized exhibi tions of female sexuality inside and outside dancehalls. a one soca Without doubt, of the hottest hits of the past few years FRANK 177

that continues to move Caribbean and other on dance floors people around the world isKevin Lyttle's "Turn Me On." Recorded on Lyttle's native island of Saint the success is a result in of its Vincent, song's part cre?le or hybrid nature: it mixes traditional soca with American Rhythm and Blues (R & B) and, equally important, dancehall. I choose this because it was and continues to be so which song precisely popular, increases the that its coded more possibility message, arguably danger ous because subtle, will become salient. That message may be readily it is to in the irresistible beat missed, because easy get caught up song's and but it sustains Caribbean notions of sugary melody, long-ingrained female exhibition and subordina male-female sexuality, specifically, a soca tion to the male will. Consistent with common theme of songs, verse sex in the dancehall: the first celebrates performative, simulated

we For the longest while jamming in the Party And on me you're wining Pushing everything - Right back on top of me (Yea hey) But if from me you think you're gonna get away You better change your mind home . . . You're going You're going home with me tonight. (Lyttle 2004)

is a involves and For the uninitiated, wining form of dance that circular one thrusting motions of the hips and connected sexual body parts. On the the "You're home with me hand, speaker's declaration, going tonight," as mere on can be taken desire his part. On the other hand, its syntax sug a that if the woman on him feels gests commanding posture: is, wining to without the virtual act to sex empowered "perform" sexually leading ual actualization (getting away from him), that power is immediately I challenged by his declaration that she is going home with him. We can, am once there. sure, imagine what they would be doing they get In the chorus the instructions/declarations seem song's speaker's innocent even confirm the of the enough; but, so, they performativity and her in the scenario. woman's role objectification unfolding Having & com more in common with the posture of American R B, these lyrics excitement: bine love and lust, inciting sensual/sexual 178 FEMALEAGENCY AND OPPRESSION IN CARIBBEAN BACCHANALIAN CULTURE

So let me hold you Girl caress my body me . . . You got going crazy you Turn me on, Turn me on.

me Let jam you Girl wine all around me

me . . . You got going crazy you Turn me Turn me on. on, (Lyttle 2004)

Inwining all around him, the woman is clearly performing for him and the of his and desire. In other while the is, therefore, object gaze words, woman in this scenario assert her own and may performatively pleasure that act does not the man's erotic fixation on and sexuality, deny objecti verse an fication of her. In the second there is indication that the type of common wining she is doing has something in with dancehall's sexually on explicit dance styles: "One hand the ground and bumper [buttocks] cock sky high, wining hard on me" (Lyttle 2004). The potential for vio lence from that and the male's libidinous resulting performance gaze it is consistent with male-female sexual wherein it upon expected roles, is that the woman will the man's to anticipated satisfy urges. According in her on violence women in Bar Roberta Clarke, "Jordan, study against bados, argues that this form of violence finds its origins in the sexist myth that women exist to the desires of men" satisfy (1998, 10-11). It iswhen "Turn Me On" turns most clearly to dancehall for some to add to its mixed that the violent attitude is ingredients recipe macho, a most obviously expressed. The successful trend in R & B of adding or to an splash of grittiness street credibility otherwise overly pop song a a or artist by including bridge done by rapper apparently did not Madzart is in for this escape the song's producer. brought purpose and, a rapping in a fashion similar to dancehall DJ, he declares:

The girl ya nah go get way tonight man If she think mad nah go fight Me done feed she with popcarn and Sprite Now she want come fly way like kite. (Lyttle 2004)

Basically, he says, "I have spent money on this girl in buying her pop corn and soda and she wants to leave without me a sexual Sprite doing FRANK 179

favor in return. But she is not to at not going get away with that, least, a without fight." The expected return favor is to satisfy his lust raised through her dancing/simulated sexual gyrations. Consistent with Jor dan's finding above, the group Change, founded and funded to research and on and status of women all over the publish reports the condition that for "the values in world, reports Jamaican children, being taught and and the home, school churches concerning the body human sexuali are and eroded at same time content of mass ty, undermined the by the media which women as sex advertising messages portray objects for the ual pleasure and gratification of men" (Change 1982, 10-11). It is safe to assume that this exists in the Caribbean. "Mad man" problem elsewhere is an effective and to the pun, referring reflexively pronominally speak as an to the at er/DJ himself, Madzart, and, adjective, speaker's anger the woman for she could tease him without consum thinking sexually what was on floor. Given his mating started the dance indignation, the mean a "fight" could he is going to make more of determined effort to get her to go home with him, or it could mean he will attempt to over a come her sexually with blows, practice still found socially acceptable in to "The sexual many Caribbean quarters. According Sigmund Freud, of most male human contains an element of ity beings aggressiveness?a desire to subjugate; the biological significance of it seems to lie in the need for the resistance of the sexual means overcoming object by other than the process of wooing" (1962, 23-24). Obviously, male violence women is not to in against unique the Caribbean. But, also obviously, the scenario the the exhibitionistic suggested by song's lyrics, sexually woman is eroticized and objectified. Thus, she is not really in control and she cannot be the agent of her impending sexual subjugation. To is to return us in some to the notion suggest otherwise ways confounding a woman contributes to that being raped by dressing revealingly.

"'PRINCESSOR A SLAVEGIRL?'": THE GUISE OF A CARNIVALDISGUISE

and race are Caribbean societies, apart from being cleavaged by class divisions, hierarchical relations with male domination organised around gender power women to economic and emotional reducing dependency. in State and ?Roberta Clarke, Violence Against Women the Caribbean:

Non-State Responses 180 FEMALEAGENCY AND OPPRESSION IN CARIBBEAN BACCHANALIAN CULTURE

macho toward women's that con The paternalistic, attitude sexuality tests female agency through sexual exhibition is also witnessed in Earl Lovelace's The Dragon Cant Dance (1998). Set in and around Port of Spain, Trinidad, between 1959 and 1971, this novel portrays, among other things, stylized displays of female sexuality, mainly during carni val with in tow. Carnival is a season, requisite carnivalesque practices site of Caribbean for exhibitions of various significant revelry, allowing and to roles, gender otherwise. Carnival offers the opportunity make to contest old and to assume new identities. believe, roles, But, regard its subversive the or carnival act ing potential, masquerade requires careful critical scrutiny. Ella Shohat and Robert Stam's insight regard ing the ambiguities of carnival is quite useful:

carnivals have been Historically, politically ambiguous affairs, sometimes constituting symbolic rebellions by the disenfran at chised; other times fostering the festive scapegoating of the weak by the strong (or by the slightly less weak). Carnivals, and artistic are not carnivalesque practices, essentially progres sive or it on who is regressive; depends carnivalizing whom, in

what historical situation, for what purposes, and in what man ner. (Shohat and Stam 1994, 304, emphasis in the original)

In The Dragon Cant Dance, Miss Cleothilda (Cleo), the "queen," and the both make use of their to attain ends. Sylvia, "princess," sexuality both women are the However, actually among exploited. The sexual Miss and is power Cleo Sylvia possess make-believe a with her to power, masquerade. First, along abusing mulattohood carnivalize her Miss Cleo what remains of her sexu neighbors, deploys narrator ality. The describes her habit of "strutting about the yard with her rouged cheeks and padded hips, husbanding her fading beauty, flaunting her gold bangles and twin gold rings that proclaim that she was once her that if married, wearing dresses, showing knees, you give a her chance will show her thighs" (Lovelace 1998, 17). The rouged and are all cheeks, padded hips, gold accessories, revealing dress part of her costume which seems to more arsenal, prefigure the elaborate and dancehall costumes. to Norman provocative According Stolzoff: FRANK 181

The celebration of fashion and the erotic display of the female to was body became important the dancehall event. The body now a site of of These increasing degrees adornment. "don nettes" demonstrated and financial their physical "ass-ets" by clothes labeled which Chester Francis wearing "batty riders," as "a or more Jackson defines skirt pair of shorts which expose of the buttocks than it . . . conceals." "Puny printers" (pants that showed the outlines of a woman's of all genitalia), wigs colors, mesh tops, large jewelry (gold bangles, rings, earrings, nose and elaborate hairdos all became of the new rings), part fashion ensemble. (Stolzoff 2000, 110)

Miss Cleo's is a of her "costuming" way projecting "queenship" or over others. But that claim to is (Lovelace 1998, 17), power power itself a hierarchical valuation and valida dependent upon gender-based, tion: to seen as the need be having been married. Because Miss Cleo's claim to is determined power partly by patri it is a of serves to maintain archy, projection authority that merely the status with men in control. That control is made clear in gender quo, a Miss Cleo's relationship with Philo, relationship in which Miss Cleo to be in at least at first: appears charge,

All she carried on and unaccommo year long hostile, superior dating, refusing still from the height of her presumed gentility to even far less to give recognition encouragement Philo, the across the of calypsonian street, who by whatever miracle endurance and and after seventeen shamelessness hope, years still nursed this passion for her, dismissing him with that brisk turn of her head, the raising of her eyelashes and the sucking of her teeth, in one fluid gesture of disgust that she could perform better than anybody else. (Lovelace 1998, 18)

The important point here is that Miss Cleo is performing superiority over Philo; the goal of that performance is the projection of power, a act. In the main scene to this which makes it carnivalesque pertaining some men "show-off in an effort work's title, disenfranchised power" to "threaten But their charade is not a demonstration o? power" (186). a as an actual power, fact applicable to Miss Cleo. Philo is, of yet, 182 FEMALEAGENCY AND OPPRESSION IN CARIBBEAN BACCHANALIAN CULTURE

unsuccessful musician, and all that is required for Miss Cleo to succumb to his fetishistic objective is for him to begin to attain the trappings of patriarchal power, for him to be successful. Immediately after a Philo's initial breakthrough as calypsonian, their relationship changes, with "Miss Cleo gradually softening her parries to Philo's thrusts, until soon, although it wasn't Carnival, Philo had begun to ascend Miss Cleothilda's steps and sit down on her verandah and play with her dog" (136). The ultimate sign of Miss Cleo being controlled by Philo is her as willing acceptance of his philandering and her related position just one one one of his many lovers. Leaving of his young lovers, Jo Ann, night, Philo eventually ends up much later at Miss Cleo's: "A drowsy delight was in her voice, and she held out her two hands and drew him inside" (239). In The Dragon Can't Dance, the heir to Miss Cleo's "queendom" is like Miss to have her sexuali Sylvia, who, Cleo, appears power through The narrator how women ty. describes the community's older view her: "In their cheered her hurrahs at her and hearts, they on, singing speed dangerousness and laughing, watching with joyful breathlessness how she tied up the tongues of young men with amovement of her head and men caused old to sigh for their youth as they watched her sitting cross legged on the steps before the rooms inwhich she lived" (Lovelace 1979, But in 26). the power apparent the tying of young men's tongues and old men sighing for their youth is artificial. In reality, Sylvia's life is overde termined by male desire. Her desire to assert herself through sexual exhibitionism carnival neither her to reclaim her own during allows nor the erotic with That body discourages men's preoccupation her. sexual interest is from the outset: displayed

Sylvia is dizzy with thoughts of Carnival. They are bursting in her brain. turns men of Everywhere she the young the area, who have with turn and ask her: grown up her, "Sylvia, you playing in the band?" Their eyes sweeping up her ankles, along curves the softening of her thighs and breasts, desiring her, wishing, each one of them, to have her jumping up with him in the band for Carnival, when, with the help of rum and the of abandon and surrender he rhythm that conquered everyone would find his way into her flesh. (24) FRANK 183

Sylvia is also the fetishized object of the much older Mr. Guy, whose power in being the rent collector leads her own mother, Miss Olive, to participate in her exploitation:

Once Mr Guy had felt her breasts, cupping them in his hands in one that sly cunning hug, pretending fatherly affection; and day she had crept upstairs to his room while he waited for her his his moustaches and his radio behind curtains, trembling on, and she had given him the message; her mother didn't have the money for the rent. Afterwards, she had lifted her downcast eyes to his as she felt his thick fingers slide up and down her as rose thigh in that gesture of aggression and taming, his chest same and his nostrils flared; and she smiled, laughed in that knowing innocence, that feigned play in which he couched his advances to her, and slipped away. (25)

a Here, "feigned play" is sign of Sylvia's performative participation in her own Mr. is of the exploitation; Guy author/authority play. Miss of her is a of the Olive's exploitation daughter consequence codes of conduct from the hegemonic resulting patriarchal system in the Caribbean since times. Donna notes fit implanted slavery Hope that is not male dominance in its strictest tingly "patriarchy only sense, but also a of male that both men persistent ideology super-ordination and women maintain and In this consciously unconsciously. system, both men and women are victims" (2002). Sylvia's resignation regarding her lack of control is implied in her shamelessness and her instinctive as the narrator continues: knowledge

Next he came downstairs to tell her mother: "Your rent is day Miss And there was in her even then no shame as okay, Olive." she looked up at him, shaved and neat, his hair well parted and his tie hanging down his chest, for she knew then, already, with instinctive refined seventeen on this that knowing by years hill,

that between this man, the rent collector, and her mother, a

woman seven no man she was the with children and either, gift even before she knew even without the arranged it, encourage ment or connivance of her mother. She was the sacrifice.

(Lovelace 1998, 25) 184 FEMALEAGENCY AND OPPRESSION IN CARIBBEAN BACCHANALIAN CULTURE

The true of with is made clear in her guise Sylvia's masquerade power limited choice of carnival costumes. In a telling scene with Aldrick, the central male and her protagonist love interest, she describes the type of costume she wants: "'It ain't no costume. You will big expensive laugh when I tell A . . . slave said it ain't no you. girl,' she bashfully. 'You see, costume. You feel I a or a slave big expensive should play princess a girl?'" (Lovelace 1998, 34). Aldrick's reply is specific reference to one in carnival of a role of are: is a pattern playing opposite what you '"You . . . a slave But the here is princess already. Play girl'" (34). role-playing ironic in life more a slave because, reality, Sylvia's suggests girl, subject to the sexual control of men. others, especially

DANCEHALLQUEENS AND THE CULTURE OF COMPENSATION

is and it is natural that timid minds should see Obscenity repugnant, nothing more to it than this it is to see its unpleasantness, but easy that ignoble sides are connected with the social create level of the people who it, people whom vomits in the same turn society forth way that they in vomit up society. Eroticism: ?Georges Bataille, Death and Sensuality

Among other significations, dancehall clothing and contests carnivalize a traditional beauty pageants, and these utterances suggest, for instance, rejection of what Edmondson identifies as "nostalgia for the mythical devout, maternal black woman" (Edmondson 1999, 68). She adds, "The apparently 'brazen' demeanor and deliberately explicit outfits of the female . . . are a retort to dancehall acolytes defiant middle-class atti tudes toward poor black women" (68). While traditional "beauty are a curious combination of low-brow culture with pageants high-brow pretensions" (14), dancehall pageantry has no such pretence, but revels shamelessly in the low. Freud's observation of children's lack of shame to pertains the infantilism aspect of my argument: "Small children are without and at some their essentially shame, periods of earliest years show an in unmistakable satisfaction exposing their bodies, with especial on emphasis the sexual parts" (Freud 1962, 58). If the spate o?Hot Mondays and Passa Passa DVDs (available from dancehallreggae.com) are any indication, dancehall girls do seem shameless and indeed appear to take satisfaction in their to great exposing bodies, calling special attention

their genitalia. FRANK 185

Edmondson "In the certain reasons, Caribbean popular culture ritu women a als performed by constitute kind of ideological 'work' that both reflects and furthers the for the various ethnici struggles power among ties and classes in the region" (Edmondson 2003, 2). Iwould add that such ideological work also reflects and furthers the struggle for power between the and it is in the area of such matters genders, precisely gender that the optimism regarding Caribbean female agency through sexual seems Edmondson's sense of and its performance suspect. performance function (see the introduction to this essay) is quite right, but the particu lar work done or statement made dancehall women is by less obvious. The of an is not the For implication agency, intent, thing itself. instance, Cooper contends, "The dancehall is the social space inwhich the smell of female power is exuded in the extravagant display of flashy jewellery, elaborate and men expensive clothes, hairstyles rigidly attendant that altogether represent substantial wealth" (1995, 155). Additionally, in an non she of uncharacteristic, sequitur moment, speaks "women's enjoy ment o? sexual and economic as in independence, demonstrated their uninhibited solo wainin [Jamaican variant of "wining"] on the dance floor" (157). A few questions come immediately tomind: Does uninhibit ed solo wining equal independence? Indeed, is that wining really solo? That is, is it possible for women in the dancehall to view themselves in at same the spotlight of the male gaze while the time articulating their of male "independence scrutiny" (155), or, equally important, male Edmondson "It is a truism of authority? suggests, feminist theory that if the domestic space has traditionally been marked as innately and appro the is cross priately feminine, then public space masculine, such that any ing of the boundaries by women from private to public space must be and as either a interrogated assessed proper intervention that preserves the woman's or a or femininity, social violation that masculinizes other wise pathologizes her" (2003, 2). But the issue for us is not whether women's is in dancehall or other femininity preserved eroticized perfor mances. It is whether such are performances liberating! By way of concluding, let us turn to the film Dancehall Queen, one o? texts views dancehall and the occasioning Cooper's regarding women's agency. First, pertinent to the issue of the control of female bodies, a there is striking parallel between this film and Lovelace's novel in that in a role in men's sexual of their both mothers play exploitation daugh ters: somewhat like Miss Olive and Sylvia, in this case, Marcia allows 186 FEMALEAGENCY AND OPPRESSION IN CARIBBEAN BACCHANALIAN CULTURE

to of her her benefactor, Larry, take advantage fifteen-year-old daugh to "Marcia is not to ter, Tanya. Second, according Cooper, inspired assume the dazzling disguise of Dancehall Queen in order to seduce and him from her ... It is the Larry divert daughter. prize money, a measure of economic however tem which guarantees independence, that motivates Marcia" is the porary, (2004b, 127). Here, "temporary" crucial point. In order to claim the double prizes?the title and the money?Marcia displaces Olivene. How long will it be before Marcia, an interloper of the scene, is displaced? "The of'dancehall Third, Cooper proposes, persona queen' permits Marcia to savor the that had been in the sensuality repressed drudgery of her existence. As she and everyday flaunts the wigs other accessories so essential to her new she is able to attract suitors like the role, videog rapher, for whom she becomes the seductive 'Mystery Lady' (128). This is true. for she even However, Larry becomes the "Sexy Bitch"! And, courted the she is as she rev by videographer, fetishized, "unashamedly els in the male gaze" (128). The same camera's that "redefines Marcia as a eye worthy subject as of attention" (128) may be seen objectifying her. In fact, the men behind the cameras remain firmly in control of female dancehall repre sentations: the more in real dancehall is cameras typical pattern the crotch shots of women. unashamed is a critical seeking Finally, being and it is behind the is that point daughter's exclamation, "Mama, you?" The daughter is really asking her mother if she has no shame in going around dressed in a inappropriately, style and fashion associated with a women of much younger age (this is one of the ways inwhich she is an in a sort of reversal of the interloper). Continuing mother-daughter went on role, Tanya questioningly chastises, "You actually the road In a looking like that?" other words, the mother's exhibition mark's a degree of infantilism, sort of stunted growth and formation initiated by her young motherhood. This much is revealed when Marcia angrily confronts after threatens to Tanya Larry stop playing "Santa Claus" because will no the of Tanya longer accept price his patronage. Bemoaning her interrupted and lost standard education and childhood, Marcia admonishes, "Maybe I should really blame you! From my moth er and father me out Iwas throw of the house when fifteen and pregnant was with you. And that the end of my education." It is that cites to intriguing Cooper Maggie Humm's reference FRANK 187

Laura of and over women: Mulvey's exposition the male gaze mastery "'Laura Mulvey first introduced the idea that men looking at women in use two over a con film forms of mastery her: sadistic voyeurism which trols male and a women's sexuality through dominating characters, symbolic fetishisation of women's sexuality'" (128). Her goal is really Humm's modified reading of "the politics of spectatorship that recog nizes the that women as do take in and pleasure agents desiring being a woman desired" (129). But that takes pleasure in being observed does not mean is of the action or that she that she necessarily the agent a fetish or an "In Marcia's escapes being object. case," Cooper claims, hers and that of the her" "desire?both videographer?rehumanizes a or (129). Was she not human before? Being street vendor dressing in clothes does not make her less than human or inhuman. If working-class Marcia's her transformation into anything, by abetting objectification, a mere sexual object, the videographer dehumanizes her. Besides, her is not what is at is at stake is control humanity really stake. What really of her and various men control that: sex, Larry, vicariously, through her daughter, and Priest (one of Larry's henchmen, described by another as "a blood clot vio character, Chalice, wicked, terrorist"), through lence and the threat of violence. Priest is the type of character who fits as among those described by Ruth Dunbar in the Change study being "'on the mental/emotional who will feel no to use fringe compunction the implicit power in the structure of male/female relations at all levels to to to of the society, beat others into submission their will, exercise sexual over the power powerless'" (1982, 10).

Cooper believes that "the patterns of seduction and entrapment in are in the encoded folktale archetypes, surviving contemporary dancehall in new guises" (2004b, 144). If this is the case, the question, then, iswho is seduced and who is ultimately trapped? Even while she contests the of the male dancehall as overly simplistic reading posture wholly misogynistic, Donna Hope acknowledges that being dominated a a by males is likely outcome for dancehall women, reflection of the in at "Closer examination of woman's condition Jamaican society large: the lyrics themselves, together with discussions with dancehall song creators, disseminators and consumers reveal that these manifestations

are utilised the male in his to symbols by attempt court, conquer, subju gate and ultimately defeat that feared other, the female" (2002). Last not cites who observes of but least, Change Peggy Antrobus, Jamaica 188 FEMALEAGENCY AND OPPRESSION IN CARIBBEAN BACCHANALIAN CULTURE

that "while the laws and institutions the atti proclaim equality, values, create a in tudes and practices of the whole society milieu which women are to in considered be subordinate, lacking confidence, and in outside the main-stream of and decision oppressed general power a making" (qtd. in Change 1982, 7).With such milieu firmly entrenched in and other of the women self Jamaica parts Caribbean, may perform but their sexual remain in real control, displays lacking power.

Born and raised in Guyana, KEVIN FRANKreceived his Ph.D. from the an University of California, Los Angeles. He has abiding teaching and research interest in Caribbean and other African diaspora colonial, and He at postcolonial, gender studies. currently teaches Baruch Col lege, City University of New York.

NOTE 1. Dancehall akin to in an (i) is hip hop that it encompasses entire expressive cul ture from are emergent Jamaica. The following among the culture's components: Dancehall music is the drum music sur (a) machine, sample-based that has arguably passed both calypso and traditional, one-drop reggae in economic, social, and cul tural the world impact over; this type of music is rooted in competing sound systems in a which the selector (selektah) plays the music while the DJ, somewhat like rap toasts or chats over the in turns per, rhythm (riddim) rapid-style delivery, by or the enlivening, exhorting, admonishing crowd (massive), often by boasting of sexual or or mas exploits celebrating female sexuality, (b) The dancehall crowd, men women. sive, includes both observing and performing and However, the women more (dancehall girls) gain attention for dressing up or, especially for dress men ing provocatively, including dressing down. Video (to date I have not observed or heard of a woman in this on com role) shine bright spotlights these women, who for the camera's or in pete eye by gyrating dancing otherwise sexually explicit ways Wine" or Wine is one such (the "Dutty Dirty craze; "Willy Bounce" is another). are There related competitions for Dancehall Queen, and there seems to be a direct

correlation between the increase in prize money for these events and the increased an sexual explicitness in dance and dress, (c) Dancehall is also interior or exterior where the to setting dancehall massive gathers revel. In these spaces, in addition to dancehall other forms be soca. music, may played, including R & B and Carnival refers to (ii) the setting, the ideal, and the manifestation of ritualistic and riotous and feasting, merrymaking, masquerading leading up to Lent. Under carnival not standing associated with the Caribbean merely in terms of space, time, and but as an is its penitence purging, ideal, important given shifty and shifting FRANK 189

some nature both in the region and among the diaspora, where carnivalesque cele at brations are combined with other purposes and take place other times of the year, soca mean in and are blend (iii) By I both the musical genre which soul calypso In most ed and the partying associated with that music. contemporary Caribbean interior where to soca is dancehalls (especially the spaces people gather party), in or major component of the musical selection and, like dancing dancehall, dancing to soca music can be said it isworth "wining" very sexually suggestive. Having that, an influence on soca music and noting that dancehall has had increasing hegemonic dance.

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