Elvis Alves talks about conflict in Jamaican dancehall space, which both reflects and dismisses cultural ideas of gender norms.
“Boom bye bye inna batty bwoy head,” begins the popular song, Boom Bye Bye, by the Jamaican reggae artist Buju Banton. In the world of dancehall reggae music, this song is the anthem of homophobia. It brags of violence— boom refers to the sound of a gun (as when a person gets shot in the head)—against homosexuals or those perceived as homosexuals. Banton is one of the earliest artists in the genre of music titled dancehall reggae that came to form in the 1980s in Jamaica. Dancehall reggae is now a recognizable force worldwide.
It is not coincidental that dancehall reggae and rap music were birth at the same time. As did rap in urban America, dancehall reggae gave voice to the youth of Jamaica who were relegated to poor communities that lacked opportunities for advancement; consequences of political, economic, and other forms of inequalities.
At times, dancehall reggae typifies the harsh life found in these communities. In the space that is dancehall reggae, there is a song like that of Mr. Banton. The songs that get the most air time deal with sex.
An artist named Aidonia has a song called 6:30. It refers to a style of dancing in which the woman bends and touches her toes while her male partner daggers her from the back. This simulation of a sex act takes place in public in the dancehall space and depicts the domineering of the female by the male.
The video for the song Love A Come Down by Demarco features the artist dressed as a teacher in a room of female students eager to be “taught” by him. The video also has a character dressed in a cape, and who is called Swagger Man, that answers the phone calls of women, so as to provide sexual service to them. In other words, sex education becomes mockery in the video. Keeping with the subject of sex, the video for Gal A Bubble by Konshens shows scantily clad females performing theatrics one finds in a strip club.
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But the dancehall space is not always black and white when it comes to sex. In many dancehall reggae videos and parties, female dancers whine closely with each other. This happening appears acceptable in the dancehall space simply because it is done by females.
Yet, male dancers do dance together in the dancehall space. Male crews or troupes are conspicuous at dance parties, where, like groups of synchronized swimmers, they showcase dance moves to reggae music.
And it is now fashionable in the dancehall space for men, as well as women, to wear tight clothing and expensive jewelry. Prior to this change in attitude, the wearing of tight clothes and jewelry was once deemed an attempt by a female to attract male suitors. What, then, does it say that men freely wear tight clothing and jewelry in the dancehall space?
This blurring of any definite sex demarcation in the dancehall space is also seen in the language common to the space. For one, men are called “pretty” and do things to make them themselves look “pretty.” Skin bleaching is a practice that is becoming common in the dancehall space. The artist Vybz Kartel, labeled the quintessential artist of the dancehall space and who is currently on trial for murder in Jamaica, has gone through a total body transformation in which he bleached his dark skin to a much lighter tone. Kartel admits to bleaching because it “brings out” the many tattoos he wears.
Critics see skin bleaching as a long-standing effect of colonization, by which the black person tries to achieve status by becoming white. But male and female bleachers readily admit of the desire to be “pretty” as their reason for bleaching their skin.
These phenomena point to the absurdity of the dancehall space. It is a space where people can play with their appearance…but that play can become dangerous. In a way, this space reflects what society should look like and at the same time what society actually is—which are two different things.
The Jamaican born visual artist Ebony Patterson, in a Ted Talk session, declares that the dancehall space allows men to “explore the colorful spectrum associated with the feminine.”
However, there are boundaries to this exploration as seen in the death of Dwayne Jones, a transgendered teenager stabbed to death in August 2013 in Jamaica at a dance party due to the discovery of his sexual identity. His death reinforces why spaces that seem to be inclusive (i.e. society, the dancehall space) need to be truly inclusive. Otherwise, tragedies like Jones’s death will continue.
—Photo dubdem sound system/Flickr
Also by Elvis Alves:
Brothers and Keepers: How I Learned to Love My Brother
Music Paradise, or When the Blues Man Overstays His Visit