The following is the second part of a paper presented by Donna P. Hope, M. Phil, of the Department of Government, UWI, Mona, at the Second Conference in Caribbean Culture, held at the Mona Campus from January 9 - 12, 2002. The entire paper, entitled 'Love P-..ny Bad: Negotiating Misogynistic Masculinity in Dancehall Culture', will be carried in three parts in The Sunday Gleaner. Part one appeared last week and the series will conclude next week Sunday.
Donna Hope, Contributor
The masculine gender's role is one that arguably encodes behaviours, attitudes and conditions supported by stereotypes and ideals that maintain a system of power and benefit for men. At its most extreme masculinity is, therefore, power over women with the sexual relationship at the core. For men with little access and few links to the relations of production who are positioned in a precarious socio-economic space, more and more emphasis are placed on rooting their masculine identities through the extreme manifestation of masculinity, i.e. the conquering and dominance of the female, since at the root of masculinity is the sexual relations between men and women.
Clatterbaugh (1997:162-3) speaks to Franklin's identification of at least five types of black masculinities in the USA that seek to grapple with their marginalised existence within an oppressive social and political structure. This is also related to Majors' and Billson's (1992) work on 'cool pose', a ritualised form of masculinity entailing behaviours, scripts, physical posturing, impression management and carefully crafted performances that deliver a single, critical message - pride, strength and control.
The marginalised African-American man can be easily paralleled with the marginalised black working class man in Jamaica. The former lives in a racist society, while the latter's life is structured based on a rigid hierarchy of race, class and colour.
Sex and sexual symbols
However, in Jamaica, the use of sex and sexual symbols to create a highly sexual(ised) masculinity is dominant as a site of empowerment, to assert manhood and symbolise a particular type of masculinity.
In the male-dominated dancehall, this is translated into the courting, conquering and/or dominance of female sexuality, femininity and women. In this courtship or conquest, the female sex organ, the p-..ny (vagina) becomes the focus of intense lyrical attention. Arguably, this is an instance of patriarchy's operation at its elemental, basest and most sexual level, oftentimes labeled misogyny.
In the dancehall, the lyrical emanations abound courting and/or conquering the p-..ny. At the level of courtship, the lovers of 'p-.ny' (p-.sy/vagina) sing its praises:-
1. Love p-..ny bad, love p-...ny bad, love p--ny bad, mi a p-..ny guineagog
(I love vagina very much (rept.), I am a vagina master);
2. P-..ny too sweet it too sweet it too sweet
(Vagina is unbearably sweet (nice), unbearably sweet, unbearably sweet) At the other extreme, the conquerors, through sexual violence and threat of violence, wage a lyrical war against this manifestation of female:
3. Jack it up, cock it up, dig out di red
(Lift it up, hoist it up, dig out the red(ness) )
4. Mi have di agony, man mi have di agony, mi have di agony girls dem remedy
(I have the agony, oh yes I have the agony, I have the agony, the remedy (cure) for the girls (women)). It was in August, 1988, at the second staging of Dancehall Night under the auspices of the then premiere reggae show, Reggae Sunsplash, held at the Bob Marley Performing Centre in Montego Bay, Jamaica, that treatises engaged in either courting or derogating femininity and the 'p-..ny' took centrestage and reached a deafening crescendo. The dancehall dalliance with 'lewd and slack' lyrics extolling the virtues or negatives of female sexuality during the previous year, 1987, had been honed and perfected through 1988. Encouraged by the interactive response and support of dancehall affectees, both in sales and accolades at dancehall events, the deejays, both male and female at Reggae Sunsplash 1988, "Were guilty of singing praises or savagely criticising the size, shape and colour of the female anatomy which found favour among male and female members of the oversized crowd."
The crowd at Dancehall Night 1988 was estimated to be about 56,000 at peak time (1:30 a.m.).
For the male courtier and/or conquerer, the 'p-.ny' (vagina) must be subdued by any means, at all costs, as a matter of fact. It must be conquered before it becomes too powerful and results in the subjugation and submission of men and the corruption or elimination of their masculinity. Here, the feminine other becomes a trophy whose conquest bequeaths an overtly masculine identity to the marginalised male.
As argued earlier, the intersection of the race/class/gender variables forces a man with limited or no access to true power or resources, to define his maleness, his identity through the most available and accessible avenues legitimated under Jamaican patriarchy. These include sex, sexuality and male dominance of women at its most physical and extreme point of manifestation.
The dancehall, with its heavy concentration of actors (both affectors and affectees) from the marginalised places of Jamaica, e.g. the urban inner cities of Kingston, provides a powerful stage for the creation, re-creation and symbolising of these manifestations in a lyrical, as well as real, sense. For example, the man who can become a 'babyfather' multiple times over lays claim to high levels of masculine identity as a potent and virile man.
Concerns about the economic and emotional welfare and upbringing of his numerous offspring are avoided and negated in the precarious economic landscape.
1. Shabba Ranks, Love P--ny Bad
2. Lecturer, P--.ny Too Sweet
3. Spragga Benz, Jack It Up
4. Red Dragon, Agony
