Garth Rattray | How low can we go?

In spite of my penchant for risqué humour, I confess that I’m a bit prudish. I appreciate traditional dance and I’m always pleased with the preservation of our African roots. However, the suggestive sexual / fertility tones of hip thrusting, gyrations and seductive posturing demonstrated in dances like the Dinki-Mini, Gerreh, Bruckins, Burru, Ettu, Zella, Gumbay and Kumina sometimes make me a little uncomfortable.

You can therefore imagine my unease with some of the carryings on during carnival. I don’t condemn or criticise anyone who likes that sort of thing, but I find it uncomfortable to see the public approximation or simulation of nudity. And, the ‘dancing’ and ‘jumping’ are unmistakably and predominantly sexual in nature.

Some argue that reggae has already been overtaken by the popularity of dancehall. I like some dancehall music and songs. I even like the naughty ones, as long as there is no indecent language. But I’m appalled every time that I come across the lewd language and/or x-rated behaviour sometimes associated with dancehall. Daggering epitomises the depiction of the sex act. Honestly, I think that such things should be confined to the bedroom and are not for public exhibition. But then, judging from the paucity of social uproar or outcry, perhaps I am in a minority.

Then there is the explosion of ‘social media’. It is an extremely powerful tool that utilises technology to disseminate information and communicate with others across the globe. It has been used to directly and indirectly save lives and is wonderful for keeping in touch and for entertainment. However, as it is with anything that powerful, it is regularly misused.

People use the Internet to indiscriminately disseminate pornography and a wide variety of horrible and macabre images of tragedy and death. Such images should not be spewed all across the ‘Net’. Anyone, from the little babies to the elderly can see anything on the Internet, as long as it is not blocked or filtered. Lewd videos of intimacy between all and sundry are being put out there for anyone to see. People use their private recordings as revenge against their past relationships. People use anything to embarrass people that they have a grouse against.

Additionally, there are what I call, the gruesome gawkers. Many people are rattled by the possibility of being killed in a road traffic crash. But everyone is deeply troubled by the certainty that, should such a horrible fate befall them, some emergency personnel and gruesome gawkers are going to capture macabre, close-up images of their exposed, mangled bodies that used to be the temple of their souls and hurriedly broadcast those images across the entire globe with no sympathy for the victim, care, decency, respect, or concern for the loved ones left behind to mourn and suffer.

I’ve seen fights, injuries, killings, images of dead bodies and lewd acts pop up in WhatsApp messages, but my most recent shock tops the list for several, varied reasons. There is a video circulating with a pair of people clothed but (apparently) engaged in sexual intercourse somewhere in Spanish Town, right out in the full view of everyone, including many schoolchildren.

Initially, there were accompanying words of surprise, but, eventually, they began coaching the female on how to position herself during the sex act. Many people stopped to view the spectacle and many school-children, of all ages, stood and stared in silence. Some adults and children were ardently recording the action with their cellular phones.

There were absolutely no admonishing voices. Not one single person told them to stop it! The pair seemed pleased with the attention. Obviously, we have been desensitised and finally descended into depravity. What next? I wonder.

- Garth A. Rattray is a medical doctor with a family practice. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and garthrattray@gmail.com.