Ignoring the social contract

The following is part three of our four-part series of excerpts from Marcia Forbes' Music, Media and Adolescent Sexuality in Jamaica. See part four next Sunday.

In one of her songs, female DJ Ce'Cile expresses concern regarding the extent to which Jamaican males, in keeping with fashion trends, had taken over the colour pink, traditionally accepted as reserved for females. She laments the manner in which female attire was being worn by males.

"We can't hot again cause a de man dem/Dema buy off we blouse and we pants dem/Dem thief we pink colour my God then/Dem nu soon start want wear wi thong then" (Ce'Cile 2005).

The pants to which Ce'Cile refers are the skin-tight variety usually reserved for females. In a similar manner, a winner of a 'dutty wine'. The dutty wine evolved from a popular dancehall song in which the male DJ exhorted girls to "dutty wine, my girl, dutty wine" (Matterhorn, Dutty Wine, 2006). The dance came to public recognition during mid 2006 and was featured in several music videos. It quickly became quite popular in some communities in the USA, the Caribbean and perhaps even Central America (Ritch, 2006). Controversy surrounds whether or not it should be done by males (Ritch 2006).

Dutty wine is sexually suggestive. It involves extending the neck and moving the head fairly rapidly in all directions while simultaneously gyrating the hips with the buttocks protruded outward. Sometimes the dancers place both hands on the ground while maintaining the movements. The dance is practised by females and a prominent feature is to have the hair (real or artificial) flashing around as a part of the visual appeal of the dance.

This controversial dance (The Star, May 8, 2006), said to be performed primarily by those from lower income communities, achieved notoriety when it was implicated in the death of a Jamaican teenage girl in 2006 (Turner 2006). Although the autopsy was inconclusive, there were subsequent calls for the dance to be banned.