The issue of sexual harassment in Jamaica needs attention other than legal, as overdue as that is. It must be tackled in the cultural arena in which it is spawned, encouraged, applauded and in which it makes its way comfortably as entertainment.
Imagine 35,000 Jamaicans of all ages, from all walks of life, gathered to celebrate a national occasion. The event provides a stage on which every Jamaican with a talent for singing, dancing, emceeing, reciting yearns to make an appearance. In fact, many of them, having been acclaimed outside of that context would feel rightly aggrieved if they were to be deemed unfit for such an occasion.
Now imagine that the occasion is the celebration of national independence. The world, his wife and children are seated with all their relatives visiting from foreign. Joining the gathering are foreigners to whom they are anxious to brag and boast about the calibre of Jamaican culture as seen in the performing arts.
Beenie Man is announced, not as Moses Davis, who sometimes sing gospel, but as Beenie Man, the King of the Dancehall. His solid set of high-quality performance is heralded by ‘Proper Fix’. The gathering is on their feet, some with babes in arms, waving the black, gold and green, that ultimate symbol of national pride and, according to KinTeet, the international tek-it-to-dem-who-tink-dem-have-anyting-ova-we emblem, and singing along.
“You want a proper fix, call me,
Beenie Man
You want to get your kicks, call me
You want your Cheese Trix, call me,
Mi have the remix, call me…”
Music is just one aspect of popular culture in which women are portrayed as objects of sexual desire and men compete for the championship of the delivery of sexual pleasures. Movies and television sitcoms are equal opportunities for partners. There is no need for a literary analysis of the lyrics to see that all age groups of females are included. From adult women who are able to articulate the criteria on which the man is declared the champion, to little girls who may be seduced with Cheese Trix.
This entertainment is being enjoyed or at least delivered months after the sexual assault and murder of eight-year-old Shante Skyers in Sterling Castle, months into the crisis of sexual harassment gripping the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts and days before the report about junior doctors enduring sexual harassment by their seniors.
The discussions about the psychological and power dynamics of men who are guilty, the behaviour of women that some misread as encouragement for what is considered merely offensive, rather than criminal, behaviour, must be informed by scrutiny of the ways in which it is celebrated. HeartBun is not the least bit interested in whether this is an international phenomenon. The real issue is not even how long it will be tolerated in Jamaica. The real issue is that its cultural encouragement is at odds with legislation to root it.
KinTeet is quick to ask whether this should not be factored into the collective madness that attends on so many aspects of national life requiring such fancy terminologies as ‘psychic disarray’. The vacillation over what it is and the agreement to suspend its real character and treat it as a joke or entertainment in certain contexts is, in part, how we collude to create and perpetuate an atmosphere in which sexual abuse flourishes until this or that tragedy or this or that scandal manifests around and because of it.
There is no shortage of opportunities for hearing from victims or delivering their stories as role play in which we are given a glimpse into the various traumas that sexual harassment trigger. Its ability to produce the collective madness that tolerates it at one level is perhaps not fully recognised.
According to Dr Nickeshia Hammond, a licensed psychologist from foreign regions that treat madness as a social crisis, “We call it somatising: the mental health becomes so overwhelming, one can’t process it, to the point of saying, ‘I have been traumatised’ or ‘I am depressed.’ Essentially, it’s a kind of denial that when experienced for a long state can turn into physical symptoms.”
The way KinTeet understands this is that plenty of de sick what people sick begins as a mental-health response to the trauma that is labelled as a scandal when it is reported as having affected institutions and not just individuals. That means that we also have to consider the impact on productivity where this is occurring in the workplace or on academic and artistic excellence where it is occurring in educational institutions.
So, let’s hurry up with the legislation.
But, Beenie, this is not a job requiring a one-two-three-hour man. This is not your job alone. This cries out for careful national strategising about how we engineer the cultural shift that impacts the thinking and results in the mental, emotional and psychological adjustments that will deliver the proper fix.
