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.Even when it raises some debate, Jamaican women are remindedthat beauty, as defined by the Miss Jamaica World and Miss JamaicaUniverse beauty contests on an annual basis, still rests on a close approx-imation to the European phenotype.10 Where sexuality is concerned, theMadonna/whore syndrome is transformed by these additional factors to40 Inna di Dancehallproduce the race- and class-influenced  ghetto slam (ghetto sex) ideol-ogy.A man can get a ghetto slam from a trang (strong) black womanfrom the lower or working class or from the inner city  a black lower-working- class phenomenon.This woman is believed to have the physi-cal make-up that makes her suitable for engagement in overtly physicaldisplays of sexual activity  large breasts, large posterior, big frame.Thisis married to the lower socioeconomic positioning that makes her moreaccessible for use and/or abuse by men from different backgrounds.Beenie Man expresses this in his hit song  Slam :Gi mi di gyal dem wid di wickedest slamDi kind ah gyal who know how fi love up shi manMan if yuh want fi get di medalYuh haffi get a slam from a real ghetto gyal(Give me the girls/women with the best sexThe kind of girl/woman who knows how to love up her manMan! If you want to get the medalYou have to have sex with a real ghetto girl/woman)The  ghetto gyal s oftentimes lighter-skinned, upper-/middle-classcounterpart is often falsely perceived as less accessible and too  lady-like and pure for engagement in any overtly physical displays of sexualprowess.As Jamaican concepts of feminine beauty consistently strivetowards the European ideals of softness, clear skin, soft flowing hair the browning or lighter-skinned woman continues to cop a higher placeon the hierarchies of beauty and desirability in Jamaica.Many darker-skinned women resort to bleaching (if they are from the lower class);using dermatologist-approved skin lighteners (if they are of themiddle/upper classes); or marrying (if they are of the middle/upperclasses) into this ideal.Issues of colour and racial identity are stillreflected in statements like  my ooman mus have hair pon har head(my woman must have hair on her head) from men who link femalebeauty to unrealistic, Eurocentric ideals and therefore dismiss the lowAfros that some Jamaican women prefer.Indeed, a woman who cannotlay claim to the soft, flowing tresses (be they natural, chemically alteredor simply false extensions) that are defined as feminine in Jamaica sEurocentric context is placed further down on the  look-good chart Love Punaany Bad 41and considered less than feminine by some.In an effort to obtain long,flowing hair, many women spend small fortunes on hairpieces, wigs andweaves.The quest for the more socially accepted Eurocentric ideals of fem-inine beauty directly influences the late 1990s upsurge of skin bleachingby many inner-city women and men, who in Jamaica use illegal andoften dangerous substances to lighten their skin colour in response tothese pressures.Jamaican bleachers use a variety of steroid and lighten-ing creams, like Ambi or Nadinola, and home-made concoctions, liketoothpaste and bleach, to lighten their skin.Skin bleaching has beenidentified as a universal phenomenon that occurs wherever there is cul-tural domination.11 In Jamaica, the phenomenon of skin bleaching isoften coupled with the ingestion of the  fowl pill by women to enhancetheir breast, hip and  bumper 12 sizes.The  fowl pill is the hormonetablet used to enhance the growth of chickens by chicken farmers in thebroiler industry.However, women from the inner cities ingest thesetablets and report that within a week, their breasts and bottoms increasein size.These increases are perceived as attractive in a context where thetraditional and Eurocentric standards of beauty favour a mawga(skinny) woman.Paradoxically, large-bodied, full-breasted women aredefined as attractive and sexy in inner-city culture and this is outlined inthe lyrics, styles and discourses of dancehall culture.The politics of thebody plays on a different field that is contained within, but separatefrom, the larger playing field of Jamaican life.I want to reiterate thepoint made earlier that it was in the dancehall that I first became awareof the sexual attractiveness of large, full-bodied, big-breasted women,affectionately called mampy or mampy-size.In the dancehall, these big,beautiful women are praised for their trang bodies and lauded because dem nuh mawga and crawny.The fact that weight gain and body fatis equated with prosperity and social mobility and mawganess is equatedwith poverty and deprivation is a part of the politics that is played outacross the bodies of these women.The dancehall as inner-city and lower-working-class culture encodes this fear of poverty and deprivation andnegates its play across the bodies of its adherents while it simultaneouslytackles the overarching dialogue of traditional Jamaica that places theslim-bodied woman at the helm of feminine beauty.42 Inna di DancehallIt is important to note the class biases that are inherent in these nego-tiations for space on the hierarchy of skin that bestows feminine beautyand higher status [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]