It’s All About Dancing: Fashion and Politics

Dance style can speak volumes for the culture in which they are founded. Dancehall arose on the streets of Jamaica and became a defining aspect of youth culture. On her WEBSITE for her photography and writing, Beth Lesser explains Dancehall culture from her trips to Jamaica since the 1980s as unimaginable. It was an unknown phenomenon to North America, yet in Jamaica it was unavoidable. This culture is shaped from past oppression, current politics, fashion, music trends, current pop culture, and even itself. Dancehall is constantly evolving and developing. It has clear influences on dance style all over the world, including Kwaito in South Africa. It has also exploded into a well known and globally popular style with Dancehall artists touring all over Europe and North America and featured commonly on shows such as So You Think You Can Dance.

Fashion plays a large part in Dancehall culture as well as every culture. It is another facet of life that is constantly evolving. 

Lesser remembers how politics influenced fashion in Jamaica in the 1980s. She writes, "Political tensions were still high after the troubles of the 1980 election, and you had to be careful what colours you wore in certain areas. Black and red meant you were a socialist; if you wore green, you were a Labourite." 

Fashion has had an impact on other postcolonial nations besides Jamaica. In her book, Couture and Consensus: Fashion and Politics in Postcolonial Argentina, Regina Root comments on how the revolution in Argentina in 1810 caused an outbreak of creativity and taboo dress sense in order to disrupt authoritarian practices in the brand new nation. She talks more about her book in a podcast for the Library of Congress, free on iTunes.



Discussion Questions:

1. The “Dance-U-Mentary” shows several different dance moves performed by groups. Some of these moves are named for certain people, revolutionary movements, and distinct actions. It has been argued that these dance moves encourage certain behaviors in youth such as gun violence, rape, and so on (Stanley-Niaah 761). Based on Stanley-Niaah’s argument, do you agree or disagree with the above statement?
2. Dancehall and Kwaito originated in completely different parts of the world, Jamaica and South Africa respectively. However there are many connections between the two including themes, historical value, and emphasis on a young audience. How do both of these styles represent diaspora identities that are present in these cultures?

Fact: 
Dancehall music is becoming progressively more globalized. Besides the touring of popular artists and dancers, Usain Bolt performed several moves during his victory lap after winning a gold medal in the 2008 Olympics, which demonstrates the reach of this culture.

Works Cited                                                                                        

 Morgan, Candace. “Early Globalization and The Roots of Dancehall.” Mount Holyoke College, 12 April 2012. Web. 16 April 2014.

Recommended Literature:
“Negotiating a Common Transnational Space” by Sonjah Stanley-Niaah

Drown: The American Dream

In Drown, Junot Diaz depicts diaspora identities in various progressions throughout the featured short stories including the initial yearning to leave the home country, the disappointment once that goal is reached, and the final displacement felt when returning to the home country. Although Drown seems to have no chronological order, it is structured broadly to fit into these progressions, beginning and ending with stories or fragments of stories taking place in the narrator’s homeland and interspersed stories set in the United States in between. McLeod defines diaspora as a relocation of a group of people across the world and cites Robin Cohen in a separate description that a diaspora community “is demonstrated by an acceptance of an inescapable link with their past migration history and a sense of co-ethnicity” (237). Migration to the United States occurs for different reasons, but in the case of Yunior, a primary narrator Drown, the purpose for migration was initially economic then the reunification of his family. In “Yrsael” and “Aguantando”, Yunior focuses on and fantasizes about moving to the United States to be with his father. The short story “Edison, New Jersey” features a possibly different narrator who has been living in the states long enough to have become disenchanted with the experience and has sobered up to reality of an immigrant’s life in the United States. Finally, Yunior’s father returns to his home country of the Dominican Republic in “Negocios” only to find himself feeling like a tourist and completely out of place (198). This story, especially, elaborates on Avtar Brah’s statement that “home is a mythic place of desire in the diasporic imagination” (241). A large part of a diaspora identity is the loss of the feeling of having a home. Migrants are often caught in between. Having an irrevocable connection to their homeland prevents them from fully belonging in their new land; however, the migration in itself has changed them enough that they no longer feel at place in their home countries either. They are left in a purgatory without true acceptance in either culture.

Recently the United States has become a hostile environment for immigrants. Many are treating with unkind stereotypes and prejudices. 

This opposition causes many who immigrate, illegally or legally, to become disenchanted with the American Dream that has been sold to them their entire lives. 

wendymcelroy.com

The treatment many encounter leads immigrants and the descendants of immigrants to seek a home in their place of origin. People find homes in places they have never actually been. 

Jonathan Holloway discusses African diaspora and the return to a figurative home through his travels in Ghana. In Ghana, he visits an old slave castle where he experiences great emotions based on seeing the harrowing conditions and imagining the memories. He relates this "adventure" to his diaspora identity by saying "I didn't want home to be a horror soaked dungeon...but I also know I didn't want home to be a place of second class citizenship." Thousands of people who have immigrated or whose parents or grandparents immigrated undergo this same complication of home.

Discussion Questions:

1. In Drown, women are seen in very traditional roles, such as the mother in “Fiesta”, or as sexual objects. How does the way that female characters are portrayed in Drown compare to females in Lucy? Why do you think the representations are so vastly different?
2. How do the terms “diaspora identities” and “migrant identities” differ (McLeod 238)? Can one exist without the other? Which is the more accurate term when referring to Postcolonial Literature and why?

Fact:  The Dominican Republic, the birthplace of Diaz and the setting to some of his stories, declared its independence in 1844 from Haiti and again in 1865 from the Spanish when they attempted annexation of the nation. This was followed by a series of invasions by the US throughout the 1900s.

Works Cited                                                                                        

 “Dominican Republic Timeline.” World Atlas. n.d. Web. 7 April 2014.

Recommended Literature:
Beginning Postcolonialism, “Diaspora Identities” by John McLeod

Lucy: Feminism

Portrait of a woman, "Girl with
 a Fan", by Paul Gauguin

           In Lucy, by Jamaica Kincaid, the protagonist is confident in her identity and takes pride in her roots. When Dinah asks Lucy where Lucy is from, she shows very little interest in Lucy’s actual background or history. However, when Hugh meets Lucy, he can tell she is from the West Indies, and by demonstrating that level of specificity, he is presented as worldly and knowledgeable (64). Although Hugh and Dinah are siblings, the two have opposite, pronounced views on race and immigration. To Dinah, Lucy is simply an insignificant girl who takes care of the children (58). Lucy instantly connects with Hugh because of the juxtaposition of him to the men who inadvertently make her feel ashamed of her homeland. Despite Hugh’s kindness and his interest in her, Lucy cannot afford to form emotional or physical ties to a place where she does not intend to stay. She has just escaped from her home, where she had emotional bonds with her family and community that felt suffocating to her. She has to make the conscious decision not to fall in love with him. As she is contemplating this relationship, she thinks “I could tell that being in love would complicate my life just now. I was only half a year free of some almost unbreakable bonds, and it was not in my heart to make new ones” (71). Lucy wants to become her own person and feels as if she must be away from everything she knows in order to find herself, a feeling that she shares with Hugh (66). This contrasts with Dinah who wants nothing more than to become Mariah, not to develop her own sense of self. Lucy’s relationships with those around her indicate that she values her independence far above trivial arguments with petty women and even above possible loves.

Lucy readily and happily identifies as a slut. In her new life in the States, she has little control of her surroundings yet she finds liberation through her sexuality. Recently there has been a feminist movement over the term "slut". Some oppose the term, while others embrace it. Morgantown, WV, as well as other cities worldwide, just hosted a "Slut Walk" in order to address the sexual assault and rape that is so common on college campuses. Participants dress as scantily clad as possible to represent that no matter what they are wearing or how much alcohol they have consumed, it does not act as consent to sexual acts. However, the idea of consent to some is still a "blurred line". 

Robin Thicke's number one hit song, Blurred Lines, adequately depicts the issue with misogynistic perpetuation of rape culture. In the unrated version of the music video, naked women are used as props, and the official video is only slightly better. The objectification of women and the pure creepiness of the lead singers caused an uproar in some communities, while being praised in others. This song trivializes sexual consent with its repeated chant "I know you want it" which seems to encourage the idea that no doesn't always mean no. Although this is far from the first song that passes this idea onto the public, the worldwide spread and the overall popularity of "Blurred Lines" should be disconcerting to any person wise enough to listen to the lyrics. 

The backlash from feminists was incredible, inciting parodies from Auckland University law students as well as a response song by Lily Allen. These women, just like Lucy, are trying to show that they are more than just their sexuality. The number of people that one has slept with should not define them. Lily Allen's song, "Hard Out Here," also embraces the term "bitch" as a way to take control over the words used so commonly against women. 

Discussion Questions:

1. Why does Lucy view Mariah as a motherly figure in her life? How do her feelings about Mariah compare to her feelings for her real mother (58)?
2. By the end of this chapter, it is apparent to Lucy that Lewis is having an affair. She is able to relate this back to her own father and the trouble she and her mother have gone through due to her father’s actions (80). Although Lucy likes Mariah very much, Lucy views Mariah as overly pleasant and weak (27). Does Lucy view the affair as an event that might make Mariah a stronger, more interesting person? Is it likely that this affair is Mariah’s first encounter with actual strife?
3.  In class, we discussed the importance of having a “mark” to Lucy. It does not necessarily need to be a physical one, but something to show that she has lived a hard, meaningful life. When Lucy gets upset over Mr. Thomas not choosing her to have a sexual relationship with, do you think she wanted that experience purely for the significant “mark” that it would leave on her life, or simply because she has always been a very sexual person (Kincaid 104)?
4. How does Kincaid alter basic tropes and attempt to change the idea that sexuality is a form of oppression through the creation of her character, Lucy (Holcomb 309-310).

Fact:  Saint Anne, the origin of Lucy’s mother’s name, Annie, is the supposed name for the Virgin Mary’s mother. This draws a contrast between Mary and Lucy who have severely different reputations.
There are approximately 12,000 au pairs working in the United States presently.

Works Cited                                                                                        

Knight, Kevin. “St. Anne”. Catholic Encyclopedia. New Advent, n.d. Web. 31 March 2014.

“Au Pairs.” The IRS, 25 June 2013. Web. 25 March 2014.