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= Gender Theory in ‘Anancy An Yella Snake’ and ‘Po Patoo’ = Anancy An Yella Snake and Po Patoo are short stories found in Anancy and Miss Lou: a collection of Jamaican tales and songs first published in 1979. The collection was written and performed by the folklorist Louise Simone Bennett-Coverley (7 September 1919 – 26 July 2006). The stories are written in the Jamaican national language, often referred to as creole or patois. The Anancy and Miss Lou anthology is a humorous collection of children’s stories following the mischievous adventures of Anancy the spider, whose quick wit allows him to outsmart other animals for his own gain. A moral message or lesson is often embedded in the stories. Both Louise Bennett and Anancy are integral elements of the Jamaican popular culture landscape.

 'Anancy An Yella Snake' and 'Po Patoo' can be explored through a gendered lens. Gender Theory and Black Aesthetic can be applied for an in-depth analysis of the language and overarching themes within these stories. For example, reflections of societal patriarchy and manifestations of Caribbean masculinities or femininities can be identified. Furthermore, viewing the texts through a gendered lens can help to explore other elements of Jamaican, and by extension Caribbean identity. These include race, ethnicity, socio-economic status, class and history. Black Aesthetic is a new arts movement that disagrees with the colonizers standardized style of witting and the black writers expressions. Bennett's work is an example of black aesthetic as illustrates the African and Jamaican culture within her works and brings light to the cultural significance, artistic creativity and cultural product through the use of patio language and the African folklore character Anancy.

Miss Lou
th Louise Bennett, also known as Miss Lou, is a cultural icon and household name for Jamaicans at home, and in the diaspora. Olivia Grange as Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport in Jamaica, praises Miss Lou's cultural significance: ‘(she) devoted her life to restore and redeem the language of the mass of the people amid great criticism…. and singlehandedly brought confidence and respect to the Jamaican Language’.

Under the British government, the colonial education system deliberately devalued African culture in Jamaica. Western, imperialist culture was placed above and therefore, better than that of Africa. These damaging epistemologies of African inferiority were used to suppress and control the black majority during colonial rule. However, Bennett rejected these racist ideologies by advocating for ‘national self-definition and acceptance’. She deliberately used patois instead of Standard English and proudly celebrated African cultural traditions in her poetry, performances and stories. Bennett’s Anancy stories, such as Anancy An Yella Snake and Po Patoo, illustrate how language and culture are intrinsically linked and are integral to understanding Jamaican identity and culture.

Humour and irony are key literary tools within Bennett's work. This deliberate comic style has a clever dual function. Primarily, her quick wit is extremely entertaining for the listener or reader. Secondly, her use of irony allows her to tackle important socio-political and historical issues in a pertinent yet subtle manner. These issues are specific to the post-colonial (and neo-colonial) Caribbean context, and speak to integral elements of Afro-Caribbean identity. In an interview with Denis Scott, Bennett disclosed: 'I have found a medium through which I can pretend to be laughing. Most of the time that we laugh it is so that we may not weep'. Morris characterizes this as '‘corrective laughter, laughter as tolerant recognition, laughter as a coping mechanism- survival laughter' . Language is a form of resistance for Bennett.

Anancy
The trickster spider comes form Ghanaian Akan oral tradition. Oral tradition or orality is a ancient method of communication that relies on spoken word to pass cultural or historical information between generations. It is an important element of West African culture, traditionally told by a griot. Anancy can be understood as both a reflection of orality and active regeneration of this tradition. Anancy is ambiguous. These tales have 'continually metamorphosed, each storyteller adding their own embellishments and meanings', as Marshall suggests. These stories are volatile and dynamic: changing over time and between performances. Barber notes that genres of African Popular Culture are never 'done' but each form 'exists in a state of potential'. Anancy embodies this definition of Popular Culture on the continent and by extension in the African diaspora. Orality is considered a dying art in the face of modernity, yet Anancy preserves this tradition. The spider is an African retention that has been brought to Jamaica orally, that Miss Lou have magnified, just as the slaves where taken to the Jamaica, which constitutes contemporary Jamaican identity. Bennett describes Anancy stories as 'the true lullabies to Jamaican children for generations'.

Anancy An Yella Snake
 'Anancy An Yella Snake' tells the story of a Jamaican girl who foolishly marries Yella Snake and is subsequently killed by him. For money, Anancy tricks Yella Snake out of his hole, so the girl’s brother, Hunter Colin, could avenge his sister's death. The reader learns ‘from dat day till teday man dah shoot snake’, From that day to now, men are shooting snakes.

Po Patoo
In Po Patoo, Anancy travels to Oman Tung (woman town) with his friend Bra Patoo, the Owl, in search of wives. Anancy becomes extremely jealous of Po Patoo for stealing the attention of all the girls in Oman Tung. Cunningly, he rips off Patoo’s smart clothes. Patoo’s feathers frighten the girls and they run away. Shamed by this experience, Po Patoo hides away in the daytime. The reader learns that this is why ‘we call him Night-Owl, an all him can seh is oo-oo-ooo-ooo’.

Gender Theory & Language
Gender is an important social category and marker of identity. Gendered roles are learnt from birth, through a process of gender socialization. Although widely accepted as fluid, gender roles are stereotyped to be either masculine or feminine based on the sex of the individual.

Every human lives a gendered existence. Therefore, the language they use, both spoken and written, is inherently gendered in nature and is part of the process of gender socialization. Talbot explores this through a feminist lens in her book Language and Gender. She notes: 'Feminists interest in language and gender resides in the complex part language plays, alongside other social practices and institutions, in reflecting, creating and sustaining gender divisions in society’. Language is rooted in culture and affords access to power. Historically and traditionally, within a world dominated by patriarchal ideologies, this power has been attributed to men. Language 'reproduces the systematic inequalities between men and women' within a society. We see these inequalities in the ways men and women are expected to speak, the gendered divisions of labour between heterosexual couples, and the nature in which masculinities and femininities are represented in popular culture (such as the stories explored below). Bennett's unique style of writing is portrayed throughout her literatures, which utilizes wordplay alongside the Jamaican creole; which highlights the African and Jamaican people abundance and beauty within the culture.

Patriarchy & Heteronormativity
The language in Anancy An Yella Snake and Po Patoo can be interpreted as patriarchal. Patriarchy is a social system of male dominance, which attributes economic, social and political power to men and masculinity. This in turn, renders women and femininity subordinate in both the private and public spheres of society. In both stories, the protagonists are males and are named. Their characterizations are relatively complex. In contrast, the female characters are all nameless. This gendered difference is evidently patriarchal. In Anancy An Yella Snake, Yella snake's spouse is the central character yet she is not named. She is referred to as 'gal' whilst her brother, a minor character is 'Hunter man Colin'. Similarly, in Po Patoo all the women reside in  'Oman Tung' (Woman Town) and are simply referred to as 'gal dem' (the girls). Through a feminist lens this homogenized representation of women can be understood as problematic. Women lack the agency attributed to both Anancy and Po Patoo who freely wander where they please and instead are confined to a specific location. This is perhaps reflexive of the traditional patriarchal structures in Caribbean society within which women are bound to the private sphere of the home whilst men are more prominent in the public sphere. Furthermore, the namelessness of female characters establishes their secondary or subordinate position and gives power to their male counterparts. Beckles proclaimed that though women were important in chattel slavery because of their ability to reproduce and maintain the slavery population, they were rendered as suppressed mothers who were "invisible". The black woman then was carrying the burden of double invisibility" for being both black and a female, and as such she was overlooked in the writing of history . This could be a reason for Miss Lou's failure to identify and write on the females behalf within the stories.

 

Marriage is central to both stories. The girl is married off to Yella snake '' 'before yuh coulda suh "keps". (before you could say "keps"). For Po Patoo, he visits Oman Tung to find a wife:  'don’t yuh tink ish time fi yuh married’ (don't you think it is time for you to get married)'', asks Anancy. This emphasis on marriage reinforces patriarchal ideologies. The women are framed as something to be controlled and owned by men through marriage. Bennett's language is heteronormative: all the romantic relationships are unquestionably heterosexual. Kempadoo describes how "sexual practices" in the Caribbean are centered around the biology of a person. Sexuality is socially constructed. There is no space nor provisions made for sexualities and nor sexual practices that fall outside of the normal sexuality, which is heterosexuality. Within the context of 1970s Jamaica when the stories were published, this can be understood as a reflection of the heteronormativity present in the wider society.

Although these short stories reinforce and reflect patriarchal narratives within Jamaican society, much of Bennett's work resists these ideologies of male dominance. Neigh suggests Bennett's stories and poetry 'offer a communal feminist politics engaged in imagining social relationships beyond colonial rule'. For example, her poem  'Jamaican Oman' (Jamaican woman) uses cunning irony to empower the everyday life experiences of working class Jamaican women.

Caribbean Masculinities
In line with the patriarchal language as explored above, these stories also reflect the masculinities that stereotypically manifest within Caribbean societies and the gendered roles that individuals ascribe to. There are various masculinities at play within Po Patoo. There is a power struggle between Po Patoo and Anancy as they compete for female affection. Lewis highlights that men communicate with each other in a rather disrespectful manner which usually ends in humour. This is because they threaten each other's masculinity, but not to the extent that they completely dismantle each other. Except in cases where one of their masculine esteem is at risk. He goes on to show that men also communicate non-verbally through masculinizing non-masculine artifacts. Anancy felt threatened by the Po Patoo's popularity among the females of Oman Tung. Seeing that he was the one who put Patoo in a position to receive the attention through clothing him, he destroyed Patoo's display of heterosexuality which is crucial to Caribbean masculinity. That competitive display of masculinity and the threat of masculinities is what Lewis speaks of. When Anancy realises he is loosing to Patoo his 'tempa get rygin' (gets very angry). He uses aggressive language and his voice becomes loud as he commands Patoo to 'gi me back me tings!' (return my things). Bennett's use of language here suggests that Anancy is exhibiting hegemonically masculine which can easily be turned into toxic masculinity characteristics. He assumes a 'tough guy' persona to become powerful, winning over the women and shaming his friend. Chevannes notes that within the Caribbean context, boys have traditionally been socialized to be tough due to gendered divisions of labour. These divisions required men to do heavy work which demanded great physical strength. Although divisions of labour are less gendered today, the socialization process still occurs and boys are taught these stereotypically masculine characteristics as exhibited by Anancy. Anancy is not just the symbol of hegemonic masculinity but also toxic masculinity. Bennett portrayed this side of him very well in Pa Patoo as Anancy grew angry and jealous of all the attention Patoo was receiving from the females in "'Oman Tung'", Woman town and requested to get his belonging back, that he had previously loan to Patoo, "Bra Patoo, me want me tings!", "Brother Patoo I want my things (Clothes)," before Anancy publicly tore the clothes off Patoo. Toxic masculinity was coined by males to showcase their "manliness" and exaggerate their masculine traits such as domination, unprovoked violence, homophobia and devaluing of females. Anancy, unprovoked attacked Patoo in order to seem "maniler" to the females, with no regards to how he may have exposed and damaged Patoo's chances of having a wife or emasculate him, only caring about himself. In Pa Patoo both males are seen objectifying females as an item they could collect, "Cho! Dat ish shmall mattas, man- mi wi cya yuh gah a Oman Tung", That is a small issue, I will take you to Woman Town. Both characters also planned in deceiving females buy covering up Patoos, feathers "Cho, Bra Patoo! Yuh fenky-fenky. Me wi lend yuh a jacket an a wescot an a colla an a tie, an dem cyaan see yuh feader.", ''Brother Patoo, you are worrying too much. I will lend you a jacket, a waste coat and a tie, they will cover you up, the girls wont be able to see your feathers.'' Dominance is portrayed here.

Masculinity and Violence Against Women
According to Barritteau, the hegemonic masculinity in the Caribbean is heterosexuality. That grants heterosexual men power over women and other's subordinate masculinities. Power is enforced and maintained through unwritten sanctions and punishments. One of them being physical abuse on their subordinate partners (women). Jamaica has been known for "interpersonal violence", which is seen as necessary to keep women in line. Hegemonic masculinity is associated with being macho and aggressive. Often times this results in domestic abuse. A typical example of this lies in the story of Yella Snake when the female character refused to enter his 'hole', but he insisted by threatening her with violence. His exact words were "ah wi suck you, ah wi suck yuh, till yuh mumah an pupah cyaan even fine peice a yuh calla bone (I will suck you, I will suck you, until your mother and father won't be able to find a piece of you)". That verbal interaction and his choice of words are evidence enough to point to the violent behaviour that Barriteau makes reference to as a main characteristic of heterosexual males.

Race & Identity
Bennett deliberately yet subtly encodes moral messages about race within Anancy an Yella Snake. At the beginning of the story the girl ‘nevah want noh black nor noh dark nor noh brown man; she dida look fi yella skin man’, she desires a lighter skinned suitor and therefore marries Yella Snake. Inadvertently, the girl is complying with the violent and racist epistemologies, which suggest that black skin is inferior to white skin. The non black character however a beacon for eligible young girls and success took his newly black girl and subsequently killed her, after she refused to go further with him. This was reminiscent of slavery, as the colonizers (light skin) in taking Africans from Africa. Such epistemologies were used to rationalize colonial rule in the Caribbean. This is reflected in the story as Yella Snake violently chokes the girl to death. His character is perhaps a metaphor for the violence inflicted by white people on black people during slavery and colonialism in Jamaica and the Caribbean.

Yet Bennett contradicts these racist ideologies as the story unfolds. Anancy supposedly travelled from West Africa on the slave ships to work on the plantations in Jamaica centuries ago. Being black and Afro-Caribbean is central to his identity. He is the hero of this tale: using his cunning to trick Yella Snake out of his hole so that Hunter Collin can shoot him to avenge his sisters death. His triumph over Yella Snake can be interpreted as resistance against racist ideologies and white oppression which historically ruled in Jamaica. This resistance is reinforced by Anancy's language. He always speaks in patois, a direct rejection of Standard English. Bennett explains to the reader 'Anancy tongue tie, yuh know, so him call "dis" "dish"'. She is referring to his lisp. This is another way in which Anancy manipulates language and appropriates English into something that is completely unique yet distinctly Caribbean.

In this story Bennett also challenges the stereotypical and homogenised representations of Caribbean manhood that are presented in the global media. These representations are often damaging, untrue and oversimplified. For example, black Afro-Caribbean men are portrayed as violent or immoral. Bennett's heroic Anancy rejects this representation. Instead he illustrates that despite being physically weaker and smaller than Yella Snake, he has the cunning to overpower him. Olive Senior notes that it is these survival characteristics which 'the enslaved Africans, torn from their homelands and forced to labour in a foreign land must have found particularly satisfying.’

Colourism
Colourism is a birthchild of racism. Gabriel extends knowlegde on how it produces and instills hierarchies of value based on skin tone. Separation by skin tone is a by-product of a colonial past which degraded darker skin tones. The idea of "anything too black nuh good" (anything that is too black is not good), is a result of that historical feature of the Caribbean. White superiors classified 'blackness' as "dirty", "ugly", "devilish" and poor. Whiteness and lighter skin tones were then regarded as "clean", "beautiful", "godly" and "wealthy". Basically, blackness is all things negative and contrastingly, whiteness, a replica of positivity. The time period that Miss Lou wrote the stories, was when Jamaica was still somewhat fresh out of slavery. The notion of skin tone being associated with social status was well received and understood by citizens. Colourism expressed in Anancy and Yella Snake when the young lady refused to marry anyone other than a "yella skin man". "Yella skin" (light skin) used in that context could have been used to refer to someone of mixed decent who would fall under the category of a mulatto. The lightness in skin tone could mean that one was of high social status, thus the ambition of the female character requesting to be married to such a man. Many reasons could have been behind her decision. The main one possibly being wanting to improve her status through marriage. Additionally within the era of Bennetts' publications, lighter skin colour, allowed for a better life of individuals within the fields of educational attainment, job out comes, health attainments. Darker skin tone individuals had heavier scrutiny of their qualifications and would be subjected to high discrimination. The privileged citizens characteristics where of lighter skin. They were widely sought and accepted. Jamaica is a Afro-descent island, one way in which the citizens tried to decrease the colorism inequality was by race/ racial- mixing; which was also sought after to provide the next generation in the family a better opportunity at affording a better job outcome, education attainment and health attainment. All of which they had difficult achieving, while limiting the next generation chances of being racially prejudice and discriminated against; as the lighter an individual is the closer to white they are. Bennett brought this issue to light clearly within Anancy and Yella Snake.

