User:T-99Willy/sandbox

Patriarchy & Heteronormativity
The language in Anancy An Yella Snake and Po Pattoo 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 Pattoo all the women reside in  'Oman Tung' (Woman Town) and are simply referred to as 'gal dem'. Through a feminist lens this homogenized representation of women can be understood as problematic. Women lack the agency attributed to both Anancy and Po Pattoo 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.

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 Pattoo. There is a power struggle between Po Pattoo 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 Pattoo's popularity among the females of Oman Tung. Seeing that he was the one who put Pattoo in a position to receive the attention through clothing him, he destroyed Pattoo'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 Pattoo his 'tempa get rygin' (gets very angry). He uses aggressive language and his voice becomes loud as he commands Pattoo to 'gi me back me tings!' (return my things). Bennett's use of language here suggests that Anancy is exhibiting hegemonically masculine 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.

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.

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" 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.