Gender+and+Sexual+Expression+in+Trinidad+&+Tobago+Carnival

Historical Context
toc Given the history, one needs to consider Trinidad and Tobago Carnival in a postcolonial frame. Crichlow and Armstrong (2009) explains that carnival in a postcolonial frame precipitates questions including the racial condition in the New World, its slave post-slavery and indentured labour contexts, of its contestations and cultural politics in reaction to the increasing social and cultural influence of Europe, as well as hybrid praxes and identities. The prominent carnivals of the Americas, like that of Trinidad and Tobago, arose in independent states which had been colonial slave societies and in particularly staunch Catholic colonies of the Spanish, French and Portuguese. Each presents particular features and Trinidad, like various other Caribbean islands, experienced a rotation of metropolitan empires (in Trinidad’s case, it was Spain, France and Britain), gained independence well into the twentieth century, and developed its carnival during the transition. (Armstrong 2010)

In the classical tradition of Europe, Carnival is typically represented as male in contrast to the spirit of Lent which is depicted as a thin, old woman (Scott 1990 as cited in De Freitas, 1999, p. 12). Carnival is personified as a fat, gluttonous eater and drinker, symbol of hedonistic excess and was referred to as “king.” Traditionally Trinidad's "king" shared maleness with his European counterpart, but his masculinity is fundamentally different. In dominant nationalist narratives, Carnival is represented, not as the fat King who indulged in orgiastic excesses, but as a lean and mean usurper who wrests control of the city from the foreign and/or respectable Others. (De Freitas, 1999, p. 12). Significantly, the remembered heroes of Carnival are the stick-midnight robbers, dragons, devils, wild Indians, sailors, pierrot granades, steelband men, calypsonians and ole mas' iconoclasts. Carnival was, in fact, numerically dominated by men whose style of performance was often marked by ritualised (and sometimes actual) aggressive, competitive, and iconoclastic behaviour and the nineteenth-century stick-fighters and early twentieth-century steelband men engaged each other in actual and ritualised "combat" (De Freitas 1999, p. 12). The “jamette” (from the French word “diametre” meaning beneath the diameter of respectability, or the underworld) character in early Carnival times, was female. They were always masked, and their most shocking behaviour was their habit of opening their bodices to expose their breasts. According to Crowley (1988, as cited in De Freitas 1999) some suggest that the jamettes were "matadors" or retired prostitutes gone respectable, hence the need for masking. It is also possible that they were prostitutes aping prostitutes who had gone respectable. But while these jamettes are celebrated as part of the wider "male" resistance enterprise of aggression and sexual ribaldry against the “elite Other”, there exists a deep ambivalence about them as women, especially as it relates to their "sexual" behaviour within the society (De Freitas, 1999, p. 15).

Franco (2007) notes that since the 1960s, women’s participation in [|Trinidad’s Carnival] has steadily increased and that by 2005, the festival came to a crossroads. At that time, carnival became female (“Carnival is Woman” is a common term that has been used to describe the festival,) as women became the numerical majority in the street parades, and very visible occupied the historically male enclaves of calypso and steelband (Franco, 2007). This female dominance has resulted in significant changes to the overall aesthetic of the festival.

**Through the Lens of Playful Deviance**
Although Goffman's (1959, as cited in Milhausen, Reece & Pereira, 2006) theoretical framework called “playful deviance” is often used to describe the behaviour of groups of tourists as they travel to leisure locations and engage in types of behaviours that they would not normally enact at home, the criteria it describes can be applied to Trinidad and Tobago Carnival.

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Setting & Props
For the purpose of this discourse, the settings and props (as required for playful deviance) will be the socio-political climate that facilitates the festival and the costumes, music and dance. Traditional settings would have been staunchly Catholic colonial slave societies, and sharply hierarchical, producing props that were strongly and predominantly masculine. The traditions would feature the ideal woman constructed through a constellation of ideas which link marriage, family, child-rearing, home, yard, and respectability, who epitomises the "softness" associated with care-giving. This is the image that researchers and local social commentators attribute to the British colonial value system which was based on Victorian middle-class ideals. (De Freitas, 1999). This is the woman that is celebrated in calypsoes, especially in the pre-1970s. This setting favoured the norm as being masculine and masculine themes were dominant in costumes and characters, while deviant behaviour took the form of aggressive rituals, acts and role play along with rebellious acts, drinking and pranks. Music and steel band were the domain of men and were often the sites of equally aggressive or rebellious acts in the form of politically or socially subversive lyrics and a strongly competitive spirit that degraded into brawls and fights in steel band competitions.

In a contemporary setting, while there are survival of patterns of hierarchical power, there exists a contestation or challenging of hierarchy and traditional gender roles. One explanation for this, is that the ethos of capitalism has shifted from one of production-and-work to one of consumption-and-fun, and women find themselves as the bearers of this ideology having broken away from the repressive victorianism of the 1930s (Johnson 1983, as cited in De Freitas 1999). The domination on Carnival by women has changed the props of costumes, music and dance. Franco (2007) states that in performance, for example, women prefer the [|highly sexualised dance] “wining” instead of the traditional characterisation or playing someone other than themselves, a hallmark of performance theory and masquerade systems; and in dress, they generally opt for costumes that emphasise and display their semiclad bodies (Franco, 2007, p. 25). One local newspaper, (Trinidad Guardian, April 3, 1988 as cited in Franco 2007, p. 39) stated that “The scandalous and lewd cavorting of. . . women, many of whom took the pains to simulate the sex act in full view of their audience” was unacceptable. Franco (2007) further notes that this author’s isolation of women “simulating the sex act” absented and absolved men of any egregious participation (p. 39). Calypsoes and soca music, usually created specifically for the season are now performed by many more women, some with lyrics that reflect what could be considered “the female gaze.”

Chosen Locale and Deviant Behaviours
The physical settings where these deviant behaviours are enacted are varied and many. There are numerous small and large group fetes that take place all over the islands for weeks and months leading up to the theatrical street performance that is Trinidad and Tobago Carnival. In terms of a temporal setting, the start of fetes and promotion of Carnival begins just after Christmas has ended and continues through the pre-Lenten period, culmination in the street theatre on the Monday and Tuesday before Ash Wednesday. In the spaces created for the festival, women perform what has been described as “lewd dance” that is “vulgar and immoral display” and that is an “obscene spectacle, though similar performances by male maskers are not singled out. (Franco, 2007). Franco (2007) further states that women’s mas style resonates with their changing status in the larger society, as seen in their seemingly nonreliance on men (p. 41). Journalist Terry Joseph (Trinidad Express, February 2, 1988, as cited in Franco 2007, p. 41) stated, "There is the aspect of an albeit licentious form of liberation among women, which sees hordes of females feeling enough of a sense of security to venture into the mas band on carnival days without any promise of male protection." media type="custom" key="25730320"

At Carnival, however, many women do not seem interested in inviting or seducing men, nor do they seem to care with whom or on whom they “wine” (Franco, 2007). For women, Carnival is a time for public indulgence in "pleasurable" pursuits, particularly those of the body - movement, dance, dress (or lack of it), and sensuality. This overt act can be interpreted as an act of rebellion against the social codes and practices which define and constrain her life during the year (De Freitas, 2007). De Freitas (2007) continues the argument by stating that the "rudeness" and "slackness" usually associated with men is co-opted by women, and transformed into an idiom of sensuality. In keeping with the second criteria fro deviant behaviour, upon departure from the festive locales and at the end of the season, these behaviours are terminated.

Protection from Social Sanctions
The social sanction that prevent women from engaging in overly sexual ways or being the sexual aggressive are temporarily suspend for the season. There is no pronouncement of moral judgement or punitive sanctions for what essentially is erotic exposure and could be called public indecency. One is allowed to enjoy the “thrill of breaking the rules” and encouraged to “get on bad” (De Freitas, 2007). So much so, that even the playful and erotic teasing of law enforcement officers present at fetes (usually done by females on male officers) is not meet with any consequences.

While it seems as if the Carnival space has been significantly re-gendered, it is interesting to note that many have called this situation a “softening” of Carnival. This is a situation which is viewed with much criticism, as for many this represents a loss of the power of Carnival to be a form of resistance. Viewed through another lens, scantily clothed women, assertively defending themselves against the unwanted attention of predatory males, can surely be interpreted as an act of "resistance" or “hardness. (De Freitas, 2007).

Submitted by Onika Henry

Armstrong, P. (2010). Bahian carnival and social carnivalesque in trans-Atlantic context. Social Identities, 16(4), 447-469. doi:10.1080/13504630.2010.497722
 * References**

Crichlow, M.A. & Armstrong, P. (2010). Carnival praxis, carnivalesque strategies and Atlantic interstices. Social Identities, 16(4), 399-414. doi:10.1080/13504630.2010.497693

De Freitas, P. (1999). Disrupting the nation: Gender transformation in the Trinidad Carnival. New West Indian Guide/Nieuwe West-Indische Gids, 73 (1/2), 5-34

Milhausen, R. R., Reece, M., & Perera, B. (2006). A theory-based approach to understanding sexual behavior at Mardi Gras. Journal of sex research, 43(2), 97-106. doi: 10.1080/00224490609552304