Very Straight Sex: The Development of Sexual Mores in Jamaica

Lafont, Suzanne

doi:10.1353/cch.2001.0051

Cited by 45 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…If a man is new and comes on a section and he mentions that he has oral sex, the men will run him over to Boystown. If he does not go there, his life will be at risk.-Rayan, 32 years old, 7 years incarcerated Sentiments towards masturbation and oral sex mirror the stigma associated with these behaviours in wider Jamaican sexual culture (LaFont 2001). However, the stigma against masturbation and how inmates negotiate the meaning attached to this behaviour is particularly interesting given the lack of access to women and that sexual virility in Jamaica is a defining characteristic of masculinity (Chevannes 2001; Figueroa 2009).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…An analysis of Jamaican sexual morés has also noted that among Afro-Jamaican slaves oral sex and masturbation were practices considered “nastiness” outside of respectable behaviour (Lafont 2001). According to LaFont (2001), rejecting the immoral sexual behaviours of the elite plantocracy allowed slaves to “…assert their own moral superiority. They could not exert economic or political superiority –indeed it was one of the only ways to assert dignity and pride (p. 16).” In the same way that moral superiority was gained through the practice of “respectable” sexual behaviours in colonialist Jamaica, rejection of outside neo-imperialist ideas about homosexuality and human rights in the current global political and economic landscape may serve as a source of nationalist solidarity and pride.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Homophobia, stigma and HIV in Jamaican prisons

Andrinopoulos

Figueroa

Kerrigan

et al. 2011

Culture, Health & Sexuality

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Success in addressing HIV and AIDS among men who have sex with men, a key population in the global epidemic, is impeded by homophobia. Homophobia as a barrier to HIV prevention and AIDS treatment is a particularly acute problem in the prison setting. In this qualitative study, we explore HIV and AIDS, stigma, and homosexuality in the largest all male prison in Jamaica by conducting iterative in-depth interviews with 25 inmates. Participant narratives unveil a purposeful manipulation of beliefs related to homosexuality that impedes an effective response to HIV and AIDS both in prison and wider society. Findings indicate that homophobia is both a social construction and a tangible tool used to leverage power and a sense of solidarity in a larger political and economic landscape. This use of homophobia may not be unique to Jamaica, and is an important issue to address in other low and middle income post-colonialist societies.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Homophobia, stigma and HIV in Jamaican prisons

Andrinopoulos

Figueroa

Kerrigan

et al. 2011

Culture, Health & Sexuality

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“…The naturalisation of heterosexuality in Jamaica can be linked to the country's history of slavery and the sexual exploitation of Black bodies enslaved by their British masters. This historical legacy has resulted in the country's resistance to ‘foreign’ sexual mores, imposed legally through homophobic legislation of laws like the Buggery Act, which categorises homosexuality as an ‘unnatural crime’ (Chevannes, 2001; LaFont, 2001). Such expressions of homophobia in the country have been described as structuring principles of ‘authentic citizenship’ (Thomas, 2011, p. 127), which become policed through an idealisation of masculinity.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mapping the body, voicing the margins: Using body maps to understand children’s embodied experiences of violence in Kingston, Jamaica

et al. 2020

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The study explores how children in an inner‐city community of Jamaica deal with everyday violence. Using an art‐based method called body mapping, we explored the ways children made sense of issues related to power, vulnerability, risk and resilience. The findings show how children's narratives and memories of their bodies merged with broader social and cultural structures governing their lives. Expressing their embodied experiences through the body mapping exercise, the children challenged and resisted normative sociocultural schemes of how they should be in the world by creating, re‐envisioning and re‐contextualising their bodies via a method that engaged with affective modes of knowledge.

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“…Homophobia is rife within reggae and its sub-cultures. Sexual practices outside hetero-normative behaviours such as oral and anal sex (in homosexual and Sex Education 361 heterosexual relationships) are heavily condemned (LaFont 2001). Pop lyrics are the least sexually explicit, with covert sexual references.…”

Section: Music Normsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The motorway to adulthood: music preference as the sex and relationships roadmap

Agbo-Quaye

Robertson

2010

Sex Education

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Factors that contribute to sexual decision-making among young people are varied, and several determinants have been identified as contributing to the process. However, the influential role of music preference has been sidelined both in the literature and by sex and relationships educators. The research outlined in this paper explores the normative impact of music preference, and highlights the importance of influences drawn from teen culture. A preliminary study had indicated that representations of sex and relationships within lyrics were found to be genre specific. The main study comprised six single-sex focus group discussions on music and sex with young people aged between 14 and 19 years. Thematic analysis revealed that preferred genre and artists were found to be associated with all aspects of participants' lives and culture generally, with music functioning specifically as an educational tool for adult relationships. The findings from these studies indicate that the norms portrayed by young people's preferred genres reinforce (oftentimes inappropriate) beliefs about sex and adult relationships.

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Very Straight Sex: The Development of Sexual Mores in Jamaica

Cited by 45 publications

References 32 publications

Homophobia, stigma and HIV in Jamaican prisons

Homophobia, stigma and HIV in Jamaican prisons

Mapping the body, voicing the margins: Using body maps to understand children’s embodied experiences of violence in Kingston, Jamaica

The motorway to adulthood: music preference as the sex and relationships roadmap

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