Articles of Interest - (Date: August 15, 2004) Sunday Gleaner
Tanya Batson-Savage, Freelance Writer

JA PLAYS ON MANHOOD

Patrick SEXUALITY IS one of life's great pantomimes. If one takes a look at two of the plays currently on the Jamaican stage, The Last Stand and Sweet Country Love, it is interesting to see how those contribute to the unfolding or may be just parading of the Jamaican male's masculinity and sexuality.

Sexuality fits into the pantomime genre because it is heavily based on mimes, or rather body language. Its meanings, messages and 'mis-messages' are easily buoyed by music and, of course, words also have their part to play. Alas, it is only one of the plays within a play set against the backdrop of the larger play of life, be it a drama, tragedy or romance. Shakespeare himself could not dare to dream up some of the hilarious comedies that come out of men and women stories and how they interact. Our brand of sexuality often impacts upon our masculinity or femininity.

'MAN A MAN'

There is probably no more profound statement of manhood than the cryptic 'man a man'. It is a form of chest beating that in three very short words clings to all the things that supposedly separate men from women, or rather masculinity from femininity.

The assertion 'man a man' is a part of the African-Caribbean tradition where male sexuality is akin to heterosexuality. Patrick Brown's The Last Stand takes a look at one of the more extreme forms of heterosexuality and imagined consequences. The cartoon used to advertise the play and on the programme is an intriguing peephole into the dynamics to be found within the production. The cartoon features one man surrounded by four women. He is strapped into what looks like a guillotine, but it is clear that it is not his head which will be amputated. Sweat pours over his face and he is the picture of extreme anxiety. The women wear various expressions: excited glee, anger, shock and delicious delight. Their wish to alienate him from his genitalia has nothing to do with penis envy. What they hope for is not equality in promiscuity, just restitution for its effects.

KING OF THE 'GIRLS' MAN'

The man in the shackles is Charles Wood, the king of the 'girls' man'. He is one who labels his sexual exploits as 'kills' and writes down the length of time it took for each 'kill' to take place.

Woody, as he is less than affectionately called, finds himself in a compromising position when some of the women he has slept with and discarded decide to exact their revenge. His marriage never made him miss a beat as he moved from one 'kill' to the next. During The Last Stand Woody is lambasted on all sides by the women he has wronged. In his defence he suggests that he is promiscuous because he is a man. He has adopted the hyper-macho masculinity which is situated in sexual promiscuity. While handcuffed to a chair, Woody argues that it is not his fault that he is promiscuous. He is simply made that way. Bubbles delights in calling him 'Dutty Woody', as though 'Dutty' was actually his first name. While this produces much hilarity, it does much more. This act of being 'dutty' is a part of what makes him a man.

DRAW CONCLUSIONS

In his writer's note, Brown states that he wishes to simply allow the argument to play out and let the audience draw their own conclusions. "I have always been fascinated by man-woman relationships and what each brings to a relationship. The contentious issue of male infidelity and man's self-claimed inability to be monogamous holds even greater fascination for me," Brown says. He goes on to argue that he hopes that the play examines both sides sufficiently. The women not only seek to emasculate him by taking away this symbol of his manhood. They take it the only step further. When the women introduce a cross-dresser into the mix and suggest that Woody has had sexual relations with him, they attack the most sacred part of his hyper-heterosexuality. They suggest that he is gay and is therefore not really a man. In Learning to Be a Man: Culture, Socialisation and Gender Identity in Five Caribbean Communities by Barry Chevannes, one gets an insight into the sociological factors that guide sexuality and masculinity. The study which informs the work involved three Jamaican communities Grannitree, St. Mary, and Motown and Joetown in Kingston. In the conclusion of Learning to Be a Man, Chevannes says "A man is not a real man unless he is sexually active. But his activism must be hetero not homosexual.

"In further illustrating that sexuality is one of the markers of manhood, Chevannes says "Becoming an African-Caribbean man privileges one to engage in all of the above forms of sexual relationships from the promiscuous and casual to multiple partnerships (which is in effect unrecognised polygamy)." Additionally, according to the study, males generally begin their sexual experiences earlier than females. As such, while male sexual experience is encouraged, females are dissuaded from an early start, especially because of pregnancy.

EXPLORED

The study presented no legitimising of promiscuity or any particular brand of male sexuality. Rather it simply explored them and what they meant. Within two of the plays currently strutting across the Jamaican stage are the smaller plays of manhood. The production Sweet Country Love, written by Dave Hall, presents two kinds of masculinity, thus allowing the hyper-heterosexual and the confidently heterosexual to collide. Two young men in the story vie for the affections of a young woman. Travis is the more economically successful of the two. He is already oozing his way up the social ladder and, as such, should seem a very good catch. Travis, in his indiscriminate womanising, is very similar to Woody. He treats his fiancée, Annrae, as property and refuses to accept her autonomy. Additionally, he gets physically violent. Garth, on the other hand, the man Annrae chooses, is a young farmer, intent upon earning his keep through the proverbial sweat of his brow. He is poor, living in a one-room shack, which he often has to share with his farm animals. Garth, however, clearly respects Annrae and is willing to even experiment with an exchange in the chores. Despite creating a sensitive thoughtful persona for Garth, Hall is careful not to allow him to fall outside of the most essential heterosexual taboos. Garth's use of a long low 'bombaat' to punctuate many of his thoughts suggests that he might not be crass, but he is not soft either. Chevannes study points out that an important aspect of Caribbean male sexuality is that he not appear to be a 'mauma-man' of 'man-uman'. Thus, when there is a threat, Garth quickly grabs a hold of his cutlass and is ready to step up to the confrontation. In Chevannes' study of Grannitree, he cites an example where one of the villagers points out that she would not want her younger brother to be a farmer.

The argument, which was supported by other persons, was that there was no money in it. A farmer, especially a small farmer, has to struggle to support his family, which is an essential marker of manhood. Hall also makes sure that Garth passes this test of manhood. Though he starts literally dirt poor, the richness of the soil and his skill with animals soon allows him to be able to provide a concrete home for himself and his family. In both productions, the playwrights have allowed the women to decide on their futures and not merely play victims of the unkind and uneven hand of gender politics.

It may well suggest that they have picked up on a trend in society and that is what they are reflecting. Are women less willing to settle for the old adage that men are scoundrels and that is that? Will any sustained rejection or punishment, even of such men, mean a change in male behaviour?

Alas any such argument may well find itself quailing in the face of the incontestable certitude of the statement 'man a man', regardless of what that may mean.