THE EDITOR, Sir:I READ Kevin Chang's in The Sunday Gleaner of June 6, 2004 with growing dismay.
His arguments are rooted in the same patriarchal diatribe that has placed our men in the simultaneous situations of power/powerlessness to which he refers. He glibly identifies the pervasive 'male problem', citing the usual statistics and outlining the usual trends in the West as well as in China and India. Alas and alack! Men have been given so much more yet too many of them are doing so much less.
I must express my sincere disappointment with Mr. Chang's ultimate conclusion that it is basically the responsibility of our women to save our men from themselves. As he states "Jamaican gender and crime problems will only be solved when our women start demanding more from men than just sperm". I gather from this that Jamaican women run around allowing irresponsible and carefree men to impregnate them thereby resulting in fatherless children, dysfunctional families, underperforming boys and disillusioned, failed men. Consequently women are directly responsible for the 'man problem' in Jamaica.
How long will our men - educated, rich, poor, lower-, middle- and upper-class, rural and urban, brown, and black continue to believe that all the problems of men will be solved in the vaginas of women? Jamaican women have been carrying their men - sons, grandsons, brothers, nephews, fathers, babyfathers, boyfriends and husbands - on their backs for decades. Certainly it is time for our men to step up to the plate and take some responsibility and face the consequences of their actions or inactions as men and with the support of men?
Over the last few years there has been a growing outcry about underperforming men and statistical anomalies - over 75 per cent of women in tertiary education! Heaven forbid! Yet the hidden narratives of extreme sacrifice, deprivation and struggle that many of these "overachieving" women must endure is, more often than not, brushed aside in the overwhelming paranoia that, by their very success, women are placing men at risk. By 'wringing blood out of stone' and creating ways and means to avail themselves of opportunities that result in better lives for themselves and their FAMILIES, Jamaican women are putting obstacles in the ways of Jamaican men.
I charge male analysts like Mr. Chang to wheel and come again. Paternal responsibility is not a woman's job. Neither are we responsible for the (often negative) choices made by our men. Many single mothers undergo emotional and physical torture and severe economic deprivation in their quest to raise their 'fatherless' sons and to combat the effects of the patriarchal socialisation that continues to fail the majority of our boys and men. But single mothers cannot 'fix' our men and boys on their own. Single mothers must contend with the effects of all the social institutions outside the home, of which the powerful peer group is only one major enemy.
And let us not forget the role of the media in brainwashing our men and boys into identification with negative and empty masculine stereotypes. Promiscuous heterosexuality; bling bling and bashment; aggression and violence; extreme leisure; and a general spirit of irresponsibility pervade the images that flit across our television screens and lurk across the pages of print media. Certainly it is time for our 'successful men' who continue to head the major institutions in Jamaica, to sit down and figure out practical ways to encourage our 'failing men' to do their part?
I heartily concur with Glenda Simms' reminder of the need to develop 'men-only spaces' where "men can come to grips with their individual and collective patriarchal legacies". Men must sit with men to discuss and work out solutions for the problems of men. The problems of Jamaican men will not be solved in the vaginas, bosoms and beds of their women. Jamaican mothers, wives, sisters, babymothers, girlfriends, godmothers, grandmothers and aunts have been waiting in vain for a long overdue break. It is high time our men delivered.
I am etc.,
DONNA P. HOPE,
dhope@gmu.edu
Doctoral Candidate in Cultural Studies
George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia
Via Go-Jamaica
