Rethink Archaic Notions of Manhood
The recent awkward incident involving Jamaican cricketer Chris Gayle and a female journalist is probably a good launch area to have a discourse on Caribbean masculinity. The construction of Caribbean masculinity needs to be re-examined in light of the Chris Gayle incident involving female Australian journalist Mel McLaughlin. Gayle’s sexually coded comments were inappropriate. He was fined for his sexually suggestive remarks to the journalist who, after all, was only doing her job in trying to get an interview with him. Historically, the threads of masculinity and manhood are deeply entrenched and linked to the sexual objectification and harassment of women. Alarmingly, not much has changed in the 21 st century and the prognosis suggests not much will change any time soon. This toxic notion of masculinity is very much celebrated throughout the society and is being eagerly passed on to our boys, especially when juxtaposed with our homophobic culture. Disturbingly, our edu...