Chilling call to murder as music attacks gays
“But songs are not the only place where homophobia is blatant. At a state level, article 76 of the nation’s offences against the person act criminalises the ‘abominable crime of buggery’ with up to 10 years imprisonment, while article 79 punishes any act of physical intimacy between men in public or private with up to two years in jail and the possibility of hard labour.”
“Few can agree on the source of such homophobia. But most agree the church plays a crucial role. ‘Evangelical Christianity is very strong, and there is a prudishness and hypocrisy that comes with that,’ said a representative of J-FLAG. ‘They ignore the part that says don’t have sex out of wedlock and focus on gays.'”
Beenie Man concert axed over homophobia fears
“Chief Inspector Clive Driscoll, head of the racial and violent crime taskforce for the Metropolitan police, met Beenie Man on his arrival in London after being contacted by Outrage!, the gay rights group.
‘The advice of the Crown Prosecution Service is that it doesn’t believe, on the evidence of the lyrics presented to them, that offences have been committed,’ said Mr Driscoll.
‘However, it did point out that our duty [as police officers] is to protect people. As a result of that, I spoke to Beenie Man asking him not to sing lyrics which were homophobic or promoted violence. He was extremely reasonable.’
Mr Driscoll said he did not offer any advice to Ocean, merely alerting the club to the OutRage! concerns.”
Selective quoting, but my concern here is to highlight some of the complexities of the issue.
There can be no argument that extreme homophobia is the norm in Jamaica. There is also no argument that there are at least 3 main sources of this homophobia:
1) Church
2) State
3) Dancehall
My concern is that there seems to be no attempt to target the first two, who clearly have more power and resources than individual dancehall artists such as Beenie Man.
In the 80s and 90s when the christian right were targetting NWA, the Dead Kennedys and Ozzie Osbourne, the liberal anti-censorship mob were at pains to mention that, although not agreeing with the lyrical sentiments, the actual words that the artists were using did not, in themselves, magically coerce people into committing obscene acts.
But now, it seems, they do. It is particularly worrying that Beenie Man seems to have agreed not to use homophobic language but was still banned by the venue anyway – what sort of message does that send out?
I don’t like homophobia one bit, as people who have read this blog and met me will know, and I think a stand has to be made.
But the stand has to be more imaginative than calling for a ban.
If homosexuality is seen in JA as being part of western babylonian corruption, then banning artists like Beenie only confirms that they are at the forefront of speaking out against this corruption – and have been attacked by babylon when they try to speak “the truth”. Adding this to dancehall’s obsession with the glamour of crime and outlaw status makes the whole episode look very appealing.
The difficulty on an activist level, is that representatives of the Jamaican state and church are not as visible in the UK as visiting dancehall artists. They are also much more difficult to influence, as they are not bothered about ticket sales, etc.
But getting Beenie Man or TOK to shut up about battymen when they visit the UK will not have any effect on the views of the 96% of Jamaicans who who want homosexuality to remain illegal, or the climate of fear on the island.
paul “bad boy” meme
Agreed. I’ve great respect for Tatchell, but I think he’s a myopic prick for pursuing these kinds of tactics.
2004/06/29 @ 02:59 pm
John
Yeah – performing an attempted citizen’s arrest on Mugabe was class on all sorts of levels – this isn’t, imo.
2004/06/29 @ 04:14 pm
Martin http://beyondtheimplode.blogspot.com/
Or like that greasy slimebag Mark Lamarr going for Shabba just to carve out a TV career for himself. Incidentally, stupid question, but has there ever been an openly gay reggae / dancehall star? (And don’t say Boy George)
2004/06/29 @ 11:20 pm
John
Well, I think Lamarr was right to pull Shabba up on his comments, personally. There has never been an openly gay dancehall star, though rumours abound. I think some of the female artists may have flirted with bisexuality in lyrics and interviews but that was more down to male titillation really.
2004/06/30 @ 09:32 am
paul “bad boy” meme
Yeah, Mark Lamarr was right IMO to pull up Shabba — plus he let me do a message to my wife on his Christmas day show once, so I like him!
2004/06/30 @ 10:06 am
John
Tho it has to be said that there are other people I would rather hear present his “beginner’s guide to reggae” show on Radio 2.
I saw him once at a Blaggers ITA gig, you know (what a crap anecdote that is!).
2004/06/30 @ 11:12 am
Martin http://beyondtheimplode.blogspot.com/
OK – just to be Mr Controversial – I disagree with you both on the Lamarr thing. I mean, Shabba gets invited onto this show, as far as he’s concerned he’s there to play a tune, and he gets crucified on a cultural point. Please tell me if I’m sounding like a soppy cop-out excuser for homophobia (cos maybe I unconsciously am, though I hope I’m not), but if it came to the choice between committing commercial suicide in your own backyard and being shunned by the very community that helped build you up (as John says, it’s not just a dancehall thing) or facing off against some mouthy bloke on a show with people shoving worms in their mouths or drinking pints of sick (‘The hopefuls’), I think Shabba’s reaction was understandable (if not commendable). It was hardly an ideal place to bring the whole shebang up. And if Lamarr is really as knowledgeable about reggae as he claims, he should have known that. Again, as you said, it needs addressing, but not in such a sensationalist way. Funny how racist shitbags like Elvis Costello (sorry, but calling Ray Charles a ‘blind nigger’, EVEN if pissed senseless, is the mark of a complete cunt!) get away with it, or Eminem is suddenly ‘OK’ cos Elton John puts a paw round him, but when Eazy E or Beenie Man diss fags or batty boys, they’re banned and censored. Anyway, I hope I don’t sound like I’m willing to laugh it under the carpet, but I think Lamarr knew he was on to a winner – there was no way Shabba would back down and the whole incident was bound to make him look hip to the jive daddy-o and Shabba like a reactionary, tired bigot. Like shooting fish in a barrel, but not actually getting down to the bones of it.
2004/06/30 @ 08:06 pm
John
Hmmm – I dunno if it as premeditated as you seem to be saying – certainly I remember Lamarr’s co-presenter (Danni Behr?) trying to shush the whole thing up and move on. It seemed to me, while I was watching it, to be pretty fraught on all sides. I can understand why Shabba did what he did, but you can’t blame Lamarr for bringing it up or responding – maybe it was theatre, but nobody else was doing it at the time in the UK that I can remember.
I do agree with you about all the double standards at work here – the amount of bigoted bile spouted by rock stars like Guns and Roses or whoever hasn’t stopped any of their gigs, has it?
2004/07/01 @ 01:14 pm
Stelfox
it seems like it’s about time to get writing again after this, that horrible wall of sound comp, people shitting themselves over M.I.A and calling her dancehall… for what it’s worth, i remember seeing lamarr and shabba and thinking lamarr had a point but was being a prick about it. the whole homophobia question is intricate and troublesome and definitely sneeds something done about it but people like tatchell attacking an en extreme with and extreme won’t help, it’ll just make him another bad “white batty activist” and give beenie more ammunition for his hatred. this is going to take a LONG time to hange and has to be done gently. i mean, fuck, it’s only our generation, and only certain of us at that, for whom sexuality is not really an issue – it’s taken nearly 40 years to get to that point and it’s not exactly fair to expect every society to evolve in the same way and at the same rate as liberal western nations, especially when it’s largely the fault of these liberal western nations that these views are so fervently held in the 1st place (cf missionary activity). anyway, this is nothing you guys don’t know and i’m not apologising for homophobia, just trying to understand why it exists and change things in my own gentle way without being patronising and paternalistic.
2004/07/02 @ 12:20 pm
Stelfox
obviously not saying any of you are being patronising and paternalistic, either!
2004/07/02 @ 12:36 pm
John
nice one Dave – it’s a good point about timescales, also.
2004/07/02 @ 01:13 pm
matt b
as a reggae fan you just have to deal with it don’t you?- rasta’s views on women aren’t enlightened either (cast out when on the rag etc)- i certainly don’t condone it or ignore it, but it takes a back seat and i don’t buy records that contain such nonsense
2004/07/02 @ 01:44 pm
Stelfox
well, i do buy it – it’s hard not to with dancehall. there are ways of justifying this but i won’t bother coz they’re all quite lame and don’t really hold water. i just like the way the music sounds. also i’d never endorse these sentiments by playing them in public.
2004/07/02 @ 02:11 pm
John
yeah I agree – I buy stuff, but won’t play it out or promote it here. You’d be hard pressed to find any of those one riddim albums without reactionary lyrics.
2004/07/02 @ 02:38 pm
matt b
oh, yeah.. more honest version: i don’t buy records that contain such nonsense apart from the odd 1 rhythm lp, but that’s not my fault guv, honest because i can’t get JA pre-release 7″s for every track i want so have no choice, they hate me nearly as much as gays don’t they? (no)
i remember neneh cherry saying something profound about this in her invisible jukebox (the wire mag), but obviously i can’t remember what it was
2004/07/02 @ 03:48 pm
Stelfox
i actually buy quite a few 7s with vile sentiments. it’s important to know what’s up in the world of dancehall, especially if yr writing about it, so i actually have relatively few qualms abt it. plus, some of them are genuinely jaw-dropping records from a sonic perspective and that’s a large part of what music’s about!
2004/07/02 @ 04:07 pm