Writtten Speech

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Men and Masculinities in the Caribbean

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Good day distinguished guests,

Today I want to talk to you about two important problems that

men and boys in our society are faced with. The first is male marginalization and the second is

masculinity and violence. These two issues are very important and are hot topics in many

forums such as the media or religious movements or amongst citizens of a society. Generally I

would like to discuss here these problems and their solutions. Also I would like to discuss the

problems specifically as academics of Gender studies see them.

Generally, the issue of male marginalization is blamed on or perceived to be caused by the

Caribbean males laziness. This view is linked to patriarchy. Most men of society realize that

there is a patriarchal order and they respect it. It is the views that since men are in charge and

have power ,the women are to be subordinated and subjected to the men. Thus women do the

house work and men give the money. Of course, regularly it is not called patriarchy.

Sociologists on another handblame mens absence in the Caribbean family on slavery. The men

were not allowed to live with women, far less for the ones they got pregnant. Thus this attitude

remains with them. Some other proponents say that men are just unable to commit. Some people

have even gone far enough to say that men are not around because women dont know who the

father of their child is and end being single parents.

If we look at this issue from an academic perspective we see that male marginalization does

in fact carry the notion that men are increasingly missing from the higher echelons of the family,

the classroom and the labor force (Lindsay).This is for many reasons and consequently causes

many problems, primary and secondary. In academic circles, particularly those which deal with


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gender issues, there is the view that male marginalization in the home and the education system

leads to academic underachievement (Miller 1986; Figueroa 1996).Miller (1986) purports that

the education system could be seen as one which uplifts females but puts males at a

disadvantage. Figueroa (1996) says that male privileging in the home is what causes

marginalization and hence academic underachievement. This privileging includes not being

obligated to stay in the house to do chores being allowed to stay out late to play, not having to

stay in to study etc; Figueroa in another paper asserts that boys socialization is in fact not

conducive to academic achievement. He contends that their being allowed to go out to play after

school etc while female gender roles help them gain successful studious behavior is the cause. As

Jha and Kelleher (2006) put it girls early childhood socialization and their role within the

household works well with the demands of homework and reading, whereas the social space

occupied by boys rejects this. Figueroa (1996) adds that as long as boys continue to be

marginalized from house chores they are likely to be increasingly marginalized in the class room

thus underperforming. Men are also marginalized in the family in another way when they have

seasonal jobs with low wages. By this they are prevented from being proper breadwinners and

thus they get labeled as marginalized and they start a cycle of marginalization which enables

their sons to be marginalized also.

Men further marginalize and subjugate each other by remote manipulation of their access to

commodities, services, capital and symbols of material progress. It is in this fight that the

contemporary emasculation of the Caribbean man is understood .While they are busy fighting

each other and losing, women have emerged as the winners (Lindsay).This same patriarchal

order that had previously subordinated women has now liberated them. This liberation has

appeared to have many effects. These include educational advancement of women over men.


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More women seem to have been enrolled in university. And also in certain fields women tend to

do better than men. Another field of marginalization is employment, where more women tend to

be in the labour force than men (Miller 1986). And if we examine the profession of teaching we

could see that, many women are teachers men and opt out of teaching because it is seen as

inferior and low because women do it. As Parry put it occupations which are largely filled by

women hold little attraction for males. In this case we can ask then, if males are really

marginalized or if they marginalize themselves. We could say that they cause their own problems

with this train of thought. Another point was that they rather turn to illegal means to get money

so that they wont have the same salary in a low paying job as a woman. In reality, anything

illegal is a problem whether or not they get caught. So in addition of appearing to be

marginalized they get in trouble for doing illegal activity, which to me causes the real problem of

marginalization. Another problem also arises and that is once arrested for illegal activity they are

put into jail and the cycle continues because their children would be badly socialized. According

to Miller as cited in Lindsay, the cause of male marginalization can be located in the universal

patriarchal order which oppresses men and women alike. Naturally then, male privileging is

explained by this also. Young (1988) and many other writers agree that patriarchy is the

overarching structure of male dominance and privilege which is reflected in all social systems

and relations. Young (1988) asserts that a system of patriarchy allows men to dominate womens

bodies, labour and the fruits of their labour.

Miller draws the conclusion that the core of the problem lies in the interacting socializing

influences of school, home, church that reinforce each other and are increasingly socializing

black boys to accept marginality as a way of life.


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Understanding male marginalization of the Caribbean male as a problem is important because

we get to understand why men are absent from family life why they underperform in school, why

some commit crimes and why the cycle continues. Instead of pointing a blind finger at the men it

should be easier to understand now why they are absent and thus it should be easier to find

solutions to the problem. A big problem of marginalization is the literature which says that they

are marginalized when in truth and fact they are not. Many people argue that men are in fact not

marginalized and that they marginalize themselves. For example, they are the ones who choose

not to have the same job as women and the academia follows this and perpetuates the problem.

What is needed is a paradigm shift that will help people particularly men to see that nothing is

wrong with sharing the same gender space as a women and thus they will feel comfortable with

getting equal jobs .This helps men and boys because they wont end up in jail for doing illegal

activities. Also once this paradigm shift is achieved then socialization processes of boys will be

different and the problem will slowly diminish. Figueroa in his 2006 paper states that gender

socialization and culture and expectations create a wide range of problems, not only for boys but

girls too. But these problems are not universal. There are high performing boys in areas such as

language and the humanities where girls have the upper hand just as there are high performing

girls in technical drawing and engineering where boys tend to dominate. Figueroa asserts further

that rather than finding solutions like segregating class rooms , solutions to the boys weaknesses

such as reading or language usage should be considered.

Rather than seeking to make classrooms boy friendly to deal with their boredom we need to ask

what is it in the educational system that causes so many children to tune out


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The second issue is masculinity and violence. There are many misconceptions of masculinity

and violence. Many people probably never made the link between maleness and violence .Some

people say that men are violent because its in their genes, or that aggressiveness is innate, so

why arent all men violent? The gender perspective of this issue will give us an answer.

Academics battle between the essentialists view that men are naturally violent and the counter

view that violence is socially caused. Kaufman (1987) observed that in our patriarchal societies it

is men who are at the top of most spheres. For example the majority of men are in the prisons,

majority of men engage in wars, even inter country wars can be said to be of men because they

are usually the ones in charge. He asserted that mens domination of the violent field is the

product of their socialization. Kaufman puts forward a theory of violence called the triad of

violence. It asserts that men are violent in three ways and that is to themselves first then to

women and lastly to other men. Mens violence towards women is an expression of the fragility

of the masculinity which means that masculinity is not biological but ideological and also male

power. Male violence is premised on the active-passive split between men and women. In short

Kaufman asserts that boys equate penis with power and those without one are usually the ones

without power. Also he says that when men feel inferior to women for example when they cant

get a certain girl they are apt to display certain forms of violence like rape or beating. The violent

acts against other men are quite evident in society. It is accepted and ritualized and it is most

commonly found in sports or economic relationships etc. Relations of power play an important

role in the meetings of men. Violence occurs because the men are taught not to back down from

other men especially those who challenge their masculinity. Passivity is not considered to be

masculine. Violence among men is caused by the surplus repression that stops men from being

able to express normal human emotions, like women do. That constant denying of emotions


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build up and is considered a perpetual act of violence towards themselves. Thus surplus

aggressiveness occur , and this is more socially accepted for men.

Understanding this issue as a problem is important for us all because we are affected in some

way or another by male violence. The problem here for boys and men is that they are not able to

express themselves as truly human, thus they end up being something short of human for the

sake of being masculine. A good solution to this problem would be for the academics to broaden

the definition of what the hegemonic masculinity is and thus men would be able to express

themselves as human. So there would be no barriers between men and women in terms of how

they express themselves for example. There should be no emotion in excess or no virtue in

excess or deficit for that matter. So to say that man should be strong in the face of problems for

example and never show emotion is flawed. In my view I believe that to achieve true equality

between men and women it should start here. In this way women also would be able to display

certain qualities that are known to be masculine.

To conclude, I hope that you can seriously consider these issues and make them your own,

especially because they affect you more than you know.


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Reference List

1) Figueroa, M. (1996).Male Privileging and Male Academic Performance in Jamaica. FromMasculinity: Towards a Research Agenda-A Symposium.

2) Kaufman, M.(1987) The construction of Masculinity and the Triad of Mens violence inKaufman, M (ed), Beyond Patriarchy: Essays by Men on Pleasure, Power and

Change,(pp2-29).Toronto & New York. Oxford University Press.

3) Jha, J. & Kelleher, F. (2006).Boys Underachievement in Education: Exploration inSelected Commonwealth Countries.Commonwealth Secretariat and Commonwealth of

Learning.

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