dolution

Social and Economic Studies 62: 1 (2013): 53– 78 ISSN: 0037-7651 Don’t Hate Me ‘Cause I’m Pretty: Race, Gender and The Bleached Body in Jamaica Winnifred Brown-Glaude ABSTRACT This essay offers an interpretive textual analysis of newspaper articles, music lyrics and internet commentaries on skin bleaching in Jamaica, with a particular focus on dancehall artist Vybz Kartel. I argue that bleached bodies exemplify a liminal state of embodiment and are not definable within normative racial and gender frameworks that conceptualise race and gender as discrete, static identities that are clearly visible on the body. By disrupting those frameworks, bleached bodies can create room for thinking about race, gender and bodies more broadly and inclusively. The essay is organised into four parts: I begin with a discussion of an event at the University of the West Indies in Mona, Jamaica, in March 2011, where dancehall artist Vybz Kartel gave a lecture about his life, art and his decision to bleach his skin. Then I briefly discuss the literature on skin bleaching; this is followed by a theoretical discussion of race, gender and embodiment. Thirdly, 1 discuss my research methods and findings. Finally, I discuss ways in which Kartel’s bleached body expose and challenge normative frameworks of race and gender in Jamaica. ‘Pretty Like a Colouring Book’ On 10 March 2011, Vybz Kartel, a controversial dancehall’ artist, gave a lecture at the University of the West Indies (UWI) in Kingston, Jamaica. Kartel’s invitation to the university emerged out of a brief public exchange between himself and Carolyn Cooper, Professor of Literary and Cultural Studies at UWI, who publicly criticised Kartel for engaging in the practice of skin bleaching, a form of body modification that uses a variety of chemicals to lighten one’s skin colour.? In editorials in The Daily Gleaner, one of Jamaica’s 1 Dancehall is a genre of Jamaican music developed in the late 1970s that consists of a deejay rapping over a reggae-like beat. 2 This practice is also referred to as skin whitening and/or skin lightening (Amgborale Blay 2011; Nakano-Glenn 2009).