Writeboard...

http://123.writeboard.com/bd3bf92bf56888a77

Self Evaluation...

Grading should be1-5: 1 = excellent, 2 = v. good, 3 = good/average, 4 = poor, 5 = v. poor)

Attainment: B, despite the last essay grade i recieved being a C+, I feel that generally my work is at a high standard and with some more effort can easily be increased to an A grade.

Effort: 2

Punctuality: 2

Submission and quality of homework: 2

Ability to work independently: 1

Quality of writing: 2

Organisation of Media folder: 1

Oral contributions in class: 2

Homophobia in Black Popular Culture ...

Some of the ways that the Christian Right-wing has been so successful in using same-sex marriaige as a wedge issue is by both exploiting homophobia in the black community and also racism in the gay community. In regards to homophobia in the black community the focus of conversation has been about the Black Churches’ stance on homosexuality.

It has been said many times that while many black churches remain somewhat hostile places for non-heterosexual parishioners, it is also where you will in fact find many black gays and lesbians. Many of them are in positions of power and leadership within the church – ushers, choir members/directors, musicians, and even preachers themselves.

But let me debunk the myth that the Black Church is the black community. The black community is in no way monolithic, nor are black Christians. The vast majority of black people who identify as “Christian” do not attend any church whatsoever. Many black Americans have been Muslim for over a century and there are larger numbers of black people who are proudly identifying as Yoruba, Santero/a, and atheists as well.

The black community in America is also growing more ethnically diverse, with a larger, more visible presence of Africans, West Indians, and Afro-Latinos amongst our ranks. We have always been politically diverse, with conservatives, liberals, radicals and revolutionaries alike (and politics do not necessarily align with what religion you may identify as your own). It is also true that we are and have always been sexually diverse and multi-gendered. Many of our well-known Black History Month favorites were in fact Gay, Bisexual, Lesbian, or Transgender.
Despite our internal diversity, we are at a time (for the last 30 years) when black people are portrayed in the mass media—mostly through hip-hop culture—as being hyper-sexual and hyper-heterosexual to be specific. Nowhere is the performance of black masculinity more prevalent than in hip-hop culture, which is where the most palpable form of homophobia in American culture currently resides.

This of course is due largely to the white record industry’s notions of who we are, which they also sell to non-black people. Remember pop culture has for the last 150 years been presenting blackness to the world – initially as white performers in blackface, to black performers in black face, and currently to white, black and other racial groups performing blackness as something that connotes sexual potency and a propensity for violent behavior, which are also performed as heterosexuality.

And with the music video, performance is important (if not more) than song content. As black hip-hop artists perform gangsta and Black Nationalist revolutionary forms of masculinity alike, so follows overt homophobia and hostility to queer people, gay men in particular. Recently, DMX’s video and song “Where the Hood At?” contained some of the most blatant and hateful homophobic lyrics and images I have seen in about a decade.

The song suggests that the “faggot” can and will never be part of the “hood” for he is not a man. The song and video are particularly targeted at black men who are not out of the closet, and considered on the “down low.” Although challenged by DMX, the image of the “down low” brother is another form of performance of black masculinity, regardless of actual sexual preference.

But it’s not just “commercial” rap artists being homophobic. “Conscious” hip–hop artists such as Common, Dead Prez and Mos Def have also promoted homophobia through their lyrics, mostly around notions of “strong black families,” and since gay black men (in theory) do not have children, we are somehow anti-family and antithetical to what a “strong black man” should be.

Lesbians (who are not interested in performing sex acts for the pleasure of men voyeurs) are also seen as anti-family, and not a part of the black community. A woman “not wanting dick” in a nation where black dick is the only tangible power symbol for black men is seen as just plain crazy, which is also expressed in many hip-hop tunes. None of these artists interrogate their representations of masculinity in their music, but merely perform them for street credibility. And for white market consumption.

It cannot be taken lightly that white men are in control of the record industry as a whole (even with a few black entrepreneurs), and control what images get played. Young white suburban males are the largest consumer of hip-hop music. So performance of black masculinity (or black sexuality as a whole) is created by white men for white men. And since white men have always portrayed black men as sexually dangerous and black women as always sexually available (and sexual violence against black women is rarely taken seriously), simplistic representations of black sexuality as hyper-heterosexual are important to maintaining white supremacy and patriarchy, and control of black bodies.

Black people are merely the unfortunate middlemen in an exchange between white men. We consume the representations like the rest of America. And the more that black people are willing to accept these representations as fact rather than racist fiction, the more heightened homophobia in our communities tends to be.

http://www.nathanielturner.com/isgaymarriageantiblack.htm

Stuart Hall...

Hall's work covers issues of hegemony and cultural studies, taking a post-Gramscian stance. He regards language-use as operating within a framework of power, institutions and politics/economics. This view presents people as producers and consumers of culture at the same time. (Hegemony, in Gramscian theory, refers to the cultural production of 'consent' as opposed to 'coercion'.)

Stuart Hall has also addressed theoretically the issue of how people make sense of media texts. He parts from Althusser in emphasizing more scope for diversity of response to media texts. In a key paper, 'Encoding/Decoding', Stuart Hall (1980), argued that the dominant ideology is typically inscribed as the 'preferred reading' in a media text, but that this is not automatically adopted by readers. The social situations of readers/viewers/listeners may lead them to adopt different stances. 'Dominant' readings are produced by those whose social situation favours the preferred reading; 'negotiated' readings are produced by those who inflect the preferred reading to take account of their social position; and 'oppositional' readings are produced by those whose social position puts them into direct conflict with the preferred reading. Hall insists that there remain limits to interpretation: meaning cannot be simply 'private' and 'individual'

In order to see how hegemonic ideals of white supremacy hide themselves in current media, it is first necessary to illustrate the racist stereotypes which evolved in the media of a less liberal society

The first is the slave figure which could take the form of either the 'dependable, loving… devoted "Mammy" with the rolling eyes, or the faithful fieldhand… attached and devoted to "his" master' (Hall, 1995:21). The underlying message of such images is clear: the slave is someone who is willing to serve their master; their devotion allows a white audience to displace any guilt about their history of colonialism and slavery. The consequence of such messages relates to Gramsci's idea of 'spontaneous consent' (Strinati, 1995:165) or 'consensual control', whereby individuals '"voluntarily" assimilate the world-view or hegemony of the dominant group' (Ransome, 1992:150). Thus the practice of slavery has been made acceptable and therefore goes unquestioned; the destructive potential of such images is evident - especially when you consider that the slave figure is prominent in the classic film Gone With the Wind (Hall, 1995:21).

Although loving, the slave is simultaneously depicted as unpredictable and capable of 'turning nasty', taking us to the second of Hall's base images - the native (ibid:21). Their primitive nature means they are cheating, cunning, savage and barbarian. In movies, we expect them 'to appear at any moment out of the darkness to decapitate the beautiful heroine, kidnap the children … And against them is always counterposed the isolated white figure, alone "out there", confronting his Destiny' (ibid:21). The primitivism of black people demonstrates their suitability to their servile positions; the fear of their unpredictability provides justification for maintaining control over them, while the image of the civilised white man 'confronting his Destiny' makes the exercise of this control not only acceptable, but also respectable.

The last of Hall's variants is that of the clown or entertainer, implying an 'innate' humour in the black man (ibid:22). Interestingly, the distinction is never made as to whether we are laughing with or at the clown; overt racism is rare in the media rather, says Hall, it is 'inferential' (ibid:20). Tony Freeth (producer, director and active member of the Campaign Against Racism in the Media, CARM) adeptly puts this concept into the context of his experience of the BBC: 'It all takes place in an atmosphere of smiling, middle-class gentility, an air of righteous indignation if confronted with charges of racism. No one in TV shouts racist abuse at black people… No one in TV physically assaults black people, they simply feed us on a diet of "Blacks are the problem"' (Freeth, 1985:26-7). This, of course, is a more recent instance of inferential racism, but the implication is the same - that racism is inferred and reinforced in 'the routine structures of everyday thought' (Gitlin, 1994:517) that Gramsci says we should focus on.

http://www.theory.org.uk/ctr-rol6.htm

Queer Theory

Queer theory began as a branch of philosophical investigations of what is known as third wave feminism and gay and lesbian studies. However, in the last 15 years, the term has taken shape as a new branch of thought that is suffused throughout the disciplines. Queer theory’s main project is exploring the contestations of the categorization of gender and sexuality.

In the dance...

The new era of dancehall begun: 'ghetto violence, spliffs and woman'...Supercat and Nicodemus were two of the biggest deejays of the 80's and early 90's.

Cultural Times...

'Ten years of independace and what's it done for me?'

That was the question on the lips of so many youngsters at the beginning of the 1970's. Jamaica was in a deep social and economic mire as a result of independance and the political choices in the following years.

Early jamaica as an independant country saw a decline in the economy, as major forces like Britain and the USA were finding business elsewhere, i.e. caribbean sugar cane was no more needed as their was a cheaper European kind available and all that was left to look foward to was high unemployment and increasing trade deficits. Policies introduced by the newly formed, american influemced Labour party lead to hard times: double figured inflation, food shortages and a poor welfare system, which lead to riots and civil unrest, but naturally such disatisfaction was going to make its presence felt in the music of the day. The real birth Dancehall was in the dances where their was no form of censorship so the genuine passion and anger could be released by the deejays that it moved the crowds and found enormous popular support in Jamaica, but to gain a more powerful status an political effect worldwide and in particularly intersted UK, the deejays and riddims needed to be recorded and cut to songs.

The release of film 'The harder they come' in the early 70's was the main tool in supporting the rastafari roots movement an exposing it to the overground. This was followed by 1972's ellection of Micheal Manley's left wing PNP(People National Party) who also heavily supported the rasta movement, in conjunction with the growing success and popularity of Bob Marley, Dennis Brown etc and biblical and spiritual messages, deejays reached unimaginable poetic heights the roots period was a time when Jamaican music was taking over the world.

However economic conditions worsened and although roots culture seemed to make so much social sense and appeared to be so strong as both a movement and a music, as reggae moved into the 80's roots started to dissapear. Some say the death of Bob Marley was the main cause of this, however the actuality of it was that the same reason for its beginning is the same reason for its demise, a new age of teenagers who had grown up with the poor conditions were ready for change and wanted to lift their people, entertain them, make them feel happy by letting them hear what they wanted to hear, a young generation fed up with roots that were thinking...'Ten years of roots and culture and what's it done for me?'

REGGAE: The Story Of Jamaican Music..

I found this useful book in the libary an it includes some key pointers on the history of dancehall and the genre in its early days: why it was created by that generation, its purpose etc. This is essential for my study as it will help me to compare the changes in contemporary and past, historic dancehall music, enabling me to provide evidence for answering my question.

The 1970's was the real beginning of Dancehall, as its own, a unique sounds that fused together instrumentals, called riddims and songs by artists called deejays. The deejays were not just vocalling the riddims at dances, they were cutting songs in the studio. The deejays were determined to take it bit further stylistically and use it to communicate their disatisfaction with life in general to their peers. This was the begin of the 'Roots 'n' Culture' movement and the deejays were at the forefront of the promotion of this movement and with their religious and spiritual, righteous perspectives on life, many Rastafarians soon became deejays. One 'roots', deejay and devout rasta, Big Youth, said 'We wanted to reach the people, to educate them to what was going on around them'.

In regards to a wider contextual reading on 70s in Jamaica, technology musical technology in particular was in a boom which was leading to the experimentation of reggae music, expanding its popularity and interest.

The introduction of deejays lead to early years of Dancehall being very much about spreading the word and telling story's that would entertain but also educate but most importantly be from each individual deejays perspective, which in many cases would be the same as they were going through the same struggles and resulted in the beggining of personal expression in the form of music to mass audiences.

Reggae, The Story Of Jamaican Music,BBC, Lloyd Bradley,2002, LDN

Title Change...

I know the main focuses of my independant study consist of Homosexuality, Black society and Reggae music however i have had trouble connecting these sub topics into the form of a suitable question that can be answered in the essay format, so i have decided to change my question to...

'Reggay Boyz: Is contemporary Reggae music being used by black males as a form of personal expression to promote homophobic attitudes, resulting in the objection towards homosexuality becoming a dominant ideology within society? With reference to the Reggae sub-genre Dancehall.'

1st Paragraph...

Is contemporary reggae music being used by black males as a form of personal expression to promote homophobic values as a dominant ideology? With reference to the Reggae sub genre, Dancehall.

Homophobia has always been a dominant ideology within the black community, with the slightest mentioning of homosexuality envoking sour faces and harsh words its no suprise that young black males are using their power and influence as musical artists to promote their own perspectives on the issue through the vessell known as the increasingly popular reggae sub genre, Dancehall. But with songs such as Elephant Man's 'Log On', Buju Banton's 'Boom Bye Bye' and Capleton's 'Bun Out Di Chi Chi' calling for the death of homosexuals, surely artists are conforming to the Hypodemic needle model created by The Frankfurt School of theorists taking advantage of passive audiences who fall victim to cultural homogenisation as they are being injected the homophobic attitudes that have been constructed by the Dancehall artists.

Essay Plan...

Is contemporary reggae music being used by black males as a form of personal expression to promote homophobic attitudes, resulting in the objection towards homosexuality becoming a dominant ideology within society? With reference to the reggae sub genre, Dancehall.

[The main structure or viewpoint of my argument is that YES, contemporary reggae music is being used by black males as a form of personal expression to promote homophobic values as a dominant ideology.

Firstly, I will introduce the topic and argument, giving a few brief examples of songs and artists that have been caught up in this issue, I will also make clear the importance of ideology and the briefly touch on the way homophobia as a dominant way of living could effect society, looking at audience reception theory, hegemony etc.

I will then consider why this seems to be such a major problem in the black community, giving me a chance to call upon, Nandy, colonialism, the 'Other', Stuart Hall research into the black clown, queer theory and also the so called crisis in masculinity.

In addition I will go on to look at contemporary reggae music, Dancehall and its immense popularity, in more depth and really starting to analyse the problem, introducing their counterparts such as gay rights group Outrage! and their protests.

I will then compare contemporary dancehall music to the original form of reggae music that was more politically and historically aware and inspiring, looking at Bob Marley, the roots movement and the domination of the rastafari, but whilst doing this comparison I will take into consideration the wider contexts of the time in which contemporary reggae music was made and the historical reggae music was made...Considering social, historical, economical and political influences at each respective times. Whilst looking at original reggae texts in the 70s I will then look to the late 80s and early 90s when things changed and when doing this will talk about the 'coming out' phenomenon giving a brief background on homosexuality and its worldwide growth. It will also give me a chance to slightly talk about post-feminism and the empowerment of women after the 2nd wave of feminism in the 70s and the effect that might of had on the way men thought of women.

The comparison in effect providing an understanding as to musically WHY the attitude has changed

However it is important that while I consider various theories etc, I must link them to its effect on the black community as that will provide essential evidence in proving that many black males have grown to be homophobic and are now pumping those values through their music.

After this I will then offer an opposing argument to the question...mentioning the rastafari beliefs that it is their right and duty to talk about things that oppose rastafari or Jah, I will also talk about the extreme popularity of Dancehall music within mainly white European countries that are much more accepting of homosexuality which surely rubbishes the suggestions provoked by the question also talking about the rising phenomenon of 'gay ragga dances' implying that dancehall music is simply a form of entertainment and is having no alternative effect on audiences worldwide.

I will finish the essay by concluding the argument by picking the key points of my evidence that has already been displayed in the essay to say the homophobic attitudes of the majority of young black males artists combined with their 'availability' to spread their own thoughts through music to a passive audiences (reception theory, hegemony) is resulting in a campaign to promote the objection of homosexuality as a dominant ideology in society.]

Books:

Bradley, Lloyd: Reggae: The Story Of Jamaican Music. London: BBC.

Wilton, Tamsin: Sexual (Dis) Orientation: Gender, Sex, Desire and Self fashioning. Palgrave Macmillan.

Archer, John and Lloyd, Barbara: Sex and Gender. Cambridge University Press

Connel, R.W.: Gender and Power. Blackwell Publishers

Lancaster, Roger and di Leonardo, Michaela: The Gender and Sexuality Reader. Routledge

Clark, Vivienne and Baker, James and Lewis, Eileen: Key Concepts and Skills for Media Studies. Hodder and Stoughton

MacKinnon, Kenneth: Representing men: Maleness and Masculinity in the Media. London. Arnold Publishers

Hall, Stuart: "Cultural Studies: two paradigms" in Media, Culture and Society 2, London.

Hall, Stuart: Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices, London.

Websites:

http://media.guardian.co.uk/race/0,11027,584215,00.html

http://www.queertheory.com

http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/sections/display.php?subcat=Queer+Theory&cat=Gender%2C+Ethnicity

http://theoryhead.com/gender/

http://www.uiowa.edu/~commstud/resources/GenderMedia/index.html

http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/sections/go.php?url=

http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Students/ota9902.zip&f=1

http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Students/mtw9402.html

http://www.queerculturalcenter.org/

http://archive.salon.com/news/col/crouch/2000/04/19/images/index.html?CP=SAL&DN=110

Historical Texts...

Starting from the mid 80's and predominantly in the late 90's and 2000's Dancehall music has taken on a new persona, employing sexually explicit content, talk of violence and the creation of new dance moves, however things were different in the 1970's when the roots movement was in place.

Bob Marley's 'No Woman No Cry' released in 1974 was a major record of the decade and claimed worldwide exposure and success.

'No woman no cry

No woman no cry

Said - said - said: I remember when we used to sitIn the government yard in trenchtown,

Oba - obaserving the ypocrites

As they would mingle with the good people we meet.

Good friends we have, oh, good friends weve lost

Along the way.

In this great future, you cant forget your past;

So dry your tears, I seh.

I remember when we used to sitIn the government yard in trenchtown.

And then georgie would make the fire lights,

As it was logwood burnin through the nights.

Then we would cook cornmeal porridge,

Of which Ill share with you;

My feet is my only carriage,

So Ive got to push on through.

Everythings gonna be all right!

Everythings gonna be all right!'

The lyrics to one of the biggest Reggae songs of the 1970s not just in jamaica but on a worldwide scale, depicts the story of Bob Marley, it promotes a righteous message, addressing the poor political and economical state of the country at the time and delving into his religious beliefs and ethical morales to reassure and uplift people through music, quote 'Everythings gonna be all right!'

Another historicat text, that is more recent then the previous is Buju Banton's 'Boom bye bye' which was released in 1990 but is still one of the hottest tunes on a DJ's playlist. The songs outrageous lyrics calls for the shooting of homosexuals can clearly presents the artists disagreement with homosexuality. Similarly to the1970s hit by Bob Marley the song is a form of personal expression addressing current world issues, where Bob Marley addresses the poor political and economical state of Jamaica and offering an uplifting way out, Buju Banton addresses the boom of 'coming out' that had exploded during the late 80s and 90s and offered in from his own perspective a way out of this so called 'problem'.

However has the importance and purpose of the dancehall deejay been missused to promote Buju personal homophobic values in an attempt to persuade the rest of the world to think the same, to in effect; 'spread the message', to create reinforce a dominant ideology alreadt imprinted in the black community. Surely the freedom of speach that Bob Marley adopted was much fairer then the one taken upon by Buju Banton?

A short reminder of the lyrics to 'Boom bye bye'...

'Its like Boom bye bye

Inna batty bwoy head

Rude bwoy no promote no nasty man

Dem haffi dead'

A general picture of disaprovement at homosexuality can be gained just by skim reading 4 lines in the song that refers to homosexuals as nasty men, batty boys and ends with the words dead.

This was the breaking of the barrier, the innovative party seasons of the late 80s and the 90s lead to change in Dancehall, a cockyness about the genre emerged, deejays were saying and doing whatever they wanted and sex was the main thing on their agenda. A style of deejaying was created; slackness and it included 'ghetto violence' and the love of the 'splif' but was predominantly about the 'gyals dem', it didnt get as sexually explicit until the 2000 era however the love for women was a big topic for male dancehall deejay's but why?

The heavy influence of the USA on Jamaican music once again proved strong, as R'N'B and Hip Hop were booming in the music industry and Rappers like Snoop Dogg, Tupac, Biggie Smalls and even singers like R.Kelly were more often or not talking about women in their records, this was reflected in dancehall music, artists were becoming more famous and getting the most female attention they had ever seen, so the 'reality factor' that surrounds dancehall music surely allowed deejays to tell audiences about their new found interest in girls. This was a concept that would stick with Dancehall music to this very present day and reinforced the stereotypes that were given to black people by slave masters in the time of slavery as a very 'promiscous people'.

But what relevance does this have to Homophobia and homosexuality? Well it seems to be quite obvious doesnt it? With every big deejay on the circuit talking about the 'gyal dem', Shabba Ranks, Supercat, Nicodemus, Bounty Killer, Yellowman and Beenie Man' it was essential to keep up with the pace and to be the best deejay, you had to have to best lyrics and the most 'gyal dem'. This combined with the wider context of the 'coming out' phenomenon lead to deejays denouncing homosexuals to prove how manly they were, how different they were to homosexuals and how they were the ones that could please the 'gyal dem'. So the condemning of hoomosexuals began, but in addition the phenomenon of 'clashing' between dancehall deejays erupted onto the scene, with deejays having lyrical wars to prove who was the best and as this phase of masculinity was so important within the artists, it would be the 'ultimate diss' to call your rival deejay a 'batty bwoy' and getting one over on him, lyrically. So there you have it, the 'batty bwoy' phenomenon had begun.

More historical texts include Buju Banton's 'Batty Rider', Shabba Ranks 'Trailer Load A Girls' and 'Love Punaany Bad' are all major releases in the early 90's that summed up the sexual content that most deejays were promoting.

However the other dancehall deejay's such, mainly rastafari's such as Capleton were also speaking up about homosexuals. The rasts deejays provided most of the dancehall music explained poverty and politics and Jah and although they wid not talk about women and sex, they did condemn homosexuals and this is mainly down to the fact that they are a very religious people who have strong beliefs, as Capleton explains as justification for his lyrics 'Blood out di chi chi, bun out di chi chi' calling for the death of homosexuals he says 'it is his right and duty to speak out against issues that are abhorrent to the views of Rastafari', which also seems to be view of fellow deejay Buju Banton who released the controversial 'Boom bye bye'.

The Other...

'The representative entity outside the self - that is, outside one's own gender, social group, class,
culture, civilisation - is the Other.'

The Other is based on personal preference, an individual decides on their demographic and their personal make up and anyone who opposes certain characterstics can be classed as the other. Some examples of what i could consider as my other are someone; white and homosexual.

The Other is often opposed as we put them down, discriminate against them, show hatred portray them as cowardly, untrustworthy creating and reinforcing our beliefs about the Other on stereotypes.

This theory of the Other can be closely linked with the theory of Levi Strauss's Binary Opposition, as the other is considered the binary opposite of oneself.

The physcoanalytic theory also known as the projection theory suggests that the qualities we seem to dislike about the 'Other' can be often found within ourself, implying some form of hypocrit that projects the anger or dislike they have at themselves on other people.

In this case, a vast majority of the black community, especially the young males see themselves strong masculine, black alpha males and therefore their opposed is the white homosexual who is a target of the discrimination and hatred.

By infering on well known theorist, Ashis Nandy's South Asian Cultural studiesand refering them into the context of the Afro-Caribbean society we can imply that the black, male slaves who were involved in both orignal slavery and the suppression of the British empire were brutalised and reversed in personality, from being religious, inteligent, tender and caring people in a way feminine but in result masculine to males with an exagerated and brutish projected masculinity, which has been carried over years and is now the common characteristic of a black male, to be loud and cocky with thier masculinity in a very stereotypically, manly and butch way, this could be looked upon as a result of cultural imperialism. Therefore their 'Other' is then considered to be the tender, caring, what appears to be feminine characters who are discriminated upon through the vessel that is Dancehall music.

This is considered as the dehumanization of the colonizers and the brutalisation of the colonized.

This not a concrete statement, it is simply an implied suggestion based on Nandy theory and is in no way targeted at black males, however it is an exploration into the reasons behind the clear issue of homophobia within the black community.

Are most black women so homophobic that they think most black men are on the "Down Low"?

Here is an interesting blog discussion i found on yahoo....

I wonder if because of the culture shock of the "Down Low" in black culture, that many black women have become homophobic enough to think if a black guy doesn't act like the stereotypical thug or tough guy the media portrays, that he must be on the Down Low.

Especially after Oprah who brought this up on her show a while back. I see Black TV shows like "Girl friends" making jokes about guys being on the Down Low. Enough to the point that I've started to wonder if black women look so hard for it, that they discrinimate black guys by not dating them if they even look different than the media-stereotypical black guy.

I remember one show where a black girl was looking for a date, saw a guy standing at a bar in the club, & simply because he was dressed too nice, she ruled him out as a penis sitter. She then went out with the most thugged out dude there.

Is this the message we're sending black people? That a guy must look, sound, and act like a convict to been seen as a straight man?

Additional Details

2 months agoTab H - Exactly. I've been thinking that same thing for a long time for the same reason. It's funny to me that I'm a short light skinned black guy, which in black culture your considered weak, or unmanly unless your tall and dark. Yet, it's usually the big tall dark thuggish dudes who would act real gay when no girls are looking. (Not all ofcourse, not trying to discriminate)

2 months ago Omode Osun & Gigglebox - This is one reason why I married a girl from a different culture. Most black women have so many problems with black men already, and yet they add another problem by even thinking your gay/bi if you don't act like a convict idiot as well. Not all black women of course, but a lot.

2 months ago Rabbit - I got my information from life experience of seeing it happen to many guys in real life and portrayed in the media. I didn't make this up. Also, you should be happy that you aren't like many black women, that you actually date guys because of who they are and not how stereotypical they seem. In my experience in living around and dating black women, they really do usually date the stereotypical black guy portrays in the media. One of my ex's is engaged to one knowing full well he's a piece of trash in every way. Again, I'm not making this up, I've experienced it.

I think this discussion subverts its focus on women's homophobia and highlights the pressures on black males to conform to the conventions of a real man, which provides a basis for an explanation on why the black society, males in particular are so content on being pro-male, promoting their masculinity and condemning homosexuals and homosexuality.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20061114083344AACLP5u

Outrage!

'The OutRage! art of activism, where style and symbolism are used to claim gay space, create public awareness of discrimination, challenge homophobia and promote a queer liberation agenda' OutRage! is a direct action campaigning group in the United Kingdom which was formed to fight for the rights of lesbian, gay and bisexual people. It is a radical group which has frequently been criticised for being extremist; members have been arrested on some OutRage! actions. For a time in the mid-1990s, some OutRage! actions were perceived as being a version of outing, where gay activists assert the private homosexuality of public figures as part of a political campaign.
OutRage! have also made complaints against what they allege to be the anti-gay lyrics of certain dancehall stars such as Buju Banton and Sizzla, and based on their own translations of Rastafari oriented Jamaican Creole/Patois. Sizzla had to cancel concert dates due to the protests of OutRage! who are the main representatives on the topic of homophobia in Dancehall in the UK.

REGGAY BOYZ....

'The Observer' has a monthly music pullout and November's edition was no exception however it was titled 'The gay issue' as it was devoted to celebrating homosxuality and everything that comes with it. To cut a long story short, inside the issue i found an article that exposed the gay ragga scene, something i had never heard of and didnt think i would ever hear of.

The article ironically named 'Reggay Boyz', a changed spelling playing on the phrase and meaning of the jamaican national football team's alias, 'The Reggae Boyz' highlighted the emerging popularity in the night clubs such as Bootylicious, Tease, Blessence and Fruit Machine which i quote are proving to be some of the 'most thrilling and fresh on the gay scene', which has reached London, Manchester, Birmingham and Nottingham.

Although the article concentrates on the irony of the popularity of ragga, dancehall sounds in gay night clubs it also seems to celebrate the growing popularity of the music in general, stating that 'a sound played at the end of the night in the back rooms has now become the principal rhythm.

A few quotes from the article....

'THE STRAIGHT SCENE IS GETTING A BIT VIOLENT. THERE ARE NO GUNS ON THE GAY SCENE.'

'A NEW GENERATION OF YOUNG OF BLACK MEN LOVE HEARING THEIR MUSIC IN GAY CONTEXT.