Gender Roles In The Caribbean

“My dear boy, no woman is a genius. Women are a decorative sex. They never have anything to say, but they say it charmingly. Women represent the triumph of matter over mind, just as men represent the triumph of mind over morals.” -Oscar Wilde. Majority of the Caribbean society is influenced by media, as a result, the relationship between males and females is also influenced greatly. Media include but not limited to, television, radio, newspaper, and internet. Children are being socialized at an early age how to relate to each other; later creating a gap between the male and female roles known as ‘gender roles’. The media has fabricated a Caribbean society of gender stereotypes both modern and traditional. The media influences the rations

We tend to forget that not all things in the media are true; we sometimes lock the capacity of differentiating between fiction and non-fiction, as a result, we build a relationship with false information. A song done by Buju Banton sings “man fi have nuff gal and gal in a bungle” This is very evident in the Caribbean right now. It is totally fine for a man to have more than one partner while women should have one partner and as soon as he is finished with her someone else take his Place. Women are seen as a sex symbol. The perception of sex is that the woman should always be available to satisfy the sexual needs of men. The media creates social norms; changing the world 's perception of the relationship between males and females, that is to say, we perceive ‘hooking up’ with a total stranger as normal, as a result, we have men walking away from their responsibility, leaving women to be single parent mothers. This is in keeping with a 2013 State of the World Population Report which reported that girls are becoming mothers before their eighteenth birthday. With a birth rate of 72 per 1,000 adolescent girls, Jamaica lags only behind Belize, 90, and Guyana, 97. Many of the movies we watch and music we listen to fail to promote marriage but rather to promote two people having ‘casual’ sex. The term Friend with Benefits (FWB) is currently being used a lot in the media while also manifesting in modern relationships; this means having sex

The movie 's producers and directors are embracing homosexual scenes; there are females who are involved with other females and males with males. They even go as far as raising a family. There are cereal commercials that are now using same-sex families to advertise their products. The children at an early age are being modernized by media too; early childhood institution is presented with books that have same-sex families. The responsibility of the teacher is to bring across the content of the book to the student. These children are being socialized whether to embrace this sexuality or reject this sexuality; it also affects the way they relate to each other. A boy came to school excited to see his friend and hugged him and his reply was “nuh touch mi, mi nuh love man” it is not acceptable anymore for a boy to hug a boy or man to kiss a man even on his cheeks. The media may or not be aware of this, but media creates norms in society. They decide what is acceptable or not; they empower individuals as well as creating low self-esteem. The language is also affected by this evolving sexuality. The words we say will give the wrong impression to others. We now have the ‘straight language’ and the ‘homosexual language’. The word ‘funny’ is no longer humor but rather talking about our sexual orientation. The way we dress changes the way we are