![]() The dances practised now are obviously inspired by more than our history, including trends in music and music videos and new takes on old moves emerging across the African diaspora. There has always been gyration, expressions of happiness and what we may now see as theatrics. It is not a great departure from the body movements of our ancestors, or their celebrations of womanhood. The girls in the video dance, and the way they dance is not unlike the way people in their 20s or 30s dance, or danced when they were in high school. It is the easy way out of a serious conversation about the outright refusal to see women and girls as human beings. It is far too dehumanizing for the other. Our bodies are automatically reduced to orifices and incubators and some would have us believe this is the natural order of things, that men and women are wired this way, but that is far too convenient for one sex. Still, our bodies are not seen like the bodies of men and boys. When our presence it noticed, the first thing people see is our bodies because it is the most visible part of ourselves. By doing any of these things, we become human and our existence is noticed. Girls are not to laugh too loudly, speak too much, or show too much of their bodies. ![]() ![]() We are told to make ourselves smaller and quieter. There are always people and policies insisting we must have done something wrong to attract unwanted attention, and that it is our job to regulate the behaviour of men and boys because they, by nature, have no self control.įrom a young age, girls are taught to dress, sit, walk and speak in specific ways so that as girl, and later on as women, can protect ourselves. This is not unlike the recent debates in the US about girls being sent home for wearing clothes school administration considered potentially “distracting” to boys, or the trial women and girls are on when they report sexual assault. Whose fault is this? Who should be punished? What could she do better, or just differently, to stop our minds from arriving at the wrong conclusions? Is it her job to fix or control our thought processes? She might be considered sexy by boys and men alike. She is a teenager living in a body that could easily belong to an adult. How could her body be that size and shape? Why would she move it in that way? What made her wear that? Didn’t she know how she would look?Īlready, before getting to the content or the context of the video, this student was at fault for something. They decided, of course, this was her fault. Most people seemed to mistake one of the students for a teacher. In conversations about the video, there were far too many comments about the bodies of the girls shown dancing. Are they having sex? How? Do they have boyfriends? Do they know how they look, particularly to men and boys? Are they dressing appropriately, deflecting attention and avoiding the male gaze? As breasts grow, hips widen and curves form, people start to wonder about their sexual lives. ![]() As girls’ bodies change, they are subjected to the lustful attention of men and boys, but also to the judgment of society at large which makes absurd assumptions about them. Misogynoir complicates this for black girls who deal with a double whammy - the intersection of gender and race. The bodies of women and girls have long been seen as dual-purpose - meant for the enjoyment of men during sex and repopulating the earth through its reproductive functions. Rather than examine the content of the video and its implications, I’m interested in focusing on the way we, Bahamian people of other (older) generations, talked about it and revealed our own truths. While it is perplexing that such an event took place on public school grounds, much of the conversation about it has blown it out of proportion and conveniently oversimplified some elements while amplifying and projecting preconceived ideas and prejudices on to others. Even if you haven’t seen the video, you probably have an image in mind and it’s probably no more exaggerated than the view of those who have seen it. This time around the country is scandalized by a video of high school girls participating in a dance competition on an in-school fun day. The general public is all-too-ready to point fingers at them, blame them for their circumstances and allow negative story lines to completely eclipse successes, progress and actions worthy of celebration. As usual, many clicked the play button with the intention of getting another excuse for perpetual disdain for anyone younger than them. ![]() ONCE again a video of high school students has made its rounds on social media. ![]()
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