I was listening to a
Jamaican radio program the other day and they were talking about how rape was
formerly part of the Jamaican culture. It was two male hosts and although I had
no doubt they were serious there was playfulness about the way they approached
the subject, being a Jamaican it made me sit up and listen but I did feel
awkward. They laughed as they talked about when girls said no in Jamaica it
meant nothing because men took it to mean yes and would basically force
themselves onto the woman. Mostly men called in and one mentioned that when he
came to America his mother made sure to tell him “no” meant no in America, and
not the yes it implied in Jamaica. I gathered from listening that the point of
the topic was to say that was then and this is now, back then men forced
themselves and now they respect when the woman says no. However, there was something that just didn’t
feel right about the conversation.
Just then a particular
party came to mind, was in Jamaica and I attended a local party on Negril beach
where they played a song by a local DJ whose lyrics referred to having “raper
blood”, you got it “rape-r blood”. Raper blood was aggression towards
women in a sexual way, about forcing oneself on a woman, in essence raping her.
When that song came on the crowd went wild screaming and cheering, male and
female.
