“THIS IS SOME GIRLBOY MESS” Tomboyism in Jamaican dancehall

Abstract

Jamaican dancehall is a performative and musical space for celebration of life, cultural expression and creation. Dancehall is mainly practiced by working-class Jamaicans and can be seen as cultural resistance against structural violence and injustice. Dancehall is a gender structured and male dominated scene where women and men perform different parts of the dancehall. The dancehall culture is often criticized for being violent, inappropriate and hypersexual, mainly because of the erotic and sexual sphere of dancehall lyrics and the female dancehall dancing, where specific parts of the female body are in focus. The aim of this study is to examine how tomboy identity is expressed and navigated in dancehall dance by a specific group of Jamaican female dancehall dancers. This is examined through theories of gender, tomboyism, agency and performativity. The material gathered is mainly through Jamaican women’s own voices from three in-depth interviews, each interview had a duration of 2-3 hours, and also through previous field experience. Some background material is from social media, and lastly some material from prior experience in the dancehall culture from a total of five trips to Jamaican dancehall, where each trip was 4-9 weeks long. The limitation of my informants is women identifying themselves with a tomboy or gender creative identity. The thesis shows that dancehall dancing is a tool to reach an embodied experience and express identity. It also shows how tomboyism is connected to a sense of protection and power. The thesis is written in english.