Gender, Generation and Negotiation: Young Indo-Trinidadian Women's Identities in the Late Twentieth...

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4. Chapter Four: “To be looked upon as women”: Establishing theboundaries of ‘appropriate’ womanhoods

4.1 Introduction

This chapter explores religious, family, Indo-Trinidadian ‘community’ and media

messageways1, and their messages regarding ‘appropriate’ ways for Indo-

Trinidadian girls to ‘carry’ and ‘conduct’2 themselves in public. Using survey

data, derived from the responses of girls’ in school and working in Tunapuna, it

examines how overlapping and diverging womanhoods both establish and

destabilize the regulatory ideals that mark ‘authenticity’, difference and belonging

in Indo-Trinidadian girls’ lives.

4.2 Establishing Boundaries

For the girls in this study, dress, appearance and public behaviour are intimately

connected to their ability to access acceptance and belonging in different spaces.

Even if they disagree, they are very aware that approval can hinge on appearing to

follow particular feminine ideals. These ideals are not static or consistent.

Consequently, the meanings attached to how these girls carry themselves also

shift. As their responses show, notions of respectability and reputation, morality

and immorality, and ‘tradition’ and ‘modernity’ are implicated in imperatives

regarding how young women should appear in public. However, their responses

also suggest that heterogeneous ideals undermine dualistic criteria for “insider”

1 Rubin (1961, 91) discusses how particular gendered roles and images may “be reinforced by thevalue system and by the “cultural messageways””. I build on this concept of “messageways” here.2 “Carrying yourself” and “conducting yourself” are everyday phrases that young women use.

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and “other” categories. The way a girl carries herself can therefore reproduce or

reposition the boundaries of what is ‘appropriate’.

4.2.1 Religious demands of re/presentation

As detailed in Appendix A, Indo-Trinidadian girls in the sample came from a

range of religious persuasions with Hindus representing almost 60% of the group

surveyed, and Christians and Muslims comprising 26% and just over 15%

respectively. However, little difference could be found in the messages that these

groups received. Non-Indo-Trinidadian girls’ responses also suggest that these

messages cross both religious and ethnic boundaries.

Table 2: Girls’ responses regarding the influence of religion on their values.

Response Indo-Trinidadian

Non-Indo-Trinidadian

Indo-Hindu

Indo-Muslim

Indo-Christian

Yes 86.0% 75.8% 83.7% 92.3% 87%No 14.0% 24.2% 16.3% 7.7% 13%Total 100% 100% 100% 100% 100%

As Table 2 suggests, over 75% of all girls in the sample stated that religion has an

influence on their lives. This was slightly more so for Indo-Trinidadian girls of all

religious groupings than for non-Indo-Trinidadians. In this regard, a Lakshmi

Girls' Hindu College student explained,

I am a better person because of it, I do not leantowards bad behaviour, drugs, teen pregnancy anddisobedience. I also gain a lot of knowledge and Iknow what is wrong or right. I know fromdeveloping my own personality that I do not chooseto do these things. (Fifteen-year-old, Indo-Pentecostal)

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However, young women’s responses also suggest dissent. In these instances, they

may term their alternative desires and contestations as forms of “hypocrisy”,

disobedience or disrespect to authority. It is also possible that even while obeying

these imperatives, they nonetheless view them as “unrealistic” or confined to the

religious sphere and see others who conform as “religious fanatics”. One Lakshmi

Girls' Hindu College student wrote,

It has to be someone imaginary because you wouldhave to dress in an acceptable fashion, should not beboisterous or anything along those lines. Everyonehas their faults” (Fifteen-year-old Indo-Presbyterian)

Different religious ideologies share overlapping messages. Additionally, almost

half of Indo-Trinidadians claim to regularly participate in inter-religious activities.

This is slightly more the case for Hindus in the sample (51%) than Muslims

(42%) and Christians (39%). Girls’ inter-religious participation is linked to having

an open-mind about others’ views, celebrating diverse national religious

holidays3, following (or being required to follow) parents’ different religious

beliefs, being taught a religion different from their own in school, and familiarity

with friends’, family’s and other groups’ religious beliefs and activities. As a St.

Augustine Girls' High School student explained,

This is Trinidad, you have so many religions it’ssilly not to get involved. (Fifteen-year-old, Indo-Muslim)

3 The four schools included in the survey all commemorate religious national holidays withactivities in class or morning assembly.

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Religious groups may, nonetheless, present their particular interpretation and

message in overt competition with others. This can leave girls “confused and

afraid” about what to believe. Yet, overlapping religious codes and spaces suggest

that, among Indo-Trinidadian girls, dress especially marks symbolic intra-group

differences while, nonetheless, underscoring a shared emphasis on female piety,

asexuality and morality.

Primarily, religious imperatives appear to emphasize traditional4 ideals and

material representation of female (sexual) “purity”, “obedience”, “devotion” and

“decency”. Not all religious messages are explicitly gendered. Rather, some

appear to be gender neutral, mixed or egalitarian. For example, about 15% of

Indo-Trinidadian girls felt that their religions taught them generally about “love

and service” and “trying to be the best you could”. Somewhat differently, almost

a third of (mainly Christian and Hindu) girls described a transitional mix of

religious messages to be “independent” as well as “understanding”, “responsible”,

“caring toward others” and “respectable” as “a representative of their family”.

Third, 15% believed their religions taught them “women and men are equal”. As a

fifteen-year-old5 Indo-Muslim, attending El Dorado Secondary Comprehensive

School, echoed, “Women are helpmates, neither higher or lower. They are entitled

to the same rights, except for being imams”. Similarly, a young Indo-Hindu

4 As discussed in Chapter Two, I take the framework of “traditional”, “transitional” and“egalitarian” ideals from Rayaprol (1997).5 While girls’ indicated their ages in categories such as fourteen to sixteen and seventeen tonineteen, for the purposes of brevity, I use median ages. Girls fourteen to sixteen are thereforereferred to as fifteen, girls seventeen to nineteen are described as eighteen years old and so on.

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explained, “Women and men are equal, because in Hinduism, some aspects of the

Lord are male and some are female”.

Yet, girls’ responses suggest that religious ideals primarily convey a traditional

ideology that equates femininity with gendered forms of ‘goodness’.

Reciprocally, to be “good”, “responsible” or even “respectable” is to appear

(‘appropriately’) feminine. As just less than 40% especially Christian and Muslim

girls, described, religious messages teach that “certain responsibilities come with

being a woman”. A majority of non-Indo-Trinidadians also expressed this view.

One young woman working in Tunapuna clearly articulated, women are taught to

Walk elegantly, obey elders, be modest, stand upfor herself, be independent, pure, well-behaved andstrong-willed, obedient and humble to parents andhusband, faithful to their husband, decent in allaspects, chaste, truthful and pious. (Twenty-one-year-old, Indo-Trinidadian, Seventh Day Adventist)

Young women in this group also felt that they were told “to preserve their

virginity” and to avoid pre-marital sex. Icons of woman as virgin, wife, mother,

keeper of tradition, devotee (or “consort”) and goddess reinforce the

naturalization of femininity as “goodness” and even “subservience”. As a

Lakshmi Girls' Hindu College student explained,

It is very important in Hinduism to be the perfectSita, the mother and giver. A woman should behavein such a way that she is loved and respected andlooked up to in society. (Fifteen-year-old, Indo-Hindu)

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Thus, just under 70% of both Indo-Trinidadian and non-Indo-Trinidadian girls

responded that religious codes teach them to “dress decently and conduct yourself

like a lady”. In other words, obedience and devotion are represented by “not

exposing yourself” nor be “seen talking with boys and men”. These messages

appear to create comparable ideals for girls of different ethnicities.

Ideals of purity are also drawn in contrast to women cast as ‘immoral’ and

‘deviant’. About 15% of Indo-Trinidadian girls and just over 10% of non-Indo-

Trinidadians used specific words such as “pure, virginal, not6 wild, a nun, not a

lesbian or whore, not a hypocrite and faithful to one partner” to mark the

boundaries of appropriate (sexual) behaviour. This suggests that “outsider”

boundaries overlap across ethnicity. The similar responses of Hindu, Muslim and

Christian girls also suggest that this emphasis on modesty, elegance and respect

for authority crosses religious differences.

Somewhat differently, girls in this study also describe women who are valued in

their religious communities for “having the freedom to speak their mind” and

“fighting for what they believe”. Young women notice instances when women

take on religious functions traditionally reserved for men such as “leading the

congregation, teaching and making presentations, acting as board members, and

organizing classes, committees and women’s groups”. Yet, one quarter of girls

still felt that women’s roles in their religious groups were primarily “cooking,

cleaning, serving, behaving and dressing properly, showing respect to the priest 6 All italics within quotes are added.

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and following their religion”. In other words, religious codes may encourage

females to “stand up for their rights” while nonetheless establishing that they

“must dress and act appropriately” in and out of religious spaces.

Concomitantly, a majority of almost 90% of young women from across ethnic and

religious groups reported dressing in “respectable” ways to go to their mandir,

mosque or church. As one Other mixed-identified, Roman Catholic girl described,

“to impress God”. Girls primarily defined “respectable” as “appropriately

covered, decent but stylish, wearing semi-formal clothes that fall below the knee,

clothes with sleeves, dress pants, long or Indian clothes like the Devis, dresses,

skirts and head cover sometimes”. This supports the view that wearing “Indian

clothes” specifically locates young Indo-Trinidadian women in the “realm of the

sacred” (Khan, 1995) and it exemplifies how notions of ‘tradition’ and

‘community’ underscore signifiers of female morality. Ways of carrying oneself

in religious settings therefore contribute to a sense of “holiness” and “a proper

frame of mind”, and make girls feel acceptance.

In this regard, almost 60% of Indo-Trinidadian girls felt they gained “happiness, a

will to go on and face the week, greater connection to God, feelings that he has

listened and forgiven me and I have his approval”. Almost one fifth further wrote

that they benefited from religious service by gaining an “ability to distinguish

right from wrong religiously”. For girls, and particularly Muslims, in this group,

this translated to feelings of “self-confidence, self-respect, self-control, blessings

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and guidance”. Two Indo-Hindu girls similarly explained, “I gain strength and

bravery for duty as a Hindu woman”, and “I gain grace, dignity and purity”.

While just over 10% responded that being able to “participate in my religion”

specifically enables “feelings of belonging”, it seems that a majority of these girls

expressed this sentiment in various ways.

These responses suggest that girls’ bodies and behaviour are not just the “sites”

(Handa 1997), but the means through which religious institutions regulate their

identities and demarcate the boundaries of ‘appropriate’ womanhood. Protective

discourses and notions of individual self-regulation are also linked to self-regard

and feelings of belonging. For example, girls wrote such things as, “I follow rules

because I am afraid of punishment if I sin” and “I act a certain way and dress

decently because of my self-control and religion”. Less than 10% of girls felt that

their religion “teaches nothing about women”. Girls in this latter group either

hardly attended religious service, primarily socialized when there or preferred to

“give praise” at home.

Whatever the message, across ethnicity and religion, they suggest bases for girls

to feel “positive” and “confident”, and act as forms of control regulating both

“good” behaviour and femininity. While independence, assertiveness and a sense

of equality are not necessarily discouraged, belonging is compromised by

“improper” dress or behaviour. Propriety appears to lie at the heart of acceptance

into religious communities. This is true for both high school and working girls.

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4.2.2 Family messages and shifting boundaries

In contrast to religious messages, family messages stress future educational and

occupational success and achievement. Though not emphasizing purity and piety,

young women’s families, nonetheless, expect them to carry themselves

“respectably” and “decently”. For example, a Lakshmi Girls' Hindu College

student wrote,

My family wants me to be a little more seriousabout my education, not too interested in boys yet,decent and less interested in liming. (Fifteen-year-old, Indo-Presbyterian)

In this sense, family messages can be considered “transitional” because they

contain “traditional”, “egalitarian” and mixed approaches to dress, behaviour and

sexuality. This range of messages may enable girls to shift or expand the

boundaries of insider femininity and to share more liberal, egalitarian and secular

values.

To some extent, family and religious messages overlap. In particular, as a few

Indo-Hindu and Indo-Muslim girls described, family religious involvement can

provide a “sense of values regarding how I dress, and respect myself and my

family background”. This may be especially true for Indo-Trinidadians whose

families’ host religious activities. For example, in comparison to 38% of non-

Indo-Trinidadian girls, 84% of Indo-Trinidadian girls have religious functions at

home. This group comprised 92% of Muslim girls, and about 82% of Hindu and

Christian girls. The religiously diverse nature of some girls’ households further

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suggests that family networks may convey inter-religious messages. As with the

girls in the sample, mothers and fathers of girls are primarily Hindu. Yet, as with

mothers, father’s religion may differ from that of their daughters7. In this regard,

over one third of girls report participating in inter-religious activities because of

inter-religious family and friends who value and support each other’s beliefs.

Family religious values also reinforce Indo-Trinidadian cultural knowledge and

feelings of ‘community’. This appears to be less true for Christian girls, than for

Hindus or Muslims. For example, a few Hindu and Muslim young women wrote

that their family’s religious participation enabled “more familiarity” with and

even “more love than most people” for Indo-Trinidadian culture. In contrast, one

Indo-Pentecostal attributed the fact that “now I participate less in Indian culture”

and “lean away from Indian culture” to her family’s and her own religious

involvement. Therefore, some family messages may conflate the demands of

religion, Indo-Trinidadian cultural ‘tradition’ and insider femininity. In this sense,

they also establish intra-religious difference among Indo-Trinidadian girls.

7 For example, one Indo-Trinidadian Hindu girl’s mother is Anglican, another’s Roman Catholicand three Indo-Trinidadian Hindu girls’ mothers are Muslim. Similarly, two Indo-TrinidadianMuslim girls’ mothers are Presbyterian/Congregational and one Indo-Trinidadian Muslim girl’smother is Pentecostal. Among Christians, an Indo-Trinidadian Presbyterian/Congregational girl’smother is Pentecostal and the mothers of three girls in the same group are Hindu. Among RomanCatholic girls, one Indo-Trinidadian girl’s mother is Hindu. One Afro-Trinidadian Hindu girl’sfather is Anglican (mother is a Dougla Hindu), and among Indo-Trinidadian Hindu girls, onefather is Buddhist, three Muslim and two Presbyterian/Congregational. Among Muslims, oneIndo-Trinidadian girl’s father is Roman Catholic. Similarly, two Indo-Trinidadian Roman Catholicgirls’ fathers are Hindu and one Indo-Trinidadian Roman Catholic girl’s father is a follower of SaiBaba. Finally, the fathers of four Indo-Trinidadian Presbyterian girls and one Indo-TrinidadianBorn Again Christian girl are Hindu.

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Finally, the family’s role socializing girls to be feminine or, at least, to interpret

“good” behaviour in feminine ways is very significant. For example, 75% of all

girls felt that their parents wanted them to be “independent, well educated and

successful” in addition to being “loving, caring, helpful, understanding and

humble”. On average, this proportion was true for Indo-Trinidadian, non-Indo-

Trinidadian and all religious groups. About 15% of girls particularly highlighted

family expectations to be an “ideal, perfect role model or saint, an exemplary

person and leader who is hardworking and kind”.

Table 3 examines girls’ responses about the kind of person they feel their parents

want them to be. With the exception of St. Augustine Girls' High School, the

largest proportion of girls felt that their parents want them to be good persons

with high values. In the case of St. Augustine Girls' High School, the majority

more often described very high family aspirations to be an “ideal” “role model or

saint”. In complete contrast, no young women working in Tunapuna mentioned

family aspirations for their independence, education and success. Rather, they

highlighted more easily accessible feminine qualities such as generosity,

understanding, humility, kindness, healthiness and a willingness to work hard.

They were also the only group, among a small number of mainly Hindu girls,

where no one felt that their families were happy with “who I am now”. Girls

attending St. Augustine Girls' High School seemed to feel most accepted. This

may signal the extent to which educational success offers young women family

approval, positive self-regard and the “pleasures of belonging”.

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Table 3: Indo-Trinidadian girls’ responses regarding the kind of person they feeltheir family wants them to be.

Type of person SAGHS8 TML Lakshmi ElDorado

Workinggirls

Person with good values,normal, independent,decent, successful, well-educated, healthy,humble, religious

43.5% 62.5% 76.9% 77.2% 66.7%

Who I am now, loving,caring, helpful

16.7% 12.5% 3.8% 9.1% 0%

A nerd 0% 12.5% 0% 0% 0%Ideal, perfect, rolemodel, leader,hardworking, kind

33.3% 12.5% 11.5% 4.5% 16.7.0%

Best I can be 0% 0% 0% 0% 0%Other (e.g. not tooindependent)

5.6% 0% 7.7%% 9.1% 16.7%

Total 100% 100% 100% 100% 100%

Whereas religious messages appear to reduce ‘goodness’ to propriety and piety,

family messages enable girls to access approval through feminine ideals that

appear more gender neutral and may not compel material representation. In

addition, family imperatives that emphasize independence, leadership and success

further offer divergent bases of approval. Together, these messages offer girls

opportunities to challenge religious codes and to redefine respectability.

As expected for adolescents, the responses of young women in this study also

suggest that they often challenge parents’ attempts at establishing boundaries. The

main reasons suggested by the data are ideas of being ‘modern’, perceptions of

8 “SAGHS” represents St. Augustine Girls' High School, “TML” represents Rafeek MemorialT.M.L. Secondary School, “Lakshmi” represents Lakshmi Girls' Hindu College; “El Dorado”represents El Dorado Secondary Comprehensive School, “Working girls” represent Tunapunaworking girls.

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generational differences and a sense of “unfair” parental rules. Over three quarters

of all respondents admitted to not always agreeing with their parents’ customs and

values. However, 65% of Indo-Trinidadian compared to almost 85% of non-Indo-

Trinidadian girls reported not always following their parents’ customs and values.

Therefore, across religious group, Indo-Trinidadians appeared to disobey and

challenge less than non-Indo-Trinidadians. This suggests that Indo-Trinidadians

follow parents’ expectations and customs more often even if they may disagree.

The similar responses of Indo-Trinidadians of different religions suggest that

adolescence and generation may create common experiences and concerns. Their

obedience may not simply reflect their agreement with rules, but, perhaps,

imperatives that make compliance forms of respectability and femininity.

Comparatively, non-Indo-Trinidadians seemed to disregard or disobey parental

and elder values and customs to a greater extent than they disagreed with them.

Over 60% of girls who disagreed with parents’ customs and values dispute rules

regarding “freedom, being able to see my boyfriend, liming with friends, going

out, staying out late, having sex before marriage, making my own decisions and

independence”. Some of these girls also listed possible sites of disagreement, and

even conflict, as “everything, dress, makeup, religion, shows, music, friends,

boys, chores, school, room, rules, ways of discipline, being myself and regular

allowance.” An El Dorado Secondary Comprehensive School student put it

strongly,

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I shouldn’t be told what I should do. I have a mindof my own and I am capable of making my owndecisions. (Fifteen-year-old, Indo-Hindu)

Girls particularly disagreed with parents in “the situations where boys get more

freedom and independence than girls” and are “taught chores that boys are not

taught also”. Essentially, this stems from perceptions of being treated unfairly and

unequally. For example, a non-Indo-Trinidadian, Roman Catholic, attending St.

Augustine Girls' High School, strongly disagreed with

Women’s roles in society and when they comparewhat I do as not being up to standard but whichwouldn’t matter if I was a boy.

Western values, generational differences and notions of ‘modernity’ contrast with

values of parents which are seen as “too old-time for my generation”. In this

regard, about 20% of girls specifically said that they “don’t follow old customs

and traditions” because “times change, people change and rules for girls change”.

A Lakshmi Girls' Hindu College student clarified,

I think because our parents were grown up (sic) in adifferent generation, they tend to see things a lotdifferently than we would. Hence disagreementswith clothes, boys, liming etc. (Fifteen-year-old,Indo-Presbyterian)

From another perspective, a classmate explained,

My father strongly disapproves of me having arelationship in future with someone who is not ofmy own race. I think this is to be really far fetchedin today’s society and I look at all human beings asequal, colour does not matter. (Fifteen-year-old,Indo-Pentecostal)

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Over three quarters of girls justified disobedience by citing “different values”. As

a Lakshmi Girls' Hindu College student wrote,

I do not follow their customs and values because Iam a distinguished individual and I have my ownthoughts on situations. (Fifteen-year-old, DouglaMuslim)

Additionally, young women in this study legitimate their contestations through

notions of individual choice and freedom framed in the language of equality (of

sexes and ethnicities). As the Lakshmi Girls' Hindu College student mentioned

above continued,

I have decided to choose to be in a relationship infuture with a male who is not of my race if I wantto. If I like someone who is not Indian, my parents’views will not disarm me. (Fifteen-year-old, Indo-Pentecostal)

In the face of their disagreement, young Indo-Trinidadian women’s greater

obedience suggests that their views and standpoints are not always openly

expressed and explored. Therefore, secrecy, confidants and “hidden transcripts”

may be important to girls’ attempts to manage femininity9. Not surprisingly, over

40% of girls confide most in their friends or those in their peer group. However,

just over a quarter of girls also responded that they confided in family members

such as their siblings, grandparents, cousins and aunts. In contrast, just over 12%

confide in their parents. This suggests that peer values may considerably influence

girls’ choices while extended family networks provide important sources of

guidance and communication. Only one girl reported confiding in her teachers or

9 Similarly, Handa (1997) describes South Asian Canadian girls’ tactics of “lying”, “hiding”,“sneaking out” and being secretive.

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school counselors. A few confide in others such as their boyfriend or fiancé, or

God. Strikingly, almost over 10% reported confiding in no one at all.

In addition to simply discussing different topics, young women’s reponses

suggest that they confide in and share themselves with mothers to a greater extent

than with fathers. Girls also reported much better relationships with mothers than

with fathers. Approximately three quarters of all girls report being “very close” or

“close” to their mothers and/or having a “good” relationship (see Table 4). While

comparative groups of girls report having “close” and “good” relationships with

both their mother and father, the number of girls with difficult relations with their

fathers at least doubles the number who have difficult relationships with mothers

(see Table 5). Notably, Indo-Muslims and Indo-Christians report having difficult

relationships only with fathers.

Table 4: Girls’ description of their relationship with their mother.

Quality ofrelationship


Indo-Trinidadian

Indo-Hindu

Indo-Muslim

Indo-Christian

Very close 38.2% 35.2% 31.4% 41.7% 39.1%Close 11.8% 13.6% 17.6% 8.3% 4.3%Good 26.5% 25.0% 23.5% 25.0% 30.4%Okay 17.6% 20.5% 17.6% 25.0% 26.1%Not good 2.9% 3.4% 5.9% 0% 0%Difficult 2.9% 2.3% 3.9% 0% 0%Total 100% 100% 100% 100% 100%

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Table 5: Girls’ description of their relationship with their father.

Quality ofrelationship


Indo-Trinidadian

Indo-Hindu

Indo-Muslim

Indo-Christian

Very close 21.9% 27.1% 25.0% 25.0% 34.8%Close 18.8% 18.8% 20.8% 33.3% 4.3%Good 18.8% 21.2% 22.9% 25.0% 17.4%Okay 25.0% 18.8% 18.8% 8.3% 21.7%Not good 6.3% 4.7% 2.1% 0% 13.0%Verydifficult

9.4% 9.4% 10.4% 8.3% 8.7%

Total 100% 100% 100% 100% 100%

Almost 60% of girls are able to discuss their “private life” with mothers. This

includes “mostly everything but sex” – such as “friends, jokes, makeup, shopping,

clothes, boys, school, TV, leisure, private life, work, children and future career”.

In comparison, almost half of girls discuss “sports, school, birds, plants, animals,

TV, family, friends, work, hobbies, cars, business, money and my country” with

their father. In contrast to only 5% of girls who said they discuss “nothing” with

their mother, as many as 25% felt this way about their father. Similarly, while

40% of girls discuss “everything” or “anything” with their mother, less than 25%

could with their father. This is especially true for topics such as “boys, sex, parties

and going out”.

In particular, over 60% reported being unable to discuss “sexuality, boys, drinking

alcohol like Carib10, dishonesty and bad grades” with mothers. This suggests that

girls rely on relationships with their mothers but avoid discussion about desires or

behaviour that may seem inappropriate or unacceptable. Yet, 65% can’t discuss

10 Carib is the brand name of a local beer

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with fathers any personal topics including “health and menstruation, sex life,

marriage, boys, make-up, clothes, my innermost thoughts and girl talk”. However,

essentially, girls appear to hide behaviour that may draw the most parental

disapproval from both parents.

Family messages appear to establish wider and more negotiable boundaries than

religious imperatives. Parents seem to both encourage girls’ independence,

individuality and assertiveness, and to set rules for ‘appropriate’ adolescent

femininity and sexuality. Ethnicity does not appear to create significantly

different parental expectations. However, class and religion appear to underscore

such differences. Young women’s responses suggest that gender and generational

standpoints underscore their disagreements, disobedience and attempts to redefine

these parental expectations. Girls in this study also justify their own values in

terms of “modern” times and changed rules for women. Where girls cannot

openly discuss, bargain or defy, they may therefore negotiate by obeying even

while they disagree or by hiding their disobedience. “Tactics” such as lying and

hiding may enable them to maintain belonging to family and community by not

exposing very private or “unsuitable” parts of their lives to parents and elders.

4.2.3 Symbolic womanhood as a signifier of Indo-Trinidadian ‘difference’

For the majority of Indo-Trinidadian young women in this study, parental rules

and ideals of ‘appropriate’ womanhood conflate with notions of Indo-Trinidadian

‘difference’. Girls’ responses suggest that their dis/obedience to codes of purity,

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modesty and asexuality may be read as dis/loyalty, not just to insider femininities,

but to (notions of) Indo-Trinidadian ‘community’. As Handa (1997, 26) posited

with regard to Canadian South Asian girls, gender transgression is also perceived

as cultural transgression. Similarly, Roman et al. (1988, 136) and Sampath (1993)

have argued that freedom is associated with (female) reputation. Disobedience to

social controls can therefore jeopardize ‘community’ belonging. Conversely,

control and obedience represent forms of respectability which, embodied by

‘proper’ ways of carrying oneself, symbolically mark ethnic ‘difference’. Cultural

retention is gendered and primarily represented by female identities and

behaviour.

Girls’ responses suggest that religion and family are key messageways for Indo-

Trinidadian ‘community’ messages. In particular, these messages overlap with

religious imperatives regarding female dress and behaviour. Perhaps, this is why

girls consider expression of (especially Hindu and, to some extent, Muslim)

religious piety as simultaneously a ‘pure’ expression of Indo-Trinidadian identity.

Table 6: Indo-Trinidadian girls’ responses regarding whether they are taught orencouraged to ‘carry themselves’ a certain way in public.


Indo-Hindu

Indo-Muslim

Indo-Christian

Yes 74.4% 81.6% 61.5% 65.2%No 25.6% 18.4% 38.5% 34.8%Total 100% 100% 100% 100%

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As Table 6 shows, about three quarters of all Indo-Trinidadian girls felt that Indo-

Trinidadian females are taught or encouraged to carry themselves in specific ways

in public. However, this was less the case for the young women working in

Tunapuna. This suggests important class differences in the socialisation, control

and symbolic value of Indo-Trinidadian female bodies. Hindus seemed to feel

strongest, nonetheless, the table suggests that the boundaries of ethnic belonging

may regulate even Christian girls’ dress and appearance. In fact, over 60% of

Indo-Trinidadian girls thought that ethnic/cultural imperatives, regarding how a

girl should carry herself, did not differ for Indo-Trinidadian women of different

religious backgrounds (see Table 7). However, this was the view of less than half

of Christian girls. This suggests that ethnicity may (be perceived to) overlap with

the demands of insider femininity to a greater extent for Hindu (Vertovec 1992,

198) and Muslim girls than for Christians.

Table 7: Indo-Trinidadian girls’ responses regarding whether imperatives differfor girls of different religions.


Indo-Hindu

Indo-Muslim

Indo-Christian

Yes 38.7% 35.9% 37.5% 46.7%No 61.3% 64.1% 62.5% 53.3%Total 100% 100% 100% 100%

Indo-Trinidadians who disagreed reasoned that “women from all religious

backgrounds are expected to behave in the same manner, as ‘a woman’ and not

noisy”. As well, girls responded, “women of all different religious backgrounds

should have discipline, behave and dress in a good manner”. An eighteen-year-old

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Hindu working in Tunapuna and a Pentecostal girl attending Lakshmi Girls'

Hindu College felt that moral imperatives did not differ because “all women

deserved equality, right guidance and protection”. Reflecting an adolescent

perspective, one fifteen-year-old Indo-Baptist girl attending St. Augustine Girls'

High School answered that moral imperatives did not differ because “friends’

parents of different religious background act the same way”. These statements

highlight the extent that religious, family and ‘community’ messages can be

conflated.

Girls who felt that these differed for Indo-Trinidadian females asserted that

“women of different religions participate in different activities e.g. Hindus go to

Chutney dances and Christians play Carnival”. As well, they felt that women of

different religious backgrounds “dress and act differently at these events and

make different choices”. About 15% also agreed that girls benefit from different

freedoms depending on their parents’ religions and the extent to which they taught

their daughters to follow religious or traditional ways. For example, a Lakshmi

Girls' Hindu College student wrote,

Hindu women are ordered to stay away from non-Indians more. (Fifteen-year-old, Indo-Pentecostal)

Differing conceptions of ‘tradition’, freedom, and respectability and reputation

inform intra-community differences. Some young Indo-Trinidadian women are

not only positioned in relation to other ideals of womanhood, but also in relation

to other young Indo-Trinidadian woman as both external and internal boundaries

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of insider femininity are upheld. Religious differences may present different

possibilities in responding to the demands of Indo-Trinidadian womanhood. Yet,

ultimately, girls perceive that imperatives regarding ‘appropriate’ Indo-

Trinidadian femininities cross religious boundaries and contrast with other ethnic

groups.

Of the majority who felt young Indo-Trinidadian women face specific

expectations regardless of their religion, three quarters provided graphic

descriptions. Essentially, they emphasized having to appear “clean, pure,

physically and spiritually strong, with long, unrevealing clothes, neat, long,

simple and non-bleached hair, a pleasant face, wonderful expression, little or no

makeup, graceful movements and a walk that doesn’t make people think you are

stuck up”. As a Lakshmi Girls' Hindu College student agreed,

Yes, I think definitely Indian women are taught andencouraged to carry themselves a certain way inpublic. My mother always disagrees about whatclothing I should be wearing for every occasion.She doesn’t like my styling my hair in curls, shetells me not to screw up my face many a time. Shetells me to walk the road decently with herwhenever we go out together. (Fifteen-year-old,Indo-Hindu)

At some level Indo-Trinidadian girls, particularly Hindus and Muslims, feel that

they are additionally encouraged to be “passive, disciplined and sacred”. As a St.

Augustine Girls' High School student described, imperatives emphasize

long hair, submissive attitude (yes! even today!),decent clothes and don’t talk to male members ifyou are not married…coz it’s baadd (sic). (Fifteen-year-old, Indo-Buddhist)

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Handa (1997) argued that “managing sexuality” through dress and public

behaviour is about avoiding shame and, ultimately, about “marriage

marketability” (ibid, 24). In this study, young women’s responses suggest that

obedience, self-control and respect for rules signify ‘appropriate’ femininity and

ethnic identity. For example, an El Dorado Secondary Comprehensive School

student wrote,

Indian women because of sacred backgroundslearns (sic) from their ancestors about the non-revelation to a great extent of the body. This‘mentality’ is forced upon young Indian women andcompels them to walk, and express self modestlywhich often causes segregation from other groups(sic).11 (Fifteen-year-old, Indo-Hindu)

Echoing this, a Lakshmi Girls' Hindu College student explained that Indo-

Trinidadian women have to

Act decently, behave like a ‘lady’, try to chooseIndian friends and do not let anyone think badly ofyou. (Fifteen-year-old, Indo-Pentecostal)

Here, carrying oneself ‘properly’ locates both femininity and ‘community’ in an

ethnically homogenous, highly regulated, “moral” terrain.

Essentially, a girl must not appear to have an “unappealing lifestyle with wild

behaviour”. Small groups of less than 10% further described the importance of

“being taught to do hair, clothes and makeup in a certain way from young” and

11Similarly, Haniff (1999, 27) wrote, “Recently, there has evolved a pursuit of a pure form ofHinduism which values caste, imposes Hindi as the language of ancestry and describes the past ofHindus as monolithic, homogenous Indianness. It advocates separatism from other elements ofTrinidadian and Guyanese culture and would keep women tied to a Hinduism that isolates andalienates them. This fundamental force in Hinduism is anti female and casts on the woman theexpectations of service, diffidence and place”.

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“not to laugh out too loud or stay out late or talk to any fellow that you see”

primarily “to keep up appearances”. To some extent, young Indo-Trinidadian

women are also compelled to start “wearing makeup at a certain age” and to

navigate ideals of beauty and attractiveness without appearing “too sexual”

(Roman et al., 1988). This suggests that the ideals of Indo-Trinidadian

womanhood rest on a fine balance of both accentuating and negating femininity

and sexuality on the one hand, and ‘tradition’ and ‘modernity’ on the other. A

Lakshmi Girls' Hindu College student explained,

Indian women are taught to dress appropriately.However the dressing of Indian women has changedrapidly. Because of the changing times a lot ofwomen no longer keep their morals. (Fifteen-year-old, Indo-Presbyterian)

Handa (1997) further argued that a desexualized femininity resolves the threat of

modernity. Similarly, as this girl articulates, ‘appropriate’ dress is linked to

‘tradition’, and “changing times” or ‘modernity’ with a move to greater

‘immorality’. However, in the view of an El Dorado Secondary Comprehensive

School student,

Indian women are expected to look ‘lame’ with redlipstick, long clothes, bright colours, long hair,hairy legs, improper language (speakingdifferently), wear saris, gararas etc (sic). (Fifteen-year-old, Indo-Hindu)

Here, in contrast, Indianness is associated not just with ‘tradition’, but also with

‘backwardness’ and being unfashionable, unwesternized and unattractive. This

girl clearly considers such appearance too unfeminine and totally inappropriate.

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Female negotiation of the sexual/ asexual dichotomy can therefore re-locate

‘appropriate’ femininities across symbolic boundaries and make it difficult to

control female embodiment of ethnic ‘difference’.

In this light, Indo-Trinidadian girls’ contradictory positions regarding

expectations they face about carrying themselves make sense. For example, half

of girls responded, “it is a good teaching, I have no problem with it, it’s very

effective, it’s good to practice (but men should be so too)”. Many in this group

felt that it is “important to behave and dress a certain way, it shows people who

you are, gains respect and enables you to get a decent boy”. A few girls thought

such imperatives presented an “opportunity to test the individual soul”. However,

the ambivalence of over 40% suggests that these ideals are only sometimes

considered good and “right”. At other times, they present a burden that many girls

see as unfair. Others in this group felt that “women should have freedom of

choice, as long as they make the right ones, people should know their limits”. As

well, they wrote, “I think it’s sometimes stupid, crap that puts Indian women

below men and asks too much of us” and “it’s okay sometimes”. Just less than

15% in this group felt more strongly that “it is too old fashioned, Indian women

should be able to do and wear what they want, it is up to the person”. A fifteen-

year-old Indo-Trinidadian Hindu attending Lakshmi Girls' Hindu College said

went as far as to say “it is plain out dumb”.

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Different configurations of ethnicity and femininity are at work. The first is cast

as Indian, modest and morally decent, yet old-fashioned. The other is Western,

sexual, trendy and mainstream, but also, at times, considered immoral. While the

demands of Indo-Trinidadian womanhood frame a narrow path for girls, their

ambivalence suggests that that they must also navigate ‘tradition’ and ‘modernity’

in terms of ethnic belonging. In this context, girls appear further compelled to

select aspects of modernity least tainted with cultural or gender practices that are

considered creole. Indo-Trinidadian ‘difference’ is implicitly evaluated in relation

to processes of creolisation and Afro-Trinidadians’ deportment, intimate relations

and sexual practices.

Essentially, girls in this study associate ‘tradition’ with cultural icons, Hindu and

Muslim religious festivals and family oriented religious functions. However, it is

key to framing the ‘past’ as a different moral time from the present. For example,

while over 85% of all Indo-Trinidadian girls wanted ‘traditions’ kept alive, a

quarter, and in particular Hindus and Muslims, felt they are important for a sense

of history and identity, connection to ancestors and “to remain respectable

p e o p l e ”. Only two Indo-Trinidadian girls, an eighteen-year-old

Presbyterian/Congregational and a fifteen-year-old Hindu, remarked that

traditions are not important because “I am a Trinidadian, I was not born in India, I

am not Indian” and, “times are changing and women are changing”. Their

responses show how processes of ‘modernity’ and creolisation may alter girls’

desire to belong. Additionally, ‘tradition’ may remind girls of whom they

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‘should’ be while highlighting the difference between these ideals and feminine

identities defined in and more relevant to the present period and generation.

Generally these girls felt that “continuous practice and doing what has always

been done”12 is necessary to keep ‘traditions’ alive. Obedience to ‘traditional’

Indo-Trinidadian femininity is central here and is operationalised through piety,

respect and involvement in cultural functions and commemorative events. Girls

seem to locate ‘tradition’ in the realm of the symbolic. It does not appear to have

“filled more than a small part of the space left by the secular decline of both old

tradition and custom” (Hobsbawm 1983, 11), but nonetheless remains important

to the “formalization and ritualization” of an Indo-Trinidadian ‘community’. In

fact, Indo-Trinidadian girls’ perceptions of the ‘traditional’ Indo-Trinidadian

women depicted by their religious communities suggest an emerging emphasis on

symbolic womanhood. For example, almost 70%, across religious groups, either

describe Indo-Trinidadian women in the ‘past’ as “decent, doing nothing wrong,

respects tradition, holy, pious and a saint” or as “well trained, the perfect mother,

good, respectful, subservient, not fighting for rights and submitting to parents and

husbands”. Girls working in Tunapuna were the only group that did not describe

Indo-Trinidadian women in the ‘past’ in terms of subservience and only two girls

thought they were “like normal, equal woman”. Perceptions of Indo-Trinidadian

women in the ‘past’ present both an image to emulate for the sheer moral

12 An “invented” notion given that “what has always been done” has not been static over history(Vertovec 1990b, 1992), but has been changing in gender practices, materially and in the morerecent relegation of religion to “the realm of sacred” (Khan 1995).

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superiority of “traditional ways”, but also one of dependence and subservience to

escape.

In this context, where can the “younger generation” express piety, morality and

obedience to ‘tradition’? Khan (1995) argued that piety becomes invested in

particular commemorative moments, cultural activities, religious spaces and

‘traditional’ appearances. The responses of girls in this study confirm that these

are important moments for displays of femininity and community. It is in these

commemorative/religious, ‘moral’ spaces that the imperatives of Indo-Trinidadian

womanhood are most evident. Ideals of asexuality and (female) duty are

symbolically expressed in girls’ appearance, dress and behaviour. Belonging

becomes a display of insider femininity and revitalised Indo-Trinidadian

‘tradition’.

This is easily observable at many Indo-Trinidadian cultural events and religious

functions where young Indo-Trinidadian females wear Indian clothes and males

wear Western clothes. Explaining this, over half of Indo-Trinidadian girls

answered that “women are more involved and believe more in religion and

tradition” and “they are more exposed to a culture of class, colour, beauty and

glamour”. Here, they highlight the intersecting consequences of being positioned

as keepers of tradition and morality, and being socialized to a culture of

femininity where Indian clothes are considered “fashionable for women, not for

men” and “a fashion statement” appropriate for females who may simply “like to

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dress up”. Thus, for females, ethnic identity manifests in their femininity.

Articulating this, almost 20% of girls said that girls wear Indian clothes “to carry

on tradition and hold onto our heritage, that’s how we remember who we are” and

explained that “it shows respect and that women have more consideration, these

are the clothes more suitable for religious and cultural events”. This reinforces the

relationship between Indo-Trinidadian feminine identities and “retention” of Indo-

Trinidadian ethnic identity.

It is not simply about maintaining a homogenized, invented ‘tradition’, but also

about establishing an India-derived femininity as ‘appropriate’. Dress sets an

Indo-Trinidadian girl apart from “other” girls and apart from Indo-Trinidadian

males. Thus, Indian clothes symbolically interlock ethnicity and femininity, and

enable Indo-Trinidadian men to define their masculinity and establish their

location in wider society, and in processes of creolization and modernity, in

different terms. Accordingly, almost a third wrote, “women are brought up like

that, taught more than men, and are obligated to and expected to wear these kinds

of clothes at such events, it is a duty. Indian men are not lambasted for not

wearing Indian clothes”. Further, “men are self-conscious, find Indian clothes old,

outdated, immature traditions, they are easily shamed, easily influenced by

American fashions, feel silly and irritable versus women who feel attractive in

Indian clothes. Because men generally do not identify with that part of their

culture as they think it would make them too “Indiannish”, it’s not their styles”.

This “attraction” of a woman in Indian clothes can be read as the reward for

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adhering (at least outwardly) to the imperatives of Indo-Trinidadian insider

femininity.

For girls, community participation is linked to maintaining ‘tradition’ which is

constructed in terms of the ‘past’, being “Indian” and ‘respectable’. Perhaps, this

explains their views toward chutney music and spaces. In fact, while chutney

shows and dances present an important and popular space for participation in

Indo-Trinidadian culture (Ramnarine 2001), few of the girls in this study report

attending. This suggests ambivalence toward chutney music as a cultural practice

and highlights how ‘tradition’ is being imagined. However, Tables 8 and 9

highlight three observations. Though a much smaller sample, similar proportions

of non-Indo-Trinidadian girls attend chutney shows. This points to a notable, but

limited, ethnic hybridity in chutney spaces (Ballinger 1998). Second, among Indo-

Trinidadians in the sample, Hindus attend chutney shows to a greater extent than

either Indo-Muslims or Indo-Christians. This may point to different approaches to

sexuality among religious groups.

Table 8: Girls’ responses regarding going to chutney shows.

Response Non- Indo-Trinidadian

Indo-Trinidadian

Indo-Hindu

Indo-Muslim

Indo-Christian

Yes 16.7% 14.1% 16.3% 8.3% 9.1%No 83.3% 85.9% 83.7% 91.7% 90.9%Total 100% 100% 100% 100% 100%

Third, as the table below (of only Indo-Trinidadian young women’s responses)

shows, chutney shows seem to be least attended by Indo-Trinidadian girls

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attending Lakshmi Girls' Hindu College. This may reflect an orthodox/peripheral

(Vertovec 1992, 213), purity/impurity, high/low culture split in Hindu pedagogy

at the school. The comparatively higher proportion of only Hindu girls, at Rafeek

Memorial T.M.L. Secondary School and working in Tunapuna, who attend

chutney shows suggests that notions of appropriate ‘tradition’ and cultural

practice may differ among class groups.

Table 9: Indo-Trinidadian girls’ responses regarding going to chutney shows.

Response SAGHS13 TML Lakshmi El Dorado Working girlsYes 15.0% 50% 3.7% 4.5% 37.5%No 85.0% 50% 96.3% 95.5% 62.5%Total 100% 100% 100% 100% 100%

In this regard, almost 40% of Indo-Trinidadian girls wrote that they simply “don’t

like it”. Girls attending St. Augustine Girls' High School and El Dorado

Secondary Comprehensive School primarily expressed this view. In comparison

to 30% of Hindus, this position represented 42% of Muslims and 45% of

Christians. About 20% of Indo-Trinidadian girls, and especially those attending

Lakshmi Girls' Hindu College, objected to what they see as “too vulgar dancing

and too much fighting” in a space they consider “too wild”. Here, ‘reputation’ is

affiliated with disobedience to ‘rules’ (of respectability), display of freedom (and

not self-control), and overt expression of (female) sexuality14. Additionally, Indo-

13 “SAGHS” represents St. Augustine Girls' High School, “TML” represents Rafeek MemorialT.M.L. Secondary School, “Lakshmi” represents Lakshmi Girls' Hindu College; “El Dorado”represents El Dorado Secondary Comprehensive School, “Working girls” represent Tunapunaworking girls.14 Though Indo-Trinidadian defined, these spaces are also culturally-mixed. Conceptualization ofthe space itself as one of reputation may be linked to this. For example, djs play dancehall soca,

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Hindus and Indo-Christians attending Lakshmi Girls' Hindu College most

responded, “my parents don’t want me to go and I don’t want to go”. Almost 15%

of girls, all working in Tunapuna, claimed that they were “not brought up to go”

to chutney shows. A similar proportion across schools considered it a “waste of

money and time” and “do not find it interesting”. No girls working in Tunapuna

gave this response.

Clearly, class and religious-based perceptions of Indo-Trinidadian ethnic identity

inform girls’ view of chutney music and dancing (Baksh-Soodeen 1999). For

example, a girl attending El Dorado Secondary Comprehensive School described

chutney shows as “too ‘coolie-ish’ for me” and almost contradictorily continued,

It seems like a bunch of Indians who try to be likenegroes. (Fifteen-year-old, Indo-Roman Catholic)

A strange kind of bias against things both too “coolie-ish” and too “Negro” comes

out here suggesting that “vulgarity” is associated with both labouring or working

class (‘rural’) Indo-Trinidadians and (‘ghetto’) Afro-Trinidadians. As Ballinger

(1998, 6) has written,

Whereas music consumption varies widely inlistening, the spaces in which music occurs arebounded by race and class. This is a crucial point, asthe control over space is the control over bodies andconnects with dating, marriage, family, propertyand, ultimately, national society.

chutney and chutney-soca, and the experience is “more contemporary, generationally defined,more part of global (or Jamaican?) youth culture – in terms of language, musical elements, songselection, clothing style, dancing and so forth” (Ballinger 1998, 17).

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However, almost 15% of, primarily, Hindu girls go to chutney shows to “enjoy

myself, relax, enjoy listening, singing, dancing and watching the performers”. No

Indo-Christian girls gave this response.

‘Community’ clearly acts as an influential messageway establishing moral and

material markers and symbolic boundaries of (particularly middle-class) Indo-

Trinidadian ethnic and gender identities. Girls’ perceptions of ‘tradition’, their

reasons for valuing ‘traditions’ and the ways that they advocate keeping them

alive reflect the significance of displays of ‘appropriate’ femininity. Fear of

inappropriate, “too coolie-ish” femininity, however, mediates re/presentation of

ethnic identity. This highlights the porous nature of ‘community’ and the

divergent value systems shaping Indo-Trinidadian young women’s identities.

Girls’ investment in symbolic womanhood reflects their ambivalence and emerges

as a “tactic” for negotiating Indo-Trinidadian imperatives. It enables these young

women to navigate respectability and reputation, and belonging to different

‘traditional’ and ‘modern’ spaces.

4.2.4 Media and competing messages

In this study, girls’ responses suggest that ideals conveyed through U.S. media

challenge religious, family and Indo-Trinidadian ‘community’ imperatives of

obedience and asexuality. The images and messages of primarily U.S. music,

television and cinema appear to blur and expand boundaries established by these

competing messageways. This creates spaces for girls to interpret ‘appropriate’

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womanhood for themselves and legitimates their repositioning of respectability/

reputation, “insider”/“outsider” femininity, and even feminine/masculine

dualisms. These opportunities to navigate competing and coalescing ideals seem

to place girls’ choices regarding their bodies and sexuality in ambiguous,

constantly negotiated terrain. They provide a context for girls’ accommodation of

and resistance to generational, adult, moral and ‘traditional’ authority.

4.2.5 Glamorous sexuality and heroic femininity: Repositioning respectability

Popular music is an important part of national youth subculture (Klass 1991, 57;

McCree 1999b). Music listening and participation are segmented spatially

(Ballinger 1998) and across different radio stations. Similarly, ethnicity, religion

and class may also differentiate music listening. For example, in this study, non-

Indo-Trinidadian girls’ favorite types of music are dancehall, soca and rock

respectively. In contrast, Indo-Trinidadian girls seem to prefer first alternative

rock, Indian music and, third, Jamaican dub or dancehall15.

15 Ballinger (1998, 11) suggests that the audiences for both soca and dancehall are racially diverseand young. She emphasizes generation is a dominant characteristic. Somewhat differently, RoyMcCree (1999b, 307) attributes it partly to “progressive creolisation” where “Indian youthsdisplay a capacity to accommodate and identify with other cultural forms while still identifyingwith their own” and partly to “the multiple identities that characterize individuals at the levels ofgroup, nation and region in the Caribbean diaspora”.

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Table 10: Non-Indo-Trinidadian and Indo-Trinidadian girls’ musical preferences.

Types ofmusic

Indo-T’dadian

Non-Indo-T’dadian

SAGHS16

TML LGHC El Do. Work-ing girls

Religiousmusic

3.2% 3.3% 2.9% 0% 1.9% 6.8% 0%

Europeanclassicalmusic

.6% 4.9% 0% 0% 1.9% 0% 0%

Calypsoand soca

11% 24.6% 20.0% 7.7% 7.4% 4.5% 33.3%

Top 40pop

7.1% 4.9% 11.4% 0% 5.6% 9.1% 0%

Dub andreggae

15.5% 27.9% 17.1% 30.8% 16.7% 9.1% 11.1%

Rock 27.7% 14.8% 28.6% 15.4% 24.1% 38.6% 11.1%Indianmusic

21.9% 6.6% 11.4% 30.8% 31.5% 15.9% 22.2%

Chutney 7.7% 6.6% 2.9% 15.4% 7.4% 6.8% 22.2%Rap andhip hop

2.6% 6.6% 2.9% 0% 3.7% 2.3% 0%

Other (e.g.slows)

2.6% 0% 2.9% 0%% 0% 6.8% 0%

Total 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100%

As Table 10 shows, Indo-Trinidadian girls across schools predominantly list rock

and Indian music as favorites. However, religion may pose intra-ethnic

differences. For example, while, primarily Christian, Indo-Trinidadian girls from

St. Augustine Girls' High School most often chose rock music17 soca and

dancehall, the largely Hindu group attending El Dorado Secondary

16 “SAGHS” represents St. Augustine Girls' High School, “TML” represents Rafeek MemorialT.M.L. Secondary School, “LGHC” represents Lakshmi Girls' Hindu College; “El Do.” representsEl Dorado Secondary Comprehensive School, “Working girls” represent Tunapuna working girls.17 This is interesting because Ballinger suggests that Indo-Trinidadian rock fans are “largelyworking class kids with dead-end jobs and little prospect of social mobility” (ibid, 20). Yet, forexample, and at least in terms of their aspirations, girls attending St. Augustine Girls' High Schooland Lakshmi Girls' Hindu College do not fit that profile. However, she also posited, “interest inrock signals a deliberate distancing from the dominant Creole culture in Trinidad” (ibid, 20). Thismay be more true for this group as “adopting a ‘foreign’ music and aspects of its culture…is aperformative way to protest the dominant culture…” (ibid, 12) or to express “desire for a betterlife associated with U.S. cultural hegemony and whiteness” (ibid, 23).

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Comprehensive School somewhat differently chose rock, Indian music and

dancehall/U.S. Top 40 pop music. This difference may reflect the religious

distribution of the class clusters.

Different preferences between Indo-Trinidadian working girls and those still in

school further reinforce the suggestion that class creates sub-cultural differences

among Indo-Trinidadian girls. In contrast to other groups, rock is not a favorite

choice of young working women. Rather, like non-Indo-Trinidadian girls, this

group appeared to prefer calypso and soca. Unlike other groups of Indo-

Trinidadian girls, chutney music was also popular among these young working

women. Interestingly, only non-Indo-Trinidadian working girls chose rap/hip hop.

While different girls’ preferred musical genres are worth noting, it is equally

important to recognize that girls’ frequently indicated that they enjoyed listening

to several different types of music and “listening to the radio” is a part of leisure

at home for many girls. As Ballinger (ibid, 5) has posited, “people do not conform

to tightly constructed notions of identity and they are consuming an incredible

variety of music which often has less to do with identity than functionality”.

Although 15% of all girls in the sample described women in songs that they like

as “strong, in control of their lives, independent and self-confident”, almost one

third disparagingly described these women as “sex symbols, sex objects, wild,

very low and hos [whores]” and “as if men need them, normal but too appealing

to males in their dress”. This suggests that sexuality, in particular, creates

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contradictions regarding girls’ perceptions of respectability. As a quarter of girls

further described, women in music are depicted as “good persons and queens or

sluts, heartbreakers and hos” or “in different ways, some good, some bad, mostly

weak, sometimes independent”. Thus, these young women characterize U.S.

women in music as respected for their strength and independence, yet appear to

feel some discomfort about their overt expression of sexuality. In complete

contrast to girls’ descriptions of U.S. women, Indian women in music were

described by a small group of girls as “living legends and goddesses, deeply in

love, very religious and thoughtful”.

Girls’ mixed perceptions may enable them to suspend judgment or to see the

“very bad” as “good” when it may be cool to be glamorously sexy or “wild”.

Ruth (1998, 61) wrote that, for males, the machismo image of the “bad boy” who

breaks rules and is sexually promiscuous and potent makes the ‘bad’ better than

the ‘good’ which conversely appears as weak and passive. This only applies in a

limited sense to girls because, unlike “bad boy” heroes, ‘bad’ women rarely win

in the end. Nonetheless, for adolescent boys and girls, rebellion, resistance and

coolness may be defined by “bad boy” ideals. Girls may also be influenced by the

“illicit” ideals of the sexual “playmate” who is similarly ‘bad’ (having abandoned

“purity” and the “prerogatives of the “official” good woman”), but also

independent, worldly, interesting, assertive, seductive and “a little dangerous”

(ibid, 110).

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As with music, television powerfully transmits images of femininities read as

‘modern’ and Western. U.S. White women and, to a lesser extent, U.S. Black

women almost entirely dominate the local screen. Girls in this study describe their

characters as assertive and independent women who often challenge and blend

gender roles. Overwhelmingly, Indo-Trinidadian girls positively identify with

U.S. White femininities.

Primarily, their favorite shows are dramas and teen shows such as “Sister, Sister”,

“Ally McBeal”, “Dawson’s Creek” and “Charmed”. However, almost equally,

they like U.S. action programmes like “Xena”, “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”, “La

Femme Nikita” and “Dark Angel” which feature White female fighting figures.

Cartoons and comedies such as “Home Improvement”, “The Wayan Brothers”,

and “Kids Say the Darnest Things” are the third most popular genre (see Table

11).

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Table 11: Non-Indo-Trinidadian and Indo-Trinidadian girls’ favorite shows.

Typesof TVshows

Indo-T’dian

Non-Indo-T’dian

SAGHS18

TML Lakshmi ElDo.

Work-ing girls

Indianmovies

4.2% 0% 2.9% 7.7% 0% 7.9% 12.5%

U.S.soapoperas

7% 11.5% 0% 30.8% 2.1% 5.3% 37.5%

Cartoon/comedy

17.6% 15.4% 14.3% 15.4% 14.6% 21.1% 37.5%

Horrors/sci-fi

.7% 3.8% 0% 0% 2.1% 0% 0%

U.S.actionshows

28.9% 23.1% 20.0% 15.4% 35.4% 36.8% 12.5%

MTV,BET,VH1/Bay-watch

5.6% 19.2% 8.6% 7.7% 6.3% 2.6% 0%

Dramas/teenshows

31% 19.2 48.6% 23.1% 33.3% 21.1% 0%

News .7% 0% 0% 0% 2.1% 0% 0%Other 4.2% 7.7% 5.7% 0% 4.2% 5.3% 0%Total 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100%

Ethnicity seems to intersect young women’s preferences with non-Indo-

Trinidadians favouring music video stations and shows such as Baywatch more

than Indo-Trinidadians19. Tunapuna working girls’ different preferences again

suggest that class shapes girls’ choices. For example, unlike other groups, Indo-

Trinidadian girls attending Rafeek Memorial T.M.L. Secondary School and,

18 “SAGHS” represents St. Augustine Girls' High School, “TML” represents Rafeek MemorialT.M.L. Secondary School, “Lakshmi” represents Lakshmi Girls' Hindu College; “El Dorado”represents El Dorado Secondary Comprehensive School, “Working girls” represent Tunapunaworking girls.19 This question was open-ended. In coding, I grouped together music videos and Baywatchbecause of their similar heightened emphasis on the display of female bodies and sexuality while,nonetheless, portraying images of ‘strong’ females.

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especially, those working in Tunapuna chose U.S. soap operas, such as “The Bold

and the Beautiful” and “The Young and Restless”20, as their favorite shows.

While only minorities of Indo-Trinidadian girls and particularly those working in

Tunapuna liked Indian movies, it is very surprising that no girls from Lakshmi

Girls' Hindu College gave this response. Yet, ultimately, young women’s wide

range of tastes and interests make their preferences much harder to realistically

disaggregate. For example, a student of El Dorado Secondary Comprehensive

School listed her favorite shows as

Dawson’s Creek, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the X-Files, WWF [World Wrestling Federation] Sunday,Night Heat, Monday Night Raw and La FemmeNikita. (Fifteen-year-old, Indo-Hindu)

Only one girl reported liking “news” and not even one mentioned a national

programme that they liked. Ultimately, television viewing is an imported

experience.

As much as 65% of all girls saw women in U.S. television as “powerful,

intelligent, confident, outspoken, and brave role models and women of the

nineties”. Similarly, an El Dorado Secondary Comprehensive School student

appreciatively describe them as

Independent and having a mind of their own and notfollowing others or caring what others think ofthem. (Fifteen-year-old, Indo-Hindu)

20 This is somewhat surprising as girls working in Tunapuna are not usually at home when “Youngand Restless” is broadcast.

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A minority of 10% further saw these U.S. women as “heroic with many fighting

techniques” in addition to being “promiscuous players and sex symbols”. About

15% described them as “okay, easygoing, everyday people” who are “dedicated to

their jobs” and “encouraging”. This suggests that these girls may identify with,

and want to emulate, the actresses and/or their characters. As a fifteen-year-old

“Spanish”-White Roman Catholic, attending Lakshmi Girls' Hindu College,

explained, these women are considered “normal” “because it is American TV”.

Reflecting their show preference, 70% of Indo-Trinidadian girls across schools

chose White (usually) U.S. models, singers and actresses as their favorite

characters (see Table 12). These include “Scully” (from the “X-files”), Sandra

Bullock, “La Femme Nikita”, Carmen Electra, Judge Judy, Yasmeen Bleeth,

Demi Moore, “Joey” (from “Dawson’s Creek”), “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”,

“Xena”, “Batgirl” and “Catwoman”. In comparison to non-Indo-Trinidadian girls

who equally like U.S. White and Black women, Indo-Trinidadians clearly prefer

White women and characters. This may be because U.S. White females represent

the widest array of options and identities, and they appear as lifeguards,

investigators, lawyers, doctors, heroines, judges, fighters and “vjs” (video

jockeys) who successfully assert, challenge and even protect others.

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Table 12: Non-Indo-Trinidadian and Indo-Trinidadian girls’ favorite femalecharacters on TV.

Girls’favoritefemalestars

Indo-T’dian

Non-Indo-T’dian

SAGHS21

TML Lakshmi ElDo.

Work-inggirls

Indianfilm stars/singers

2.2% 0% 0% 0% 0% 6.1% 0%

Womenactionheroines

27.8% 14.7% 22.2% 16.7% 26.9% 33.3% 28.6%

U.S.Blackwomen

20% 35.3% 38.9% 16.7% 26.9% 6.1% 14.3%

Soapoperawomen

2.2% 5.9% 0% 0% 0% 3.0% 14.3%

U.S.Whitewomen

42.2% 35.3% 38.9% 50.0% 38.5% 48.5% 28.6%

Other U.S.or Britishstars

2.2% 0% 0% 0% 0% 3.0% 14.3%

None 1.1% 2.9% 0% 0% 3.8% 0% 0%Other 2.2% 5.9% 0% 16.7% 3.8% 0% 0%Total 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100%

U.S. Black models, rappers, R & B singers, singers and actresses were usually the

second most popular group for almost a quarter of girls generally. Black U.S.

stars, such as Tyra Banks, Missy Elliot, Aaliyah, “Moesha”, Naomi Campbell and

Oprah, are more popular among non-Indo-Trinidadian girls than Indo-Trinidadian

girls. They were least popular among, primarily Hindu, girls attending El Dorado

Secondary Comprehensive School and most popular among, primarily Christian,

21 “SAGHS” represents St. Augustine Girls' High School, “TML” represents Rafeek MemorialT.M.L. Secondary School, “Lakshmi” represents Lakshmi Girls' Hindu College; “El Do.”represents El Dorado Secondary Comprehensive School, “Working girls” represent Tunapunaworking girls.

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girls at St. Augustine Girls' High School. This suggests some intra-ethnic

religious segmentation and also inter-ethnic commonality. U.S. Black female

icons are much less varied and the models and entertainers that girls like seem,

largely, to be only sexually assertive. Few popular African American stars portray

heroines or professional characters.

Indian film stars and singers, U.S. or British stars from other ethnic groups and

even women in soap operas rated lowest among girls’ favorite female characters

on television. However, soap opera stars are especially popular among about 15%

of girls working in Tunapuna. Only 2% of Indo-Trinidadian girls, and, then, only

those from El Dorado Secondary Comprehensive School, listed Indian film stars

and singers as their favorites. Indian icons of womanhood both compete with and

copy the representations of femininity and sexuality emerging from the U.S.

However, generally Indian female stars are not portrayed as assertive, aggressive,

heroic and professional, and they do not offer many girls young, confident

characters with whom girls may also identify22. While female Indian movie stars

such as Anuradha Padiwal and Maduri Dixit may be household names and

popular icons, U.S. based images of White womanhood predominate in Indo-

Trinidadian girls’ lists of favorite female characters on television and Jennifer

Lopez was the only U.S. singer/ actress mentioned who is neither Indian nor U.S.

White or Black. Not surprisingly, as Table 13 suggests, a majority of Indo-

22 With regard to Canadian South Asian girls, Handa (1997, 8) writes, “…the “typical” Pakistanigirls fits colonial notions of South Asian womanhood: servitude, docility, chastity. In contrast, a“typical” Canadian woman is seen as sexually active and is associated with “modernity”. Modernis defined as both intelligent and sexually promiscuous”.

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Trinidadian and, and to a greater extent, non-Indo-Trinidadian girls look to these

female characters as role models. As a young woman working in Tunapuna

explained

I consider them role models because they know thatif they have the ability to do something, they wouldgo out into the world and do it, even without theencouragement of others. (Twenty-one-year-old,Dougla, Roman Catholic)

Table 13: Girls’ responses regarding whether their favourite female characters aretheir role models.

Response Indo-T’dian

Non-Indo-T’dian

SAGHS23

TML Lakshmi ElDo.

Work-ing girls

Yes 56.2% 71.9% 40.0% 37.5% 65.2% 65.0% 57.1%No 43.8% 28.1% 60.0% 62.5% 34.8% 35.0% 42.9%Total 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100%

Ethnic differences may explain why, in contrast to a quarter of non-Indo-

Trinidadians, over half of Indo-Trinidadian girls’ mothers, sisters and other family

members act as primary role models. Yet, somewhat contradictorily, unlike Indo-

Trinidadians at the other schools, a majority of those at Lakshmi Girls' Hindu

College and at El Dorado Secondary Comprehensive School see women on

television as role models. This suggests that class, religion, school environment,

family relations and other identity locations mediate how media, ‘modernity’ and

metropolitan femininities are reproduced and contested. Only 50% of non-Indo-

Trinidadian and 52% of Indo-Trinidadian girls often go to the cinema. Thus,


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television can perhaps be seen as a primary source of female iconography for the

majority of girls. The key messages of both U.S. music and television emphasize

that power, sexiness and independence are White, ‘modern’ and cool. They

convey alternative, competing bases for self-regard, femininity and respect.

4.2.6 Cinema, Western womanhood and Eastern ‘difference’

Generally, the cinemas (like malls) offer teenage girls a daytime outlet for

recreation and many Indo-Trinidadian girls and boys can be found at the cinema

(particularly matinee shows) on weekends. U.S. and Indian movies are often

shown at the cinemas in Tunapuna. As with television, girls view women in U.S.

movies as strong, powerful and independent, as sexually promiscuous, and/or in

ambiguous and ‘morally’ mixed ways. While 20% of all young women in the

sample described them as “sex symbols, promiscuous and having a casual

approach to sex”, over one third felt that women in U.S. movies were primarily

portrayed as “liberal, aggressive, can hurt people, brave, equals, self-reliant and

respected”. This points to two things. First, womanhood here does not rely on

being docile, having manners or being respectable, but the women are still seen as

“respected”. In this regard, feminine identities portrayed in U.S. movies challenge

those of women in Indian cinema.

Second, femininity as active, assertive, autonomous and demanding respect not

only challenges other constructions of femininity, but the complementary

construction of masculinity. U.S. (and British) Black and White women who

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contest the boundaries of insider femininity (by opening it up to include values

and behaviour often associated with masculinity) challenge the boundaries of

femininity itself (by challenging the association of these values and behaviours

with masculinity). Being “liberal” and “independent” and ‘Western’ may be

associated with freer expression of female sexuality, blurred gender roles and

disagreement with or disregard for feminine imperatives of obedience to and

respect for men and male authority. Such a powerful message complements those

from family, school and society about females being equal, having the right to

occupational choice and advancement, and needing to have autonomy and control

over their lives.

However, particularly with regard to sexuality, the boundaries of femininity are

not entirely challenged by U.S. based womanhoods. Patriarchal ideologies still

regulate female sexuality by withholding respect from those women who are seen

as immoral or lacking in respect (for themselves and, ultimately, for male

authority over what is valuable and redeeming about women (the male gaze)). As

one Lakshmi Girls' Hindu College student wrote about women in U.S. movies,

I think some are independent and mature but notall of them are respectful and decent”. (Fifteen-year-old, Indo- Hindu)

In this regard, being “loving, supportive and looking for the right person” or being

an “angel” are still aspects of femininity that are normalized. Clearly, young

women must navigate both “traditional” messages from their religion, families

and media, and those messages that step out of those boundaries. They recognize

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the dilemma that women face of being both respected for challenging, but also for

conforming. This is the ambiguity of insider femininity in U.S. based

womanhoods. In this regard, about 20% of all young women highlighted the

competing ideals24 bottled in the cinematic images of women as “both negative

and positive, good and bad, sometimes competitive, sometimes submissive to

men, sometimes strong, sometimes vulnerable, sometimes mild and sometimes

seductive”.

Nonetheless, the majority of girls perceived women in U.S. movies “as having a

mind of their own and doing what they want”. This does not resonate with any of

the ways that they see women, femininity and sexuality portrayed in Indian

movies. Additionally, U.S. and British women are seen as “up to date with

everything and cool”. More than anything else, media, ‘modernity’ and

metropolitan femininities emphasize the diversity of femininities that can be

acceptable. As a Lakshmi Girls' Hindu College student described, women in U.S.

movies can be

Sex symbols, independent, anything you can thinkof they can be or are portrayed as. Anything.(Fifteen-year-old, Indo-Hindu)

Respectability and reputation are, therefore, positioned ambiguously and, at times,

contradictorily within the iconography of U.S. womanhood. ‘Acceptable’ U.S.

femininities enable Indo-Trinidadian girls to contest other local and global

imperatives, to challenge the dominant terms of insider femininity and to blur the

24 Ruth (1998, 107) writes that an undercurrent of ambivalence runs through conceptualizations ofwomen.

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gender boundaries demarcating femininity itself. Yet, these diverse womanhoods

do not dismantle the paradigm.

Interestingly, U.S. and Indian womanhoods, as conveyed through cinema, are

neither dichotomous nor homogenous. Yet, they become integrated into a local

discourse that juxtaposes ‘Eastern’ and ‘Western’ values regarding women’s

behaviour, sexual desire, and choices. Indian movies provide an “Orientalist”

(Said 1978) message of what it means to be from the “East” while simultaneously

incorporating Western ways of dressing and dancing in a very trans-nationalized

image of Indian womanhood (see Puri 1999). Though highly westernized and

sexualized, Indian femininities and bodies in movies mark an East/West,

respectability/reputation dualism. In this context, (obedience to) “protective

discourses” and narratives of romance are then presented as ‘appropriate’ ways of

“managing sexuality” (Handa 1997) and navigating modernity.

In Trinidad, images, characters, storyline and music evoke specific feelings of

“Indianness” and are ultimately associated with ‘tradition’, the ‘past’ and a

separate and India-derived ethnic identity (Vertovec 1992; Ali 1993). As Klass

(1991) described, Indian movies are a source of trends and fashions, a connection

to a historically ‘seamless’ “Indianness” and a messageway for both the “oldest”

and the “newest”. Local television stations broadcast Indian music videos, Zee

TV25 can be accessed through cable television, and newspaper magazines such as

Dil and Chutney Star focus heavily on the stars of “Bollywood” cinema. In 25 This British Asian station primarily shows movies and music videos not translated into English.

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addition, almost 60% of Indo-Trinidadian girls said they go to the cinema to

watch Indian movies. However, more Indo-Trinidadian girls attending Rafeek

Memorial T.M.L. Secondary School and El Dorado Secondary Comprehensive

School go to these movies than those from St. Augustine Girls' High School or

working in Tunapuna (see Table 14).

Table 14: Indo-Trinidadian girls’ responses regarding going to the cinema to seeIndian movies.


SAGHS26

TML Lakshmi ElDorado

Workinggirls

Yes 58.8% 45.0% 85.7% 58.6% 68.2% 42.9%No 41.2% 55.0% 14.3% 41.4% 31.8% 57.1%Total 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100%

One explanation may be that religious difference intersects cultural participation

as, in comparison to 65% of Indo- Hindus and 72% of Indo-Muslims, only 35% of

Indo-Christians go to the cinema to see Indian movies.

Of those girls who go to see Indian movies, more than one third like or identify

with “the actors, actresses, songs, dances, clothing, music and characters”. These

are important messageways for Indian womanhoods and they convey an

impression of the femininities available to Indian women, the issues in women’s

lives and the options available to them to find solutions. This diasporic

“Bollywood” metanarrative is not balanced by images of “othered” Indian women


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who challenge women’s (gender, class, caste and religious) oppression such as the

assassinated “Bandit Queen” Poolan Devi, or heterosexism (and the portrayal of

Indian feminine identities as heterosexual) as in Deepa Mehta’s movie “Fire”. In

this regard, a quarter of girls’ described women in Indian movies as “respectable,

honest, docile, loving, caring, compassionate, lovely and kind” and as “angels

with class, style and beauty”.

Indian cinema portrays women as wealthy, glamorous, fair skinned and generally

unaffected by forms of subordination of women, except in instances of marriage

(wanting to choose partner, but nonetheless wanting to get married) or in

instances of sexual violence (when a male hero eventually comes to the rescue).

Still, almost one third of Indo-Trinidadian girls identify with “the stories, same,

predictable story line and the problems faced”. The narrative of romance,

“couples’ trials to be together”, the issues of parental approval and the goal of

happiness through heterosexual love may all resonate with girls who are also

exposed to such transnational ideologies through U.S. television and movies.

Overwhelmingly, girls associate Indian movies with femininity, romance,

respectability and decency. These may provide legitimate ways for young women

to think about their sexuality and desires. As one young woman working in

Tunapuna wrote,

Indian movies are very emotional you feel a littlemore love within yourself, you feel a little morecalm within yourself. Indian movies are not vulgaror violent. (Twenty-one-year-old, Dougla RomanCatholic)

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Indo-Trinidadian girls may also identify with the ‘Indian family’ portrayed in

movies. Just over 10% responded they liked Indian movies because they show

“how a typical Indian family should be, the role of everyday living and

knowledge about my religion and tradition”. This happens in two ways. First,

movies “teach us about what our ancestors used to be like when they were in

India” and, second, Indian movies show how “parents protect children, especially

daughters”. In this regard, protective discourses concerning “daughters’” bodies

and sexuality intertwine with those regarding the imagined “nation”. Though

fluidly crossing East-West borders, Indian movies remain ideologically important

to demarcating Indo-Trinidadian ‘difference’ in Trinidad and Tobago, and their

meanings are interpreted within this national discourse.

Indian movies reiterate a traditional conception of respectability. As one Lakshmi

Girls' Hindu College student wrote about women in Indian movies,

Some are independent, but some are not but I thinkalmost all of them are respectable. (Fifteen-year-old, Indo-Hindu)

Yet, the messages regarding ‘appropriate’ womanhood remain ambiguous and

contradictory. Over 40% of Indo-Trinidadian girls felt these movies portray

Indian women as “traditional sometimes, normal sometimes, sometimes weak,

sometimes independent, sometimes with dignity and sometimes vulgar”. These

young women also wrote that Indian women were “respectable before, now dress

changed, some shy, others wild, many are sex symbols”. Two Indo-Christians

from El Dorado Secondary Comprehensive School attributed this to Indian

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movies “following U.S. movies”. Similarly, an El Dorado Secondary

Comprehensive School student wrote,

I can’t identify with Indian movies, they havebecome embarrassingly Westernized. (Fifteen-yearold, Indo-Hindu)

As Puri (1999) pointed out, images and messages are mixed because ‘tradition’ is

both demarcated from and overlapping with the contemporary - or Eastern with

Western - in these transnational constructions. These movies’ “newest” portrayals

of Indianness, which at times may seem to run counter to the “oldest”, exemplify

how stereotypical storylines and characters are incorporated or transformed into

apparently “newer” femininities. “Westernization” appears to signify less

respectable feminine gender identities and a move away from ‘authentic’ and

identifiable Indian identities, and ethnic and moral ‘difference’. Yet, Indian

women seem compelled to navigate ‘tradition’ and ‘modernity’ and contemporary

Indian movies reflect these diverging pulls. Similarly, young Indo-Trinidadian

women may consider ‘traditional’ femininities respectable, but also view

subservience, inequality and lack of choice as unacceptable. For example, a

quarter of girls described women in Indian movies as “women searching for love,

man hungry and deprived of outdoor experience”, “sometimes lower than men”

and “forever the victim, holy, subservient, timid, having to accept arranged

marriages and lame”. Emphasizing this, a Lakshmi Girls' Hindu College student

wrote,

They are all so stupid and act like they lived in the60s. They don’t work and follow men like if they

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weren’t others in the world. (Fifteen-year-old, Indo-Hindu)

Another, this time from El Dorado Secondary Comprehensive School, described

them

As only dressing up in a lot of uncomfortableclothes and running around trees and flowerssinging songs. (Fifteen-year-old, Indo-Hindu)

The subterranean implication that this world and its inhabitants cannot be taken

seriously is important to the way that girls see women in Indian movies and

compare them to women in U.S. movies. As well, many girls clearly do not

identify with images of women as “victims”.

In the collage of cinematic images of Indian womanhood, the single presiding

expectation of ‘respectability’ coalesces with Indo-Trinidadian ‘community’

imperatives, and underscores Indo-Trinidadian ethnic and gender identities.

However transnational, Indian femininities signify ideal intersections of

‘tradition’ and ‘modernity’. Yet, they also appear unable to compete with U.S. or

British conceptions of ‘acceptable’ womanhood. This suggests that the impact of

Indian womanhood on Indo-Trinidadian adolescent femininities may be primarily

symbolic. Nonetheless, Indian womanhoods contribute to an overall emphasis,

across messageways, on some version of respectability, femininity and sexual

morality.

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4.3 “Outsider” femininities and shared boundaries

Divergent messages enable girls to navigate competing imperatives of

‘appropriate’ womanhood. However, essentially, girls’ negotiations remain

bounded by the shared notions of ‘reputation’ and ‘immorality’ emanating from

different messageways. These demarcate ‘deviant’ behaviours, identities and

spaces that then signify ‘outsider’ boundaries. These boundaries are marked by an

extremely graphic iconography of female reputation. Young women learn to

avoid (being seen) behaving in transgressive ways. This is to avoid “shame” to

themselves, their families, their communities, other women and, even, society.

Sexual morality is key to insider femininity and sexual practices that contest

gender ideals are the common denominator among ‘othered’ feminine identities.

Thus, girls from all groups repeatedly equated sexual freedom with the sexual

‘irresponsibility’ and ‘immorality’ of “prostitution, promiscuity, stripping,

abortion, adultery, pre-marital sex, lesbian sex, having illegitimate kids”, and

being “sexually active teens”. Further, these girls often grouped promiscuity with

prostitution. This exemplifies how easily sexually active and desiring young

women can come to be known as “whores”.

In this regard, almost 60% of Indo-Trinidadian young women across religious

groups described female immorality in terms of “indecent, rude and vulgar

behaviour, drinking, degrading yourself in public, obscene, noisy and loud

language, discourteousness and an uncaring attitude” (which may mean both not

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caring for others and not caring about what society thinks). Thus, as a St.

Augustine Girls' High School student wrote, having good morals means not

engaging in

Vulgar dancing, flirting with men, wild, ho-likebehaviour or skettish Carnival-like gyrating in braand panty, laughing loud and liming with men inskimpy clothes or walking around with your breastsand half your ass showing. (Fifteen-year-old, Indo-Hindu)

Almost 20% of girls also think that they can get a reputation from being “too

wild, outspoken, disrespectful to elders, disobedient, own way and unmannerly”.

Here, being “too wild” is linked to defying adults’ expectations of femininity

coded as “obedience”, “respect” and “manners”. One young woman wrote that it

becomes easier for Indo-Trinidadian girls to get a reputation “when other Indian

women do the wrong thing”. Girls may therefore “police” each other’s behaviour

and may seek to (at least outwardly) distance themselves from those girls who

then become positioned as the “other”. Further, “other” Indo-Trinidadian girls’

behaviour may deepen the pressure on young women to prove their “goodness” as

a pre-condition for accessing liberties.

Essentially, three quarters of girls stated that an Indo-Trinidadian female’s “bad,

outrageous or ridiculous behaviour, bad dress or way of carrying yourself, attitude

and company” in public can give her a bad reputation. These are the behavioural

choices considered immoral and irresponsible. Dominant moral imperatives are

shaped by the sense that public space “belongs” more to men and to activities

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associated with men (Chevannes 2001). Girls can therefore gain a “reputation” by

associating with men, by being seen participating in activities affiliated with men

or simply by being “on the street”.

Finally, as one Indo-Hindu young woman said, “Indo-Trinidadian girls gain a

reputation for the same things that give women a bad reputation in society”. This

underscores the way that, across ethnicity, class and religion, “outsider”

femininities may be common among communities that otherwise see themselves

as separate, but also that girls are therefore offered interstitial opportunities for

negotiation. Thus, while women in society can generally get a reputation from the

“same things”, these are represented and given life through shifting

iconographies. Though manifested and regulated in a variety of ways, insider

femininities underscore the dominant meaning of respectability for these Indo-

Trinidadian young women.

4.4 Competing, coalescing and ambiguous ideals

Religious, family, community and media messageways point to complexities

within and interconnections among messages about femininity, sexuality and

morality. Religious influences seem to present the most consistent set of

messages. To different extents, these emphasize various aspects of female

‘goodness’ while, nonetheless, reinforcing common underlying notions of

“insider” femininity. Family values appear to support these messages, but less

explicitly emphasize those about ‘morality’. Instead, focus is also on success,

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independence, responsibility and achievement. Notions of Indo-Trinidadian

womanhood appear to set very explicit imperatives for Indo-Trinidadian girls.

Essentially, these are feminine ideals of respectability and purity. Thus, ethnic

identity and ‘difference’ appears conflated with and reinforced by gender ideals.

This highlights the performative and contingent nature of belonging. Yet, even

while ideals are reproduced, girls’ responses suggest they are challenged, ignored

and reworked in the realm of the everyday. Girls clearly navigate (shifting)

concepts of ‘tradition’ and ‘modernity’, and morality and immorality by using

forms of re/presentation – carriage, dress and “symbolic womanhood” – to claim

belonging to divergent value systems. Competing ideals are therefore significant

to negotiation and agency.

Radio and television messageways complicate the imperatives of insider

femininity propagated by religious authorities and parents. Women in U.S. media

are presented as females who make choices, exercise control over their lives,

achieve successes, fight off the “bad guys”, have sex for pleasure and exude

confidence. For Indo-Trinidadian girls, this glamorizes a type of woman

somewhat at odds with the ideals of Indo-Trinidadian and Indian womanhoods,

and offers interesting opportunities for the way they define and express their own

femininity, sexuality and identity. Types of “outsider” femininities seem to jostle

for room with types of “insider” femininities in destabilizing notions of

‘appropriate’ womanhood. In the process, dualistic signifiers of respectability and

reputation become ambiguous and blurred.

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Indian female movie stars are not popular enough to displace a heavy reliance on

and identification with U.S. based femininities. Local and regional music offer

some respite from this heavy cultural importation, but White and Black U.S.

music and television stars dominate girls’ lists of favorites. Girls may accept U.S.

women’s overt sexuality because it appears successful, independent, powerful and

“modern”. U.S. media represent ‘modernity’ and globally export ‘metropolitan’

ideals of femininity, sexuality and morality as if they are the “latest”, the

“coolest” and the most generationally ‘appropriate’27. This becomes much more

significant in the absence of local media influences.

Given the heterogeneity of various interacting value systems, no one source of

imperatives regarding femininity, and female sexuality and morality seems

hegemonic. Competing and coalescing messageways therefore create ambiguities

and contradictions regarding the boundaries of respectability and reputation.

However, across messageways, the ideals of insider femininity remain

continuously reiterated to different extents and in different ways. In this context,

young women seem compelled to hold diverging ideals in tension and to

continuously seek appropriate balance. Core notions of ‘appropriate’ womanhood

continue to underlie the contemporary gender ideals and expectations faced by

Indo-Trinidadian young women. This suggests that young women must

accommodate established boundaries even while they resist and redefine for

themselves. In this regard, young women may symbolically use dress and

27 As Ballinger (1998, 18) wrote in another context, “The challenging of gender roles and race-based family structure must also be read in the context of neo-liberalism which fosters freely-choosing, socially-autonomous subjects”.

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appearance to reproduce feminine imperatives while contesting them privately or

in other sub-cultural spheres.

Gender, Generation and Negotiation: Young Indo-Trinidadian Women's Identities in the Late Twentieth...

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Transcript of Gender, Generation and Negotiation: Young Indo-Trinidadian Women's Identities in the Late Twentieth...