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.In late December 2004, Christine married atwenty-three-year-old man, eighteen years her junior.34Other popular and prominent women in the dancehall dis/place atthe time of the original research for this work included the BashmentBabes, models and dancers out of Montego Bay; the Ouch Crew; and theHard Core Models.Since 2003, popular dancers Stacey, Keiva and MadMichelle have also earned high status in the dancehall.Winners of theannual Dancehall Queen contest held in Montego Bay since 1997 alsoattain primacy and publicity in the dancehall dis/place in Jamaica as wellas in the diaspora.However, veterans Carlene, the Dancehall Queen,and Lady Saw, the Queen of Slackness, still remain two of the mostprominent and public faces of women in the dancehall.Carlene.the (Facilitated) Browning Queen,Lady Saw, the (Negated) Slack, Black QueenI argue that Dancehall Queen Carlene s meteoric rise to popularity bothwithin and beyond the dancehall was facilitated by the intersection of therace/class/colour distinctions that maintain a sociopolitical hierarchywithin Jamaican society.Carlene is a Jamaican browning.As argued ear-lier, the historical legacies of slavery and colonialism have ensured thatJamaican society remains highly colour-biased.Women with skin colour-ing and other phenotypical features that closely approximate a Europeanideal are favoured over others whose skin colour and facial features donot.In the dancehall dis/place, this places Carlene in a privileged posi-tion over other women of a darker hue.In addition, while she originally socialized and conducted her activi-66 Inna di Dancehallties mainly within the dancehall dis/place, Carlene could not claim trueinner-city or lower-class status, as her background is lower middle class.Further, Carlene has a secondary education and is able to display anddeliver herself in public, in the media and other social settings of themiddle- and upper-class variety in a fashion and with mannerisms thatapproximate the standards of  decent behaviour set by traditionalJamaican society.Carlene s grasp and use of the preferred standardEnglish in public spaces like the media and social settings which demandthis flexibility also affords her more social legitimacy over other womenwho are either unable or unwilling to converse in standard English andwho resort to the use of vernacular.The publicly soft-spoken Carleneis therefore able to pass easily between the boundaries of upper-middle-and upper-class society in Jamaica since her background, education,mannerisms and skin colour make her an ideal candidate for suchstatus.The traditional Jamaican attitude to a browning such as Carlene, whoengages in what is perceived as deviant behaviour in the dancehall, isalmost like that of a doting parent with a naughty child: a little slap,some half-hearted scolding.This is underscored by a high level of toler-ance and full confidence in that child s ability to rise above such pettybehaviour, since he or she has benefited from socialization and exposureat a higher and more accepted level.Carlene s public sexual posturingsand gyrations are tolerated and subtly encouraged by traditional society.This attitude opened the way for the use of Carlene s scantily clad imageas the advertising icon for the Slam Condom line.The perception alsofigured prominently in the selection of Carlene as the representative ofCourts Jamaica Limited (a furniture and appliance chain) in its advertis-ing campaigns in 1998 (along with scantily clad dancers) and 1999(along with deejay Beenie Man), and it has also facilitated Carlene s tran-sition from dancehall queen to co-host of Our Voices, a television pro-gramme that she initially hosted with Lisa Hanna, Miss World 1993.Our Voices is now aired on Monday nights on CVM Television.In the dancehall dis/place, however, many affectors and affectees arefully aware of Carlene s facilitated status but feel compelled to credit herfor exposing and promoting a facet of dancehall culture, as one dance-hall videographer noted: Love Punaany Bad 67You know that Carlene is one of the women right now who cause peopleto ensure that they look good because when they see you.because,alright now, do you know that there are many girls.a lot of girls outthere that look better than Carlene.A lot of girls but they are not beingpushed up (promoted) like Carlene you know.A whole heap of girlsare out there, okay? But we have to give her (Carlene) her credit becauseshe.made this thing what it is you know.35Carlene remains the de facto dancehall queen to this day.On theother hand, Lady Saw is a Jamaican woman of dark skin colour and aworking-class background.Her long-term career and ascendancy to thehighest levels of the deejay fraternity have been consistently marked byintense and harsh criticism from traditional Jamaica.Lady Saw s constant output of sexually explicit lyrics has resulted inher being crowned the Queen of Slackness and attracting negative pub-licity.Unlike her sexually explicit and hedonistic model/dancer counter-part, Carlene, deejay Lady Saw has been subjected to more negative thanpositive publicity.This is based on the perceptions of her  vulgar andslack role in the dancehall dis/place by members of the broader Jamaicansociety [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]