A So Di Ting Set: Conceptions of Male and Female in Jamaica and Barbados

In 1997, two hundred and twenty-five (225) Jamaican adults were asked to give their opinions of the prevailing Jamaican male and female stereotypes. Again in 2009 a further one hundred and twenty-four (124) Jamaican adults were interviewed to determine their perceptions of the current gender stereotypes. The same was done in Barbados as a means of comparing the stereotypes of two English speaking Caribbean cultures with differing degrees of exposure to similar cultural influences. Equal numbers of male and female respondents were included in both studies. A 100-adjective list of male and female attributes was compiled using a 300-item list originally created by Cattell in 1943 and subsequently used and revised by various authors. The data were analysed using SPSS to arrive at the frequencies for each adjective. Responses of 65% or more were considered to be stereotypical of males and females within each culture. The results show that overall Jamaican men were seen as: coarse, reckless, aggressive, lazy, tough, arrogant, stern, disorderly, robust, rigid, autocratic, courageous, and hard-headed, Jamaican women were seen as: complaining, fussy, sexy, emotional, worrying, affectionate, sensitive, soft hearted and sophisticated. Barbadian men and women had overall lower stereotype scores than did Jamaicans. Barbadian men differed from Jamaican men in that they were seen as: reckless; disorderly; robust and tough man who is also show-off; arrogant; aggressive; hard-headed; courageous, adventurous; lazy; inventive and rigid, while Barbadian women were seen as: emotional; fussy; affectionate; complaining, sophisticated; sensitive; worrying; warm; fault-finding; sexy; touchy; sentimental and gentle. The popular music from both countries is used as a lens for understanding the cultures within which the respondents develop their gender stereotypes. The stereotype data is then compared with the music that is popular during the 10 years from the first study in Jamaica to the second pair of studies in Jamaica and Barbados.