Effemophobia, RompHim, Sagging, Leggings & Men in Pink

One of Vybz Kartel's early sojourn in his image change after the 'cake soap' and skin bleaching journey where he literally changed right before our eyes to much backlash. now he is the most worshipped DJ

So here we are again and nonsensically so this old familiar place with effemophobia, the fear of the unknown. There are other more important issues that require outrage but get very little or none. We have come a good way yet still from the days of the strong abhorrence to wearing pink especially in the dancehall space where it was seen as an anathema to men called gays or ‘fish,’ and men who wore earrings now earrings are now the norm, I remember an incident just in front the infamous Pernel Charles arcade in 1989 (an arcade often accused of having down-low men and cougarism), after coming from school I witnessed a man was literally mobbed after wearing a knob in his right ear. His American accent was what saved him in part but he was warned about it by men who play dominoes at the entrance. 

Bearing in mind we are coming from the days of strong opposition to males wearing, pink & earrings at all to some acceptability to one ear having a knob and it must by the left one to both ears now and even to top parts. Wearing earrings in the right ear was seen as the wearer seen being gay.

Then there is the business of strident opposition to tight pants, jeggings or leggings wearing by men especially from the older generation of dancehall acts to in their minds legitimise their masculinity, now those very same acts such as Bounty Killa, Beenieman and even Ninjaman (the one who rejected his gay son) all have fallen in line to stay current with trends competing in an ever changing space of dancehall as younger artist rewrite the rules. Please do not leave out the powerful influence by Vybz Kartel who almost single handed changed how male artists are presented in dancehall from the cake soap phenomenon to the Michael Jackson look.

Vybz Kartel when he finally revealed new look after retreating from the public domain and 'bleaching' see: Gay look for Kartel  the tight clothes says it all.

Kartel in the FAG shirt, here is a comment from one of the more cynical dancehall forums as he was slowly changing his image, he looks when darker than the photo above 

 Jamaica's top Controversial DJ vibes Kartel was seen in the weird piece of attire recently at Sebas birthday bash in the Bahamas held at Club "Luna". The words FAG were clearly seen on the purple shirt he was wearing on stage. This latest piece of episode is having people wondering if the DJ is coming out of the closet, is pulling off another publicity stunt (however subtle), whether it is a mistake in not looking at the shirt before wearing it or was it photo-chopped. Whatever the case maybe it should be interesting to see what unfolds from this one.. but Bwoy... i dont know rasta ..  I dont  know!!.. how come the man guh wear a shirt weh clearly seh something bout battyman knowing the phobia and culture of his homeland... anything for a Visa?.. I just dont know rasta... Gaza gone luu... again. LoL

A CNN story on the Rompers outfits for men has stirred up a major firestorm on the dancehall circuit and wrapped into it as the other ignorance laden nonsense is that the clothes effectively reflect one’s sexuality automatically; when are we going to get over this I don’t know. The CNN article read in part:

"CNN)Male romper. RompHim. Bro romper (bromper?). Public onesie. Jumpsuit, variety: short. Or, perhaps, just a romper that happens to be worn by a man."

Whatever you call it, the one-piece clothing item preferred by babies and women at outdoor concerts has officially hit the male fashion mainstream

Backward reactions

Damion Crawford, former MP, and who was accused himself of being gay and a divisive contrarian writing on Facebook, said

".........if u are a man and own/owned or intend to own a romper unfriend me NOW ... not only on social media unfriend me in real life".

I wonder if he only did that to get more attention to himself especially after the discontinuation of his talk show on Nationwide radio? Although he lectures at the University of the West Indies. I still think it is some closet queens who are the problem people in a form of internalised homophobia This is the same Damian Crawford by the way how shot down the so called promised or suggested conscience vote made by then opposition leader of the PNP Portia Simpson Miller just two months after it was made, which made it clear to me that no such vote would have occurred. If Mr Crawford was so squeaky clean and purely heterosexual why would an accusation thrown at him questioning his sexuality come about? see: Former PNP MP Damion Crawford dismisses gay rumours and  PNP's Damion Crawford on Homosexuality's legality ......................... 2012 and PNP's Damion Crawford says it's highly unlikely buggery review will happen ........ it's not important now

There has been a huge wave of memes about the idea of male rompers, called Romphim, becoming a new fashion trend.

also see: 

when it was in October 2009 that the Elephant was called a "Fish" by another artist. 

Clearly not amused about the fashion, Jesus Alarcon, a Facebook user, said that 

"With every year that passes man get gayer and gayer."

Reginald C Mcgee, another Facebook user, said the wearing of male rompers is a sure telltale sign of homosexuality.

"Ladies if your man wears one of these ... he has a boyfriend," he wrote. The backwardness is disturbing in a sense to watch was one would have thought in this social media age and access to a wealth of information we still have stigmatization as this despite the previous waves as hinted to above.

bear in mind they are not as tight as jeggins and such, it looks more like a sleepwear item.

ACED Design, which has placed the product on crowdfunding website Kickstarter, said the RompHim as "pretty damn comfortable, and it may just be the start of a fashion revolution."

So far so 2,054 backers have pledged US$234,742, far surpassing the US$10,000 that was targeted. Well at least someone sees a major opportunity and has acted but when our education systems over years do not properly teach sexual orientation matters we are bound to have nonsense like this continue.

However, if the strong sentiments being expressed on social media are anything to go by, the Romphim will die of suffocation. "Weh romper a go??? Not here," (Where is romper going, not here) user Jerome West wrote on Facebook. I say let us what happens when the dust settles, there was opposition to pink worn by men but when some realise the world was not going to end pink became OK, let us see. As far as I am concerned the Rompers or influenced by or are an extension of the braces worn short pant often worn on golf courses or by the upper classes at brunches, tea at high noon or picnics.

Women were also indignant at the idea. Millicent Needham posted: "Real man nuh play romper, leave it to the ladies".

Aneisha Smith wrote on her Facebook page that: "If I ever have a man and him wear this kmt".

a comparison with short pants with suspenders and a version of Romphim it is clear to me some influence of the shape

I remember for example Beenieman’s song on fashion designers where he said in part:
............ Versace ah bugga man but yet still it wear by big badman (Versace is a gay man but yet its gansgters who rock the brand) listen the song HERE:

here are the two at a lyrical clash in 2004, Beenieman was ridiculed about his pink hat and dancehall forums had a field day questioning his sexuality

Yet although these artists promote murder music in their repertoire they wear the designs and also have songs about the brands as a form of legitimizing affordability and wealth associated with being a star. Monster Shack Crew had a song called ‘Bad Man Nuh Dress like Girl’ which spoke to some anti gay tight pants but shows clear hypocrisy as the fashion designers praised in the song are foreign gay men, it reads in part ...... (translation attempts)
 the lead singer at the time, pay attention to the look

Verse 1:

Mi look bush and bashy

Inna mi Moschino and mi latest Versace

We nuh bore nose an wi nuh too Jheri

Natural as mi born a so mi gal dem tell mi

Hey yow,

Some bwoy get drawn out

Face guh bleach out, deh pan a wrong route (face bleached out as they seem to go the wrong route)

Look like a gal when him a guh out

Dem mistake him tek him fi gal inna crowd (Looks like a girl & mistaken as a girl in the crowd)

Chorus:

Badman nuh dress like girl

We nuh bore nose an wi nuh bleach face an

We nuh wear drop curl

Some freaky freaky bwoy fi stop dress like girl

Verse 2:

Nuh man nuh look suh

See dem up suh, see dem dung suh

Know say Monster Shack dem naah dress suh

Yes yes, di wrong song him guh sing

Him nose guh bore him a wear belly skin (a man's nose of pierced and wears belly skin)

Fi lef dat to Cicilyn and Jacqueline (leave that to Cicilyn & Jacqueline)

Scare Dem knock him out with a cold Heineken .. (knock him out cold with a Heineken)

his more modern look

Male skin bleaching which was strongly frowned upon and drop curls of long hair for men outside of Rastafarism. Men now are putting in extensions and sitting in hair dressing parlours (which could explain why so many barber shops converge with hairdressers) as men get shaved and the traditional lining up services but simply walk over to the mostly female hairdresser and put in or touch up the rope twists. Male skin bleaching is now the rage alongside near full body tattooing but with stiff competition out there acts some without any serious creativity gifts have to do all kinds of gimmickry to gain a following, going to ever more extremes. But most of those elements are near normative, the aging members of that group all have dyed hair even from in their heyday and at one point wore bubbles, all bleach their skin and as for tight pants and sagging they have to keep up toe to toe with the current crop.

A video had surfaced on Youtube with Ninjaman and Beenieman in a verbal altercation, the same Ninjaman who years ago was in strong opposition on a murder music trajectory offered death threats in song for men who violate, he was wearing a very skin hugging pants that he once abhorred:

The matter of Romp(him) (er) came up discussion on Nationwide radio, the Miss Kitty show and misguidedly so, as nearly all her guests we exuding fear, subtle homophobia of a simple outfit in its original form which is not even as close fitting as the RompHim version of it. According to the gospel of Miss Kitty, she was not into those ‘Aquarium ting deh’ and other similar comments obviously thrown a homophobic barb, for someone pursuing law that is not the kind of behaviour that should be coming from her; for my international readers the concept of an aquarium is homophobic speak for a ‘fish’, one of the ever changing stigmatizing terms used to compartmentalise homosexuals, we have moved from She-Fu man that originated mostly in the rural parts through to ‘number two’ to ‘funny man’ to ‘chi-chi man a term not so used anymore as before to ‘Shim’ but the traditional ‘battyman or batteyman’ still reigns.

Of note Nationwide radio has since apologised only this morning at around 8:20am during the ‘This Morning’ show when co-host Dennis Brooxs (actual spelling) without naming Miss Kitty’s show said that they were sorry of the offensive content broadcast on May 23(Labour Day) during 3:20 pm to 5pm. By the Broadcasting Commission’s guidelines radio stations have to run apologies after questionable content. Apparently some music played on air with rather was not so pleasing to the air. At least some sense has prevailed in reigning in some seemingly wayward DJs who apparently should not be even behind a microphone.

Meanwhile to think it is not even a month since I did a post on 

Gay Jamaica Watch of an incident in Spanish Town that I witnessed just outside the Tastee Patties store on Burke Road, a tight pants sagging character clashed with another man and was for all intents and purposes was humiliated to much laughter by others and labelled as gay (battyman).

Lil Wayne (from the internet)

The African American influences from such as Little Wayne and newer acts where leggings and sagging are markers of a legitimate but fashion forward thug as usual has had an impact on cultures in the Caribbean. Our dancehall acts look up and follow very closely the trends and copy or adjust their image to match as close as possible ‘the look’. Sagging was last thing I expected to in Jamaica especially how low the jeans, leggings hang as the buttocks covered of course in the brand name boxers shorts to show the affordability of the brand; now more and more men despite that fear cycle seem quite proud to show their covered cakes and it also shows some legitimacy of a fashion forward thug as well.

For god’s sake when are we as a nation in greater numbers; just get over some of the nonsense.

Mek we see nuh

Peace & tolerance

H 

also see:
Vybz Kartel lashes back with "Woman Wi Love" song, has he forgotten it is he who blurred the lines of his own sexuality? 

Vybz Kartel from Anti Bleaching advocate to The King of "The Rub" 

Battyman bashing while ‘cakes’ are out ..