{"id":774,"date":"2008-11-13T11:55:48","date_gmt":"2008-11-13T16:55:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wayneandwax.com\/?p=774"},"modified":"2015-01-07T14:05:42","modified_gmt":"2015-01-07T18:05:42","slug":"cant-we-all-just-dance-along","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wayneandwax.com\/?p=774","title":{"rendered":"Can’t We All Just Dance Along?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thanks to Christina<\/a> for sharing this video<\/a> via Google Reader<\/a> —<\/p>\n

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We spent Tuesday in my class (AAAS 171a: Reggae Representation, Race and Nation<\/em>) discussing sexuality and homophobia in Jamaica, and I wish that I had stumbled onto this in time to bring it into the conversation. One of the things we talked about was the potential for YouTube-mediated, diasporic expressions of masculinity<\/a> to (re)animate discussions<\/a> among Jamaicans about sexuality and community. <\/p>\n

In contrast to the ways that Brooklyn-Jamaican hipster kids (sorry to invoke the h-word<\/a> again<\/a> — it likely obscures more than it reveals) are challenging more “trad” notions of macho respectability, the YouTube performances by self-proclaimed “gay boys” (or even “bati boys”) like sexysupacat<\/a> are perhaps inherently more confrontational as putative outsiders attempt to negotiate their love of dancehall (or other genres<\/a>) against the sometimes extreme anti-gay<\/a> sentiments located therein. <\/p>\n

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“Gay Asian Boy Dances Dancehall” is a fascinating text\/intervention, obviously enabled by the power of YouTube to project and affirm one’s self & identititity<\/a> without much danger of face-to-face encounter. Suffice to say, the video has generated a lot of heat in the comments, though, remarkably, there appears to be a preponderance of positive, encouraging words —<\/p>\n


\n<\/a>
\nAs Christina noted, though, what is perhaps most interesting is that way that sexysupacat himself frames what he’s up to —<\/p>\n


\n<\/a>
\ncheck the tags!<\/em><\/p>\n

Though his words may seem a bit hyperbolic in places (“causing AIDS”?), his concerns are not by any means misplaced<\/a>. Whether this sort of thing serves to change some Jamaicans’ minds about the issue is an entirely ‘nother question of course.<\/p>\n

Beyond that, though, what also seems significant here is the way that YouTube’s mirror\/stage<\/a> is facilitating not just inter-group conversations (say, between gays and homophobes) but, importantly, intra-group exchanges as well. The videos from sexysupacat leads to tons of “gay boy dancing<\/a>” vids, and I can only imagine that certain “gay boys” in isolated parts of the country\/world find solace, comfort, and other things in the unprecedented ability to watch and share with other gay boys. <\/p>\n

10 years ago, maybe even 5, that would have been a lot more difficult. I’m not sure we can underestimate the importance of these new public\/private spheres. One of these days<\/s> years, the Prop 8s of the world will surely fall (black people aren’t the problem — old people are<\/a>), and then we can all share videos where we dance in jubilation — to dancehall or not. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thanks to Christina for sharing this video via Google Reader — We spent Tuesday in my class (AAAS 171a: Reggae Representation, Race and Nation) discussing sexuality and homophobia in Jamaica, and I wish that I had stumbled onto this in time to bring it into the conversation. One of the things we talked about was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[406,412,402,409,408,204,407],"class_list":["post-774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dance","tag-internet","tag-jamaica","tag-politricks","tag-reggae","tag-sexuality","tag-video"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wayneandwax.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wayneandwax.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wayneandwax.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wayneandwax.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wayneandwax.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=774"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/wayneandwax.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/774\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":782,"href":"https:\/\/wayneandwax.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/774\/revisions\/782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wayneandwax.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wayneandwax.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wayneandwax.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}