Jamaica oman cunny, sah!
Is how dem jinnal so?
Look how long dem liberated
An de man dem never know!

 
(Jamaican women are tricksters!
How are they so sly?
Look at how long they’ve been liberated
And the men never knew!)

Jamaica Oman Louise Bennett (1986)

Folklorist Louise Bennett’s poem, Jamaica Oman, suggests that working class Jamaican women have been in dialogue about their sense of agency since the beginning of colonialism.  She comically highlights how Jamaican men have tended to think of Jamaican women as passive and submissive to their (patriarchal) whims and will.  However, throughout the poem, she speaks of women as wearing the “pants of the house” in ways that their spouses do not recognize.  Her poetry is a testament to the way that working class Afro-Jamaican women have been exploring issues of political and sexual agency through art.  Following this tradition, women in dancehall have taken up this conversation and made it relevant to the present moment.  

However, dancehall music has often been accused of being an artistic space that denigrates women, particularly those of the working class.  Women who participate in this art form as singers or deejays are often accused of capitulating to patriarchal power because they have internalized sexism.  (Lake, 1998)
 However, I will argue (using Caribbean feminist theory) that women in dancehall spaces are actively involved in a dialogue about their agency, particularly as it has to do with the politics of sexuality, in which they challenge the dominant narrative of female submission and/or subservience that is often touted by Jamaican men and women (singers and fans of dancehall alike).  The conversation about agency is not a simple one that can be categorized as positive or negative, but rather as a dialogue of which women are consciously aware and are both complicit in and resistant to patriarchal, heteronormative thinking.  I will also argue that framing dancehall as fated to being misogynistic serves to reinforce revered middle class values and reify antagonistic power dynamics.  The contemporary moment is particularly interesting since the last decade has given rise to many more female artists, such as Spice, Pamputtae, and IShawna, who have enjoyed the spotlight in a male-dominated industry.  Using music videos (that have topped the charts), their lyrics and interviews on national television, I will seek to make the argument that dancehall is a space of active engagement for women.