Futurity and the Dancehall Queer/Quare: Shenseea's Reclamations of Feminine Power

Analyzing songs and music videos by dancehall performer Shenseea, I offer a critique of modern Jamaican dancehall music's formations of gendered performance and quare identity. I use E. Patrick Johnson's term “quare” to acknowledge Black LGBTQIA existence in the Caribbean and explore homophobia alongside the quiet, though impactful, contributions of quare individuals in dancehall music and the spaces its sound governs.3 I argue that lyrical messages and visual performances of female agency and sexual power in modern dancehall music are reclamations of sensual knowledge that articulate shifting cultural values. Shenseea challenges the participatory and aesthetic practices that govern acceptable creative output in dancehall music, which is primarily guided by exclusionary politics that limit the performance of same-sex desire or quare sexual identity.José Esteban Muñoz states that queerness is not here, prompting the necessity for considerations of the “then and there” rather than the “here and now.”4 His framing of queer utopia and focus on futurity is in search of “actual, living sexual citizenship” that does not bow to “the fiction of a socially prescribed straightness” employed to maintain heteropatriarchy.5 My initial reading of Muñoz brought dancehall to mind as I reflected on the openly accepted theatricality and flamboyance of movement and lyrical performance signaling unacknowledged (or undiscerned) queer influence or social performance in a heteronormative landscape. This is something I have termed the dancehall queer, describing queer performativity and narratives subversively engaging queer culture within dancehall. I use this terminology, rather than queer dancehall, because the queer dancehall is incubating and there is no dancehall quare (yet). There is a growing queer dancehall scene. There are queer dancehall parties and gatherings. There are a few queer dancehall artists on the margins but not centered. A queer dancehall would be a space (both physical and conceptual) that reflects an intentionally constructed and openly acknowledged haven for the expression of queer identity and dancehall culture, though it would still reflect many of the negative connotations connected to queer studies—namely, class privilege, which Johnson believes enables Black queer cultural studies to “fortify the hegemony of white queer subjectivity.”6The dancehall quare stems from these articulations of quare identity in dancehall spaces in Jamaica and abroad, but it is still on the horizon (as Muñoz posits): something longed for as utopian, as an unfettered mode of identity performance in Jamaica and in diaspora, an “anticipatory illumination.”7 It is something I posit in resemblance to bell hooks's homeplace, a site of resistance that presents safety for quare dancehall patrons not as subjects but within an environment of inclusivity among others.8 This is an environment that does not separate them from others who love dancehall music and dancehall culture, a place where the legacies of racist oppression and sexist domination that Black female dancehall artists work in opposition to wield no power. I do not imagine the dancehall quare as a singularity. But its being is speculative as a representation of quare belonging that has grappled with the hybridity of queerness and Blackness to give it a sound and to make space for a shared history among all dancehall supporters. I invite other scholars to take this work, build upon it, and continue to envision what this could look like.In the context of this work, I use quare to describe alternative performances of Black gender and sexual identity that intentionally deviate from established norms and queer to explore unintentional departures from expected gendered presentations in established social or cultural practices, practices that still struggle to recognize the body outside of service to established expectations shaped by Eurocentric morality since colonialism. Therefore, queerness is contextualized with a reality of hiddenness or silence, while quareness reflects ownership and openness. I discuss the excess often found in the dress and movement of dancehall spaces as the dancehall queer for this reason: These behaviors are open secrets that are not pronounced with the intention to challenge or include queer bodies, although they are largely made possible due to quare existence.The dichotomy between queer and quare that I rely on throughout this work is not intended to enforce an unproductive binary. Rather, this distinction separates the dancehall queer from the dancehall quare in the analysis of sound, movement, and gendered performance in dancehall culture. With both the dancehall queer and the dancehall quare, I am considering perceptions of alterity that often go unacknowledged. The dancehall queer signals the unintentional, unacknowledged, and subversive nature of queer contributions and inclusions in dancehall, while the dancehall quare signals an imagined space where these realities need no longer be unspoken exclusions. These connotations are motivators for the “quareing” of queer studies with the recognition that critical studies of Blackness and queerness can serve the populations they discuss by being both political and academic. The hybridity within queer Black identity is significant in the Caribbean, where more research is beginning to acknowledge the diversity of intersectional manifestations in Jamaican cultural performance across race, gender, sexual identity, and location. I posit the dancehall quare as the speculative model of homopoetics acknowledging the compounded persistence and intersecting significance of dancehall's creative, political, and gendered realities.9 In doing so, I recognize the (often invisible) labor of queer participants and hope this ambition lends to broader discussion of their contributions over time.Assessing how music, movement, culture, and ideas of ritual intermingle to inform dancehall production and etiquette “a yard” and abroad,10 I will build upon the work of Carolyn Cooper and Nadia Ellis.11 Cooper has addressed female agency in dancehall culture, and Ellis has similarly critiqued masculinity and explored queerness in dancehall music. I consider dancehall research's lineage of celebrating the genre's lasting countercultural function, performative diversity in technological development and lyrical style, and relationship to place (as it manifests in a diversity of international contexts) as motivators for considering how it will continue to evolve to include other perspectives. The labor of centering understandings of queer and quare identity distinguishes this work from prior contributions to dancehall research, especially as I explore the liberation of quare identity in the dancehall for women (considering the intersections of race, sexuality, and class) and how it conforms to and challenges existing narratives of acceptable sonic and bodily engagement.Syncretic creative production in dancehall has shaped the creation of popular music identity in Jamaica from the 1960s to the present. Following the abundant, countercultural impact of reggae's sound and politics, dancehall rose to prominence in the metropolis of Kingston. The spread of dancehall was supported by Jamaica's unique urban environment, access to technology, and connection to the United States and other Caribbean regions.12 The genre incorporates African musical forms, including the repurposing of fragments pioneered in dub, the rhythmic play between instrumental voices from rocksteady, the syncopation and melodic basslines from reggae, and the influence of African American rhythm and blues (R&B) and hip-hop.13 Dancehall as we recognize it today began in the by class being by and The which is the where the music was relationship with culture (or to Jamaica as a space for and to the outside in and of in the realities of and social that from the of from in The urban spaces of Jamaica that shaped dancehall music have where Black cultural a political and their as a space that how dancehall in knowledge is the of they are not subjects in a but in the creation and of their urban the musical and cultural impact of dancehall and outside of how the artists on the they These urban are shaped sound, in their of culture and identity. Dancehall artists the of of the politics in their while cultural with visual and of and other spaces in videos the in the with ideas of what in Jamaica was and the in The of Jamaica's urban and their spaces of in the videos offer of dancehall's and the that creative behaviors are and dancehall, especially in the creation of songs with that are in performance These include their and to with and other creative and their a enables individuals to and on and the dancehall performance space more both in the diversity of and of many individuals to their identity the use of a gendered with of and the lyrical of dancehall songs similarly gendered expectations and the of quare and in Jamaica is by that though in Jamaica dancehall and its the of Jamaican who dancehall since they it as or and not their cultural in the music's and between bodily movement in music spaces and in and to the perceptions of and the of dancehall spaces and Jamaican for of class and are by dancehall, which from shared perceptions acceptable musical expression across of in Jamaican realities to of sonic cultural performance that are of and in and mode of and other music in Jamaica their to dancehall and other popular of cultural and that them to recognize the of the music while This is in how to music, which to the of that the of reggae's sonic and with The of the sound and are both within a shared of Jamaican cultural their Dancehall a made more with of queer or in musical music and the dancehall space on The dancehall queer reflects this excess as a of cultural performance space for performances of and movement, and lyrical that and These are of in dancehall culture that quare although they to The dancehall queer that there is the for in the Nadia Ellis this in what a dancehall with the and queer studies and Jamaican masculinity to existing on homophobia and In research, or parties to in where dancehall music is and in throughout the Caribbean, these spaces to articulate in music, and especially participants to of their in a where all of these of are the performance of dancehall a in the to the dancehall space and for queer behaviors that would be as The was for who in dancehall culture and the and significance the who are abroad, as I this from the and from the and of cultural This is significant as an of in dancehall culture that the of no no does not a they have to A of this as an of shared cultural an on understandings of acceptable gendered is of the of that could be as could be because the the performative excess of dancehall movement, and With this to the of acceptable dancehall it is possible for dancehall to be both and This would not sensual or sexual or but these are in the Ellis The the the The began doing a to The other and it the between and in the to the and and This was more and than what I and women doing but it to an representation of and I was by how it was that I the to they to they would do no is not The within dancehall are and upon practices of to the body and of identity. The employed in movement and is as and and for both and women of Jamaican culture while engaging understandings of and the of dancehall and its to in their identity. The and nature of movement in dancehall is for its sexual nature to other Jamaican but it and The Ellis in in a of and that is shared between a and the of dancehall movement, this same-sex performance the to be as queer between a for queer in dancehall that are and in This is a of the dancehall queer, though I am not that all participants in dancehall or its culture of acknowledge or queerness within practices they use to articulate identity. Rather, the presents in the excess of dancehall, the desire for something over the or in that physical or shared The dancehall queer is a I to explore the diversity of and of in dancehall culture that are imagined as gendered in sound, movement, and This from queer dancehall which largely dancehall performance with of queer politics and Jamaican of performances in Jamaican culture are here, to existing narratives of and aesthetic expectations in dancehall culture as it to The Ellis place in the where other behaviors are of the and sensual is in the by which is by its and But the queer excess of dancehall is not the or from the context of dancehall Ellis the of this with a the of while in a the Jamaican cultural quare can use in or dancehall being because their similarly creative practices in their dancehall and (or performances within dancehall spaces include an of bodily from sexual (or and of these are in the or masculinity in but they are in the context of dancehall, especially in to power (or being in as sexual in music for or of in to female These are and within a knowledge of dancehall music culture heteronormative though they the of bodily and sensual practices over There is space for queerness here, of its is a of dancehall music and for dancehall songs often focus on of sexual in narratives describing culture and the of a of performance is the to a but female artists similarly their identity by describing how they to their with their and mind all in Dancehall does not on this and “a it and on it and a in the and women have their songs to describe the of and are accepted in their of sexual agency in performances sensual identity. of the Jamaican shaped by that posit Black and Caribbean as or music, as as the spaces where dancehall is for sonic signals bodily movement as an expected and songs of the genre have an of Jamaica's This is in the of and its to in the United though the is more on the of the while in the of the Dancehall culture has women with spaces and for of I use of the term to other than the often it is as that to more than “the the the the of knowledge have the creation of songs and by female dancehall the use of and to and the of narratives Black female agency in Cooper the impact of Jamaican dancehall celebrating musical and physical labor as a of sexual liberation for Black Jamaican Cooper is from a by American who the female agency on the of Caribbean and acknowledging sound and Cooper the female as a sexual the of for describing sexual and reflects on lyrical These are supported by who that of female dancehall the and cultural in history and the context of the especially This reality has to understandings of as or use the Jamaican that are by rather than African which have primarily shaped dancehall culture and The between Cooper and is an of an the and agency of women in Jamaican dancehall music. of female in dancehall still the of women in the genre as or the Black female body and the are acknowledged in dancehall for their power and in the of many In its the Black female body the that it as or sexual to the of white women and the for artists Shenseea to use power to in and visual their articulations of and influence by Jamaican gender identity norms speculative same-sex while as to Shenseea began in dancehall culture. The Jamaican dancehall who often made by Jamaican music in and a on the of and dancehall and and and and for with dancehall and with on the which in a with in the American from and The a and with on the for The celebrating and identity, as a Shenseea that is “the and the to and the The music for with of in an of a in with their with and women and of and with in the the sexual as is in while Shenseea hope for this to is intended does this of and same-sex physical power and Shenseea as a to other dancehall has that because they are and believes Jamaica is to offer more to its queer The music was an to use to the something to to and quare sexual describing to though the is the by messages female body of work to this reflects In and the to in a Shenseea the for Jamaican on which is a by a will not be and no in the of a on to that not for to be the of a and by while a with gender as and to dancehall These are and of female agency and the performance of power Shenseea to in the United and other as challenge narratives in dancehall that to power and over female other female artists who have similarly their power in dancehall since the Shenseea is to make and challenge cultural norms with female gender identity in Jamaica and dancehall, and LGBTQIA because is a from the these realities The of and which have a since is still in as many and women their to with and and women are as to their in Jamaica due to their from individuals to be while the of within Black cultural knowledge as a of by and of African and more as do female and female in music videos and Shenseea and that use African American alongside lyrical from dancehall and Jamaican other with dancehall to and cultural and more than more primarily for Black and do not a but to the in dancehall and Jamaican culture and make a to consider as the genre and recognize the for female influence and the of its quare by on and a sonic that signals dancehall and for musical which has for as a in and The and melodic by a and The of the to focus on There is no though and are between the of the and more by a and in the The of these is by the of a lyrical and rhythmic of by E. and Jamaican in the This from the of is with a musical the that will throughout the of the go a go go where are music and who was The sound of the other which the Shenseea the throughout the especially the where to all being The with a Shenseea body and as of heteronormative in dancehall. This the a this but I for a I many in many I need a I with no in The an that by a to the of the but is to to the of the and the of was on in the Shenseea to a of women who are as is on the female and the distinction of Shenseea though the is not and from a female is in dancehall including in songs by where a that Jamaican for and and the for a quare which existing and sexual in are with existing established in dancehall including of and of the between the and by shifting from the in the to a more of female sexual This to an of but can be as a of female sexual the to women lyrical focus of describing women as is The of has to make a gendered distinction bodily the of female desire in to that of This in the music by of and by Shenseea and other female could be other women but the to describing sexual in other dancehall songs by This in the use of this and in of and to quare desire in the and Shenseea and behaviors to as a performer in the of power. Esteban Muñoz as “a mode of or an that has with a of existing and that still I am considering the of which Muñoz to individuals who in as a of as a gendered and sexual reality more than that is or Muñoz of intersectional identity, but within the context of queerness in dancehall is especially for quare Black and although Black are the of Black quare in Jamaican dancehall the and of the is It is the I have the for female in a dancehall though and female artists this in This to on their female (or artists and discuss as an of female from their sexual focus from the of dancehall songs by women it and female in a sexual while the of dancehall the This from songs Shenseea the of which was in and the while how a give within Jamaican popular music is by a performance of identity that to female agency and knowledge of sexual power. In in the of quare desire in a female dancehall that in no to agency is with a of quare to LGBTQIA identity in Jamaica a of the with power is the female which is for or power in am a body as a rather than a body as a It is that the work of the framing of Black as than white than Therefore, the context of dancehall culture as a context and more for this Muñoz of on the by I this to the body and to of cultural knowledge in the of movement, and while for inclusivity in the dancehall The queer Black body is a of a of culture and identity that a of practices for articulations of being and It is a in its being as a of agency and of queerness as on where does not it is in dancehall spaces and within dancehall culture, the queer Black body is and in its to continue to margins where queer identity can Shenseea is a of this especially in lyrical and bodily of a intentionally quare lyrical and visual in music for reflects the of the female body as for the with Shenseea established and expected lyrical to The with a from in an a where Shenseea and other in and are The the a an imagined as a space separate from the where is by a of and In other Shenseea is with while on a in of a in or in from to on of a of women in performance of gender in dancehall songs and videos signals the of but of agency in the of in and expectations of women can serve the and of female In songs and Shenseea female in lyrical and of dancehall culture. I use to reflect quare, female existence and the agency of women to dancehall and their performative in of dancehall This use the of women in dancehall to and the for use of with the quare of the and music and with other women in the music the lyrical but are not or in the of female dancehall the and do not unspoken cultural a or of these would take the of the imagined space by Shenseea will or will not the This is what Shenseea is are as of the political of bodies, or and or both and female are as sexual though female in dancehall are especially for and quare are as “the of and queerness in on and a that a of power being a (as Muñoz or it that cultural practices, and the individuals who the labor of make the of their and other of and in their performance of intersectional realities in of privilege, and These are shaped and but both and This from and how is by fiction This is the and of the In queerness in dancehall in the of in gender performance and identity The queerness of dancehall are not of but of the performative in dancehall culture, as it on the and with and this it and it as they make use of existing spaces for expression of this nature and imagine other more openly spaces to do Shenseea, the musical mode and bodily in music videos and performance of are a fiction and a of female gender expression and sexual power that the body for of power. Shenseea to or the of a dancehall queer is and present. The dancehall quare is in the the dancehall quare is to in its it as a where queerness is not speculative and Blackness is and not of the in I consider musical and visual contributions to dancehall as of the dancehall I include them in the of what this imagined space could be as they it and for to take space and in of an unspoken that quare performance among dancehall is not possible the existence of in dancehall and the of This is something has in of the in to performances of identity in Jamaican popular culture. in Jamaica's in performances and in dancehall, the of as and of and of gendered identity has The of them to to or though their impact is in dancehall as Ellis has the by are of queer The has from though it reflects the space where queer and Caribbean identity can the queer dancehall is not here, we have of it the open of queer identity in Jamaican culture, which in the of its and patrons to the dancehall queer the open of queer and on The dancehall quare is and signals engaging alterity the of the dancehall The dancehall quare would from a of though it sonic and aesthetic of to Jamaican Johnson quareness as an and of upon cultural practices and of Black something in recognition that queer of critique challenges queer of I these the dancehall, the Black of and patrons in Jamaica and in of the influence of heteronormative exclusionary practices These practices are and be with performances of identity that quare and to more how ideas and sexual identity in Jamaica can be beginning on the a I acknowledge dancehall as a space of in the of technology, movement, and of Jamaican are upon the of and dancehall, and the individuals who and songs in these their visual and I have take ownership of their within dancehall spaces and the they But within all there is futurity as I continue to quare in dancehall, I to dancehall culture as a space for and The is spaces for and within the existing of dancehall in dancehall do and to spaces for their performances of though other participants do openly The of these quare participants is as their performance of identity that would be outside of dancehall spaces have more is of and as a because it is openly to the performance of dancehall while as the for dancehall on the other do not have cultural realities for but use their to