Abstract
In (re)considering the viability of Jamaican dancehall and reggae artist Tanya Stephens’ rejection of the label ‘feminist’, this paper uses her song, Wats Yu (S)touri, from her 2004 Gangster Blues album to trace several critical grassroots performativities which address popular forms of Jamaican grassroots women’s activism. These modes of activism are regarded as reflective of traditional feminist practices which carry over to dancehall. The paper is primarily concerned with the context of Stephens’ music, specifically regarding whether some of her storytelling practices conform with the vernacular tradition of taakin op (a strident retort). It offers a reading of feminism against Stephens’ claim, suggesting that dancehall practices like taakin op are also linked to longer histories of Jamaican grassroots performativities which extend beyond the dancehall itself. The aim is to understand how Stephens’ feminism, albeit disavowed, enlarges ideas about dancehall as a subversive hi/story of post/colonial Blackness in Jamaica. Accordingly, specific attention is paid to themes of romantic love, work and ‘gyangsta feminism’, a coinage following the title of a track on the same album.
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