Dear Editor,

Dancehall has gone so liberal that I’m here wondering if I’m the only man here in Jamaica living under a rock.Many attribute the founding of the ‘below the waste’ movement’ to Ce’Cile way back in 2003 when she released the song

Do It To Me, but she got a lot of bashing for it, hence she stopped promoting it. Then later on other female artistes like Lisa Hyper, Tiana, Angelina, and Destiny sang about it.Then we had male artistes like Vybz Kartel and later Gage telling ladies it’s okay to do so.Now, Ishawna has upped the ‘antics’ with her tune called

Equal Rights, giving women the power to demand “equal rights”, with lyrics to effect that she wants to be dealt with “like a bag juice”. Well, I’ve upgraded from suck suck and bag juice from days in primary school to at least a cup. I must now seriously consider upgrading to drinking from a box, or even a glass.Before I enter a relationship I always lay out my rules. The first one on the list is that I don’t eat pork. Second, I will never force a lady to eat a banana or any fruit she would prefer to avoid.I’ve been seeing an alarming trend from many of the ladies with whom I come in contact, however, that if we men don’t eat pork, they won’t stay with us for long. According to them, “Everybody a dweet now.” Many of my lady friends seem to love the challenge, though. Some tell me that they’ve seen more men, after vigorously setting fire to having pork, have a complete turnaround and end up loving it. Ladies can be very persuasive. One argument I heard was that, after all, Eve made Adam eat the apple from the garden.For now, however, I refuse to be ‘converted’. So Ishawna may have to find a different message for her lyrics. It seems like sheer nonsense to me. 

Teddylee Gray

Ocho Rios, St Ann

teddylee.gray@gmail.com