Meduzot: Filipino Gendered Care Practices in an Israeli Context

When reading Parreñas’ book on transnational workers from the Philippines, I was reminded of the Israeli film מדוזות (Jellyfish in English).  The film follows three women living in Israel through a relatively short time in their lives.  One of the women, Joy, is from the Philippines.  She is working as a caretaker for elderly people, despite knowing only a very small amount of Hebrew.  Throughout the course of the film, she is shown making long-distance telephone calls to her son in the Philippines while out and about with her clients.  For most of the film, she is working with one client in particular, who has a fraught relationship with her daughter.  Soon after she meets this client (who says rude things to her in Hebrew that she cannot understand), Joy realizes that she has lost a picture of her son that she carried in her wallet, which upsets her greatly.  Joy eventually manages to help the client and her daughter reconcile.  She then tries to purchase a toy boat as a birthday present for her son, only to see that it has already been bought.  After she returns upset to her client’s house, she sees the boat in a bag and realizes that her client has bought the boat for her.  

I mention this film to help illustrate the prevalence of gendered notions of family and work.  Joy does not get a job doing something not requiring Hebrew proficiency, but instead selects a position requiring her to converse with elderly people who do not speak English well.  This reflects the attitudes toward the kinds of work that are appropriate for women.  A position enabling her to conform more closely to gender norms is better than one that is simpler in a practical sense.  The fact that this gendered notion is portrayed in a film written and directed by Israelis indicates a certain level of familiarity with the concept.  Israeli people in the film are not surprised that Joy is Filipino; they are surprised that she cannot speak Hebrew effectively.  

In addition to Joy’s selection of a caretaking job, her efforts to take care of her son from a great distance away indicate a desire to keep the family dynamic as close to the ideal as possible.  Despite the fact that Joy’s son is with relatives in the Philippines, Joy calls him regularly to converse with him and make sure that he is doing well.  When she discovers that she has lost his picture, her reaction is very emotional.  She is not just upset that she has lost the picture; she is also upset that she did not notice losing it.  This indicates that she is aware of the irony inherent in working so far away taking care of unrelated people in order to take care of her son that she cannot take care of her son in the socially accepted manner.  

She goes to buy the boat because she realizes that she has become so wrapped up in helping her client reconcile with her daughter that she neglected her responsibility to her son.  She feels so upset when it is gone because she feels that she has failed in her responsibility to her son.  The boat would be a tangible reminder to everyone involved that Joy does indeed care about and for her son.  The fact that her client has bought the boat for her also indicates a certain level of shared ideas of familial responsibility.  Her client realizes that Joy needs to bring her relationship with her son more in line with the social ideas of familial relationships.  

Pratt and Yeoh’s article provides some helpful ideas about what to do with the information gained about similarities between Israeli and Filipino conceptions of familial gender roles.  In order to construct a counter topography, the processes by which these roles are acted out and subverted need to be explored in more depth.  Then the ways those processes differ based on national context need to be identified and explored.  How might we go about identifying and exploring these processes?  What issues might arise in using the artistic products of one location to begin exploring the strategies of real people in another location?  How might the processes and ideas identified in the book and article influence the interpretation of the artistic products?

Globalization Through the Eyes of a Child

In Children of Global Migration, Rhacel Parreñas explores transnational families in the Philippines.  She finds that although gender norms are broken by a migrant mother leaving the country to work, the household still makes every attempt to maintain the expected rules of gender.  As a result, the children of these workers pick up on this and expect it, sometimes repeating the cycle themselves. 

While a book about gender performance, this is also a book about globalization.  She goes beyond looking at how globalization has harmed the economy of a country, and examines the affect Filipino families.  Children miss time with their parents, because the mother is away and many fathers will not step outside the traditional roles of masculinity to nurture the child.  There is a continuous cycle that will continue to force women to work outside of their home countries due to low wages and poor state sponsored family support services.  This cycle reminds me of Marx’s critique of capitalism when he talks about exploitation, expansion, and overproduction. 

When working at the hospital, then were quite a few Filipino women in my department (4 of whom I worked closely with).  They were all born and educated in the Philippines, but came here to look for work.  They have told me stories about how horrible the pay is and how overworked the workers are.  They could barely squeak out an existence there, so they moved their families here.  Those who are married to Filipino men, found work before their husbands, and their stories of gender roles are similar to what Parreñas has found in her study.  I remember one of my coworkers telling me that she did not see her mom very much growing up.  At the time, I did not follow up on the question, but now I wonder if her mother was a migrant worker.  It amazes me that the ideas of gender performance are so strong that they overcome such difficult circumstances to keep them intact.

Gender and Transnational Families

This week’s reading was from the book Children of Global Migration by Rhacel Parrenas. In this book she gives insight into the lives of children who are apart of transnational families abroad in the Philippines. To do this she looks at what directly affects their lives: geographical distance and gender ideologies.

In the Filipino family, the mother is considered the “light of the home” and the father is considered the “pillar of the home”. In other words, the mother is considered to be the “nurturer” and the father is considered to be the “provider”. From such ideas, Parrenas reveals to us the gender boundaries that are created and from these views how the children see their migrant parents. To do this Parrenas draws attention to the differences of how children feel in regards to their “migrant father” or “migrant mother”. Less is expected of the “migrant father” as he is doing his job of being the “provider” of the family by traveling abroad to work. Children of “migrant fathers” accept this, but there leaves this “gap” filled with embarrassment of not knowing how to feel in regards to their father. It is felt mostly when the children interact with their father whether he be away or there at home. The same cannot be said of the “migrant mother” she is given a hard time because by her working abroad she is pushing gender boundaries as she is supposed to be the “nurturer”. She is considered the caregiver of the home and the family and she cannot be this if she is away being the “default breadwinner”. What is interesting in this case is that the children feel a type of resentment towards their mother being away because they feel “abandoned”. Yet with their father, words like “resentment” or “abandonment” rarely come up. So what can be done to change this? Parrenas gives a couple of options.

The migrant parent should maintain constant contact with the child so these feelings will not form. They should even join support groups to deal with these issues too. Will it help? I don’t believe so because distance is hard on relationships. Keeping in contact with that person can only temporarily alleviate that type of pain. Parrenas even calls for a re-evaluation of gender practices to assist in this problem to get the men left at home with the children to step up and push gender boundaries like the wives of “migrant fathers” do. Could it happen? Yes. Will it work? According to Geraldine Pratt in her article ‘Transnational (Counter) Topographies’, “Any ‘gains’ in gender equality tend to be uneven and hard fought for, often entailing conflict and confrontation, and may well be impermanent.”(161) So if it did happen, it would be only temporary. Parrenas did come up with a much more appealing solution and that is for places like the U.S to step up and re-evaluate their immigration laws to allow children to visit their migrant parents. Will it happen? Only time will tell.    

Knowing Your Role_9/30/13

This week’s reading, Children of Global Migration: Transnational Families and Gendered Woes, speaks on the oppression of the Filipina women in their household. These women are seen only in their nurturing aspects that can be contributed to the household. They are primarily held reliable for the rearing and educating of the children and other domestic responsibilities required to upkeep the home. They are not put in the position as the head of the household even though their contributions, although not financial, are primarily what keep the home up and running. They are kept in one area where they are expected to stay, the women that may have the abilities to be breadwinner by doing labor they are looked down upon for taken on such masculine roles in the home even though their jobs are often times ones that requires them to be somewhat nurturing or caring (nursing, etc..). The men’s role is to be the breadwinner and not do the domestic aspects of keeping home. This transnational idea of family is seen the United States, it is not until recently that the idea of an egalitarian idea of a household has become somewhat acceptable and that is generally only seen in the United States.

            These Filipino children have no other ideas as to what their role in “society” will be other than what they are shown in their home. That is the girls are to be domestic, rear the children, and try their best to not show any traits of masculinity. The boys are to work to be the breadwinners for their home and not concern themselves with the domestic aspects of the home.  This becomes problematic when a mother has to leave to work to provide for the family, the children are not receiving the same amount of time they would with their mother making them in some sense resentful to her working. However, when the father leaves not much is altered in the home other than his absence. The idea of family being held on a pedestal stems from the strong implication of the government trying to show its interest in being like other countries with strong family values. Yet when Filipina women have to migrate to work and provide for their families it becomes problematic, when in fact it should be considered an extreme measure to care for their families. These women migrate to work to provide financially for their families, however, when the father has to migrate to another country to work for his family and send them his earnings it is considered just another task as for the breadwinner. Why is it so problematic to allow the woman to be the breadwinner in the household? What is being threatened when the woman takes charge of the family financially, what is at risk? 

Week 7: Transnational Families

     In "Transnational (Counter) Topographies," Geraldine Pratt and Brenda Yeoh state that, "'Going transnational' has done little to trouble the gendered division of household labor, or destabilize the gendered inequalities of the patriarchal state" (162).  I would disagree with that.  As Rhacel Salazar Parrenas demonstrates in Children of Global Migration: Transnational Families and Gendered Woes, troubling the gender binaries is far more complex in transnational families.  Indeed, the root of Parrenas' analysis lies at the heart of the nuclear family and how unrealistic it is for most transnational families to adhere to this ideal.  First we must question why there is such a strong emphasis placed on the nuclear family as evident in Parrenas' study of transnational families in the Philippines.  Indeed, the Philippines had been an occupied, colonized country for many years.  Perhaps their cling to the nuclear family is left over of their being colonized or rather their desire to show to other nations of the global north in particular that they are just like these other great nations.  Indeed, the family unit is embedded within their legal system stating that the Filipino family is the foundation of the nation.  Why indeed would the government put such emphasis on the family when it would be better suited to develop strategies to manage their debt without shortcoming its citizens such as teachers.
     Nevertheless, the stage has been set for the dominance of the nuclear family which is threatened by transnational families because one or more parents are absent from the family life and dynamic.  Men's absences are often excused because the father is presumed to be fulfilling his duty as breadwinner by taking an overseas job and sending his earnings back to his family.  However, Parrenas states that mother's absence is more problematic.  Indeed, "Transnational families, particularly those headed by females, threaten women's civic duty of maternity" (37).  I would disagree with that.  If we were to define motherhood words such as nurturer would undoubtedly be ascribed to these women.  As such, wouldn't a transmigrant mother enhance this quality because the woman is doing what she can to nurture and take care of her children and family through the means available to her?
     The welfare, physical and psychological, of transnational families' children is another point of interest.  A school counselor that Parrenas visited pointed out three boys she declared to be deviant because they belonged to transnational families.  Indeed, children of such households are often believed to be dysfunctional either because they lack a father to discipline them or a mother to instill moral and behavioral groundings in their children.  Indeed, even if the father is present in the household, he does little to tend to the needs of his children.  Instead, he leaves that work for his female kin whether they be daughters or aunts.  And here is when the gender troubling comes into place.  Those males who take on "feminine" roles such as cooking and cleaning tend to have a closer relationship to their children.  This is especially true for father-away families.  When the father returns he often resorts to his authoritarian role, which makes his children often uncomfortable or embarrassed.  However, if the man acts more nurturing then his children are more likely to be close to him.
     But mother-away families also trouble gender to an extent through their "stalled revolution."  Indeed, these women break through the povery and glass ceiling surrounding them in the Philippines and enter the public work world.  However, they tend to enter fields that would enhance their domestic background such as being domestic laborers or nurses.  In addition, these women must continue their nurturing role by tending to their own children who, at times, became jealous of their mother's new wards.  The strict structure of these gender binaries must come into question.  Why must the nation look to their families for foundational security?  And why specifically must these families adhere to one specific form of a family dynamic?  What is it about the nuclear family that supposedly creates stability?

Children of Global Migration

Children of Global Migration

By Ben Woodruff

     The Philippine Islands was the jumping off point for the book, Children of Global Migration, and the article, “Transnational (Counter) Topographies”. The economy of the Philippines is such that in order to have sufficient income to maintain their lifestyles, many people must go abroad to earn money to send home to their families. This leads to a disruption to the life of the both the migrants and the families left behind. 

     I remember the Filipino men that I served with in the United States Navy. They joined the Navy and took primarily to the career fields of Mess Specialist, Ship’s Servicemen, and Supplyman. This may be best translated as cook, barber/laundry attendant, and storekeeper. This meant that they were taking on roles that are most often associated with women and so their status was often that of women. 

     I had not considered what impact this would have on the women back home, or what this would mean for the sense of masculinity for those individuals. It is very obvious that the colonial history of the Philippines is ongoing and the use of the Philippines by the US Military, even after granting independence, has maintained that colony status. 

     I heard of the stories of children left behind from those children after they had grown and left on their own.They had grown without fathers and so when they reached adulthood did not know how to respond other than by leaving their families and earning money to send home.

week #7 Transnational topographies

Within the scheme of gender, the ideology associated around the woman transnationally and nationally with the state is very biased. It places women in a category of femininity with ownership of nothing more than a nurturer not a provider financially. Women are the main topic of concern globally. Filipinas are placed in a category systematically cohering to the patriarchal form of existence. This “world” to which all women live in some way shape of form is created, bounded, and foundationally situated through social creations. The created discourse about women transnationally is a gendered aspect that does not apply to all women, but it defined under certain law and demand to be required by all women. Filipina women were forced to leave their homes, children, and husband to help provide a better educational life for their children and financial well-being for their entire family. This book gives way for explanation and change of the created gender norms associated among women. In this lifestyle to which these women choose, it is in response taken negatively among their society of law, some of the children, and as a free ride to gamble and drink among their stay at home husbands. This way of life among these migrant women are said to be disruptive among the family structure, but “normal” for the husbands to precede the same journey.

            Masculine features are described among these women, but not accepted. It is very comical how the right of women can be viewed among certain mannerism, but can never be so much concrete in comparison to the masculine abilities held by a man. Men have dominated society in every way of life. In the “building of the house” as quoted by Parrenas, the sending of remittances (to which the wife also does), and the role with his children are all traits to which are confined to the male figure solely. Being female clearly, does not mean SHE cannot possess masculine traits. Masculinity and femininity are all qualities of dress created by those social norms to which society created. These qualities are not bound to be conditioned upon anyone. The circumstances to which surround a certain individual male or female in my opinion is what places these gendered positions among each. For example, Filipinas emigrate to the U.S. to provide for their family while at the same time “abandoning” their skills as the nurturer, while on the other hand, some men do absolutely no nurturing or domestic work. This accumulation of knowledge based on the world and their notions of women and men need to re-analyzed and told where to stick their opinions and assumptions, because everyone has one. The complex world of locality and space is positioned seemingly only under a lens of homogenous capacities. Men and women are equal. Some people would feel strange like some of the children of migrant women leaving them as young children, but if the male can take a step down from his oh so very high horse of superiority, maybe those strange feelings of children can become lessened. Lessening the idea of women in a male role is the strategy of the law, while simultaneously building the central role of men as rulers of all. Will this image of male control and women as submissive creatures ever cease to exist? This is why we have feminists to test the knowledge of those ever so created ideologies of gender, and who they apply and why. Women are essential to all aspects of life, working applies to all mothers who need to provide, being masculine applies to all women who didn’t have a father, or knows no other trait, and finally, women can be masculine, feminine, or neutral in whatever aspects of life they choose. Pro-Choice is my advocacy in this dilemma. Choice is what men want to dissolve among the female race. Women are the reason family can exist transnationally and nationally. They are an oppressed group differently whose fight is to no longer have an oppressor, but be equal with traits and qualities allotted to them equally. GOD made Eve from the rib of Adam, not MAN. 

The Cyclical Oppression of the Migratory Mother

What attracted me most throughout this reading was the focus on the mother migrant home and the implications that this has on the family and their community as reinforcing traditional gender roles regardless of the ideology presumed at the migration of the mother. The article outlines the migrating female as more capable of resettling "more fully than men" meaning that she is able to send more of her earnings back to the family in the Phillipines but also more importantly, that because of few opportunities for female employment in the original country, and the equity they have gained in their new host country, they are less likely to move back to their original nation state (Pratt and Yeoh 161). However, as outlined in Rhacel Parrenas's Children of Migration, this can have many implications for the family and society this mother has left behind. In contrast to male migrant homes, the fathers that are "left behind" are less socially accepted at community centers such as churches and schools that would allow support to the family because of his need to maintain constructed standards of masculinity(Parrenas 50). Additionally, migratory female families, though not always, are at more of a risk of a emasculated father acting out by woman/child battering (54). This creates a paradox in the relation of men and women in the social sphere. "Left behind" women, because of their families use of traditional patriarchal roles and her husband's bread winnings abroad, are more socially accepted and empowered in society, whereas "left behind" men are more socially rejected (54). Not only are men more socially alienated but may suffer from "downward occupational mobility"(Pratt and Yeoh 161). As a result women while more autonomous, fulfilling more roles in the family and in society, she also maintains more responsibilities that may seem limiting. Ultimately, traditional gender conventions work against the families of migratory mothers, while enabling the empowerment of women over men.
The implications that transnational families has on gender relations is "not only contradictory and complex" but also affords a new lens through which to view feminist theory (Patt and Yeoh 160). In looking closer at the paradox created between men and women, it is understood that migratory mothers "embody contradictory constructs of gender" and ultimately are able to work toward the "denaturalization of mothering acts" (Parrenas 118). This denaturalization of traditional gender norms adds to theories put forth by feminist scholars such as Judith Butler and Adrienne Rich who argue that the mothering instinct while rhetorically composed to seem natural, is in actuality socially constructed through the use of phallocentric language. However, in the absence of mothers, fathers do not usually take on all of the care giving responsibilities that she has abandoned, and they are instead passed off to the "dutiful daughters" and "overextended kin" (118).  In passing off the nurturing and domestic responsibilities left to the fathers to the female members of an extended family, the child will suffer from a sense of abandonment which will be neutralized by the now responsible kin (140). The child's family will then recreate the traditional patriarchal roles in an effort to forgo the child's feelings of abandonment which ultimately reinforces traditionally held gender roles that the mother has ideologically rejected in her act of migration (119). In effect, these families are failing to adapt to a new ideology that does not rely upon gender and patriarchal roles and is instead reinforcing those roles and reinforcing the socially alienated position of the migratory mother.

Time Keeps on Slipping

Time Keeps on Slipping

by Ben Woodruff

     In Downtown Ladies, the life of the Informal Commercial Importer (ICI) was examined. I went back to this book after reading "A Global Sense of Place" by Doreen Massey to see what new insight was possible through that lens. For the average person in Jamaica, their world can seem quite small. Most do not travel extensively and they are therefore would be unable to experience the goods produced abroad. The ICI women are able to travel however and they are therefore able to bring some aspects of the United States and other countries back to Jamaica. 

     This space compression, where a person living in a small town is able to enjoy fruit from one continent while drinking coffee from another and wearing a shirt from a third, leads to a reexamination of what it means to be in a place. This concept of "Jamaica" is not the same before the ICI went abroad to bring in the items that the people of Jamaica would wish to have. This changing of Jamaica though affects the people differently. For the ICI, this is simply a business opportunity. This is a way to enter into the capitalist structure on their own terms, or at least more of their terms than most others, and to use that existing power structure to better their lives. 

     What does that mean though for the people of Jamaica. What does it mean to be Jamaican when the clothing people wear came from Bangladesh? What does it mean when the jewelry being worn came from a store in Queens?

     The concept of time is also distorted. The compression leads to a speeding up of life. This physical moving of migrant workers or of the ICI leads to a loss of control. There was mention of the import process for the ICI and the higher taxes paid for imports over a conventional importer. This compression and then waiting only serves to demonstrate how little control the ICI has when trying to cross boundries. 

     The people of Jamaica however need the ICI to bring them items. They have become accustomed to having this access. If the ICI were to not make those trips then the people in the villages would be forced to do without. This is partially due to a lack of a single identity.

"Tuff Women" aka "Black Superwoman" in Downtown Ladies by Gina Ulysse

     In Gina Ulysse's Downtown Ladies, she continues to show how race/color, class, and gender intersect in the lived experiences of informal commercial importers, or ICIs, most of whom are black or colored and female. In the spirit of Judith Butler, who describes gender as a performance rather than a natural behavior based on sex in all its natural glory, Ulysse describes how women ICIs, and other Jamaican women and girls, are required to perform as "tuff" for assurance of survival in a patriarchal, male dominant, and racist society. What is of keen irony is how these women of color -- Black women, colored women -- are given a gender performance expectation that directly contradicts other notions of acceptable gender performance posited on those who are "women," especially when intersected with race and class.
     The Cult of True Womanhood would have us believe that the natural behavior, or at least correct behavior but most accurately forced performance, of women would include such traits as domestic, demure, home caretakers, nurturing, moral, and intuitive, among others. Most notable of these traits is the notion of docility, which upon further examination is mainly perceived as normal behavior of white middle class women, whose docility is then positioned as a luxury. Staying at home while someone else, presumably a husband, earns the necessary income to maintain the home as well as possibly hiring out another person, often a woman of color and/or low socioeconomic status, to clean and cook for the home makes it possible for the cult of true womanhood to ever be close to reality. In order for these "true women" or "ladies" to exist, other women must be non-docile, including "tuff." The tuffness required of these women leads to another culted stereotype posited onto women, which may be called The Cult of Tuff Women, very muck akin to the Myth of the Black Superwoman. Ulysse describes it as tuffness.
     In the Cult of Tuffness, ICIs and other Jamaican women, especially black and colored and those not of high socioeconomic ranking, must perform as tuff. It is less optional and more necessary in order to ensure survival, including the economic survival of ICIs. Ulysse shares how gender performance requirement of young Jamaican men affects the gender performance requirements of women when she describes the rude bwais persona. She lists high unemployment rates and lack of social welfare that create the needed performance of these young Jamaican men (167). In a person and group's decision to act tuff in response to poverty or violence that pervades their world and precedes their behavior, it is often a purposeful error to see their behavior as the cause rather than the effect of the already, always violent world in which they live. Such is the case with vendors, which definitely affect perceptions of ICIs. "[V]endors are framed as the source of violence rather than targets in needs of protection. (169)" In the Cult of Tuff Women, unlike in the Cult of True Womanhood, tuff women do not require protection. In fact, they are positioned in such a way that society needs protection from them. 
      Female attitudes are in response to masculine domination, as Ulysse says by stating, "Whereas masculinity is through the gun, female tuffness is expressed through embodiment of protective shields." These protective shields include a confident walk, back talking which often includes profanity, and seeing men as needing to be checked, rather than the ones who can dictate how a woman behaves. But tuff women personas intersect with class as well. Not all members of the Cult of True Womanhood are white middle class women. They can include middle class women of color. The Cult may also exclude white women who are poor or working-class. Its inconsistency lays testament to its mythical nature. ICIs when perceived as tuff women can then be viewed in such a way that the reality of their vulnerability cannot be included in the perception. For example, when travelling to Miami, Ulysse observes that ICIs carry cash, making them more vulnerable to being robbed. This example is just one of many in how our reality and world affects our behavior. Ulysse herself takes on a tuff woman persona to ward off street harassment, a persona she initially did not wish to perform.
     Within the original cult, a woman's place was in the home. In Doreen Massey's "A Global Sense of Place", she points out how globilization has affected the meaning of place. "How in the face of all this movement and intermixing can we retain any sense of a local place and its particularity?" But does any local place have only one particularity? Even Massey describes notions of supposed homogeneity of places. In the same place, people are positioned differently, affecting their reality, their very performance. Black women, including Caribbean women, are no more naturally tuff. We are not genetically predisposed to be superwomen. If society forces our behaving this way for our survival, it says more about the nature of society than the nature of women of color, including the nature of ICIs.

Uses of the Erotic and Drugs

I continued to be interested in Ulysse's presence in her research-- the ways she intersperses her research with narrative and descriptive language about her feelings and the world around her that are seemingly extraneous to the project. I found myself getting irritated at some points with her need to constantly remind us of her unique academic integrity, but I understand that she is working against a long, institutionalized tradition in anthropology of exploitative ethnocentrism. In "Counter Topographies," the authors quote a study of Mexican maquiladoras and explain that 'the trick [for the American manager] is to guarantee that she disappears from the thing that she makes.' ("Transnational (Counter) Topographies,"160) I found it interesting that, at least thus in the six chapters we have read, Ulysse chooses not to address the origin of the goods that the ICI's are selling. I wonder how they relate to these goods, where the goods come from, how they feel about the (most likely) women who made them. The women who made the goods they sell are completely absent from Ulysse's narrative and from the goods themselves. I also thought that Ulysse's book kind of dispels some of the notions that arise in "Transnational (Counter) Topographies" because if we replace maquiladora worker with ICI and the "thing she makes" with the selling the ICI's do, then here we have a study that works against this idea. The ICI's good is their buying and selling, and they frequently have personal relationships with the vendors they purchase wholesale from. They also have relationships with their customers, and they frequently care more about the community of ICI's than their own financial success, as evidenced by Ulysse's descriptions of ICI's helping each other out, selling things for less than they are worth, etc. Perhaps the thing I found most interesting in this week's reading was how the ICI's fit into the larger global neoliberal economic and political landscape, and how they are situated in regards to the war on drugs. The heart of the idea of drug trafficking being related to higglering and ICI's was, for me, found when Ulysse paraphrases Alex Dupuy with "the expanding drug trafficking and money laundering booming in the region are consequences of neoliberal globalization policies that supplant local economies, undermine local production, and increase dependence on international institutions and migration as the region exports more of its labor force." (209-210) Clearly, the ICI's can be described in similar language, that ICI's turn to their trade in large part because of their failure to be able to subsist in contemporary economies in more traditional sectors. I also found it incredibly interesting when Uylsse writes that "in times of unrest, the government's first recourse is to manage street vending. The removal of vendors is viewed as central to securing downtown streets. In that sense, vendors' bodies become boundary markers that are used to demarcate safety." (171) I wonder what about the fact of individual people exchanging goods on the street is so threatening to states. I think it is much more deeply-rooted in raced and gendered ideologies than blaming it simply on lack of regulation and revenue would suggest. I think it has something to do with Audre Lorde's ideas about the power of the erotic, which Ulysse references, that so often informal vendors are women of color and that their raced and gendered bodies are threatening to the institutionalized capitalist system.

Producing People, Place, and Space

 Gina Ulysse’s Downtown Ladies and “A Global Sense of Space” by Doreen Massey both work to illustrate the interconnectedness of space, place, and identity constructions.  Ulysse investigates the varied means by which women, specifically ICIs, form their notions of identity within their professional lives and geographic locations; “I highlight the significance of the connections between space, place, and social relations among traders, customers, organizations, and civil society at large” (Ulysse, 159).  The disenfranchised and impoverished of Kingston, Jamaica’s “downtown” are described as highly masculinized, upholding violence and intimidation in order to weave throughout the sociopolitical realms in which they live and embody; “…masculinity is realized through the gun, female tuffness is expressed through embodiment of protective shields” (Ulysse, 182).  The clutches of global capitalism dictate and reify the distinctions between uptown and downtown societies, while at the same time gain from the latter’s attempts to compete (ICI work and drug smuggling) or subsist.  This reminded me so much of Thomas More’s Utopia in which he wrote, “…if you suffer your people to be ill-educated, and their manners to be corrupted from their infancy…what else is to be concluded from this but that you first make thieves and then punish them” (More, 12).

The dominating forces of the empowered few set the rules, create the players, and reap the rewards in their capitalistic games.  Subjectifications require rigid categorizations in order to demarcate the privileged and the “other” within similar their shared geopolitical and socioeconomic spaces.  Only through acceptance and appreciation of the multifariousness and interconnectedness of space, place, and identity can more fluid, global relations occur.  Gina Ulysse highlights the struggle to do so, “Our inability to capture this complexity stems from the fact that global capitalist structures of power maintain a ‘possessive investment’ in stereotypes” (Ulysse, 190).  In order to accept the diversity and intersectionality of peoples, we must understand and welcome these notions within our places and spaces throughout time.  Massey writes, “It is a sense of place, an understanding of ‘its character,’ which can only be constructed by linking that place to places beyond” (Massey, 9).   

Connecting Space and Performance

Doreen Massey’s “A Global Sense of Place” relates to Ulysse’s Downtown Ladies in several ways.  Massey’s article centers on the importance the connection of time and space in relation to power, money, movement, and social relations.  This specifically relates to chapters 4 and 5 of Downtown Ladies, because in order to understand the arcade or the situations the ICIs are placed in, you have to understand the geographical location of the arcade and its place within the complex society of Kingston. 

There is a distinct difference between uptown and downtown Kingston.  Downtown, and especially the main arcade, has a stigma of danger (which Ulysse says is not “without basis” (158)).  This danger whether real or perceived has led to the idea of portraying toughness for female ICIs.  This idea of toughness ties in with Ulysse’s ideas of performance that she mentions earlier in the book.  Toughness is not an accepted characteristic of a “lady”, which allows the upper echelon of society to further distances the arcade ICIs from the term.  So in a sense they are forced to perform the label that has been placed upon them.  It is a cycle that they have no choice but to play a part in.

 If a look is given to the connection of money, power, and location you can see how the ICIs, especially those most visible, are at a disadvantage.  They stay in the business because it gives some form of income.  As more ICIs enter the market and taxation becomes more of a burden, very few are actually making more than what is needed to simply survive.  Taking a look back at Massey we see that the ICIs are part of “groups who are also doing a lot of physical moving, but who are not 'in charge' of the process” (3).  Building on this idea Ulysse states that the ICIs recognize their importance to the global economy, but they also recognize the ways in which they lack really power and authority (212).  From both of these we see how they are continuously navigating the complex world in which they live, sometimes through performance, in order to carve out an existence.

Briana

Gender in Space and Place

        The most striking part of chapters 5 and 6 in Gina Ulysse’s Downtown Ladies was the way she gendered spaces and places. She uses Kingston, Jamaica as a reference point to further explain the difference between downtown and uptown. Rather than having explicit boundaries isolating downtown and uptown from one another, the two areas are instead given characteristics according to the people living there and their characteristics. Ulysse associates the downtown area with masculinity and violence. Not only are the men considered more inherently “masculine”, but Ulysse states the women must also be tougher, in some way. She says the tough, rugged behavior is expected of an ICI, as they have no other way to survive in downtown. Are all places equally gendered? Would different locations label different areas with differing genders?

            To me, it seems as though the perception of gendering places and behaviors is directly linked to powerful. ICIs, for example, must be considered powerful to be successful. Massey’s article seems to articulate that we make power hierarchies BECAUSE of the gendering of places. Male’s privilege to power in Jamaica is directly linked to the survival habits of women in the downtown, “masculine” area. Massey also, however, looks at the intersection of race and class rather than explicitly gender. Where does it begin? Is the power stemming from gender and class constructs? Or are these constructs stemming from the dynamic of power?

"Tuff" Women

This week’s readings were based on a continuation of Gina Ulysse’s book Downtown Ladies.  In chapter 5, she takes an in-depth look at the everyday lives of two ICIs participating in her research. In particular, she examines the “tuffness” they exhibit in order to survive in the arcade everyday which has contributed in the construction of masculine domination. Ulysse states,  “toughness was an armor, a survival mechanism of sorts worn in public, especially on the street , used to rebuff or discourage any unwanted interaction..” (182).What is interesting about this is that it has also contributed to the stereotype of what an ICI or a higgler is. “The tuff attitude distinguished the tourist from the local, the lady from the woman..” (183) Just because she exhibits this toughness in her business to protect herself this takes away from her femininity. Therefore making her socially considered a “woman” instead of a “lady”. Personally, I don’t see a problem with “tuffness” especially when you look at the two circumstances Ulysse documents when the woman does exhibit it or does not exhibit it. The men continue to harass you when you don’t exhibit it, but when you do sometimes they tend to apologize or even leave you alone. I do wonder in the case of invisible ICIs, who tend to be middle class, do they exhibit this type of “tuffness” or is it different?

In Chapter 6, Ulysse documents the shopping trip of two ICIs, Miss. T and Miss. M. She zeroes in on how they navigate the ins and outs of the world of import, export, and international travel. The shopping trip was the easiest part of this journey though Miss. Ulysse tends to have a problem keeping up though. It seems to be that the difficult part of this journey is the importing of the items into Jamaica. This difficulty is attributed to the searching of the goods, the duties being applied to each individual good, and having to have the appropriate documentation. The percentages of the duties are extensive when you look at it, but Ulysse asks a good question. In what way do these duties contribute to the economy? Ulysse points out that “appropriation of funds from this unregulated source is a common practice. It points to similar findings in other nations with proliferating informal economies.” (202) Still, I cannot help but wonder, what do they do with it? Does it go back into the government? Or Does it go into the pockets of high powered individuals?      

Week #6- Space, location, time, and locality

         While reading “Downtown Ladies” the consideration of time and space as a complex and simple commodity is the main issue at hand. Gina gives many encounters of Ms. T and Ms. B. while accompanying them in Miami to buy goods for their businesses upon customer demand. These events encompass a plethora of central ideas, but the main concern I believe is the space and location among the ICI’s while in Miami and downtown Jamaica, the gender roles placed upon women living downtown, and the political issue of the government obtaining a percentage in taxes on these women, who already are trying to make a decent living in the society to which they currently reside.

            Time, space, and location are all a foci when referring to who the person is, where they live, the community they are surrounded by, and the underlying issues in a broad scope of why particular places are viewed as they are. For example, in the book, Gina mentions how Ms. B sells the same products every day. She has been selling shoes for the last fifteen years as an ICI, and sells these items for a price to which she will not negotiate. I wondered why Ms. B never negotiated her prices when sometimes she only sold one pair of shoes a day. I began to take into consideration her space and location in Jamaica. Downtown was East of Jamaica and Uptown Jamaica was located West of the island with upper class society, while downtown was considered the “bad” side of town with the harassment of women, killings, and drug trafficking throughout. This particular description was very familiar to the women (ICI’s) who were selling items of equal or mostly lesser value than that of the states. The people to whom Ms. B. and Ms. T. were selling to were of the same class as themselves, this is why prices were never negotiated. Time was money, and the same occupation of exchange for goods and services had its weight. The location and space provided and consumed by the ICI’s placed these women in a dangerous environment, while at the same time forced them to conform to the environment to which they were forced to be. At the end, each had to make a living; therefore, sacrifices had to be made.  

            Women in downtown Jamaica cannot be docile, dress in a certain manner, nor show any signs of fear among the misogynistic men to which they encounter from simply walking down the street or catching a cab. Women are said to possess “toughness” while downtown. This gender role is opposite in the way most would view women. Men in particular here in the U.S. expect a forced gender of feminine characteristics and softness, or women are viewed as bossy or too masculine; however, in Jamaica as an ICI this “toughness” is a requirement in order to survive. The created mind set of the women is broken. Women’s gender roles are exploited in a different way as becoming a part of society while based in society; a familiar concept of American women in certain arenas. Difference here is viewed as not belonging to the women, but forced upon her like many other things in her life.

`           Like the idea of capitalism nationwide, a profit has to be made to satisfy some, while hindering others. ICI’s are women depending on their product to live. Like other businesses and organizations taxes can make you or break you. In this instance for ICI’s the government benefits while the women do not. It almost sounds like a revolving cycle of dog eat dog in the created hierarchy system created in everyday atmosphere. The ideology of inferiority is still at the forefront just in a different form of progression and non-progression among certain races.

            

Space and Gendered Behavior

    Throughout Downtown Ladies, Gina Ulysse discusses the differences between downtown and uptown Kingston as a combination of certain physical features and social behaviors and attitudes.  While the perceived physical boundaries between downtown and uptown effect how these behaviors and attitudes are propagated and concentrated, the boundaries are defined best as socially determined.  That is, as Ulysse says throughout the book, but most explicitly in her discussion of the arcade, downtown is defined through the behaviors of the people that inhabit it.  

    This is most obvious when Ulysse discusses violence and tuffness.  Violence is depicted as occurring mostly downtown, and it is shocking for her to see it move out of those defined boundaries.  After seeing a man pull an AK-47 in front of her window, she says that “violence cannot be predicted and knows no spatial boundaries in Jamaica.”  The shock of this realization, to a certain extent, enables her to have greater ease with the violence she sees downtown.  However, once she reaches a limit of mental and emotional ability to cope with violence, she can always head somewhere else.  While she is certainly not beyond the reach of violence, it is seen as occurring mostly where it is valued as part of the presentation of masculinity, which is still downtown.  

    Tuffness is described as an approach to survival in areas of masculine violence adopted by downtown females.  That is, it is a collection of behaviors that portray a certain disregard for the possibility of violence, which result in a lessening of violence toward a person using it.  This assertion of disregard can be seen as a rejection of uptown ideas about female behavior and a use of downtown male norms to assert similarity with downtown men.  This similarity prevents much of the gatekeeping violence.  The uptown females, on the other hand, occupy a certain space of female decorum appropriate to the context they generally find themselves in.  This marked female-ness is not similar to the downtown behavioral norms, resulting in violence from the gatekeeping men.  

    How might females use aspects of tuffness to assert their identity in contexts dominated by other females?  What kinds of behaviors might be used in interactions between downtown and uptown females?  How might these affect the range of strategies used by these females in their interactions with males?  What effects might this have on the construction of downtown and uptown space?

Implications of Toughness on Femininity in the Carribean

The section of the reading that resonated most with me was chapter six when Ulysse discusses the "masculinization of poverty" and the implications that has on the future of the ICI's (167).  Ulysse explains that due to natural disasters and a growing male population there occurred the evolution of the southern districts into gangs similar to those Americans have experienced in the stories of the New York gangs of the 1920's. Due to the heavy reliance of the growing population and politicians on the Dons who "substitute for government's role as provider and protector of citizens" (166). Through the promulgation of the Dons there was a growth in the badness-honor system that enforced the idea that masculinity is ultimately performed in a male's ability to commit violent acts and earn accreditation throughout the district (166-167). The spread of badness-honor was heavily influential in the behavior of many young men who were disenfranchised by high unemployment and no social safety net (167).  Through the spread of gang culture came a rise in violence in the downtown districts, where the arcades of the ICI's were located (168).
Due to the increased violence in the Arcades ICI's were forced to relinquish the feminine characteristics ascribed in Ulysse's first few chapters. The ICIs were forced to attain a level of "toughness" that would allow her to operate in the Arcade environment (189). This added to the binary of the "lady" to the "woman" as the "woman" is perceived as less feminine because of her crassness that is inscribed in the ways of survival in the Arcades (188). Because of the domination and control that the binaries create, they persist today (188). Because of the enforcement of this binary, men are able to control the downtown ladies in the way that they reenforce the "demonetization" of toughness because "it is a form of active agency that is seen as a theft of a naturally masculine prerogative" (189). Massey's article enforces the role of this domination through the power ascribed to men due to the geopolitical positioning of men in the area. The relation of power as it is distributed amongst men and women is emphasized when Massey explains that, " "the time-space compression of some groups can determine the power of others." The compression of the female populace through the promulgation of the socially constructed ideas of femininity and masculinity is the deciding factor of male domination in the Arcades. However, when comparing the similar trades of men and women (trafficking of illegal substance) in the Arcades, why is it that the men are favored and gain domination over the women? Does the embrace of an economy dependent upon drug trafficking imply a heavier role of general moral decay? Furthermore, what are the implications of this social phenomenon for the colonizing country?