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?