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.