A rose by any other name? How one Trinidad Carnival band’s intimate gesture has sparked controversy

‘I love how people think this is about sex […] and not [about] capitalism’

Originally published on Global Voices

As Trinidad and Tobago Carnival continues to evolve, this year’s music has been paying homage to veterans of the Carnival arts. Several steelbands have chosen classic tunes as their Panorama pieces as opposed to new soca offerings, soca king Machel Montano’s road march bid, “Encore,” is a nod to mas designer extraordinaire Peter Minshall, Kes the Band has resurrected the concept of “Rum and Coca-Cola,” first written by Lord Invader as social commentary about World War II era Trinidad — a song made even more well known after The Andrews Sisters’ 1940s remake. Mical Teja has done “Last Train,” his own take on 1957’s calypso “Last Train to San Fernando,” and one of the most popular songs for the season, Full Blown’s “Respectfully Yours,” samples a bit of Crazy’s classic, “Cold Sweat.”

Yet, it is a decidedly more modern issue that is captivating the local blogosphere ahead of the national festival — the inclusion of an adult toy in the goody bags of a popular band’s women masqueraders.

The move by Tribe to gift a rose to this demographic was reviewed in unboxing videos on social media and soon drew the attention of Roman Catholic Archbishop Jason Gordon, who criticised the move on the pulpit, saying it had “gone too far.” Stressing that guard rails need to be put in place to protect young people, he continued, “Just as I’ve asked the government to regulate social media for the sake of our children, if Tribe cannot pull back on its own, I think the government will have to regulate it.”

Tribe’s band leader Dean Ackin told the Trinidad Express, “Carnival is about free­dom, expression, fun and a little mischief, and as pioneers of the modern mas experience, we’re always looking for ways to keep things fresh, playful and memorable.”

With each side firmly in their corners, social media users soon began to weigh in. In a widely shared post, Facebook user Darryn Dinesh Boodan referenced an op-ed by the Trinidad and Tobago Guardian that “makes the argument that Tribe including a ‘Rose’ sex toy in an adults only goodie bag isn’t just a lapse in judgement, but a sign Carnival has become culturally hedonistic.” As someone who doesn’t participate in the festival, this surprised Boodan, as he thought “hedonism was the most fun part of Carnival and, frankly, the whole point.” Adding that the editorial “treats the Archbishop’s comments as a calm moral nudge,” Boodan drew people’s attention to the fact that Gordon “also floated the idea of state intervention if bands don’t ‘dial it back’” — a claim he categorised as “a clear warning shot: regulate yourselves, or we’ll invite the Government to regulate you.”

In a piece for Wired868, Jessica Joseph made the point that Carnival — derived from the Latin “Carne Vale” or “Farewell to the Flesh” — “speaks to its original cultural function: a deliberate release of excess, desire, music, dance, food, and freedom before the restrictions of Lent […] Calling it mere ‘hedonism’ is reductionist when it has always been celebration with protest at its core.”

In both African and Indian cultures, Joseph added, “Public joy is experienced though symbolic acts of reclaiming space, selfhood, pleasure and the playful blurring of what is sacred to pre-colonial culture and profane to the colonizers. To pretend now that Carnival is meant to mirror church decorum is to misunderstand what Carnival has always been, even when it was strictly a Roman Catholic festival.”

Far from being preoccupied with women’s masturbation habits, she went on, Trinbagonians were more concerned about everyday realities, including economic recession, unemployment, mental stress, violence, corruption and police brutality, not to mention “an entire ecosystem of unchecked sexual crimes particularly against little children (for which the RC Church plays a major role).”

In that vein, several other netizens took issue with Archbishop Gordon speaking out on this topic, but remaining comparatively silent on other critical issues, including the recent killing of a young man by police that was caught on camera; his girlfriend was also shot and remains paralysed from the incident.

Meanwhile, cultural activist Tillah Willah quipped, “I love how people think this is about sex (I mean, the mas has been a circle jerk for a good few years now, why shouldn't women get a happy ending???) and not about how capitalism — ie your unlimited access to resources determines how much airtime, attention and visibility your brand gets. Outrage marketing is the most valuable type of attention these days and we know the many many ways that sex sells. Full marks for ingenuity and all the hand wringing and fake moral panic putting more millions in that bank.”

Over at Wired868, Joseph agreed: “Many [bands] leverage female beauty, female sensuality, female freedom in their marketing promotion, leading to women contributing significantly to Carnival revenue. The more money that is generated the more elaborate their Carnival commodity becomes and yes, there is a serious discussion about capitalism, classism and cultural erasure to be had about this.”

She also commented on the fact that the demographic of women who play mas with Tribe are “cognizant of The Orgasm Gap in heterosexual intercourse and unlike previous generations, aren’t going to meekly accept [it]. These women currently exist in an era where hook-up culture is officially dead and buried. They are living in the 4B Movement Era where partnered sex is not being generously handed out. Even the soca music reflects it. ‘Bad gyal doh need no man!’ [sing] Patrice and Nailah.”

“Additionally,” she continued, “solo sexual activity carries no pregnancy risk, which also reduces abortions, and no STI transmission risk — and in a society such as ours rife with GBV in intimate partner relationships, solo sexual activity is also safer than partnered sex.”

Gabrielle Hosein, senior lecturer at the Institute for Gender and Development Studies at the University of the West Indies’ St. Augustine Campus in Trinidad, added, “More than anything else, women are enjoying being women without men, enjoying their erotic power communally with other women. Multi-ethnic tens of thousands are in the streets nearly naked, drinking alcohol, being ribald with each other — and putting money on insisting they are safe from male sexual violence to do so […]

The Archbishop is pitting women against traditional Carnival, despite this always being where women have sought sexual self-determination. He is making sexual playfulness a moral panic. He is opposing something that does not in any way lead to vulnerability to unwanted STIs, unplanned pregnancy, sexual coercion or unsafe sexual practices. It is unclear who really is being harmed by women doing something they always have done — in and out of relationships, with or without men, with other women or by themselves, during or beyond Carnival time.”

“To scold Carnival is easy,” suggested Bryan St. Louis in another Wired868 post. “To demand accountability from leaders is dangerous. And so, the sermon is directed at the people, never at the powerful. […] Real morality must carry thorns as well as petals. It must be willing to prick power, not just perfume the air with easy condemnations. Without that edge, it is nothing more than roses without thorns: fragile theatre, not morality but masquerade.”

At the other end of the debate, Tricia Leacock, mother of a young masquerader, asked, “What gives you the right to purposefully plant ideas and concepts contra to the values that I choose to uphold in my household, under the guise of a surprise in a goody bag for a Carnival costume, especially without my consent!

We need to call a spade a spade. This is absolutely unacceptable. Many Trini mothers are already struggling with the bath suits and beads instead of costumes. […] What exactly are parents supposed to be telling their children who received these ‘toys’ in their goody bags? What does this say about what is expected of our young women? […] This is not the Carnival we want, and this does not represent who we are!”

The blog ChatterBox jumped in on the discussion to emphasise that “Skin does not equal sex. The gaze does. And it is usually the gaze of men […] The rose does not invent sexuality in Carnival. Sexuality has always existed within it. What the rose symbolises is something different: female pleasure centred, not merely female bodies displayed. That shift stings.”

The post concluded, “You may dislike the choice. You may find it unnecessary. But to declare that it denigrates culture is to flatten centuries of complexity into a single anxious conclusion. Every rose has its thorns. The rose is not the rot. The thorns are the tension that reminds us culture is alive, argued over, evolving in real time.

Carnival is art. Carnival is resistance. Carnival is commerce. Carnival is sensuality. Carnival is faith in dialogue with freedom.”