Of abused citizens and scorned vaginas

Over the past few weeks, the average Jamaican citizen, of either gender, has been forced to come to terms with some serious socio-political issues that were played out on the national stage, and also with the linguistic terms that emerged from the various dialogues related to these issues.

For instance, on the corner, both literate and unlettered individuals can be heard waxing eloquently on the terms "I can't recall" and "pathologically mendacious". Everyone is having a field day with the new vocabulary.

Unlike the political tribalists and the in-training talk-show hosts on the street corners of the Corporate Area and the rocky hillsides of rural Jamaica, I choose to spend my energies contemplating the terms that have emerged from other socio-political horror stories that have bombarded my sensibilities over the past two weeks.

I will, therefore, turn to the horrible story which was carried in the April 3 edition of The Gleaner. This is the story which caught the attention of the reading public with the bold headline, 'DISGRACEFUL'.

In his description of the conditions, practices and attitudes exhibited in The Golden Age Home in Vineyard Town, writer Tyrone Reid forced his readers to use their imagination and think in the following terms:

Gender-neutral mass-bathing rituals parading as communal baths.

Stark-naked walks on the runways of despair.

From dust to dust they return wallowing on the dirty floors of their earthly existence.

Breakfast in bed with a trailerload of pesky, buzzing flies.

Gentle breezes caressing well-trimmed grassy paths on the trail to the hellholes.

Nasal assaults by putrid faeces and urine left unattended for extended periods.

Sista, the 'donkey' in residence, taking to the racetrack with a vampire on her back.

Overworked, overwhelmed, underpaid 21st-century slaves.

In reaction to the exposure of these horrendous conditions in which the State has allowed the most marginalised and dependent of our citizens to live for many, many years, the April 5 edition of The Gleaner cited the remarks of the operations manager who, in her defence of the inhumane treatment of the residents at The Golden Age Home, pushed another questionable and psychologically dangerous term on the front burner of the national psyche.

"They are babies," she declared.

No, Madam, those congenitally disabled adults are not babies!

They are adults who need constant and expert quality care informed by the expertise and knowledge base of those who understand the best practices that will give dignity to the most dependent of our disabled adult population.

By calling these disabled adults babies, serious psychological damage is done to both the dependent adult and the thousands of babies who are born yearly to parents in every sector of the society.

Babyhood is indeed a very important developmental stage in the journey from womb to tomb.

Dependent offspring

The human baby is the most dependent offspring in the mammal kingdom, and as a society we are required to ensure their total healthy emotional, social, physical well-being until they are able to be less dependent on the adults in the society.

When such babies come into existence with congenital restrictions, they also must be allowed the maximum care to move from the baby stage to adulthood.

This means that while many of them, as adults, might be still totally dependent on caregivers, they are not babies.

Using the term 'babies' to rationalise the lack of care for disabled adults is an unfortunate and socially dangerous one!

Another disgusting and misogynistic term has come into use and been popularised since the shocking headline of the March 24 edition of the Observer, 'Finger-raped in Barbados'. This story described the inhumane and intrusive assault on Shanique Myrie, a Jamaican citizen, who was denied entry into Barbados.

The term, with which I strongly object, has been used on multiple occasions by both male and female commentators and news readers. It is the obnoxious term 'cavity' to describe the vagina.

The vagina is not a cavity, it is the defining biological marker which is used in every society to distinguish a girl from a boy. Indeed, Ms Myrie did not have a cavity search; her vagina was violated, if her story is true.

In fact, from my reading of her statements, Ms Myrie reported what a female immigration officer did to her privates.

Naming the vagina

It is very important for every woman to name her vagina and not allow even the most bleeding-heart liberal journalist or talk-show host or the immigration officers, in either the First or the Third World, to use the unacceptable word 'cavity' to assault our womanhood.

In fact, when women and girls are socialised, through popular media and other agencies, to think of their vaginas as cavities, caverns and holes, they will not hesitate to pack contraband in their vaginas and transport these across international borders. They will also accept the commodification of their sexuality and the accompanying horrendous gender-based violence that they have to deal with daily.

Every time I hear a journalist [male or female] refer to the vagina as a cavity, I remind myself of writer Eve Eisler's famous line in 'The Vagina Monologues': "My vagina is angry."

Feminists have historically pointed out forcibly that the use of language normalises behaviours.

It has been through their intervention, agitation, lobbying and reasoning that more and more textbook writers, organisations and institutions are using more gender-neutral language and terms.

We still have a long way to go in coming to terms with the psyche of the patriarch.

Glenda P. Simms, PhD, is a gender expert and consultant. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and glendasimms@gmail.com.