What Love has to do with it? Sexuality, Work and Power in Caribbean Gender Relations

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What Love has to do with it? Sexuality, Work and Power in Caribbean Gender Relations

Introduction In this lecture Prof. Barriteau applies Anna Jonasdottir’s construction of ‘love power’ towards developing a theory of sexuality and power in the contemporary Commonwealth Caribbean using Barbados as a case study. She engages in a triple play on the meanings of the word ‘coming’ and anchors these meanings to black feminist theorising of the concept of ‘home’. She explores some of the complications that romantic loving pose for Caribbean women. Of particular interest is the revelation of the continuities between ongoing attempts to subordinate women and the sense of powerlessness that often arises in women’s heterosexual, socio-sexual unions. She attempts to track how these complications become extrapolated into wider systemic inequalities, (especially in conditions of work and employment), even as these are simultaneously reflected back onto the individual relationships and their representations of gendered hierarchies of power and inequalities. Pivotal to the analysis is the centrality of work in Caribbean women’s lives, as they navigate the intersections of the public and the private, production and reproduction. The challenge is to work backwards and forwards from the dynamics of that basic union (played out in private, intimate spaces such as the home), to contemporary developments in Caribbean political economy....Read more

What Love has to do with it? Sexuality, Work and Power in Caribbean Gender Relations CGDS 15 th Anniversary Closing, Keynote Address, 2009 Violet Eudine Barriteau Head, Centre for Gender and Development Studies: Nita Barrow Unit Recently Campus Coordinator, School for Graduate Studies and Research Deputy Principal at the Cave Hill Campus Now Principal, The UWI, Cave Hill Campus Group at the CGDS 15th Anniversary lecture. Left to right: Dr. Piya Pangsapa, Prof. Patricia Mohammed, Prof. Eudine Barriteau, Prof. Jane Parpart, Prof. Rhoda Reddock View on the IGDS You Tube Channel https://youtu.be/e4ppnG-68J4?list=PLwNx1cuS64LjPfesUKXnAi3-3lyCJhtbD Violet Eudine Barriteau: What love has to do with it? Sexuality, work and power in Caribbean gender relations, CGDS 15 th Anniversary Closing, Keynote Address, 2009 175

Keywords: love power, Caribbean gender relations, theory, sexuality, power How to cite Barriteau, V. Eudine. 2015. “What’s Love Got to Do with It? Sexuality, Work and Power in Caribbean Gender Relations.” 15 th Anniversary Closing Keynote Address. Caribbean Review of Gender Studies issue 9, 175–178 www.sta.uwi.edu/crgs/index.asp UWI IGDS CRGS Issue 9 ISSN 1995-1108 176

Violet Eudine Barriteau: What love has to do with it? Sexuality, work and power in Caribbean gender relations, CGDS 15th Anniversary Closing, Keynote Address, 2009 What Love has to do with it? Sexuality, Work and Power in Caribbean Gender Relations CGDS 15th Anniversary Closing, Keynote Address, 2009 Violet Eudine Barriteau Head, Centre for Gender and Development Studies: Nita Barrow Unit Recently Campus Coordinator, School for Graduate Studies and Research Deputy Principal at the Cave Hill Campus Now Principal, The UWI, Cave Hill Campus Group at the CGDS 15th Anniversary lecture. Left to right: Dr. Piya Pangsapa, Prof. Patricia Mohammed, Prof. Eudine Barriteau, Prof. Jane Parpart, Prof. Rhoda Reddock View on the IGDS You Tube Channel https://youtu.be/e4ppnG-68J4?list=PLwNx1cuS64LjPfesUKXnAi3-3lyCJhtbD 175 www.sta.uwi.edu/crgs/index.asp UWI IGDS CRGS Issue 9 ISSN 1995-1108 Keywords: love power, Caribbean gender relations, theory, sexuality, power How to cite Barriteau, V. Eudine. 2015. “What’s Love Got to Do with It? Sexuality, Work and Power in Caribbean Gender Relations.” 15 th Anniversary Closing Keynote Address. Caribbean Review of Gender Studies issue 9, 175–178 176 Violet Eudine Barriteau: What love has to do with it? Sexuality, work and power in Caribbean gender relations, CGDS 15th Anniversary Closing, Keynote Address, 2009 Introduction In this lecture Prof. Barriteau applies Anna Jonasdottir’s construction of ‘love power’ towards developing a theory of sexuality and power in the contemporary Commonwealth Caribbean using Barbados as a case study. She engages in a triple play on the meanings of the word ‘coming’ and anchors these meanings to black feminist theorising of the concept of ‘home’. She explores some of the complications that romantic loving pose for Caribbean women. Of particular interest is the revelation of the continuities between ongoing attempts to subordinate women and the sense of powerlessness that often arises in women’s heterosexual, socio-sexual unions. She attempts to track how these complications become extrapolated into wider systemic inequalities, (especially in conditions of work and employment), even as these are simultaneously reflected back onto the individual relationships and their representations of gendered hierarchies of power and inequalities. Pivotal to the analysis is the centrality of work in Caribbean women’s lives, as they navigate the intersections of the public and the private, production and reproduction. The challenge is to work backwards and forwards from the dynamics of that basic union (played out in private, intimate spaces such as the home), to contemporary developments in Caribbean political economy. 177 www.sta.uwi.edu/crgs/index.asp UWI IGDS CRGS Issue 9 ISSN 1995-1108 Audience at the public lecture “What love has to do with it? Sexuality, work and power in Caribbean gender relations” delivered by Professor Violet Eudine Barriteau, IGDS 15th Anniversary closing celebration and commemoration of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, November 2009, Daaga Auditorium, The UWI, St. Augustine Campus. 178

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What Love has to do with it? Sexuality, Work and Power in Caribbean Gender Relations