The Tribune

By DR IAN BETHELL-BENNETT

Is this a culture of violence and inequality or a culture based on misogyny and misinterpreted and misunderstood biblical ethos?

As many argue, be the change you wish to see, yet we are not being that change. We are in fact being the things we do not wish to see, or is it that we do not wish to see change?

The Bahamas is now renowned for its violence and its gender inequality. It is famous for the way it treats Haitians and Cubans. We are a Christian nation, or as the preamble to the constitution argues, a nation based on Christian principles.

What is disconcerting about our Christian principles is that they are based on women submitting to men. Many men take this to mean that women must be lesser humans than themselves and so deserve to be treated as less than human.

Women are also read into the scriptures in many congregations and meetings as being the inferior part of the man, the lower part and so less worthy of good treatment and respect.

The readings say that women must honour their husbands, and it goes on from there and states how men must honour their wives as well. This part of the reading is usually missed out, however. So the reading is reduced to women being under the thumbs of men who interpret this to mean that they should discipline them. Disciplining a woman could mean as much as killing her if we take the cultural reality that we are currently living. Where did we go wrong? How did we get here? Where is here?

In a number of studies conducted internationally and locally, single-headed families tend to do less well in bringing up children than do parents with two healthy, well-meaning, informed, engaged and kind parents. Kind is included here because we as a culture tend to forget about being kind.

Tourists may see Bahamians as kind and friendly, but when it comes to local cultural sociology, we tend to be anything but kind, especially to our children. We become some of the cruellest, most beastly people in both word and deed, especially towards our loved ones, and most especially towards our children.

Research also shows that many households headed by single mothers in the modern day perpetuate incredibly unequal, misogynistic attitudes and norms among their sons especially, but also their daughters. This is due in part to the understanding that if the rod is spared the child will be spoilt. What we see, however, are statistics that are far worse than that.

We have seen the murder of women skyrocket. According to the Report on Gender-Based Violence, “45 women were killed as a result of intimate partner violence in the period between 2005 and 2010”.

The attitudes captured in a Crisis Centre College of the Bahamas study shows why this would be the case. In this study of Bahamian youths’ attitudes to gender roles, the statistics show that 35 per cent of the students surveyed lived with single mothers. Further to this, serious issues around control and domination appear. The study, coupled with other research, shows that Bahamian men seek to control Bahamian women, and many women seek to control their husbands or partners, moreover, this is behaviour a great many young people witness in their homes.

In fact, 87.3 per cent of boys and 85.4 per cent of girls believe that women should ‘submit’ to their husbands.

When it comes to women being slapped up by their husbands, more boys than girls believed this. The tragedy is that most of the youth see this in their daily lives. They are taught this in their communities. Many are the well-meaning though miss-guided religious leaders who argue that men are the heads of women and that women must submit to their husbands, and this is usually extended to mean any man with whom they are in a relationship. The youth are simply doing what they understand the community and the religious community are telling them to do. This is the rule of life, according to many.

The attitudes that are espoused by many public figures then resonate with a certain number of youth. When much of the Bahamian public discourse is about the denial of rights the ignoring of human rights and the fact that women should not receive equal treatment under the law, continues to build the image in the youth that women are less than men.

This dysfunctional public discourse works with some aspects of popular culture to build on the idea that men are thugs and women are sluts. In fact, many people opt to ‘shame’ women by bringing out their sexual history. Men are celebrated for their ‘exploits’ but women are shamed. The double standard is obvious, yet a public sphere controlled by men and anti-female doctrine can only continue to build and exacerbate inequalities. In a country where many men feel that women should not have control over their own bodies, it is not surprising that men argue that they own women. Attitudes do not stop with one generation or because public figures make statements and then disclaim the meaning of their statements after they have been made. When public figures boast about beating women and then say it was a joke, the joke is actually on all of use, because there is no humour in it. In fact it belies a social reality that the Report on Gender-Based Violence statistically upholds. That report and the study cited above demonstrate that women are seriously unequal to men, and a great many men and women buy into this belief and raise their children to believe it too.

In a country where politicians can boast about their Haitians, a dehumanising, materialising figure of speech becomes a window into cultural normativity and inequality. In this case, it simply means that we understand hatred and violence justified through irregular immigration status and ownership and superiority become normal behaviour.

This same attitude of hatred and scorn heaped on Haitians does not end there. Sadly, it pervades all aspects and sectors of the country. It is fine to argue that illegal immigrants and migrants should not be invited to remain in the country, but to argue that they should be stripped of their right to apply for citizenship or flogged to make them want to leave, only encourages an undercurrent of hatred. This only worsens the problem with crime. Yet politicians refuse to see the links between their behaviour and attitudes and the reality around them. While they talk about beating women and denying them the right to pass on their citizenship, they also argue that the Bahamas is complying with all its international obligations.

To be sure, inequality is not just saved for women. The constitution and the last version of the proposed amendments to the constitution disempower both men and women. While the national discourse celebrates motherhood and fatherhood, it does this in very unequal ways and confines it to particular groups. Further, if a study were to be carried out on attitudes towards men who are not hypermasculine in their behaviour, the findings would show that in general they would be discriminated against and beaten, because that’s just how we role. These attitudes are also re-enforced by some aspects of popular culture and many influential public groups.

Violence and inequality are however to be expected in a society where tourists are treated with more respect than residents; poor Bahamians are treated worse than other Bahamians; young, dark-skinned poor youth are treated worse than others, and Haitians are treated worse than everyone.

However, this is all justified by government discourse and biblical verses that espouse the superiority of the man over the woman and the upper class over the lower class. The Bible is often used and abused in order to get or maintain power over a group. Hatred and bigotry are often publicly shared in order to divide a nation and turn it in on itself. The status quo will always survive in a place like this. Let’s be the change we want to see.

• bethellbennett@gmail.com