CARIMAC Times 2016: The JREAM Edition Journalists Reviving Awareness of what Matters | Page 128

a situation where some of our athletes, when
they go abroad and they speak English, they
put on a twang because their home language
is Jamaican creole but they now have to speak
to foreigners. It’s a foreign language.”
Williams began to explain his view on how the
English Language affects how manly men come
across. His response is similar to Jordan Grant’s.
“Yes, to an extent I think that speaking the English
Language, the way how you gesticulate, the way
how a man, especially, is poised and articulates
himself when in the presence of someone else
who is talking the English Language, it gives a
sense of ‘too feminine’. Sometimes if I am in
the space, mi a go [I will] talk English, but just
because the space demands it. But making me
feel more masculine? No…”
He sought to clarify.
“Maybe mi see two man ah converse inna [If I see
two men conversing in] Standard English, the
way how the hand movements [they gesticulate],
maybe to [based on] how they look, one might
assume that they are, maybe of a certain class,
a certain culture, certain sexuality …”
Williams said he thinks using the language to
assume a person’s background and sexuality
may be “myopic and to some extent ignorant …”
“That is not the premise on which I really base
my observation… It comes as a result of me
conversing with different people over the years
and the resentment for patois as Jamaicans
is eye-opening. Making me more masculine?
No. Maybe in the space of someone who is
more refined in their socialization, then one

can assume or one will assume that, yeah, it
might have something to do with being more
masculine …”
His argument on cultural retention started to
wane as he developed on his belief that neither
the use of English Language or Jamaican Patois
can make a person more or less masculine or
feminine.
“It is just perception or maybe the social
background. How one was cultured has a lot
to do with their whole decorum and speech. As
I said, maybe if I see two males conversing and
they are like, “you know that later we should do
this or later we should do that or so and so …”,
then my immediate assumption is that they are
too refined or something fishy is going on …”
The use of ‘fishy’ is an allusion to the concept of
homosexuality. It is the adjectival form of one
of the words that Dr. Anderson said constitutes
the shibboleth against male sexual deviance.
Professor Cooper also hinted at how delivery
can affect what is conceptualised about the
speaker of English, as she theorised.
“We may have had very high profile homosexuals
who, though they are in the closet, still know
them to be gay, who are particularly good at
using English, particularly with a British accent
— so that kind of a thing became associated with
homosexuality.”
Williams explained that though he cannot
think of specific English words or phrases
that reduce how manly a male comes across,
he can identify other factors.

124