CARIMAC Times 2016: The JREAM Edition Journalists Reviving Awareness of what Matters | Page 24

says the messages children consume in the
media are problematic.
“The media plays a crucial role in providing
entertainment that is marred with violence,”
Dr. Henderson said in relation to the various
cartoons and animated shows that parents
allow children to watch for extended hours.
She explained that, as children mature, they
seek out content that has a greater degree of
violence.
“As children get older, and their taste for
entertainment becomes more sophisticated,
different forms of programming that have other
more graphic instances of violence become
problematic.”
According to Dr. Henderson, media present
ideologies that do not correspond with the
Jamaican context and cultural psyche. Ideas on
gender relations as well as sexual orientation are
embedded in content that originates largely in
the United States. She said the impact of these
messages can be either positive or negative.
Those who are of differing views on whether
the heterosexual orientation is really the ideal
for society, or being homosexual is a right, find
themselves at loggerheads.
“In a way, what media has done is opened up
the discussion, but it hasn’t really resolved it.
We do not yet have consensus as a society on
how do we treat with the issues … Looking at
the matter of gender and sexuality, and using
programming and content of different kinds
to tease out those issues is becoming, I think,
a big cultural war…”

Based on her research, Dr. Henderson said
societies have to think about media as people
in the sector and interrogate the content
produced to ascertain what is being promoted
and facilitated as well.
“When we are talking about issues of perception,
attitudes and stereotypes that we have adopted,
the perspectives that we have, the ideas that
we have about what is ideal and who is straight
[heterosexual] and who is not straight, we’re
not looking at one thing.”
She said it is important to acknowledge that
Caribbean societies are largely homophobic.
“You also have the issue of, for example, Jamaica
being a violent society generally. We are very
aggressive at times; very ‘in your face’ … and
we can be vicious.”
Voice of a perpetrator
Davian Prince*, 22, confessed to CARIMAC
Times that he was once guilty of bullying
his schoolmates while attending an all-boys
traditional high school.
The bully, Prince, and the bullied, Lee, attended
the same high school, but at different times.
They would not have met each other but are
joined by a common thread.
I asked Prince what his motivations were for
meting out gender-based violence against others
he shared space with at school. He said his
decision to bully other students was influenced
by his peers and the behaviours of his targets.
“Back in high school, I was part of a gang, and
we would take advantage of anybody with a

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