Kick Een She Back Door Ban? Why?

The soca hit, Kick Een She Back Door, by Onyan and the Burning Flames has garnered much opposition from women's groups and feminists in the Caribbean since its 2012 release. Organizations such as Red Thread, Women Against Rape (WAR) and Code Red For Gender have all argued that the song's lyrics advocate violence against women and rape. There have been calls for its banning in the band's native Antigua, as well as in Guyana, Grenada and most recently, Trinidad & Tobago.

The song seems to be gaining more popularity in T&T in recent months although it was released more than a year ago. I don't have any questions about the song's violent nature - I'm not even sure sexual innuendo is an accurate description. Yet, the recent petition calling for a ban on the song in T&T has me asking, Why? Why this song in particular?

My contention with the call for the ban is this: what about all the other songs that advocate violence against women, rape, hyper-masculinity and reinforce dangerous gender stereotypes more subtlety? Don't these songs collectively have as much influence as this one overtly violent song?

KAISO! part 6: Buhwamoder, Modern Minstrel. But wha de modda?

For the sake of time and the Twitteratti, who in this day and age for the most part cannot take long, heavily cited blogs, I will try to keep this short and get straight to the point: Buhwamoder,*** the man behind the song "Bend Right Over," is a modern-day minstrel; an Arab man in black face. Yes, they do still exist, but wha de modda?  

KAISO! Part 5: What about the music?

Asking the question why Buhwamoder gets more airtime than Kurt Allen in Trinidad is the same as asking why Lil' Wayne gets more airtime than Talib Kweli in the US. To me, it seems as though something is unbalanced in both cases but my taste might just be "different" Even though I wine, jump, and chip to the same soca "riddims" if at a party (where I am not in charge of the music selection), I have a "different" relationship to the music. I wouldn't buy a Buhwamoder CD if there was one.