Leslie the Lesbian Doll: Traditional Mas’ & Contestations of Sexuality
By Stephanie Leitch. Photos by Candace Moses et Austin Agho
Trinidad Carnival is the greatest show on earth. And I say this not because I am Trinidadian but because I cannot tell a lie, Pierrot Granade (1) style.
The commercial promotion of the two main days of mas’ (masquerade), prior to the Catholic observance of Ash Wednesday, has taken precedence in popular discourse and consciousness around the event and served as the template for Caribbean Diasporic celebrations around the world. Carnival, however is much more than the stereotypical ‘bikini & beads’ and can boast of a rich cultural history that the elders have maintained, with the support of the government and younger generations who want to see the traditions kept alive.
What happens then when you play Carnival in a non-traditional way … Ole mas’ of course!
But this is provided you know your ole mas’ characters. Some of the more popular ones are the Midnight Robber, Jab Jab, Blue Devil and Pierrot Grenade. Less popular, but making a steady come back is the Baby Doll.
This childlike character that carries a baby is desperate to find her child’s father. She is dressed in similar fashion to the dolls you played with as a child, complete with frilly dress, socks and bonnet, made up with white face and large rosy cheeks. Her performance like many of the other traditional characters is highly interactive, as she scans the crowd accusing various men of possessing similar features to her child and demanding that they claim paternity and hand over the money due to her with signature refrain, “Where the money fah de child milk?”
Within recent years the baby doll has been used as an advocacy tool by Trinbigonian (2) cultural activist Eintou Springer and performance artist Michelle Isava, among others outside of the Carnival arena to carry specific messages already associated with the character. The Baby doll conventionally provides commentary on teen-pregnancy and responsible fathering and can easily be extended to other related issues such as breast-feeding and child rights. At the competition level, baby dolls tend to use current social and political events making their speeches relevant, witty and sometimes controversial. This however did not prevent the looks of slight shock and discomfort I received back stage after telling two of the other “dolls” that I would be looking for my child mother – not father this time around. I guess some things remain taboo despite our Carnival’s history.
Carnival was never meant to be a literal display (heterosexuality can be read as literal) but a mockery of what we are not. This is why the Dame Lorraine, originally played by men, remains our first historic memory of cross-dressing. “It was a continuation of the mockery of the slave master by the enslaved, which had begun on the estates prior to the period of apprenticeship, 1834 to 1838. This performance in two acts was a burlesque satire of the manners of the eighteenth century French plantocracy. This Dame Lorraine performance “formalized this practice into public theatre for a paying audience” (3) and lasted till dawn when the heavily costumed performers and their audience would filter onto the street to begin the masquerade on [Carnival] Monday morning. An early version of Jouvay.” [Taken from : “The Jouvay Popular Theatre Process: From the Street to the Stage (Jouvay Poetics)” by Tony Hall] (4). In this year’s competition a man played both the Dame Lorraine and Jammet (5) and not only did he out wine the other female participants but gyrated his inflated buttocks over the head of a man in the audience. This display was only acceptable within the specific context of the masquerade.
We can also see how various characters interact and mimic the social reality of a particular time. Even today baby dolls seek out white fathers for their babies, a tradition carried on from the legacy of bastard children that many of the American sailors left behind post US occupation of Trinidad in the 1940s. This relationship between sailors, women, prostitution, abandoned children and the like was well documented by many Calypsonians of the time including the famous Jean and Dinah,by the Mighty Sparrow but was most poignantly captured in Brown Skin Girlby the Mighty Terror, which was later popularized internationally by Harry Belafonte.
The nuclear family as taught and celebrated is a myth that has been perpetuated in the Caribbean, working against the reality of a very diverse set of familial networks including single parenthood as the baby doll highlights and same sex partnerships. It was important for me to show the intersection of these issues outside of the intellectual and private sphere in a way that was non-confrontational and palatable to an audience in the form of entertainment. The way that LGBT issues have been framed in public discourse allows the same actors to give voice to repetitive and antiquated rhetoric while dissenting voices are silenced. Having seen this first-hand, with the unceremonious firing of former Minister of Gender, Verna St Rose-Greaves for her advocacy around the ‘controversial’ issues of gay rights and abortion, the modus operandi of our government is clear. The character of Leslie is indeed political but also an attempt to humanize the problems that arise from discrimination and how harmful it can be to relationships where there is a commitment to love and family.
MONOLOGUE
Ah lookin’ for Nick
Ent you know who’s nick?
Noo not Nicholas… Nikki
Yaaint see she?
Why yuhlookin so surprise?
AA Iz de 21st century
And all ya still feel woman need man to make baby …
Doh mind de govahment does make it hard fah we
And LGBTs still doh have rights or a gender policy
While Kamla writing letters privately talking bout’ an end to discrimination & equality
But shhhhhhhhhdoh say I say
Cuz as soon as she reach back in Triniizfus’ she does shame we!
So we does find we own way to make baby
Anyway, anybody see Nikki
The baby look jus’ like she
But why allya laughing?
Why the baby cyah look like she?
You feel iz only DNA dat does make famlee
How much woman out dere trying to tief up man head and telling dem de baby does look like he
Look at those eyes
And tell me you cyah see Nicky
(sways baby)
I thought we woulda be happy
Me and ya mummy
She full up meh head with all kinna sweet talk
Bout how she go convert spare room to nursery
And “awww”-ing at every baby she see
So foolish me tek meh farseness
And carry chilefuh she…
Now I under real stress
I cya go to no court house and file for child support cheque
No kinna redress
But why she leave me
Me and we brand new baby?
I wonder if she step father did get to she
He did always hate me
Calling up my phone and threatening me
Saying how I bring disgrace to he family
Talking bout he go send police for me …
(laughs)
… I feel is that scyamp Lerry
He did always promise to marrid she
But she was not the one with the swell belly
So why she had to worry
I waz the one barefoot and pregnant
How could she be suffering from cold feet
I not saying I ent want meh chile
I is still she mudda
But I woulda do tings different
If I did know iz all dis effin drama
But so it does go when ya living this life child or no child
But I want the same things as any other mother
To find meh partner and de money fahmihchile milk
So tell meh, where de money fah de chile milk?
Where de money fah de chile milk?
Over the past five years, Baby doll has been my character of choice and I enjoy the opportunity each year to re-invent myself and my message. Despite even my own nerves, the performance was well received by the audience and judges and I was awarded third place for my performance.
There is room within our traditions to challenge the parallel and in many ways paradoxical tradition of silence and shame around sexuality and I intend to fully explore these possibilities in ways that develop my and others’ recalling and scope of cultural memories and methods of retention.
