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COMMENTARY:
Society is constructed in such a way that it leaves a stigma attached to those who tends to say, do or act in an abnormal way. Homosexuality in the Caribbean is continuously increasing however, whilst it may be accepted in some Caribbean countries like Trinidad in others, like Jamaica, it is not. Even though, homosexuals are human beings and deserve to be treated with the same level of respect and requires the same rights as any man or woman, they are somehow frowned upon and are punished for their act of “deviance”. Jamaica is known throughout the Caribbean for their bad reputation on anti-gay prejudice (West, 2014.) The Jamaican, dancehall star singer/songwriter, Buju Banton, in his popular song, “Boom Bye Bye” lyrics stated, "It's like boom bye bye, Inna batty boy head, Rude boy nah promote no nasty man, Dem haffi dead." which essentially describes shooting a gay man in the head since he doesn't want to "promote no nasty man". Ultimately, the stigma is attached from this song and is eventually practiced by the rest of society. Furthermore, the Caribbean is still considered deep rooted in its religious virtues and this therefore contributes towards the unacceptance of homosexuality in the region. Whilst scientists may have proven a biological explanation for this, it is pronounced as unrighteous by God and so discriminated against by many individuals presently even as time progresses and modernizes.

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COMMENTARY:
Education, regardless of sex and age, is always a positive since it is viewed as the most efficient way to obtain betterment in reality. The historical stigma attached to education, as stated in the extracted piece, has drastically changed for obvious reasons, for example, the fact that in some Caribbean islands like Trinidad education is free or is financed by the government. Whilst to an extent there may be some prevailing beliefs that still exists in society today that education pro-longs the “masculinity” of men, there are many men still seeking an education as far as the tertiary level. The role of a man is rightfully to provide for his family by being the “breadwinner” of the household whether he fulfils this duty through gaining his degree and seeking a high paying job or through handy work. This issue arises of the over-powering sex since the roles of females has lead way to majority of women fulfilling their education whereas many males tend to drop out in the process. The education system attempts to alleviate this problem by adding to the school curriculum fields such as woodwork that are “manly” to assist male involvement in school. However, there are still many instances and many areas that lack males in the education system.

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COMMENTARY:
Family life, religion and education are all interrelated points pertaining to gender roles. In the previous commentary, the religious aspect of gender roles indicated that wives are to be submissive to their husbands, again, it is reiterated in this blog. Initially, women were educated to become the care – takers of the household; cooking, cleaning etc. and are referred to as ‘housewives’  whereas the men are the breadwinners of the household and brought in the income to take care of his family. Historically, the Indo-Trinidadian family structure revealed a dominating extended family type which indicated that higher incomes needed to be obtained in order to take care of the family since this family structure consisted of either grandparents or even aunts and uncles. Therefore, besides educational opportunities, this could have to the resulted in the change of women’s roles in seeking job opportunities in the workforce in order to assist economically in providing for the family. The nuclear family structure appeared to be the idealist family type encouraged in the Caribbean, however, whilst little of it existed within the Afro-Trinidadian family, the prevailing structure was matrifocal in nature, forcing the women of the household to become less dependent on men and proving for themselves and their family. Therefore, we can conclude that some circumstances required a change in gender roles in order to survive or to gain a better quality of life.

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Gender Roles in the Caribbean
Gender evovles and results in tradtional sterotypical change.

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The issue According to the World Health Organization, gender refers to the socially constructed characteristics of women and men such as norms, roles and relationships of and between groups of women and men as it varies from each society and can therefore be changed. Gender is a central organizing principle of societies and often governs the processes of production and reproduction, consumption and distribution (FAO, 1997). As a result, gender roles is a social definition of a man and woman and gender-specific roles and responsibilities are often conditioned by household structure, access to resources, specific impacts of the global economy, and other locally relevant factors such as ecological conditions (FAO, 1997). Thus, gender roles can be subjected to change with the progress of time and it seen vividly in society today.  Therefore, this portfolio seeks to express the Caribbean viewpoints of gender from a religious background, the roles that gender plays within the household by exploring family life, the historical standpoint of gender in relation to the education system and the present standpoints as time progressed and lastly, the modern changes of gender such as homosexuality from a Caribbean perspective

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Thesis Statement: How have gender roles changed thus far in the Caribbean ? 

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Thesis Statement: How have gender roles changed thus far in the Caribbean ? 

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OBJECTIVES:
1) Gender roles and Religion; Christianity
2) Gender roles and family life; Indo and Afro Trinidadian
3) Gender roles and Education; males vs female opportunities, the over-powering sex.
4) Gender roles and Sexuality;  Homosexualtiy

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COMMENTARY:

Whilst the bible may be a true source of understanding for the roles of males and females within the household and in general, it tends to portray women as weak and dependent on men. To an extent, this is true, however it is not entirely. Credit must be given to the fact that the speaker mentions the roles of a man and that of a woman are changing as society changes. However, it is merely due to the fact that women are forced on occasions to provide for themselves and as a result have grown to do a lot more than that of which was traditionally expected of them. For example, maintaining a public job/positon and taking care of the household. The speaker acknowledges that women must be submissive to their husbands as husbands are entitled to love and care for their wives. Yet, this factor is a growing challenge since many feminists disagree with the idea of submission. Noted however, that a female is interviewed and her standpoint is to the agreement of what the bible states. In conclusion, this occurs due to the fact that the speaker is of a religious background hence she understands the importance of the message being conveyed by God whereas some women, of a more realistic viewpoint will differ to that of the scripture.
Objective 1
Source: "Gender Roles and Religion." Personal interview. 10 Apr. 2017.