Rastafari views on gender and sexuality

Attitudes to women within Rastafari have changed since the 1970s, with a growing "womanist" movement, and increasing numbers of women in leadership positions at local and international levels.{{sfn|Hepner|Hepner|2001|pp=335–337}}{{sfn|Niaah|2016|p=1}} However, women remain a minority in the movement, and are often expected to abide by patriarchal gender roles.{{sfnm|1a1=Rowe|1y=1980|1p=13|2a1=Clarke|2y=1986|2p=87|3a1=Chevannes|3y=1990|3p=142|4a1=Barrett|4y=1997|4p=241|5a1=Barnett|5y=2006|5p=879|6a1=Fernández Olmos|6a2=Paravisini-Gebert|6y=2011|6p=199|7a1=Edmonds|7y=2012|7p=95}}

Rasta discourse has traditionally presented women as morally weak, susceptible to deception by evil,{{sfn|Edmonds|2012|p=97}} and impure while menstruating,{{sfnm|1a1=Rowe|1y=1980|1p=15|2a1=Lake|2y=1994|2p=244|3a1=Sabelli|3y=2011|3p=141|4a1=Edmonds|4y=2012|4p=98}} citing the Book of Leviticus and the writings of Paul the Apostle.{{sfnm|1a1=Lake|1y=1994|1pp=241–242|2a1=Edmonds|2y=2012|2pp=95, 97}} By contrast, Rastafari often espouses the belief that black men in the African diaspora have been emasculated by Babylon and that their manhood must therefore be restored.{{sfnm|1a1=Cashmore|1y=1981|1p=178|2a1=Edmonds|2y=2012|2p=96}} As a result, Rastafari often affirms patriarchal principles,{{sfnm|1a1=Rowe|1y=1980|1p=13|2a1=Clarke|2y=1986|2p=87|3a1=Chevannes|3y=1990|3p=142|4a1=Barrett|4y=1997|4p=241|5a1=Barnett|5y=2006|5p=879|6a1=Fernández Olmos|6a2=Paravisini-Gebert|6y=2011|6p=199|7a1=Edmonds|7y=2012|7p=95}} including the idea that women should submit to male leadership.{{sfnm|1a1=Fernández Olmos|1a2=Paravisini-Gebert|1y=2011|1p=200|2a1=Edmonds|2y=2012|2p=96}} External observers—including scholars such as Cashmore and Edmonds{{sfnm|1a1=Cashmore|1y=1981|1p=178|2a1=Kebede|2a2=Knottnerus|2y=1998|2p=504|3a1=Edmonds|3y=2012|3p=95}}—have claimed that Rastafari accords women an inferior position to men.{{sfn|Clarke|1986|p=85}} Cashmore suggests Rastafari women accept this subordinate position and regard it as their duty to obey their men.{{sfn|Cashmore|1981|p=178}} The academic Maureen Rowe suggested that women were willing to join the religion despite its restrictions because they valued the life of structure and discipline it provided.{{sfn|Rowe|1980|p=16}}

File:Rasta Shop – Seaside, Oregon.jpg]]

Rasta women usually wear clothing that covers their head and hides their body contours.{{sfnm|1a1=Clarke|1y=1986|1p=88|2a1=Fernández Olmos|2a2=Paravisini-Gebert|2y=2011|2p=200|3a1=Edmonds|3y=2012|3p=98}} Trousers are usually avoided,{{sfnm|1a1=Lake|1y=1994|1p=247|2a1=Barnett|2y=2006|2p=889|3a1=Edmonds|3y=2012|3p=98}} with long skirts preferred.{{sfnm|1a1=Fernández Olmos|1a2=Paravisini-Gebert|1y=2011|1p=200|2a1=Edmonds|2y=2012|2p=98}} Women are expected to cover their head while praying,{{sfn|Rowe|1980|p=15}} and in some Rasta groups this is expected of them whenever in public.{{sfn|Barnett|2006|p=889}} According to traditional Rasta discourse, this dress code is necessary to prevent the sexual objectification of women by men in Babylon.{{sfn|Edmonds|2012|pp=98, 99}} Rasta men do not usually have such a dress code.{{sfnm|1a1=Barnett|1y=2002|1p=55|2a1=Edmonds|2y=2012|2p=98}} Some Rasta women have challenged gender norms by wearing their hair uncovered in public and donning trousers.{{sfn|Edmonds|2012|p=109}}

Although men and women both took part in early Rasta rituals, from the late 1940s and 1950s the Rasta community increasingly encouraged gender segregation for ceremonies.{{sfn|Edmonds|2012|p=95}} This was based on the belief that women's menstruation made them impure and that their presence at the ceremonies would distract male participants.{{sfn|Edmonds|2012|p=95}}

In the 1970s, growing numbers of Rasta women began calling for greater gender equity in the movement.{{sfnm|1a1=Clarke|1y=1986|1p=87|2a1=Edmonds|2y=2012|2p=107}} The scholar Terisa E. Turner, for instance, encountered Kenyan feminists who were using Rastafari content to suit their political agenda.{{sfn|Turner|1991|p=86}} Rastafari typically rejects feminism,{{sfnm|1a1=Cashmore|1y=1981|1pp=178–179|2a1=Clarke|2y=1986|2p=87}} with many Rasta women preferring the womanism that emerged among progressive Pan-Africanist Caribbean women during the mid-1970s and early 1980s.{{sfn|Niaah|2016|p=8}} Since since the late 1990s, attitudes towards women have notably shifted.{{sfn|Niaah|2016|p=1–5}}

According to religious studies scholar Jahlani A. H. Niaah, women are now "ironically over-represented relative to their numbers in positions of international leadership and the general administration of

the community".{{sfn|Niaah|2016|p=1}} {{as of|2016}}, women represented only 20% of Rastafari worldwide, but the movement's lack of central leadership has created opportunities for women to enter leadership positions both locally and globally, even though it still retains varying degrees of gender separation.{{sfn|Niaah|2016|p=3–4}}

Critics Tricia Redeker Hepner and Randal L. Hepner report that many Rastafari women embrace womanist politics and that there is "a chorus" of Rastas advocating for greater parity between men and women.{{sfn|Hepner|Hepner|2001|pp=335–337}} Scholars such as Jahzani Kush and Shamara Wyllie Alhassan suggest that the lack of research into Rasta women in academia makes them appear more marginalised than they actually are.{{sfn|Alhassan|2020a|p=8–9}}

As it existed in Jamaica, Rastafari did not promote monogamy.{{sfn|Kitzinger|1966|p=38}} Though it is not especially common, Rasta men are permitted to engage in polygamy, {{sfnm|1a1=Lake|1y=1994|1p=252|2a1=Edmonds|2y=2012|2p=99}} while women are expected to reserve their sexual activity for one male partner.{{sfn|Edmonds|2012|p=99}} Common-law marriage is the norm,{{sfnm|1a1=Kitzinger|1y=1966|1p=38|2a1=Kitzinger|2y=1969|2p=253|3a1=Clarke|3y=1986|3p=88|4a1=Semaj|4y=2013|4p=106}} although many Rastas are legally married.{{sfn|Cashmore|1983|pp=78–79}} Rasta men refer to their female partners as "queens",{{sfnm|1a1=Kitzinger|1y=1969|1p=253|2a1=Cashmore|2y=1983|2p=79|3a1=Clarke|3y=1986|3p=87|4a1=Edmonds|4y=2012|4p=109}} "empresses",{{sfn|Edmonds|2012|p=109}} or "lionesses",{{sfn|Niaah|2016|p=1}} while the males in these relationships are known as "kingmen".{{sfnm|1a1=Lake|1y=1994|1p=245|2a1=Edmonds|2y=2012|2p=99}}

Rastafari places great importance on family life and the raising of children,{{sfn|Clarke|1986|pp=87–88}} with reproduction being encouraged.{{sfn|Kitzinger|1966|p=37}} Traditionally, the religion emphasised the place of men in child-rearing, associating this with the recovery of African manhood.{{sfnm|1a1=Kebede|1a2=Knottnerus|1y=1998|1p=504|2a1=Edmonds|2y=2012|2pp=103–104}} Women would often work, sometimes while the man raised the children at home.{{sfn|Clarke|1986|p=88}} According to Niaah, Rasta women have increasingly begun to assert their power through motherhood.{{sfn|Niaah|2016|p=1}}

Rastafari regards procreation as the purpose of sex, and thus oral and anal sex are usually forbidden.{{sfn|Sabelli|2011|p=141}} Both contraception and abortion are usually censured,{{sfnm|1a1=Kitzinger|1y=1969|1p=253|2a1=Cashmore|2y=1983|2p=79|3a1=Clarke|3y=1986|3p=88|4a1=Barrett|4y=1997|4p=209|5a1=Edmonds|5y=2012|5p=99}} and a common claim in Rasta discourse is that these were inventions of Babylon to decrease the black African birth-rate.{{sfnm|1a1=Kitzinger|1y=1966|1p=37|2a1=Clarke|2y=1986|2p=88|3a1=Edmonds|3y=2012|3p=100|4a1=Sibanda|4y=2016|4p=192}}

Rastas typically express hostile attitudes to homosexuality, regarding homosexuals as evil and unnatural;{{sfnm|1a1=Kitzinger|1y=1966|1p=35|2a1=Kitzinger|2y=1969|2pp=254–255|3a1=Cashmore|3y=1983|3p=79|4a1=Barnett|4y=2006|4p=879|5a1=Sibanda|5y=2016|5pp=180, 181, 191}} this attitude derives from references to same-sex sexual activity in the Bible.{{sfn|Sibanda|2016|p=184}} Cashmore reported that Rastas typically saw the growing acceptance of birth control and homosexuality in the 1970s and 1980s as evidence of the degeneration of Babylon and proof of its approaching demise.{{sfn|Cashmore|1981|pp=178–179}} LGBTQ+ Rastas may conceal their sexual orientation because of these attitudes.{{sfn|Sibanda|2016|p=192}}

{{Reflist|25em}}

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• {{cite book |last=Perkins |first=Anna Kasafi |year=2012 |chapter=The Wages of (Sin) Is Babylon Rastafari Versus Christian Religious Perspectives of Sin |editor-last=Barnett |editor-first=Michael E. |title=Rastafari in the New Millennium: A Rastafari Reader |publisher=Syracuse University Press |location=Syracuse, New York |pages=239–252 |jstor=j.ctt1j5d9b9.19 |isbn=978-0-8156-5079-9}}
• {{cite book |last=Petray |first=Theresa |year=2020 |chapter=Rastafarianism |editor-last1=Possamai |editor-first1=Adam |editor-last2=Blasi |editor-first2=Anthony J. |title=The SAGE Encyclopedia of the Sociology of Religion |publisher=Sage Publications |location=Los Angeles |pages=659–661 |isbn=978-1473942202}}
• {{cite journal |last=Pollard |first=Velma |title=Dread Talk: The Speech of the Rastafarian in Jamaica |journal=Caribbean Quarterly |volume=26 |number=4 |year=1980 |pages=32–41 |jstor=40795020 |doi=10.1080/00086495.1980.11829315 }}
• {{cite journal |last=Pollard |first=Velma |title=The Social History of Dread Talk |journal=Caribbean Quarterly |volume=28 |issue=4 |year=1982 |pages=117–140 |jstor=40653574 |doi=10.1080/00086495.1982.11829332 }}
• {{cite journal |last=Rommen |first=Timothy |title=Protestant Vibrations? Reggae, Rastafari, and Conscious Evangelicals |journal=Popular Music |volume=25 |number=2 |year=2006 |pages=235–263 |jstor=3877561 |doi=10.1017/S026114300600081X |s2cid=163051600 }}
• {{cite journal |last=Rowe |first=Maureen |title=The Woman in Rastafari |journal=Caribbean Quarterly |volume=26 |number=4 |year=1980 |pages=13–21 |jstor=40795018 |doi=10.1080/00086495.1980.11829313 }}
• {{cite journal |last1=Rubenstein |first1=Hannah |first2=Chris |last2=Suarez |year=1994 |title=The Twelve Tribes of Israel: An Explorative Field Study |journal=Religion Today |volume=9 |issue=2 |pages=1–6 |doi=10.1080/13537909408580708 }}
• {{cite journal |last=Sabelli |first=Sonia |year=2011 |title='Dubbing di Diaspora': Gender and Reggae Music inna Babylon |journal=Social Identities |volume=17 |issue=1 |pages=137–152 |doi=10.1080/13504630.2011.531910 |s2cid=145797336 }}
• {{cite journal |last=Salter |first=Richard C. |title=Sources and Chronology in Rastafari Origins: A Case of Dreads in Rastafari |journal=Nova Religio |volume=9 |number=1 |year=2005 |pages=5–31 |jstor=10.1525/nr.2005.9.1.005 |doi=10.1525/nr.2005.9.1.005 }}
• {{cite journal |last=Savishinsky |first=Neil J. |title=The Baye Faal of Senegambia: Muslim Rastas in the Promised Land? |journal=Africa |volume=64|number=2 |year=1994|pages=211–219 |jstor=1160980 |doi=10.2307/1160980 |s2cid=145284484 }}
• {{cite journal |last=Savishinsky |first=Neil J. |title=Rastafari in the Promised Land: The Spread of a Jamaican Socioreligious Movement among the Youth of West Africa |journal=African Studies Review |volume=37 |number=3 |year=1994b |pages=19–50 |jstor=524901 |doi=10.2307/524901 |s2cid=56289259 }}
• {{cite journal |last=Semaj |first=Leahcim |title=From Peace and Love to 'Fyah Bun': Did Rastafari Lose its Way? |journal=Caribbean Quarterly

|volume=59 |issue=2 |year=2013 |pages=96–108 |doi=10.1080/00086495.2013.11672485 |s2cid=152429175 }}

• {{cite encyclopedia |last=Sibanda |first=Fortune |year=2016 |contribution=One Love, or Chanting Down Same-Sex Relations? Queering Rastafari Perspectives on Homosexuality |title=Public Religion and the Politics of Homosexuality in Africa |editor1=Adriaan van Klinken |editor2=Ezra Chitando |publisher=Routledge |location=Abingdon and New York |pages=180–196 |isbn=978-1-317-07342-0 }}
• {{cite book |last=Sibanda |first=Fortune |chapter=Rastafari Insights into Peace-building and Sustainable Development |title=The Palgrave Handbook of Religion, Peacebuilding, and Development in Africa |editor1=Kilonzo, S.M. |editor2=Chitando, E. |editor3=Tarusarira, J. |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |location=New York |year=2023 |pages=327–340 |doi=10.1007/978-3-031-36829-5_19 |chapter-url=https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-36829-5_19 |isbn=978-3-031-36829-5 }}
• {{cite journal |last=Simpson |first=George Eaton |title=The Ras Tafari Movement in Jamaica: A Study of Race and Class Conflict |journal=Social Forces |volume=34 |number=2 |year=1955 |pages=167–171 |jstor=2572834 |doi=10.2307/2572834 }}
• {{cite journal |last=Simpson |first=George Eaton |title=Religion and Justice: Some Reflections on the Rastafari Movement |journal=Phylon |volume=46 |number=4 |year=1985 |pages=286–291 |jstor=274868 |doi=10.2307/274868 }}
• {{cite encyclopedia |last=Soumahoro |first=Maboula |year=2007 |contribution=Christianity on Trial: The Nation of Islam and the Rastafari, 1930–1950 |title=The African Diaspora and the Study of Religion |editor=Theodore Louis Trost |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |location=New York |pages=35–48 |isbn=978-1-4039-7786-1 }}
• {{cite book |last=Sterling |first=Marvin D. |year=2010 |title=Babylon East: Performing Dancehall, Roots Reggae, and Rastafari in Japan |location=New York City |publisher=Duke University Press |doi=10.1515/9780822392736 |isbn=978-0-8223-9273-6 }}
• {{cite book |last=Sterling |first=Marvin D. |editor-last1=Bridges IV |editor-first1=William H. |editor-last2=Cornyetz |editor-first2=Nina |chapter=Race, Ethnicity and Affective Community in Japanese Rastafari |year=2015 |title=Traveling Texts and the Work of Afro-Japanese Cultural Production: Two Haiku and a Microphone |location=Lanham, Maryland |publisher=Lexington Books |pages=239–252 |isbn=978-1-4985-0549-9 }}
• {{cite book |last=Sullivan |first=Bobby |year=2018 |title=Revolutionary Threads: Rastafari, Social Justice, and Cooperative Economics |location=Brooklyn, New York |publisher=Akashic Books |isbn=978-1-6177-5655-9 }}
• {{cite journal |last=Turner |first=Terisa E. |title=Women, Rastafari and the New Society: Caribbean and East African Roots of a Popular Movement against Structural Adjustment |journal=Labour, Capital and Society/Travail, Capital et Société |volume=24 |number=1 |year=1991 |pages=66–89 |jstor=43157919 }}
• {{cite journal | last=Wakengut |first=Anastasia |year=2013|title=Rastafari in Germany: Jamaican Roots and Global-Local Influences|journal=Student Anthropologist|volume=3|number=4|pages=60–83 |doi=10.1002/j.sda2.20130304.0005 |doi-access=free}}
• {{cite journal |last=Warner-Lewis |first=Maureen |year=1993 |title=African Continuities in the Rastafari Belief System |journal=Caribbean Quarterly |volume=39 |number=3 |pages=108–123 |jstor=40653864 |doi=10.1080/00086495.1993.11671798 }}
• {{cite journal |last=Watson |first=G. Llewellyn |title=Social Structure and Social Movements: The Black Muslims in the U. S. A. and the Ras-Tafarians in Jamaica |journal=The British Journal of Sociology |volume=24 |number=2 |year=1973 |pages=188–204 |jstor=588377 |doi=10.2307/588377 }}
• {{cite journal |last=Watson |first=G. Llewellyn |title=Patterns of Black Protest in Jamaica: The Case of the Ras-Tafarians |journal=Journal of Black Studies |volume=4 |number=3 |year=1974 |pages=329–343 |jstor=2783660 |doi=10.1177/002193477400400307 |s2cid=220419417 }}
• {{cite book |last=Weidner |first=Veronika |year=2021 |chapter=Revelation in Abrahamic Faiths |title=The Encyclopedia of Philosophy of Religion |location=Hoboken, NJ |publisher=Wiley-Blackwell |editor1-last=Goetz |editor1-first=Stewart |editor2-first=Charles |editor2-last=Taliaferro |pages=1–6 |doi=10.1002/9781119009924.eopr0337 |isbn=9781119010951 |s2cid=237711314 }}
• {{cite journal |last=White |first=Carmen M. |title=Rastafarian Repatriates and the Negotiation of Place in Ghana |journal=Ethnology |volume=49 |number=4 |year=2010 |pages=303–320 |jstor=41756635 }}
• {{cite journal |last=Williams |first=Quentin |year=2017 |title=Bark, Smoke and Pray: Multilingual Rastafarian-Herb Sellers in a Busy Subway |journal=Social Semiotics |volume=27 |number=4 |pages=474–494 |doi=10.1080/10350330.2017.1334397 |hdl=10566/4131 |s2cid=148752365 |hdl-access=free }}
• {{cite journal |last=Wittmann |first=Frank |year=2011 |title=The Global–Local Nexus: Popular Music Studies and the Case of Rastafari Culture in West Africa |journal=Critical Arts |volume=25 |number=2 |pages=150–174 |doi=10.1080/02560046.2011.569058 |s2cid=143355680 }}

{{Refend}}

Category:Rastafari

Category:Gender and religion