Deconstructing Gender in Carnival

Book excerpt: This book explores the complexity of the dialectic relationship between ritual-like activities and social structure; focusing on women's increasing presence in Trinidad Carnival and the ways in which their participation becomes part of the conflict over the efforts to change the basic distribution of power within society. Femininity comes forward in Caribbean carnival as the sexualized body that unmasks power relations which are simultaneously affirmed and denied. Giving attention to the ideological process through which gender relations are constructed, this event is analysed in relation to economic, political, and social factors, as well as a consequence of the changes caused by the cultural clash of colonial and postcolonial society.