What Love has to do with it? Sexuality, Intimacy and Power in Contemporary Caribbean Gender Relations - Violet Eudine Barriteau (original) (raw)

Working Paper No. 17 is based on a lecture delivered on 10th November 2010 by Professor Violet Eudine Barriteau Deputy Principal, The University of The West Indies, Cave Hill Campus. Professor Barriteau delivered the 16th lecture in the series Caribbean Women Catalysts for Change on November 12, 2010, which is dedicated to honouring the memory of Dame Nita Barrow, Governor General of Barbados 1990-1995, and the first subject of the research project, Caribbean Women Catalysts for Change. The paper presents and expands Jónasdóttir’s concept of ‘love power’ and demonstrate its relevance to seeking explanations to contradictions in contemporary gender relations. Professor Barriteau is interested in the manifestations of areas of powerlessness in women’s lives, and attempts to apply this conceptual framework to various experiences and conditions faced by women in Caribbean societies. Professor Barriteau begins her analysis at the point where politicized sexuality and political economy converge, where state policies, bureaucratic practices, societal norms and views interact with privatised and politicized sexual relations in women’s lives.