CARNIVAL CONTROVERSY: Has too little gone too far?

By Staff Writer

The grumblings and mumblings of disapproval over extremely skimpy carnival outfits and suggestive dancing seem to have increased in intensity this carnival season across the region.

But it was beyond the Caribbean that the mumblings manifested into a loud rumble in one of the popular diaspora carnivals. City officials of Rotterdam in the Netherlands issued a firm and enforceable warning against vulgar conduct and borderline nudity in their annual Caribbean carnival.

That did not stop the carnival. It went ahead, well-attended as usual, just as loud and flamboyant - but just with less flesh on display and not as much ‘dirty dancing’ as before in public.

The Rotterdam Summer (Zomer in Dutch) Carnival at the end of July is the second largest in Europe after London’s Notting Hill Carnival.

“This is a family event for everyone, including little children. And we want it to stay that way,” Eva van der Vegt, director of Rotterdam Unlimited Zomercarnaval told Dutch media company NOS (as reported by NL Times).

However, she too had to navigate the blurred lines between those who use culture as a defence, and when is too much - or too little - really going too far.

“You see two people dancing and it goes on forever and you think “what’s going on there?” It’s not as if shaking your bum will land you in jail. We are just appealing to people’s sense of decency,” she said.

And whether subjective or community collective, it’s that interpretation of what’s acceptable or unacceptable which has become a discussion point as the Caribbean carnival season quite literally ‘winds down’ - until its reboots with year-end carnivals in some islands.

Many forums and social media posts across the region have been debating the issue of ‘carnival conduct’, especially costumes that leave little to the imagination - often with the musical soundtrack and lyrics to match. Double entendre now seems a lost art or no longer considered necessary when almost everything is plain to see.

The choice of what to wear - or what not to wear - whether as a personal choice or part of troupe choreography, is being met with more than mere raised eyebrows or lowered eyelids.

The issue is awash with contradictions; from laws prohibiting skimpy clothing in city streets while at the same time turning a blind eye to near-nudity on the same streets during carnival. There are the claims that it is culture on display, to strongly held views that ‘baring the flesh with barely anything left’ is an expression of self-confidence.

Is too little costume too much? And is ‘dancing’ - especially ‘twerking’ which leaves little to the imagination - particularly in the presence (and in some instances, the involvement of children) going too far? What’s next one might ask; barely fitting mankini outfits for men?

From Cayman’s Batabano to every carnival across the Caribbean and in the global diaspora, the questions are being asked: Has creativity lost ground to nudity and vulgarity? Is this a display of culture or a corruption of morals in the bacchanalian abandonment of carnival? Has the playfulness gone out of ‘playing mas’?