Toxic Rhythms: Protest Masculinities of “Brown Indo-Canadians” versus “Surrey Jacks”

Abstract

Bhangra music has generically functioned as the site for the articulation of a particular form of Jat masculinity that may be described as hypermasculine. In its glorification of Jat machismo and reification of the female as an object of the Jat’s adoration, it has perpetuated gendered stereotypes originating in feudal Punjabi cultures of honour. Several Punjabi folksongs or those attributed to legendary Punjabi folk singers map strength, courage, and virility on the Jat body in which the objectification of the female body is traditionally sanctioned as a desirable Jat attribute. In hybrid Bhangra genres, Punjabi hypermasculinity is remodelled in relation to the hypermasculinist aesthetic of black genres like rap to produce an explosive toxic masculinity. This article focuses on the hypermasculine ethic underpinning popular bhangra music, particularly the songs of two popular singers, Jazzy B and Yo Yo Honey Singh, to examine the Canadian Punjabi youth masculinities that converge on Punjabi music to reproduce traditional Punjabi patriarchies. It shows that while the appropriation of these bhangra genres enables brown Indo-Canadians and “Surrey Jacks” to constitute alternative protest masculinities in opposition to hegemonic white masculinities, they engender different forms of misogyny and violence.