S’habiller sexy en body string: The French Guianese “Bad Gyal” and the Image of French Caribbean Women Available to Purchase

This essay examines the discourse surrounding respectability politics and the French Guianese “bad gyal” Bamby’s performance of femininity in French Guiana and the wider French Caribbean. It argues that Bamby’s style of s’habiller sexy (dressing sexy) is more than just her way of dressing. In fact, it encompasses the topics of her songs, her choice to sing in French Guianese Creole and Jamaican Creole, and embodiment. In addition, the essay shows how the critiques of Bamby’s performance from the YouTube video “La Polémique BAMBY et l’image de la Femme” highlight the restrictive gender ideologies that exist for women in the French Caribbean. In examining how Bamby’s performance of femininity differs from the ideal version of French Antillean-Guianese womanhood, the author shows how she re-envisions the trope of the femme ochan (promiscuous woman)⁠ or the ghetto feminist to embrace her femininity and sexuality and challenge cultural and national codes of respectability.