A Jamaican youth grappling with his identity risks friendship, family and security while coming of age in a country where being gay is not only criminalized but can be a death sentence.
In Jamaican Patois, batty bwoy (also batty boy, batty man, and chi chi man) is a derogatory slur often used to refer to a gay or effeminate man. The term derives from the Jamaican slang word batty, which relates to buttocks. It is a slur and is considered offensive.
The title BATTY BWOY! is a reappropriation of the negative slur batty boy. The reappropriation of a negative slur means a targeted group takes an offensive word used to hurt them and adopts it for themselves to strip away its hateful power.
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