Men, masculinities and symbolic violence in recent indonesian cinema

Journal of Southeast Asian Studies

Volumn 35, Issue 1, 2004, Pages 113-131

  Clark, Marshall ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF TASMANIA   (Australia)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

CULTURAL CHANGE; CULTURAL INFLUENCE; GENDER DISPARITY; MALE; PATRIARCHY; SOCIAL CHANGE; THEORETICAL STUDY; VIOLENCE;

ASIA; EURASIA; INDONESIA; SOUTHEAST ASIA;

EID: 33748326257     PISSN: 00224634     EISSN: 14740680     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0022463404000062     Document Type: Article

References (67)

1. Krishna Sen, 'Repression and resistance: Interpretations of the feminine in New Order cinema', in Culture and society in New Order Indonesia, ed. Virginia Hooker (Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 1995), pp. 116-33.
2. Steve Neale, 'Masculinity as spectacle: Reflections on men and mainstream cinema', Screen, 24, 6 (1983): 2-16.
3. Robert Connell, Gender and power: Society, the person and sexual politics (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1987).
4. Michael Bodden, 'Satuan-satuan kecil and uncomfortable improvisations in the late night of the New Order: Democratization, postmodernism and postcoloniality', in Clearing a space: Postcolonial readings of modern Indonesian literature, ed. Keith Foulcher and Tony Day (Leiden: KITLV Press, 2002), pp. 293-324.
5. Karl G. Heider, Indonesian cinema: National culture on screen (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1991.
6. Krishna Sen, Indonesian cinema: Framing the New Order (London: Zed Books Ltd, 1994).
7. Heider, Indonesian cinema, p. 121.
8. Sen, Indonesian cinema, p. 135.
9. Sen, 'Repression and resistance'.
10. See, for example, Tineke Helhvig, In the shadow of change: Of women in Indonesian literature (Berkeley: University of California Centers for South and Southeast Asian Studies, 1994);
11. Fantasizing the feminine in Indonesia, ed. Laurie J. Sears (Durham/London: Duke University Press, 1996);
12. and Women in Indonesia: Gender, equity and development, ed. Kathryn Robinson and Sharon Bessell (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2002).
13. Pierre Bourdieu, Masculine domination, tr. Richard Nice (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001), p. 114.
14. Dede Oetomo, 'Masculinity in Indonesia: Genders, sexualities, and identities in a changing society', in Framing the sexual subject: The politics of gender, sexuality, and power, ed. Richard Parker et al. (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2000), p. 46.
15. Bourdieu, Masculine domination, pp. 1-2 (gentle violence) and 35 (misrecognised).
16. Banci or waria have been defined by Boellstorff as persons who regard themselves as belonging to a 'male-to-female, transvestite subject-position'; Tom Boellstorff, 'Gay and lesbi subjectivities, national belonging and the new Indonesia', in Robinson and Bessell ed, Women in Indonesia, pp. 92-9.
17. Bourdieu, Masculine domination, p. 1.
18. For a discussion of the broader context for the film, see Krishna Sen and David Hill, Media, culture and politics in Indonesia (Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 2000).
19. Despite passing references to its underground production and the lack of state authorisation, it is not entirely clear on what grounds the Indonesian press and discussion groups labelled Kuldesak as 'independent'. Nevertheless, the fact that it broke all the rules for film production under the New Order ensured that, in the words of Katinka van Heeren, 'there was something special about the film'; see Katinka van Heeren, 'The case of Beth: Monopolies and alternative networks for the screening of films in Indonesia in transition', paper presented at HAS Workshop on Globalizing Media and Local Society in Indonesia, Leiden, 2002.
20. Pierre Bourdieu, Distinctions: A social critique of the judgement of taste, tr. Richard Nice (London: Routledge, 2002), p. 7.
21. Paul Nathanson and Katherine K. Young, Spreading misandry: The teaching of contempt for men in popular culture (Montreal: McGill-Queens University Press, 2001).
22. Oetomo, 'Masculinity in Indonesia', pp. 46 ('unmarked') and 57 (quotation).
23. Soedarti Surbakti, 'Gender mainstreaming and sex-disaggregated data', in Robinson and Bessell ed, Women in Indonesia, pp. 209-18.
24. Nathanson and Young, Spreading misandry.
25. Bob Pease and Keith Pringle, 'Introduction: Studying men's practices and gender relations in a global context', in A man's world? Changing men's practices in a globalised world, ed. Bob Pease and Keith Pringle (London: Zed Books, 2001), p. 2.
26. Harry Aveling, Secrets need words: Indonesian poetry, 1966-1998 (Athens: Ohio University Center for International Studies, 2001), p. 162.
27. Benedito Medrado et al., 'Masculinities in Brazil: The case of Brazilian television advertisements', in Pease and Pringle ed, A man's world?, pp. 163-76.
28. See, for example, URL: http://www.indodating.com/sbasbi_pornografi1.html.
29. Seno Gumira Ajidarma, Wisanggeni sang buronan (Yogyakarta: Yayasan Bentang Budaya, 2000).
30. Ayu Utami, Saman (Jakarta: Kepustakaan Populer Gramedia, 1998).
31. Y. B. Mangunwijaya, 'Menyambut roman Saman, Kompas, 5 April 1998;
32. see also, for instance, the comments by male critics in Barbara Hatley, 'New directions in Indonesian women's writing? The novel Saman, Asian Studies Review, 23, 4 (1999): 449-60.
33. Pramoedya Ananta Toer, Ken Arok (Jakarta: Hasta Mitra, 1999).
34. See, among others, Pramoedya Ananta Toer, Bumi manusia (Jakarta: Hasta Mitra, 1980);
35. Seno Gumira Ajidarma, Jazz, parfum dan insiden (Yogyakarta: Yayasan Bentang Budaya, 1996);
36. and Iwan Simatupang, Ziarah (Jakarta: Djembatan, 1969).
37. These films were eventually completed and released in Indonesia in 1998 and 1999, after the resignation of President Suharto in May 1998.
38. 'Kuldesak. Keterserpihan anak muda', Kompas, 5 Dec. 1998;
39. on the earlier problems see 'Current trends in the Indonesian cinema', URL: http://www.piff.org/eng/news_details.asp?idx=223&goto
40. Sen and Hill, Media, culture and politics, p. 137;
41. the industry's problems are mentioned in van Heeren, 'The case of Beth', p. 4.
42. The movie-goer's observation is from Amelia Fyfield (personal communication, Oct. 2002). The quotation and 140,000 figure are found in Amir Muhammad, 'Smorgasboard: Lesson from Indonesia', URL: http://www.kakiseni.com/ articles/columns/MDEyMQ.html.
43. 'Kuldesak. Keterserpihan anak muda';
44. the original phrase is 'Tokoh-tokoh inilah yang membuat yang serins menjadi tidak serius, yang riil menjadi maya'.
45. Katinka van Heeren, 'Revolution of hope: Independent films are young, free and radical', Inside Indonesia, 70 (2002), URL: http:/insideindonesia.org/ edit70/Katinka1.htm.
46. Jami Bernard, Quentin Tarantino: The man and his movies (London: HarperCollins, 1995), pp. 44-67.
47. Douglas Rushkoff, The Gen X reader (New York: Ballantine Books, 1994);
48. Robert Rodriguez, Rebel without a crew (New York: Plume, 1996).
49. Fredric Jameson, 'Postmodernism and consumer society', in Postmodern culture, ed. Hal Foster (London/Sydney: Pluto Press, 1985), pp. 111-25.
50. See, for example, 'Kuldesak. Keterserpihan anak muda".
51. Daun di atas bantal depicts the bleak lives of male street-kids in Yogyakarta, who are both victims and perpetrators of violence. Their fear and mistrust of each other, and their yearning for a mother's love; highlight their lack of confidence in the male domain, not to mention their failure to develop an adult sense of masculinity. Telegram depicts a rough-and-ready journalist who is haunted by his wife's death yet in the midst of his sorrow is reinvigorated by the innocent presence of his adopted daughter. This does not, however, transform him from a 'bad man' to a 'good man'; despite his sense of responsibility, he is promiscuous, moody and prone to acts of irrationality. Beth, a love story set in a mental institution, is overrun by evil, insane or psychotic male characters; the women, on the other hand, appear to be merely innocent victims. This is a somewhat polarised description, however, and there are notable exceptions.
52. Comments made during audience questions after the screening of his film Eliana, Eliana, Melbourne, Oct. 2002.
53. Laine Berman (personal communication, Aug. 2002) observes that Andre's suicide foreshadowed the suicide of the actor who played him, Ryan Hidayat, also known as Dayat. According to Berman, 'Dayat was also a heavy intravenous drug user who, just like Kurt Cobain and just like his character in the film, really did blow his own brains out, although the rave reviews the film has gotten never mention these uncomfortable, real-life facts.'
54. Frank Lay, '"Sometimes we wonder who the real men are" - Masculinity and contemporary popular music', in Subverting masculinity: Hegemonic and alternative versions of masculinity in contemporary culture, ed. Russell West and Frank Lay (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2000), pp. 227-46.
55. See also Greg Wahl, Narrating punk Masculinity, genealogy, patriarchy, URL: http:/otal.nmd.edu/~jpaolett/grad/punk.html.
56. Bourdieu, Masculine domination, p. 116.
57. Michel Foucault, Madness and civilization: A history of insanity in the Age of Reason (New York: Vintage Books, 1988), tr. Richard Howard, p. 75.
58. Bourdieu, Masculine domination, pp. 50-1; emphasis in the original.
59. Stefan Brandt, 'American culture X: Identity, homosexuality, and the search for a new American hero", in West and Lay ed, Subverting masculinity, pp. 67-93.
60. Bourdieu, Masculine domination, p. 114.
61. John Fried with Pat Dowell, 'Pulp friction: Two shots at Quentin Tarantino's Pulp fiction, Cineaste, 21, 3 (1995): 4-5.
62. Dede Oetomo, 'Gay men in the reformasi era', Inside Indonesia, 66 (2001): 11-12.
63. Bourdieu, Masculine domination, p. 119.
64. On 'symbolic annihilation' see Robert Hanke, 'Redesigning men: Hegemonic masculinity in transition', in Men, masculinity and the media, ed. Steve Craig (London: Sage Publications, 1992), pp. 185-98.
65. Bourdieu, Masculine domination, p. 119.
66. Justin Wyatt, 'Identity, queerness, and homosocial bonding: The case of Swingers', in Masculinity: Bodies, movies, culture, ed. Peter Lehman (New York: Routledge, 2001), pp. 51-65.
67. Bourdieu, Masculine domination, p. 121.