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- Convenors:
-
Linda Bennett
(University of Melbourne)
Sharyn Davies (Monash University)
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- Stream:
- Social hierarchies
- Location:
- Old Arts-254
- Start time:
- 2 December, 2015 at
Time zone: Australia/Melbourne
- Session slots:
- 2
Short Abstract:
Moral discourses in Indonesia are both gendered and sexualised, and deeply implicated in maintaining social hierarchies. This panel will explore the meanings and impact of dominant and contested moralities in relation to health, marriage and the family, gender based violence and GLBTI communities.
Long Abstract:
The New Order regime's 1998 downfall was interpreted by many Indonesians as stemming from widespread moral crisis. In the subsequent Reformasi era, public considerations of morality became central to contestations of power. Such considerations of morality are gendered and sexualised, and deeply implicated in maintaining sex and gender hierarchies. Recent high profile moral debates have centred on: the definition of appropriate gender roles (e.g. can a woman be head of state?); the disciplining of Indonesian sexualities (e.g. the anti-pornography bill); and the stigmatization and denial of sexual health imperatives (e.g. pro- and anti-condom debates).
Surveillance of Indonesians' gender and sexual morality continues to escalate via both customary mechanisms and emergent technologies. Globalization and the popularity of social media among Indonesians have expanded the forums for performing acceptable public moralities and for the critique and condemnation of 'moral deviance'. The pivotal role of moral discourses in shaping power relations and legitimating or negating the identities and practices of Indonesians has yet to be adequately explored. Moreover, the gulf between public performances of gender and sexual moralities, and the actual private practices of individuals remain largely unexamined. This panel thus invites papers that investigate the meanings and impact of dominant and contested Indonesian gender and sexual moralities in relation to health, marriage and the family, gender based violence and GLBTI communities.
Accepted papers:
Session 1Linda Bennett (University of Melbourne)
Paper short abstract:
This paper critiques how Indonesian women’s experiences of, and access to, reproductive health care are overly determined by moral judgments. It asserts that medical education and health services must critically engage with sexual morality in order to address the reproductive rights of patients.
Paper long abstract:
This paper critiques the dilemmas that emerge when dominant sexual moralities are given precedence over women's sexual and reproductive health and rights. It considers sexual morality to be socially constructed, culturally embedded and changeable. It examines how women's experiences of, and access to, reproductive health services are overly determined by the moral judgments of service providers and society more broadly. The paper draws on 20 years of research into reproductive and sexual health among Indonesian women.
To elucidate the "over-moralisation" of reproductive health care in the Indonesian context I present three case studies. Initially, I examine the rejection of married women's right to access contraceptives when their partners are migrant workers. Secondly, I consider the denial of single women's right to safe abortion and post-abortion care. Finally, I investigate the failure to test married couples for STIs (a key cause of infertility) in the context of infertility care. What is common to each scenario is a dominant moral narrative in which: women' sexual activity should be confined to marriage; women's reproductive and sexual autonomy are subjugated to their husbands' authority; and marital infidelity is repudiated.
I assert the need for open critique of how sexual morality is embedded within both medical education discourses and the provision of reproductive and sexual health care in Indonesia. Without critical engagement from within these spheres the core values driving reproductive and sexual health care are unlikely to be reinterpreted in a manner that best serves the priorities, needs and rights of patients.
Belinda Spagnoletti (University of Melbourne)
Paper short abstract:
This paper analyses contemporary health promotion discourses in Indonesia which construct breastfeeding as the “right” of all babies and as a moral imperative for “good” mothers. It explores the gaps between these moralizing discourses and the complex realities of motherhood in urban Yogyakarta.
Paper long abstract:
Exclusive breastfeeding is now embedded in Indonesian national law (Health Law 36/2009) and regulation (PP 33/2012), which assert that each child has the "right" to be exclusively breastfed for the first six months of their lives. Over the past 5 years the promotion of exclusive breastfeeding has burgeoned within government, private and non-government organizations. These health promotion discourses emphasize that to be a "good" mother women are morally obliged to exclusively breastfeed for at least six months.
Mothers are told that, with a combination of spousal support, dedication and self-confidence, they can "have it all" - returning to work after maternity leave while expressing breast milk at their workplace. Thus the "multitasking breastfeeding mamma" can be a reality. Fathers are encouraged to support exclusive breastfeeding, not only for the benefits to child health, but also to assist their wives in gaining their pre-pregnancy figures sooner. New mothers are advised that breastfeeding can make them better mothers and more attractive wives, perpetuating long-held notions of female self-sacrifice as constituting ideal femininity. Health promotion discourses often treat the needs and interests of mothers and their children as distinct from one another. What is good for baby may not always be possible or good for a mother. Thus a maternal-child conflict is understood as implicit in a mother's "failure" to breastfeed. This paper explores how these highly moralized messages are internalized and embodied by mothers, highlighting the gaps between health promotion discourses and the complex realities of motherhood in urban Yogyakarta.
Hanny Savitri Hartono (Massey University)
Paper short abstract:
Facebook has been contested in Indonesia amidst the Muslim community, mostly on grounds of its moral effects. This paper explores the moral meanings of Facebook for Muslim mothers in light of their understanding of their identity, piety and roles as Muslim women and mothers.
Paper long abstract:
Since the fall of the New Order regime in 1998, the media landscape of Indonesia has been radically transformed. The country is now a highly media saturated space in which people are exposed to numerous media from television programming to social media such as Facebook. In a space in which media are just a click or tap away, Muslim women, consciously or not, seek to negotiate the media they are exposed to in the context of their everyday lives within the frame of their Islamic understanding. As media become increasingly contested, their identity and piety are negotiated within their roles as Muslim women and mothers.
In this paper I explore the meanings of Facebook for Muslim mothers in which morality is the core. This presentation is based on my current ethnographic research on Muslim mothers, Indonesian media and piety in which I combine fieldwork in Semarang, Central Java and online discussions on a Facebook closed group. One of the topics I discuss is the way Muslim women are actively shaping piety through Facebook. Even though Islamic clerics discouraged Muslims to use Facebook for its temptations to lure users into inciting gossip and participating in talks, which could jeopardise their marriage, my Muslim participants utilise Facebook to improve their roles as Muslim women and mothers, instead. Hence, Facebook becomes a site where Muslim mothers define, negotiate and (re)define their kodrat and fitrah as Muslim women and mothers.
Maria Platt (National University of Singapore)
Paper short abstract:
Indonesian women’s overseas labour migration creates persistent moral dilemmas both in terms of their safety and sexuality in destination countries. This paper explores the nexus between state-based protectionism and women’s own views of the gendered moralities that frame their overseas employment.
Paper long abstract:
Women constitute the majority of Indonesia's key overseas labour migrants, with most employed as foreign domestic workers (FDWs) throughout Asia and the Middle East. A range of gendered moral discourses underpin women's roles as FDWs. These moralities are fuelled by images of abuse and exploitation towards FDWs that regularly appear in Indonesian media, as well as anxieties regarding women's perceived unbridled sexuality as they work abroad. Therefore Indonesian women's overseas labour migration creates persistent moral dilemmas both in terms of women's safety and sexuality in destination countries.
In the wake of these dilemmas, the Indonesian government has renewed calls for a roadmap to stop females from undertaking domestic work abroad beginning in 2017. This paper explores the gender-specific moralities embedded in this proposed regulation which applies exclusively to female, low-skilled labour migrants. I argue that while the roadmap ostensibly works to protect FDWs, it also functions to curb women's mobility and sexual autonomy. This gendered morality, which I label 'paternal protectionism' exemplifies state-based projects designed to convey concern for migrant women's welfare and rights (Pande 2014).
Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork with FDWs currently working in Singapore, I explore the nexus between state-based paternal protectionism and women's own views of the gendered moralities that frame their overseas employment. In turn, I also examine women's perspectives on the moral obligations of the Indonesian state as FDWs' consider the implications of the roadmap upon their plans for their futures.
Saskia Wieringa (AISSR-UvA)
Paper short abstract:
This paper discusses changing moralities and lesbian subjectivities focusing on Indonesian lesbian activism between 1983 and 2015. Competing moral discourse will be explored.
Paper long abstract:
Based on 30 years of research I will analyse the changing moralities and subjectivities of 'lesbian' women in Indonesia. If in the early 1980s the lesbian scene was almost totally underground, in 2015 the activist scene is characterized by a few well-established ngos, in the major cities of Indonesia. This opening up coincided with the socalled Reformasi period, after the fall of the dictator, President Suharto. In the early 1980s the moral military-dominated discourse linked non-normative sexualities to suspect political alliances. The first lesbian organization established, Perlesin, quickly folded due to fear for political repression. Presently the struggle for sexual rights is dominant. A proliferation of identities and subjectivites occurred, the relative benefits of which are hotly debated. Contrasting moral discourses are at work. On the one hand Muslim fundamentalist groups abject lesbian behaviours, declaring it 'haram'. On the other hand the widespread use of social media expose selfidentified lesbian women to global lesbian (sub)cultures. In the paper I will deal with the pressure from fundamentalist groups, the role of the internet and social media, leadership patterns and strategies of alliance. In these competing moral arenas women who are attracted to other women navigate their life courses. While their visibility is growing, stigma and discrimination persist
Sharyn Davies (Monash University)
Paper short abstract:
In 2014 Human Rights Watch objected to the invasive and humiliating two-finger virginity test Indonesian women police recruits undergo. Drawing on ethnographic research, this paper explores ways in which both discourses of morality and surveillance techniques shape sexuality in Indonesia.
Paper long abstract:
Discourses of morality combine with surveillance techniques to shape sexuality. While these processes are often obscure and subtle, we tangibly see them at work on the bodies of young Indonesian policewomen. Women wishing to become police officers must be never-married virgins between the ages of 17.5 and 22. Male recruits are not expected to be virgins. International outrage was expressed late in 2014 when Human Rights Watch objected to the invasive and humiliating two-finger virginity test that women recruits undergo. Defiant in the face of international furore, police officials argued for the importance of the test on morality grounds. One official justified virginity testing as a way of ensuring prostitutes did not join the force. Policewomen recruited on the basis of sexual purity are then deployed to work with victims of sexual crimes; such a dynamic creates a problematic moral and experiential gap between those women who are victims of crime and those who are expected to support them.
Women recruited through a frame of purity go on to enforce and maintain sexual hierarchies within the police force. Techniques of power, including promotion and social acceptance, encourage policewomen to continue moral surveillance both of themselves and others. In an ironic twist, policewomen are thus the moral surveillers of society at the same time as they being surveilled. Through a specific ethnographic focus on gender and sexual morality in the police force, this paper speaks to broader issues of gendered moralities and sexual surveillance in the Indonesian context.
Sara Niner (Monash University)
Paper short abstract:
This paper explores politics of gender relations in post-conflict Timor-Leste from formal politics to everyday practices of gender-making. Describing notions of patriarchy and masculinity will deepen understandings of gendered social identities providing tools with which to change negative effects.
Paper long abstract:
The new nation of Timor-Leste has suffered a long history of conflict. Since gaining independence politics has been dominated by a militarised male elite made up of veterans of the independence struggle (Niner 2011). This national political arena can be extremely aggressive and political clashes have led the country into destructive civil conflict. This mode of politics disadvantages women and their voice nationally remains contested, although they are represented in impressive numbers in national parliament. A significant level of gender-based violence is another problem society grapples with. How this persistent militarisation and an associated "retraditionalization" or reassertion of pre-war patriarchy is entrenching the social and economic and social exploitation of women will be discussed.
This paper will argue that this new perspective on contemporary society in Timor-Leste, including a description of the culture of masculinity and patriarchy, will lead to a more accurate assessment and understanding of gender hierarchies. Describing and defining notions of masculinity in this way, including both positive and negative aspects, will deepen understandings of the performance of gendered social identities by men, facilitating change to negative aspects, such as violence against women. This description will also take account of new counter-hegemonic expressions of masculinity and men's activism targeted at addressing gendered violence.