The Body Politics of Gendered Subjects in Indonesian Post-Reform Films

Bibliographic Data

ID14956243
AuthorsLynda Susana Widya Ayu Fatmawaty (0000-0003-0334-8435, Jenderal Soedirman University), Wening Udasmoro (0000-0002-6166-608X, Universitas Gadjah Mada), Ratna Noviani (0000-0003-4699-9297, Universitas Gadjah Mada)
Year2022
Volume14
Issue2
Publication date2022-06-07
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueRupkatha Journal on Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0975-2935 • E-ISSN: 0975-2935
PublisherAesthetics Media Services (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.21659/rupkatha.v14n2.14
OpenAlexW4285608237
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited10

The phenomenon of power, exercised through the issue of gender and sexuality, is represented in Indonesia along with different regimes. However, the gendered body becomes the target of experienced body politics. Thus, this article aims at investigating the body politics of the gendered subjects as revealed in Indonesian Post-Reform films entitled The Dancer (Sang Penari) and Memories of My Body (Kucumbu Tubuh Indahku). This study used the narrative method by applying Yuval-Davis’ theory. Through these two films, this paper argues that the intersection of gender and sexuality leads to the othering process of the gendered body through the notion of the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI). Further, the ambivalence construction of motherhood, which essentially deals with femininity, is practised toward the gendered bodies. However, the power relation positions the gendered subjects paradoxically by mystifying their body and also demystifying their existence. This shifting is operated under altered discourse in different regimes. Further, biopower is exercised not only by regulating the body but also by subjugating them through sexual slander. Indeed, it leads them to be demonized as PKI regarding the regime’s agenda in maintaining the Indonesian collective trauma of the 1965 Genocide. However, the gendered subjects define themselves as a subject through their agency by submitting to the master narrative

Ambivalence · Art · Biopower · Femininity · Human sexuality · Indonesian · Literature · Narrative · Political science · Politics · Psychoanalysis · Social science · Sociology · Asian Studies and History · Communism, Protests, Social Movements · Gender Studies · Law · Philosophy · Psychology · Southeast Asian Sociopolitical Studies

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