Exploiting the female body

Masculine trend magazine MATRA No. 144/July 1998 presents on its front cover a biased picture of a half-naked woman amid a number of headlines: (1) Victims of May 1998 rapes, (2) Assets of Soeharto Foundations worth US$40 billion, (3) Opinion of the Indonesian Armed Forces in the Reform Era and Sex in Times of Monetary Crisis and (4) Interview with Emil Slim: Discard the Democracy of Fear.

The choice of picture must have been deliberate. We are lodging a protest against the magazine's choice of picture because it demonstrates the body of a half-naked woman (a sort of a sex object) much more than providing an illustration of the problem of rape (concerned as such with human rights violations: violence based on politics, race, social class and gender on the one hand and the people's plight, particularly the women subjected to rape, on the other). This front cover is not in the least in tune with the content of the reports (which is quite good) on pages 26 and 38 of the magazine.

We are herewith lodging a strong protest with MATRA magazine. With the choice of this particular front cover, MATRA has not carried out the edifying function of the mass media (in this context this function will be opening up the information horizon of the readers toward understanding the reality of violence experienced by women in the brutal acts of rape). Instead, MATRA's choice of front cover exploits the naked body of a woman as a visual object and has therefore blurred the essence of the problem of rape.

TATI KRISNAWATY

Member of Executive Board of

Women's Solidarity Association

Jakarta