Exploiting the female body

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