Government ban on beauty pageants debated

JAKARTA (JP): Does the state have any say in a woman's beauty? Does it have any say in how a woman should treat her body and her beauty? Does a woman have an independent right over her body?

These questions were posed by the Institute of Studies on the Flow of Information in a Saturday discussion on beauty and human rights.

The debate was about the recent government ban on Indonesians participating in international beauty pageants. The speakers concluded that a woman's beauty is a political arena in which the state and politicians try to meddle.

"People say beauty is but skin deep. But the state tries to exert its power even there," Rocky Gerung of the Center for Human Rights Studies told the 40 participants.

The graduate of the University of Indonesia's School of Philosophy said the state has no authority to level moral questions on the human body.

"The state has a say only when the body is violated. It has no say over the relation between the human body and morality," he said.

Rocky criticized the government for assuming the function of "the protector of citizens' morality which is based on lofty ideals of human dignity and civilization".

The position exceeds the limit of a state's responsibility for its citizens, he said.

"The state has acted as if it's a moral being which protects its citizens for the sake of some noble ideal. As if it's the keeper of the national culture. As if it has the final say as to how its citizens should behave," Rocky said.

"A woman's body is hers alone. She has complete rights over it. Over her beauty," he said.

Rocky said the ban was issued on the grounds that beauty contests run against the so-called traditional values constituting the Indonesian personality. Even though the values are disputable, the government has imposed them on Indonesian women, he said.

Feminist Myra Diarsi from the women's advocacy organization, Kalyanamitra, seconded Rocky's opinion. She said that a woman's right over her body is indisputable.

She also criticized the government's stance on beauty contests as merely a power play.

Taty Krisnawati of Women's Solidarity, another women's organization, argued that despite criticism of beauty contests, women of all walks of life willingly spend a fortune on cosmetics. Citing recent research in a suburb of Jakarta, Taty said most female industrial workers considered hand and body lotion a basic need. (16)