Government ban on beauty pageants debated
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)