Is it nature or nurture?
Is it nature or nurture?
Adrian Smith, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Psychiatrist and noted Muslim scholar Prof. Dadang Hawari
believes environmental rather than genetic factors lead to gender
disorientation.
"Basically, nearly all babies are born the same. It all
depends on an individual's psychosexual development during early
childhood. The process of sexual imitation and identification is
determined by how a child is raised."
Many waria and psychologists think otherwise. "I believe this
is nature," performer Avi said. Her mother agreed. "Avi was the
only child in the family who always wanted to be a woman. She
used to play with girl's toys at home right from the word go."
Scholar and gay activist Dede Oetomo thinks that both aspects
play their part; that certain individuals are born with certain
genetic dispositions yet these are often only released or
exaggerated through particular environmental circumstances or
conditions.
He also believes that people's sexuality varies according to
the combination of three factors: gender role, sexual orientation
and biological sex.
Among waria there is a great deal of variation in sexual
orientation and gender role. Some are homosexual, some bisexual.
However, there are also some transvestites who are heterosexual,
married and have children, but they like to dress up and behave
like women in their free time, sometimes in secret. Some waver
between being a transvestite and transsexual all their lives.
Ultimately, Dede considers any generalization on gender
disorientation problematic.
"Gender is about how you feel rather than your physical
appearance. People become confused when what they feel is
contrary to what gender role society expects of them, based
purely on their biological sex".
Dede estimates there to be some 10,000 waria living in Jakarta
and a further 10,000 in Surabaya.
Attitudes were not always the way they are today. Dede
believes the role of waria in Indonesian society was downgraded
in the wake of the world religions and western industrial
culture. He cites their important traditional role as shamans,
clairvoyant and healers among peoples such as the Dayay.
On stage, they were more than the "figures of fun" that they
are often now typecast as, or are pressured to play up to. Their
combination of gender gave them dual wisdom, understanding and
communicative prowess.
And, as for the future, Dede remains optimistic.
"I choose to be positive. The waria community will at times
encounter the moral police but they are likely to become more
accepted in mainstream society with the enlargement of the middle
class in Indonesia and their accompanying bourgeois values."