Message between the lines sparks controversy

Message between the lines sparks controversy

JAKARTA (JP): The controversy over a public service
advertisement regarding violence against women has refused to go
away, with women activists now threatening to sue newspapers and
magazines that continue to run it.

The ad depicts a woman's thighs in a tight miniskirt. The text
between her legs reads "How can we keep sexual crime rates down,
if your skirts continue to rise?"

Outraged women's rights activists have demanded that
newspapers stop running the ad or face legal action for
"pornography" and the degradation of women.

They criticize Minister of Women's Affairs Mien Sugandhi for
"doing nothing" about indecent ads that insult women's dignity in
the print and electronic media.

"The ad doesn't support the campaigns on crime against women.
It makes women the culprits in the widespread violence against
women," Ita F. Nadia of Kalyanamitra, which runs a communication
and information center for women, said yesterday.

The Forum Keadilan magazine in its latest edition apologized
to the public and promised not to run the ad again.

At the heart of the controversy is how one is to interpret the
underlying message of the ad, which was created by the Adwork
Euro RSCG Ball Partnership agency in cooperation with the
publishing papers.

The agency says the ad was meant to remind women of the danger
of wearing clothes that could provoke men to make sexual
advances.

"We regret Forum's policy to quickly drop the ad," said Adwork
Euro RSCG spokesman Ndang Sutisna in a statement. Debates for and
against a particular issue is natural in a democracy."

Karni Ilyas, Forum's chief editor, said, "Our staff members
who looked after the ad were all women and wearing miniskirts.
And they didn't appear to mind."

Nursyahbani Katjasungkana, a senior lawyer from the Indonesian
Legal Aid Foundation, said the ad's text assumes that "miniskirts
are to blame for the rising incidence of crimes against women."

"The message is too simplistic. We have data which show that
no rape victim was wearing a miniskirt when it happened," she
said.

The ad strengthens the myth that rape victims are beautiful
women cruising around at night in provocative clothing, she said.

Last years's gang rape of Acan's wife and teenage daughters in
Bekasi, West Java, destroyed the myth, she said. "The robbers
broke into the house early in the morning and raped the women."

Of the 185 rape cases that Kalyanamitra registered in 1994, 74
percent of the rapists were known to the victims and 99 percent
of the assailants were mentally sound. Of the victims, 28 percent
were not "beautiful" according to Kalyanamitra.

The survey found that 73 percent of the cases were
premeditated. But none of the victims was wearing a miniskirt at
the time.

There is no official figure on the number of rape cases in
Indonesia. Quoting police estimates, Ita said between 1992 and
1993, one woman was raped in Indonesia every hour.

Kalyanamitra recorded 564 cases of rape in 1995. Most victims
were girls aged between six years and 14 years. Almost 90 percent
of the rapists were known by the victims. None of the victims was
wearing a miniskirt.

Chief the Indonesian Association of Advertising Companies, Ken
Sudarta, said he could not find anything offensive with the ad.

In the Jan. 29 edition of Merdeka newspaper, he was quoted as
saying, "Why don't they protest other ads featuring aspects of
women's beauty, including women in tight miniskirts? Why are they
targeting this public service ad."

Sudarta said that advertising's code of ethics does not deal
with ads "featuring women's thighs in tight miniskirts", which he
said is a common scene in fashion shows.

"Let's look at the positive side of the ad. It is intended to
advise women against wearing tight miniskirts because their dress
could provoke men into having (sexual) fantasies," he said. (pan)