More variety of women's images needed in films

By Sita Aripurnami [10pt ML]

JAKARTA (JP): "Get out if you can't pay me by tomorrow afternoon!" the landlady shouts at Gita, a young woman who then helplessly enters her room, undresses and cries on her bed.

In thin underwear, open at the top, Gita, the lead role in Women at the Crossroads (Perempuan di Persimpangan Jalan), reflects remorsefully on her past.

Flashbacks show she has been raped by a stepfather, the quarrels between him and her mother, until her daydreams are interrupted by a man entering the window of the neighboring room.

Gita peeks inside and sees her friend and the man having sex, shown uncensored despite all regulations. Gita is aroused and visions her own experiences with her lover.

This is the opening scene of one of the many Indonesian films being shown across the city in line with Indonesian Film Month, which aims to give audiences a greater chance to view national productions.

The theater in East Jakarta was packed with teenagers whose curiosity was obviously aroused by the film's posters, enhanced by the ticket officer who commented "sex education, sex education..." in English.

The portrayal of other women in the film, along with many films these days, is not far from that depicted by Gita -- helpless and constantly undressed, whether she is sexually aroused, being raped or is in grief. In short, the object of pornography.

In The Power of Image: Essays on Representation and Sexuality, British observer Annette Kuhn wrote in 1985 that pornographic satisfaction involves voyeurism -- the strong urge to continuously peek to the height of satisfaction.

This is why film scenes frequently focus on women undressing, or undressed, to reflect the idea that the male audience is peeking at a woman who is unaware of a million pairs of eyes.

Regardless of a few women engaged in pornography for their expression of sexual freedom, most women and children are involved against their will.

It is therefore a violation of their rights, as pornography worships power and domination, violence and aggression, reflecting the idea of male sexual domination over women.

Lower

The controversy over pornography aside, the main problem here is that we have few other images of women than that portrayed by Gita, just as we lack images of women other than a reminder of their "biological role" (kodrat) in the State Guidelines (GBHN).

Justified by the "market demand" that must be met and the slow growth of the film industry, Indonesian films of the 1990's have reached a lower state than those of the 1970s and 1980s, when viewers could find a wider variety films portraying women in other roles.

For example, women characters in Teguh Karya's film Doea Tanda Mata included a performer and spy as well as a revolutionary activist who was only referred to as "my beloved wife" by her husband, also an activist.

There was a woman called Trinil in another film, who stood by her employer's child, and guarded her against her father's wrath because he believed the child had caused her mother's death. Trinil portrayed a woman who stood up for what she believed was just.

Joice Erna starred as a prostitute, in Suci Sang Primadona, who refused to marry a client because marriage would ruin her livelihood.

We need more portrayals of women found in everyday life, apart from heroines such as actress Christine Hakim's Tjut Nyak Dien.

If media is part of our socialization, in this case what we learn of men's and women's roles, then what hope do we have in these constant pictures of women as objects of sex and violence?

One could argue that filmmakers are generally just lazy and uncreative these days; and the dominant depiction of women is always there to exploit, in the name of "market demand."

Lax

A friend recently went to see a comedy, Boneka Indiana, which did not show much female flesh, and he said the audience was a mere 15 including his group of six.

To encourage the growth of the national film industry, censorship has apparently been lax. Censor scissors seem to have barely touched "flesh scenes."

In contrast, a few years ago, director Slamet Rahardjo's Langitku Rumahku, a film which won praise abroad, telling the story of two boys from different income brackets could, not be shown in the country.

Maybe the portrayal of submissive women is not considered harmful for society politically or socially, compared to scenes which depict social inequality.

The writer is preparing a chapter on a similar theme in a forthcoming book on images and works of Indonesian women, under the Insan Harapan Sejahtera foundation and Ford Foundation.

- 30 -