Youth takes on sex, lies, and gender

Youth takes on sex, lies, and gender

Kenny Santana, Contributor, Jakarta

"I'd kill myself if I were a lesbian," a senior high school
student in Medan said during the British Film Festival (BFF) 2005
held in five cities.

Themed Gender Issues Represented in the Cinema, this year's
BFF toured the nation and held an essay competition open to
senior high school students in Jakarta, Yogyakarta, Malang,
Makassar and Medan.

What was most illuminating about the competition was that the
jury panel, which included Nurul Arifin, Mira Lesmana, Riri Riza
and gender expert Intan Paramaditha, had little idea of senior
high school students' perspective on gender, and exposed how
culture strongly molded teenagers' thoughts on gender.

One Medan student wrote, "In the Batak culture, many parents
favor a son instead of daughter, considering that their son will
be able to continue their bloodline, while a daughter will be
taken away by her husband."

Another student in Yogyakarta said, "I will follow what my
future husband says, whatever it is. As my husband, I should take
him as the leader of my family." In Makassar, a Madrasah female
student in a Muslim head scarf said she felt discriminated at her
school. She complained that her teachers didn't allow her to be
the head of an organization since in Islam, a girl cannot be a
prayer leader; consequently, women cannot lead.

These various cultures have influenced greatly what these
students believe about gender and gender roles. Another Batak
girl said that although she refused to be discriminated in the
family, she felt she couldn't do much about it. "I'm on my own, I
don't think I can change how society thinks."

Intan Paramaditha said, "I learned that how teenagers perceive
gender is determined largely by their cultural values. Teenagers
in Jakarta show more liberal views compared to those outside
Jakarta, and I guess this is due to the greater cultural exposure
they have in Jakarta."

The road show revealed that most teenagers felt they should
act according to social norms. In Yogyakarta, Nurul Arifin, an
actress who has been active in gender and AIDS issues, expressed
her concern to the students: "You should believe what your heart
says, because the society isn't always right."

Nurul told The Jakarta Post, "I was disappointed. I'd never
have guessed that the future generation has a very narrow-minded
idea of gender roles, especially in a student city like
Yogyakarta. I thought these students were well aware about
women's rights."

Nurul was most concerned about a female student who believed
that polygamy was acceptable as long as the wives were treated
equally.

Another teenager thought she would be a spinster if she was
not married by 30.

Besides gender roles, another that subject arose through the
competition was sexual orientation.

"Many people are still confused about the difference between
gender and sexuality. It's because in reality, it's hard to
separate the two. Gender is often used to signify or understand
sexual acts. For example, when people see a homosexual couple,
they might tend to guess, 'that must be the one playing the male
role and this is the woman'," Intan said.

In Utopia, which was screened in the festival, three best
friends lie to each other as to their true identity, living a
life of pretense to appear happy. The lesbian and cross-dressing
characters were included as essay subjects.

"Freak", "abnormality" and "faggot" are just a few of the
comments made by students on the homosexual theme of the film.
The mass media and society had conditioned them into thinking
that homosexuality was an illness that could be cured, that it
was a lifestyle that had developed in the West.

One student's essay reads, "Homosexuals need intensive
therapy." Another one wrote, "A negative example of gender
identity disorder is a transsexual like Dorce Gamalama."

Such thoughts could lead to potentially destructive ones, such
as the statement at the beginning of this article, or another: "I
wouldn't be friends anymore with someone if they turned out to be
homosexual."

Asked the origin of their thoughts, the most common answer was
religion. Though these students could not identify the part in
either the Bible or the Koran that specifically prohibited
homosexuality, the teenagers strongly believed that their
religion would never accept homosexuality.

An opposite thought came from two students of SMA Hang Kesturi
Medan who said, "We can never mix religion with this issue. As we
know, religion never goes hand in hand with technology or
biology, for example." Evolution versus creation theory, anyone?

"Religion teaches us to treat others the same. And that's what
we believe," added Ulina and Shely, the students from Medan.

Yudhi Soerjoatmodjo, Arts Manager of British Council, which
held the event, observed the results of the discussion and told
the Post, "A lot of events end when the event ends, but seeing
the situation, the British Council would like to take this
further."

"Short-term results of the film festival like audience number,
ticket sales, are not our concern anymore. It's the long-term,
such as how we can guide the students in the right direction, yet
still be themselves," Yudhi added.

Workshops and discussions on gender will be continued to see
how the teenagers' views will develop over the coming months, and
it is hoped that their perspective on gender and sexuality will
broaden with insight from experts.

The writer was a juror of the British Film Festival 2005 Essay
Competition. He can be contacted at qnoy2k@yahoo.com.