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.