The Risky Journal

I still remember not a day went by in September without news on various mass organizations staging protests on Miss World 2013 held in Indonesia. They demanded that the beauty pageant be cancelled, citing that it is not appropriate with Indonesian culture. Following the rains of demonstrations and protests, theorganizer cancelled the beauty pageant’s venues in Jakarta and held it solely inBali Island . But, apparently, Indonesia will host another international beauty pageant! Mister International 2012Ali Hammoud On my way home from my office, I always pass a billboard informing me about Mister International 2013 slated to be held in Jakarta on Wednesday, November 27, 2013. But something is missing. There is no news about people protesting the show. Where are they? Those who disagreed about Miss World held in Indonesia argued that it is not aligned with Indonesian culture. They mostly disagreed with the bikini contests, which is a part of the competition. The ev...

It has been a month since the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) revealed a high profile graft case involving the president of the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), Luthfi Hasan Ishaaq. The corruption case surrounding the procurement of imported beef also implicated businessmen, Juard Effendi and Arya Abdi Effendi, and a man known as Ahmad Fathanah, an aide to Luthfi. The four of them have been named suspects by the anti-graft body. In January 30, the KPK arrested Ahmad because he had allegedly received Rp 1 billion from the two businessmen. The money was allegedly supposed to be handed to Luthfi, then a lawmaker, so that he would award the beef procurement contract to the businessmen. The KPK nabbed Ahmad inside a hotel room in Central Jakarta along with a woman who was later identified as Maharany. She was released by the commission after being questioned. However, the stories about the arrest of Ahmad went wild as most media outlets in Indonesia produced irreleva...

Sesaat setelah Wanda Hamidah dilepaskan oleh BNN karena dia terbukti tidak mengkonsumsi narkoba, salah satu stasiun televisi swasta Metro TV, menayangkan suatu acara dialog yang bertemakan “Mengukur Etika Anggota Dewan.” Dalam diskusi tersebut hadir politsi PAN Bima Aria dan pengamat politik dari Lembaga Ilmu Pengetahuan Indonesia (LIPI) Siti Zuhro . Diskusi tersebut dipandu oleh Fifi Aleyda Yahya . Diskusi tersebut dilakukan tepat setelah BNN mengumumkan bahwa Wanda yang merupakan politisi PAN tidak terlibat dalam kasus narkoba Raffi Ahma d. (Baca: Refleksi kasus Raffi: Media dan pembunuhan karakter ) Diskusi tersebut diawali dengan pernyataan sang presenter bahwa Wanda memang tidak terbukti telah melanggar tindak pidana narkoba, namun dia mempertanyakan dimanakah etika Wanda ketika dia bertamu ke rumah Raffi pada dini hari. Diskusi tersebut ingin membahas: Apakah etis, Wanda, seorang politisi wanita bertamu ke rumah Raffi , seorang pria lajang, pada jam dimana kebanya...

 Every December 22, we Indonesians celebrate Mother’s Day (Hari Ibu). We honor our mother for everything what she did. In this day, Indonesians usually celebrate Mother’s Day by letting our mothers “free of their domestic duties”. In this day, mothers all across Indonesia have the privilege for not serving meals, washing dishes or just to clean out the house. However, frankly, I never knew why December 22 is decided as Mother’s Day. I never had a history class in which I learned as to why we celebrate Mother’s Day every December 22. A couple of months ago, I read a book entitled Gender, Islam and Democracy in Indonesia. After reading it , now I know that the true spirit of Mother’s Day is neglected for years. December 22 is chosen to honor the historic event of the very first all Indonesian Women’s Congress happening in 1928, several months after the historic Youth Congress. This information is something I never knew, and I think this piece of information needs to be expose...

A few days ago, I watched a movie entitled For Colored Girls. Well, although the title says "for colored girls", it does not mean that us, boys, are not allowed to watch this movie! So here is my review about the movie. For Colored Girls Movie Poster from  Rottentomatoes As a play-inspired movie, For Colored Girls  offer its viewers with the experience of watching plays in a movie. It can be felt once you watch it. In the opening of the movie, there are nine Black women having monologue but each monologue corresponds to each other. It is a great opening. The nine Black women deal with each individual conflict, probably as consequences of becoming woman in general and Black woman in particular, such as rape, abortion, love, infidelity, etc. The nine Black women have their own plot but each plot correlates. The characters are represented by a color: Jo/Red ( Janet Jackson ), Juanita/Green ( Loretta Devine ), Yasmine/Yellow ( Anika Noni Rose ), Tangie/Orange ( Thandi...

Happy fasting everyone! It’s the twelfth day of Ramadhan and the twelfth day of fasting for us Muslims. But let’s don’t make fasting become a reason for us not to think critically. Before I studied about gender representation in media, I probably won’t be able to say this. I dare to say that during Ramadhan various forms of media (from advertising to news) perpetuate the ideology of women as housekeeper ideology resembling the ideology of women as mother as instilled by Indonesian government during Soeharto era. Try to look at television commercials during sahur (eating before dawn arrives marking the start of fasting) or buka (eating after the sun sets to break the fast). Count how many television commercial that depicts a beautiful-slim-long-haired women who is cooking, preparing meals, washing dishes etc. While their children both girls and boys only wait for their mother. The father surely does not take this domestic issue as he is the breadwinner. Father figure in some adv...

Hari ini, serial drama korea Dong Yi yang ditayangkan oleh Indosiar berakhir. Besok, serial The Great Queen Soendoek akan ditayangkan ulang. Dulu, stasiun televisi yang sekarang memfokuskan diri pada drama asia ini menayangkan serial Jewel in the Palace . Kalau dilihat, Korea (dalam hal ini yang dimaksud adalah Korea Selatan) memang sering membuat produk serial kolosal yang menayangkan wanita Korea yang mampu meraih status tertinggi di masyarakat pada zaman dahulu kala. Dong Yi, selir kesayangan Raja Sukjong   Ketiga serial ini ( Dong Yi, The Great Queen Soendoek dan Jewel in the Palace ) berdasar pada sejarah yang benar – benar terjadi di Korea . Ketiga tokoh utama yang ada di serial tersebut nyata. Dong Yi , mengkisahkan seorang wanita dari kelas rakyat jelata yang mampu menjadi selir istana kesayangan raja. Namun, di akhir hidupnya, ia memilih untuk tinggal di istana, mengabdikan hidupnya untuk rakyat jelata. The Great Queen Soendoek mengisahkan perebutan tahta di...

Cinderella, the Front Runner of Disney Princess The Most Famous Disney Princess according to Wikipedia What is in your mind if I mention Disney princesses? You probably will conjure images of Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Rapunzel and other princesses. They all belong in a realm of American popular culture that is so hegemonic, even in Indonesian culture. We have been so accustomed to these characters that we take them for granted. Once we consume a popular culture product, we also consume the ideology embedded within. What do these princesses teach us, or teach your daughter?   Can I say that Cinderella is a bad girl? Or Snow White as an evil character? No, surely not. They all belong to the ‘good’ girl. They are the protagonist of the story. Then, what are the characteristics of a ‘good girl’ according to the princess above? First of all, a good girl is so kind hearted. She is indeed too kind. Why does Cinderella obey all of her step mother’s request?...

Sudah cukup lama sebenarnya saya pingin mengkritik iklan extra joss ini. Iklan ini sangat 'silly' dan 'sexist' dalam pandangan saya. Iklan ini diawali dengan frame yang menunjukkan tiga orang lelaki bepawakan kekar, yang bekerja di suatu konstruksi bangunan. Mereka menggenggam minuman berwarna pink di dalam kantong plastik. Wajah mereka tampak lesu dan tak bergairah. Mereka di shoot dengan shallow focus sehingga kamera hanya memfokuskan lensanya pada ketiga pria di frame. Frame awal ini ditemani dengan non-diegetic sound berupa voiceover seorang wanita dengan suara kecil. Dia mengatakan "laki minum rasa - rasa, harusnya ... "

Siang tadi, saya menghadiri pekan olahraga antar tingkat yang diselenggarakan di jurusan saya. Angkatan saya bermain basket. Ada dua giliran, pria dan wanita. Ketika para pria sedang bermain, mereka terlihat bermain dengan apiknya. Bola basket seakan menari dalam tangan mereka. Mereka terlihat sangat menguasai bola basket. Ketika giliran para wanita yang bermain, tentu saja terjadi perubahan atmosfer di arena pertandingan. Pertandingan tidak 'sepanas' pertandingan sebelumnya. Disini terlihat para wanita kurang menguasai bola. Dari hal ini, bisa terlihat ada hal yang sangat mendasar yang pada akhirnya membuat suatu konsep gender. Pria terlihat lebih dominan dalam hal ketrampilan olah raga, dalam hal ini basket, daripada wanita. Hal ini yang menjadi suatu konsep gender yang dimaknai sebagai sifat alami pada masing masing kategori seksual (laki - laki dan perempuan). Laki - laki diatributkan dengan ketangkasan. Perempuan diatributkan dengan kelembutan. Olah raga, tentu saja akan...

Beberapa menit yang lalu, saya baru saja melihat tayangan berita di salah satu stasiun televisi swasta yang membahas mengenai POLWAN (Polisi Wanita) yang dengan mahir mengendarai 'moge' (motor gede) untuk berpatroli. Ada suatu hal yang menggilitik benak saya sebagai orang  yang suka berkomentar tentang banyak hal. Saya tidak pernah memperhatikan perbedaan kostum antara polisi pria dan wanita sebelumnya. Namun, sepintas ketika saya melihat tayangan berita tersebut saya melihat ada perbedaan yang cukup signifikan. Dalam tayangan tersebut para polwan menaiki motor gede yang bertuliskan polisi di body motor. Namun, ketika kamera menge shoot  bagian belakang helm para polwan itu, tercetak tulisan POLWAN, tidak polisi seperti yang tertera pada body motor tersebut. Juga tidak seperti helm polisi (pria) seperti yang tertera pada gambar diatas. Mengapa polwan harus mendapat helm dengan label POLWAN? Mengapa tidak POLISI? Apakah pekerjaan para wanita itu bukan polisi? Pelabelan ...

Football is probably one of the most famous sports in Indonesia although there has not been any significant achievement in this field for quite some times. Growing up as a boy, football became some sort of obligatory sport to play, or just to be liked.  But who says so? Who says it is obligatory? When you’re a boy and you don’t like football, there will be some people, and most of them are males, who will comment “you’re a boy and you don’t like football? For heaven’s sake!” From this comment, it seems like football is somehow gendered, to be male sport. To be masculine, boy/man should love, or just like football. Football is gendered. Yes, sport which is supposed to be genderless is gendered. Football is a man. Football’s gendering is constructed through some points. First, it is constructed by the players. In football there are twenty two males on the field. The players quite often meet the standard of masculine man. They have the ‘Greek G...

(From:  http://newsblaze.com/pix/2009/1031/pix/Precious-Movie-.jpg  ) In my previous movie review post, I reviewed Precious for its representation of Black Feminism thoughts. In this post, I would like to share my article after researching the movie. In conducting the research, I mostly employed semiotic film theory as the main tools of analysis. Besides, I also included a brief overview of what Black Feminism is so that we are in the same sphere and not lost in the texts. Happy reading, if u read it  The Construction of Black Feminism Thought In Precious (2009)

In response to my previous post about Movie Review: Precious which tells us about Black Feminism, hereby in this post I would like to share a power point presentation about Black Feminism. This is given at American Women class in November 24, 2010. Hopefully, it can be a clear introduction to Black Feminism. Black Feminism So, treat women of color with more respect !! For so long they are oppressed because of their race, social class and sex. Let us spread this awareness, starting from ourselves. No more women oppression. It is our chance as the next generation to better our future lives.

I've got this idea to write about Japan's popular culture for  some times. Firstly, I love Japan's popular culture such as anime and manga.Japan's anime and manga are so popular around the world, transcending nations, age, sex and gender. I read Japan's  manga from the age of 10 (may be), until now. I watched Japan's anime also for years. One thing that really makes me wonder is about the depiction of gender in those popular culture product. Before furthering the discussion, it is important to say that i follow Ann Oakley's argumentation to differ sex and gender. Sex is naturally determined, while gender is socioculturally constructed. Thus, to speak of male and female is to speak of sex. While to speak of masculine and feminine is to speak of gender. In doing gender (attributing gender characteristics in body), people are for so long stereotyped by the existing binary relation. It means that male should develop masculine traits to be called as a re...