June 29, 2012

Struggling from Big Corperation

yang nulis Isma Kazee di 5:09 AM 0 komentar
The idea of struggling from big corporations in this week reading reminds me on ecofeminism that was launched in 1974. Ecofeminism is a movement that concerns itself with environmental problems by using feminist intellectual and political perspectives in its analysis and practices. Ecofeminism attempts to establish a way of living in harmony that incorporates women, men, children, animals, and the environment by fighting against the social system and cultural values that oppress and dominate. Ecofeminists think that the earth, which is described as a mother, has been exploited, plundered, and destroyed by the ruling capitalist system to perpetuate patriarchy and feudalism. Women who have knowledge should take part in managing the environment and the sources of life.

Based on that, I would categorize Merima Mananta from Sorowako Sulawesi Indonesia as Indonesian ‘ecofeminist’. In her old age, she speaks out for her indigenous community, Karonsi'e Dongi, to reclaim the land of their ancestors that has been occupied by a Canadian nickel mining company, Inco. For her, the land where she lives is an entity, not a commodity that can be sold. In 1957, Merima and the other people in the village had to move from their land because of civil conflict, but when they wanted to go back, the company had occupied their land. In explaining how this mining company harms women, Merima said: "Our children are not able to go to school because parents cannot afford school fees. To feed our families, we women have planted vegetables and bananas around our huts. We can no longer grow rice because the land has been degraded. In 2003, the police and Inco security threatened to burn our huts because we were on ‘Inco land.’ Some of us were brought to the police station, interrogated and threatened with a three-month jail sentence.”

In Indonesia, there are many land issues that happen in the islands outside Java such as Sulawesi, Sumatra, and Kalimantan. People have to defend for their lands fighting against the existing capitalist company that are mostly supported by local governments.

Source:
link
Julia T. Wood, Gendered Lives, Communication, Gender and Culture.
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June 25, 2012

Evaluating Gender Equality

yang nulis Isma Kazee di 5:07 AM 0 komentar
There is another way to evaluate gender equality in literature. There are several questions can be offered:

First, do societal gender expectations and stereotypes cause conflict or limit the character’s range of option? Second, does the character think critically to reconcile real experiences with gender expectations? Third, does the character demonstrate independence (from gender expectations) in making decisions? If so, does the character pay the social price? Fourth, does the character achieve acceptance from other characters and self? (Latrobe 2009: 192)

I think Sivina and Sugar Shirley can represent the characters that critically resolve real experiences with gender expectations. They are independent people, even being different from common characters. However, in the end, they are dead, and to me, it implies the expensive price that they should pay for their decision.


Source:
Latrobe, Kathy Howard, and Judy Drury. Critical Approaches to Young Adult Literature. New York: Neal-Schuman Publishers, 2009.
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June 24, 2012

Girl Lessons

yang nulis Isma Kazee di 5:04 AM 0 komentar
Chapter “girl lessons” in Where We Once Belonged written by Sia Figiel has disturbed my mind. For example, “we girls were never allowed to go anywhere after schools besides heading straight home. Even when I started going to Samoa High School and had afternoon school or had detention or sports practice, I was expected to be home when everyone else was home” (p.139). It is unfair for Alofa and her friends since these rules are only regulated toward them, not boys. If boys are also restricted by these rules, they may grow and behave the same like girls. It means that boys and girls might stand equally. I think this may become a foundation of gendered violence in which institution such as family, media, language, and local culture normalize this violence.

Moreover when I read the subsequent pages when Alofa is being punished because she did not obey the rules, it clearly shows me that boys own their privilege to do anything they want without considering any punishment. "Before my hair was cut, before my hair was shaved, I was slapped in the face. Then a belt hit me across the face, too...around the waist, around my legs, around my face again. Fists blew in my eyes and mouth and cheeks, and blood flew out onto the cement floor" (p.220). Girls or women are always blamed for something that boys also get benefits.
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June 18, 2012

The Bechdel Test

yang nulis Isma Kazee di 5:02 AM 0 komentar
This is an interesting video I get from my class.
This video shows me how to review the present of women in the movie that is called by “The Bechdel Test”.

There are three questions to measure:
- Are there two or more women in it and do they have names?
- Do they talk to each other?
- Do they talk to each other about something other than a man?

I think this test is a simple way to see women representation in the movie. Because it is possible that women presence is actually being used by others for other purposes. Women are not portrayed as “Self”. So, the actor is actually a man, while a woman is a compliment.
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June 17, 2012

The Term 'Wanita' and 'Perempuan' in Bahasa

yang nulis Isma Kazee di 4:57 AM 0 komentar
I like the way Barlow trace the word Funu, Guojia, and Jiating which mean Chinese women, Chinese state, and Chinese family. It shows me that language actually reflects and reinforces our cultural values. Words or terms come with a certain history and changes of the meaning.

There are the word wanita and perempuan in Bahasa that mean woman. During Soeharto regime, wanita was commonly used rather than “perempuan”. The word wanita in the context of Javanese palace refers to tenderness, delicacy, modesty, obedience, dependence, and femininity. There is also common perception that explains the root of the word wanita. It is derived from Javanese language “wani” (willingness) and “ditoto” (being set up). Therefore, when gender equality movement emerges in Indonesia, activists deconstruct this word. Women activist insist the use of the word perempuan. Because etymologically, this word is derived from empu which means “master, those who have skill and power, leader, upstream, or the greatest.” Perempuan is also associated with ampu which means “support, govern, safety guard and guardian”. It is also said mengampu which means “hold and support for something else”.

Thus, although past time wanita was considered as having higher meaning that perempuan, now it is changed. Perempuan is more commonly used in Indonesia to refer to woman.

Source:
link
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June 15, 2012

Riang Tak Terkira:
Norak Sedikit Tak Apa-Apa

yang nulis Isma Kazee di 12:42 AM 0 komentar




hatiku riang tak terkira
mendapat surat undangan ke jakarta
untuk berbicara dan bertukar pikiran
dengan para ilmuwan dan cerdik cendekia
gratis pula
haha aku memang norak!





ketika aku submit abstract untuk workshop ini, aku sedang di UC Berkeley dan tengah bergulat dengan final paper juga master paper. whuaa rasanya sudah tak ada isi otak tersisa untuk dituliskan. tapi, aku tetap saja nekat. pantang menyerah selagi masih ada napas di dada! aku percaya dengan apa orang bilang, bahwa mencoba itu lebih baik daripada tidak sama sekali. karena kadang dari mencoba yang sedikit itu, aku justru mendapat banyak.

dan ya, mereka menerima abstractku yang berjudul “Between Hadrah, Nasyid, and Indonesian Idol: Negotiating Cultural Identity of Santri in Yogyakarta Indonesia." menjadi pekerjaan yang musti ditindaklanjuti sepulangku nanti. penelitian kecil-kecilan, menulis, konsultasi, revisi, presentasi, revisi, lalu publikasi. betapa senangnya lagi, ibu malaikat pembimbing sudah menyatakan kesediaannya untuk mensupervisi pekerjaanku ini, ditambah satu professor yang lain. aku senang tiada terkira.

eits, tunggu, ini soal apa sih? bagi orang-orang hebat mungkin workshop ini tak ada istimewanya. tapi buat aku, oh tentu sangat istimewa. karena dengan abstractku, aku akan berpartisipasi dalam penerbitan buku tentang pop music abad 20 di asia tenggara yang akan diterbitkan pertengahan 2014. aku semakin benar-benar sadar sekali *alay* kalau ini bener-bener great opportunity setelah mendapat email penjelasan tentang deadline dan garis besar workshop.

ada 16 abstract yang terseleksi, dan setelah aku baca dan lihat, sepertinya cuma aku ya *tolah-toleh* yang masih "anak bawang". mereka rata-rata PhD candidat, dosen atau malah assistant professor :( membayangkan bagaimana inggrisku, woaaa rasanya aku sudah tak sanggup. eits, tapi tenang. amunisi percaya diriku sudah lumayan kok. apalagi, cuma abstrackku yang bicara soal life style dan cita rasa santri dalam bermusik. jadi, musti diusahakan dengan sebaik-baiknya. biar sajalah orang yang bilang, "ahh issue-mu tak menarik." aku gak peduli, yang jelas abstractku lolos seleksi :)

penyelenggara workshop penulisan buku ini adalah the Royal Netherlands Institute for Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies (KITLV), dengan judul "Participatory Pop: Audiences, Life Styles and Fan Culture in 20th Century Southeast Asia". Dilaksanakan di Jakarta, 10-12 Januari 2013. Workshop ini dimaksudkan sebagai forum penggodokan materi buku, sharing masukan, antara very experienced authors dengan the new comer dalam bidang ini, seperti aku. Kerennya lagi, aku bakal dapat pengalaman bagaimana sebuah buku yang ditulis oleh banyak kontributor ditulis, juga dapat masukan tentang writing strategies dari para expert. ini benar-benar kesempatan emas.

Gusti Allah, matur nuwun!

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June 13, 2012

Chicklit: a Writing Style on Life Stories

yang nulis Isma Kazee di 4:55 AM 0 komentar
In her chapter, Grewal writes that “Many life narratives have recently been published in First World locations that are authored by those from the so-called margins. Recent publications in the United States include, for instance, writing by women color, Asian immigrants telling their lives, memoirs, novel, short stories by minorities.” (p.232)

This passage reminds me on a new style of writing called Chick-lit. According to Chicklit.us (Ferriss 2006, 3), chick-lit “reflects the lives [of] everyday working young women and men, and appeals to readers who want to see their own lives in all the messy detail, reflected in fiction today.” I think this genre allows and gives women wider opportunity to write their life experiences through literature form. In Indonesian context, this genre has influenced the emergence of popular writing in the contemporary Indonesian literature written by Indonesian women writers. Helen Fielding’s Bridget Jones’s Diary published in Britain in 1999, was the first chick lit novel translated into Bahasa. In 2000, it was followed by the publication of The Girl’s Guide to Hunting and Fishing and Being Single and Happy written by Melissa Bank. These novels were translated into Bahasa as well.

However, since this genre is more addressed market readers, and tells about urban life styles, it seems that this genre is not academic enough to represent what is called “scholarly works” in comparison to memoir or autobiography. But, as a cultural production, I think some chick-lits may portray women identities and gender violence in the society.

Source:
Ferriss, Suzanne, and Mallory Young. Chick Lit: The New Woman’s Fiction. New York: Routledge, 2006.
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Simone de Beauvoir: The Independent Women

yang nulis Isma Kazee di 4:43 AM 0 komentar
I would like to share my note on Simone de Beauvoir’s idea on “woman”, as mentioned by Grewal in this week reading (p.243). In The Second Sex, de Beauvoir draws a feminist movement in which it addresses the inequality of men and the emancipation of women from sexist oppression. She points out the challenges and difficulties of the modern female gender role. According to her, patriarchal system is a cause of woman oppression. “She is not viewed by society in the same way; the universe presents itself to her in a different perspective. The fact of being a woman today poses peculiar problems for an independent human individual.” (339). Beauvoir explores how woman and femininity are constructed by culture that is men centered by giving examples. “Her clothes were originally intended to consign her impotence, and they have remained unserviceable, easily ruined: stocking get runs, shoes get down at the heel, light-colored blouses ...” (341). “Tradition also requires even the single woman to give some attention to her lodgings.” (341). These examples confirm, first, woman's body is the barrier to doing self-actualization. Thus woman cannot expand their subjectivity dimension to the world outside and her environment. Second, this culture has been socialized and internalized through social institutions such as families, communities, and also state.

Therefore, according to de Beauvoir, there are two main levels in order to emancipate woman: the level of thought and practice. At the level of thought, women's bodies should be exempt from the labels that are affixed by patriarchal culture and constraint her to the process of transcendence. Body, belonging to both women and men, is the situation; body is the subject of dialogue and interpretation between the number of values ​​offered by the social construction and the values ​​chosen autonomously (357). In addition, de Beauvoir also suggests changing the pattern of relationships between man and woman from the bondage of biological and functional to be humane and ethical relationship that is openly in the spirit of friendship and generosity (356). At the level of practice, de Beauvoir proposes the importance of economic independence as a door opener for the liberation (338).

Souces:
Simone de Beauvoir, "The Independent Women" in Simon During (ed.), The Cultural Studies Reader, 1st edition
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June 04, 2012

Imagined Communities

yang nulis Isma Kazee di 4:39 AM 0 komentar
I would like to post my note on Imagined Communities written by Benedict R.O Anderson. Based on his field work in Indonesia and other countries in Southeast Asia, Anderson figures out the genesis of nationalism and explains the concept in adequate way. The aim of writing Imagined Communities is to suggest a historical background including the development, evolution, and response for the emergence of nationalism. This book is actually his notorious examination of nationalism. Several chapters in the beginning attempt to connect nationalism and the context in the frame of history. According to Anderson, the nation is an "imagined political community that is imagined as both inherently limited and sovereign" (p.7). The nation is imagined because members might be not familiar each other or with the most of their colleague, but in the mind of each the members there is an imagination of their unity (p.6). This is the way the owner of a particular citizenship imagines the boundaries of a nation, although such boundaries may be not existent physically.

The nation is limited because "even the largest of them encompassing perhaps a billion living human beings, has finite, if elastic, boundaries, beyond which lie other nations" (p7). Although it is limited by boundaries, in fact they can identify their unity by the existent of culture, ethnicity, language, discourse, and social structure among fellow members. The nations is sovereign because "the concept was born in an age in which Enlightenment and Revolution were destroying the legitimacy of the divinely-ordained, hierarchical dynastic realm . . . nations dream of being free, and, if under God, directly so" (p.7). The nation is a community because it is "always conceived as a deep, horizontal comradeship" (p.7). Although there are the differences and unequal positions and changes among the nation member, the imagination in being the same culture, ethnic, or social structure is physically powerful to initiate people to sacrifice in the name of nation.

I think nationalism now becomes a core issue in many aspects of modern society and united nation where the conflict among sub-nations such as ethnicity, group, and culture tend to emerge. Moreover, people are mostly traveling from one and another country or even their national identities are interchangeable.

Source:
Ben Anderson, Imagined Communities (Verso: New York, 2006).
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June 03, 2012

The Female Body and the Narratives

yang nulis Isma Kazee di 4:28 AM 0 komentar
I like reading Liu’s essay which is about the female body and nationalism. It gives me idea how a female body can be connected to nationalism, particularly, during revolution. I think her method of analysis is useful to be employed while reading such novels in Bahasa, such as Gadis Pantai (the bay girl) written by Pramodya Ananta Toer. This novel tells about the oppressed woman who has to be married by a governor in order to bore his child. This novel attempts to criticize the social class during Dutch colonization in Indonesia.

A critical perspective is needed to discover how the author symbolizes female body in regard to revolution. Before reading Liu’s piece, I did not think about the symbolic meaning of “raped women”. It seems like she is a heroine who scarifies her body for her nation. But, after reading it, I understand that we should analyze deeply by questioning whether women have decision in define her body or not, because, it can be fallen to the meaning that actually the author uses the portrayal of “raped women” to romanticize and build a dramatic sense of the revolution.

Another essay is written by Alcarón, but I feel difficult to follow because I have no idea about the history of Mexico or Malintzin. But I agree that we also should deconstruct narratives that seem “pure and authentic” regarding the history of women. Those textual or oral narratives with their power and position often control human freedom to think and innovate. It is similar with some interpretations toward religious texts in which sometimes, in Muslim case, those interpretations become more powerful that the religious text itself

Sources:
Norma Alcaron, “Traddutora, Traiditora”
Lydia Liu, “The Female Body and Nationalist Discourse: The Field of Life and Death Revisited”
Mary Layoun, “The Female Body and 'Transnational' Reproduction; or, Rape by Any Other Name?"

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