- 23/09/2020
- Category: Commentaries
Social media usage in Indonesia is on the rise, where most of its citizens with a smartphone will have multiple social media accounts, such as Facebook, Instagram, Path, Twitter, Whatsapp and Line. As of 2017, 54,68% of Indonesian citizens are internet users.[i] With the total number of its population, Indonesia is one of the world’s biggest social media users.[ii] Indonesian internet users are also mobile-first, and sometimes mobile-only,[iii] making Indonesians frequent users of social media.[iv]
This high engagement with social media creates a new wave of digital journalism: citizen journalism. It is a symbol of citizen power that replaces mainstream media as a news source. Citizen journalism is especially powerful for marginalized communities as their voices are often suppressed by mainstream media. However, issues arise as citizen journalism can be easily, instantly and affordably shared with the click of a button. Not only the credibility of the news may be less reliable, but citizen journalism also may potentially be home to news that further reinforce the oppression of the minority.[v] One obvious example of communities in Indonesia that suffer from this form of oppression is women, which will be explored further in this article.
Indonesia is a collectivist society,[vi] where its cultural values are defined by what is deemed beneficial to the society rather than the self-interest of individuals. This is problematic due to its high ‘power distance’. With such power distance, as a consequence, individuals or groups are expected to accept the inequality of power.[vii] And unfortunately, the majority of those in power hold misogynist views towards women due to the country’s patriarchal culture. In this patriarchal culture, women are often stereotyped to be less capable or less intelligent compared to men, yet they are also expected to be polite and obedient.[viii] Thus, when women act in a way that is not ‘socially acceptable’, it has become easier in this type of society to shame these women using digital citizen journalism as a new platform.
In one of the most recent viral anecdotes of digital citizen journalism in Indonesia, there is an infamous case of an entrepreneur of a chocolate drink franchise, widely known as Bu Dendy (Mrs. Dendy), who uploaded a video of her showering her best friend—who is also her husband’s alleged mistress, known as Nyla—with a large amount of money in an attempt to ‘buy her dignity’. In the video that was originally uploaded on Facebook, Bu Dendy stamps Nyla with the word ‘pelakor’ (perebut lelaki orang) which is an abbreviation to what roughly translates to ‘a taken man-stealer’ in English.[ix]
A similar viral case, though not as recent as the case of Bu Dendy, is the case of Jennifer Dunn, an Indonesian actress, who was publicly confronted by Shafa Harris for also being suspected as the mistress of his father, Faisal Harris. When Shafa accidentally saw Jennifer at a shopping centre, Shafa asked her friend to record her confronting Jennifer, who was seen lining up at a food stall. In the video, Shafa was seen screaming in anger and even pulling Jennifer’s hair until the mall-goers near her pulled her aside.[x] Due to this video Jennifer received a lot of backlash and hate from people who were supportive of Shafa’s behaviour.[xi] Although unrelated, one news source even reported Jennifer Dunn’s imprisonment for substance abuse as karma for being a ‘pelakor’, further proving the misogynist attitudes held by the general public towards women who are a ‘pelakor’.[xii]
The word ‘pelakor’ is a misogynist term as not only there is no male equivalent of the term that is as widely used in Indonesia, it also places the blame largely on women, treating men as inactive agents when it comes to infidelity.[xiii] [xiv] [xv] This was the case in both Bu Dendy and Shifa’s videos, where anger was only directed towards the alleged ‘other woman’, while the man (the husband and the father) receives no blame—or at least this is what appears in public. Not only that, misogyny is further supported as this ‘woman-shaming’ and ‘infidelity-shaming’ was done by women to other women. In both cases, it is unclear whether the infidelity happened for sure. In both cases, there was also no question on whether Pak Dendy (Mr. Dendy) and Faisal Harris were forcing themselves on Nyla and Jennifer, because if this were the case then men should be the ones receiving the blame.
Moving away from the virality of ‘pelakor’ in recent citizen journalism, another recent viral case of ‘woman-shaming’ that went viral is Emak Anik (Mother Anik), who disobeyed traffic law by not wearing a helmet and not bringing her motorcycle driver’s license and vehicle registration documents. When she was stopped by a police officer, she became angry and bit the officer who attempted to fine her. In this case, a bystander recorded this event and uploaded it to his Facebook account. Although attacking a police officer is a punishable crime, the caption of the original Facebook post roughly translates to “Maybe this can be an inspiration to other women with a lack of recklessness when they encounter a problem on the road”.[xvi] This implicitly suggests and further supports the stereotype that women, typically Indonesian women, do not know how to follow traffic regulations, and are bad drivers in general.
Although the case of Emak Anik is not as viral as the case of Bu Dendy or Jennifer Dunn, there is a pattern that can be seen when it comes to the portrayal of women in Indonesia’s citizen journalism, even in this modern age. These three citizen journalism videos gained a large number of views, shares and comments in a short amount of time, and many people seemed to enjoy the content.[xvii] This indicates there is a social acceptance to misogyny. Misogynist beliefs, attitudes, expectations and portrayal of women have long existed in our day-to-day life. Though more and more people oppose to this social construct, it is still widely spread in Indonesia. With social media, uninformed citizens now have a new digital platform to spread misogynist news and views. Misogyny is an embedded system in our culture that has now transferred to digital media.
When it comes to citizen journalism, everyone may have their own definition of news. Although it comes with issues, this right of democracy should not be taken away. It is then up to the professional or mainstream media to re-share citizen journalism that is accurate and credible.[xviii] Ultimately, it is the right of citizens whose role, in this case, is both as the producer and consumer of digital journalism, to be well informed and educated on creating and sharing news that do not promote further discrimination against anyone.
Editors: Diah Ratna Pratiwi, M.Dev & Nabeel Khawarizmy Muna, S.IP
picture: pexels
[i] Kementerian Komunikasi dan Informatika Republik Indonesia. (2018). Jumlah Pengguna Internet 2017 Meningkat, Kominfo Terus Lakukan Percepatan Pembangunan Broadband. [online]. KOMINFO. Available at: https://kominfo.go.id/content/detail/12640/siaran-pers-no-53hmkominfo022018-tentang-jumlah-pengguna-internet-2017-meningkat-kominfo-terus-lakukan-percepatan-pembangunan-broadband/0/siaran_pers [Accessed at: 28 Feb. 2018].
[ii] Vaswani, K. (2012). Indonesia’s Love Affair with Social Media. [online]. BBC News Asia. Available at: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-17054056 [Accessed at: 26 Feb. 2018].
[iii] AT Internet. (2018). Digital Analytics Vocabulary and Definitions. [online]. AT Internet. Available at: https://www.atinternet.com/en/glossary/ [Accessed at: 7 Mar. 2018].
Mobile-first: a strategy on building your website with your mobile users in mind, with the main goal of improving these mobile users’ experience on your site.
Mobile-only: a strategy which is built uniquely around mobile devices.
[iv] Kemp, S. (2017). Digital in Southeast Asia in 2017. [online]. We Are Social. Available at: https://wearesocial.com/special-reports/digital-southeast-asia-2017 [Accessed at: 26 Feb. 2018].
[v] Mutsvairo, B. (2016). What is News in the 21st Century?. [online]. The Conversation. Available at: https://theconversation.com/what-is-news-in-the-21st-century-55073 [Accessed at: 26 Feb. 2018].
[vi] Hofstede, G. (1983). The Cultural Relativity of Organizational Practices and Theories. Journal of International Business Studies, 14(2), pp. 75–89.
[vii] Hofstede Insights. (2018). Country Comparison: Indonesia. [online]. Hofstede Insights. Available at: https://www.hofstede-insights.com/country-comparison/indonesia/ [Accessed at: 26 Feb. 2018].
[viii] Suwana, F. & Lily. (2017). Empowering Indonesian Women Through Building Digital Media Literacy. Kasetsart Journal of Social Sciences. 38(3), pp. 212–217.
[ix] Arsyam, I. (2018). Terungkap! Ini Alasan Pak Dendy Transfer Uang Berkali-Kali Hingga Nylla Nylala Bisa Beli Rumah. [online]. Tribun News Makassar. Available at: http://makassar.tribunnews.com/2018/02/21/terungkap-ini-alasan-pak-dendy-transfer-uang-berkali-kali-hingga-nylla-nylala-bisa-beli-rumah?page=4[Accessed at: 20 Feb. 2018].
[x] Rahman, B. (2017). Alasan Mengapa Shafa Harris Maki-maki Jennifer Dunn Dengan Bahasa Inggris, Greget!. [online] Tribun News. Available at: http://style.tribunnews.com/2017/11/23/alasan-mengapa-shafa-harris-maki-maki-jennifer-dunn-dengan-bahasa-inggris-greget?page=2 [Accessed at: 7 Mar. 2018].
[xi] Priambodo, A. (2017). Profil Diretas, Status Profesi Jennifer Dunn Diubah Jadi Pelakor. [online]. Okezone. Available at:https://celebrity.okezone.com/read/2017/11/24/33/1819624/profil-diretas-status-profesi-jennifer-dunn-diubah-jadi-pelakor [Accessed at: 7 Mar. 2018].
[xii] Anggie, H. (2018). Ditangkap Polisi, Jennifer Dunn Kena Karma Pelakor?. [online]. Liputan 6. Available at: http://showbiz.liputan6.com/read/3212886/ditangkap-polisi-jennifer-dunn-kena-karma-pelakor [Accessed at: 7 Mar. 2018].
[xiii] Martin, L. (2018). In Indonesia, a Sexist Term for ‘The Other Woman’. [online]. The Conversation. Available at: https://theconversation.com/in-indonesia-a-sexist-term-for-the-other-woman-92290 [Accessed at: 25 Feb. 2018].
[xiv] Methanisa, K. (2017). Kenapa di Perselingkuhan Yang Lebih Sering Disalahkan Cuma Perempuan ‘Pelakor’?. [online]. Vice Indonesia. Available at: https://www.vice.com/id_id/article/43nejw/kenapa-di-perselingkuhan-yang-lebih-sering-disalahkan-cuma-perempuan-pelakor [Accessed at: 25 Feb. 2018].
[xv] Badudu, A. (2017). Masih Ngotot Pakai Istilah Pelakor? Oke, Tapi Sebut Cowoknya Sebagai ‘Paltit’ Dong. [online]. Vice Indonesia. Available at: https://www.vice.com/id_id/article/mb9qjy/masih-ngotot-pakai-istilah-pelakor-oke-tapi-sebut-cowoknya-sebagai-paltit-dong [Accessed at: 25 Feb. 2018].
[xvi] Gozali, R. (2018). Inilah Kata Polisi Digigit Perempuan yang Akan Ditilangnya, Begini Kondisi Wanita Itu Sekarang. [online]. Tribun News Jateng. Available at: http://jateng.tribunnews.com/2018/02/23/inilah-kata-polisi-digigit-perempuan-yang-akan-ditilangnya-inilah-kondisi-wanita-itu-saat-ini?page=4 [Accessed at: 25 Feb. 2018].
[xvii] BBC Indonesia. (2018). Video viral ‘Bu Dendy’ dan ‘yang salah’ dengan istilah ‘pelakor’. [online]. BBC Indonesia. Available at: http://www.bbc.com/indonesia/trensosial-43124629 [Accessed at: 25 Feb. 2018].
[xviii] Mutsvairo, B. (2016).
