Feminist Knowledge, Self-Empowerment and Sisterhood, and Safe Space: How the “Perempuan Berkisah” Community Group Empowers Indonesian Women in the Pandemic Era

This research aims to understand how the Perempuan Berkisah community group empowers women during the pandemic in Indonesia and how to critically interpret the phenomenon of women’s empowerment. The research employed a content analysis method investigating Perempuan Berkisah’s Instagram account and interviewing and distributing a questionnaire to the community’s founder, committees, and general members. This study analyzed the kinds of empowerment narratives offered, identified the dynamic narratives on the Instagram account since its first establishment in 2019, and critically read the results of Instagram feed content analysis and interviews about women’s empowerment. This research revealed three elements to build a women’s empowerment narrative: feminist knowledge, selfhood and sisterhood, and a safe space. The concept of empowerment offered is empowerment focusing on efforts to help, strengthen, and support other women instead of empowering alone and leaving other women behind. This research also analyzed missing or absent elements in women’s empowerment narratives of Perempuan Berkisah’s Instagram account. The findings discovered insufficient narratives of men, formal structure statements, and dialogues with groups with different points of view. This insufficiency interprets the internalization of neoliberal values emphasizing individual responsibility to accelerate or develop oneself as an individual or part of a community; consequently, it neglects the state responsibility to create gender equality in society. This research contributes to a study on online feminist activism, women’s community, and women and the pandemic, especially in Indonesia

Revenge Through Haunting: Expression of Women’s Anger in the Movies, Tookaidoo Yotsuya Kaidan and Sundel Bolong

Tookaidoo Yotsuya Kaidan (1959) and Sundel Bolong (1981) are horror movies from Japan and Indonesia, respectively, about women who are oppressed by men and subsequently take revenge on them after their deaths. The key similarity between these two movies is that they have central female characters who turn into ghosts in order to express their anger towards their male oppressors. This study aimed to see how women's anger is depicted in Tookaidoo Yotsuya Kaidan and Sundel Bolong, using verbal and visual text analysis and the concept of power by Heilbrun, male gaze by Mulvey, and monstrous-feminine by Creed to read the meaning behind woman’s anger as it is expressed in the form of a ghost in these movies. The research found that these women cannot express their anger in the real world, which is controlled by the patriarchal order. Life after death is the only space where they can express their anger. Both movies can consequently be interpreted as cultural texts that internalize patriarchal ideology in Japanese and Indonesian society.

WORKING FROM HOME: WOMEN BETWEEN PUBLIC AND DOMESTIC SPHERES AFTER THE OUTBREAK OF COVID-19

This study examines how working mothers negotiate her gender role and strategize in facing the condition when domestic and public sphere exist in one space called home after the outbreak COVID-19 pandemic in Indonesia. The research questions are ” how far does working from home give an impact in changing patriarchal gender relation and distribution of work division at home?”, and “to what extends women modify their home functions in coping with COVID-19 pandemic condition and in minimizing patriarchal authority at their own home?” The research uses qualitative methods, including in-depth interviews and questioner filling, and focuses on samples of 30 middle class working women, living in Jabodetabek (Jakarta, Bogor, Depok, Tangerang, Bekasi) area. This study argues that as the impact of Covid pandemic condition, the middle class working mothers, who have been “forced to go back” to their homes, seemingly, use their homes as “struggling places” to renegotiate the old patriarchal role divisions and unequal gender/power relations. Moreover, it is argued that their homes, to some extends, are used as learning sites for gender equality values, and modified to fulfill their extended functions: as domestic, work, and social spheres

The Development and the Future of Japanese Literature Studies in Indonesia

This paper examines how Japanese literature studies in Indonesia developed. I analyzed titles of the University of Indonesia Japanese literature bachelor thesis from the 1990s to 2017 and the articles presented in the Association of Japanese Studies in Indonesia (ASJI) symposium from 2014 to 2017, written by Japanese literature scholars based in Indonesia. The result shows that until the 1990s, students tended to choose literary works of key figures in Japanese literature, such as Mori Ogai, Natsume Soseki, Akutagawa Ryunosuke. Since, the late 2000s, however the literary works analyzed for bachelor thesis have become more varied. They now include fantasy novels, teenage novels, and literature written by women. Findings also reveal that few participants at the ASJI symposium from 2014 to 2017 presented papers on Japanese literature is low. While it is small in number, the literature themes presented at the ASJI symposium are rich and varied, including Zainichi literature, women’s literature, and children’s literature. This paper also examines reference books about Japanese literature written in Indonesian. The number of such books is still small, and requires expansion. Starting from mid-2000s, some Japanese literature scholars based in Indonesia completed postgraduate degrees abroad. Some of them have returned to Indonesia, implementing what they have learned in Japan, while other scholars have remained in Japan to pursue their studies. More work is needed for the significant development of Japanese literature studies in Indonesia, although the current progress is a good start

Enchi Fumiko's Komachi Hensoo and Toeti Heraty's Calon Arang: Kisah Perempuan Patriarki: The Recreation of Myth from Woman's Perspective

This study observes how the myths of Onono Komachi and Calon Arang are recreated and reinterpreted by a Japanese and an Indonesian woman writer, Enchi Fumiko and Toeti Heraty. By comparing Enchi’s Komachi Henso and Herati’s Calon Arang：The Story of A Woman Sacrificed to Patriarchy, this study aims to investigate universal values of patriarchy from different regions and explore how women writers attempt to rattle dominant discourses on how women should be positioned in society. This study applies the textual analysis method using a gender perspective, focusing on the process of recreating the myths of Onono Komachi and Calon Arang. Three key findings emerge from the analysis. First, in patriarchy-dominant discourse, both Onono Komachi and Calon Arang are depicted as bad and cruel women. They refuse to submit to patriarchal norms, and this refusal positions them at the periphery of society. Second, Enchi and Heraty recreate these legends by giving voice to a woman’s perspective. In Enchi’s Komachi Henso, Komachi refuses to submit to a Buddhist priest at the end of her life, instead seducing him eternally. This act can be read as a creation of a rebel woman questioning patriarchal values. In Heraty’s Calon Arang, the narrator explains how Calon Arang is treated unfairly in patriarchy society. The narrator attempts to highlight the socio-cultural conditions faced by Calon Arang. Third, it is found that the act of recreating stories is the author’s means to challenge the established myths of patriarchy. Women writers from different regions-in this case Japan and Indonesia-share similar experiences and strategies in voicing their perspective by recreating the established myths of their society

Tezukuri dan Percaya Diri: Representasi Perempuan dalam Iklan Cokelat Lotte Ghana Edisi Valentine

Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk melihat bagaimana perempuan direpresentasikan pada iklan cokelat Lotte Ghana di hari Valentine yang ditayangkan oleh televisi Jepang selama satu dekade terakhir (2010-2019). Penelitian ini menggunakan metode analisis teks dengan teori representasi dari Stuart Hall dan konsep stereotip sifat dan peran gender dari Mary E. Kite. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa iklan cokelat Lotte Ghana mendukung wacana perempuan ideal yang sesuai dengan standar norma patriarki. Sekalipun perempuan dalam iklan ini memiliki karakteristik maskulin seperti aktif, percaya diri, berani, tetapi semua karakteristik itu tetap dibatasi dalam peran femininnya yang aktif di dapur dan membuat cokelat buatan tangan sendiri untuk laki-laki yang disukai. Hal ini menunjukkan bahwa pada hari Valentine perempuan di Jepang memiliki kuasa serta peran aktif untuk berekspresi, tetapi kuasa yang ditampilkan tetap ada kaitannya dengan menyenangkan hati laki-laki, terbatas hanya pada hubungan laki-laki dan perempuan dan tidak berfokus pada perempuan itu sendiri serta tetap berada di ranah domestik. Selain itu, perempuan dalam iklan juga digunakan sebagai alat untuk menarik pembeli cokelat demi meraup keuntungan besar, sehingga dapat disimpulkan pada pembacaan di level  yang lebih dalam, iklan Lotte Ghana merupakan wujud kelindan antara wacana patriarki dan kapitalisme