Response about : A shade too opaque for comfort

Pornography still ignites controversy in Indonesia. Some radical religion movement mentioned that pornography is against the religious values that the majority believes. But the other group states that pornography itself still doesn’t have any visible “boundaries” and their opinion that what they’ve done is another way to illustrate an art.

Actually according to my personal opinion as an Indonesian, pornography has disturbed the public since Playboy has issued its first copy. It seems like they accuse Playboy as the “founding father” men’s magazine in Indonesia.

The fact is that’s not true at all. Lots of other media that depict clearly about women’s body which have published long before Playboy itself. This is the problem that needs to be criticized. Why just after the Playboy published the first copy, the Indonesians started to strike for pornography?

It seems like Indonesian-version Playboy is the pioneer for all the pornographic media in Indonesia. The truth is that Playboy just followed the success of its rivals which have been published in Indonesia, like Maxim, FHM, and Male Emporium. Moreover, Indonesian
Playboy seems softer when dealing with the depictions of women if we compare them with other similar magazines. Not just that it’s worse if we compared with cheap tabloids which are sold freely in the interchange kiosk in Jakarta.
The rejections tend to be radical with sweeping without permission letter to kiosks and bookstores and also burned tabloids or magazines which they assume to be “pornographic”.

Anti-pornography law, especially about soft-pornography still becomes a polemic for us. Breasts, hips, and buttocks aren’t allowed to be shown fully or partially. Fine will be placed onto the offender as to be mentioned in the article. If this law applied, what would happen to indigenous tribes in Papua who don’t wear clothes (men and women) only koteka for man and grass skirts with no bra for women to cover only their primary genital parts. Do they have to be given fine for their cultural habits? What about dancers in Bali? All these are Indonesia’s national wealth. Would it be nice if indigenous tribes and dancers are being forced to wear “proper” garments? Things like these are the same as destroying Indonesia’s culture.

Furthermore we face a farcical paradox. Some group speaks for the Parliament to legalize the anti-pornography law. But the same group often practices polygamy. If there’s a law that manages pornography, it should have also a law that deals with polygamy. It’s because both pornography and polygamy are dealing with the women’s rights. It seems like they pointed women as the scapegoat for the temptation of their faith just because their attributes as a women. This shows us about how they treated women, not only as their partner, but also a threat. Women in Indonesia are being exploited by the men both with polygamy and pornography. If there’s a law about pornography and there isn’t a law about polygamy, this would tell the incapability of Indonesian law-makers to establish justice.