Maskulinitas: Culture, Gender and Politics in Indonesia (Monash Papers on Southeast Asia)

Maskulinitas is a ground-breaking treatment of the representation of men and masculinity in Indonesian culture, from Suharto's New Order era to the present. The book includes critical analyses of Indonesian cultural expressions in literature, cinema, society, and politics. Drawing on the ideas of Bakhtin, Bourdieu, Maier, and others, author Marshall Clark explores, with acute insight and a critical eye, constructions of the masculine in contemporary Indonesian society. Maskulinitas also challenges the way scholars of Indonesia have held firm to the categories and frameworks of gender studies - a field still often equated with women's studies - while offering fascinating insights into representations and images of men as engendered and engendering subjects. As a timely addition to the generally conservative field of scholarship on gender in Southeast Asia, Maskulinitas demonstrates that gender studies need to encompass 'the man question,' especially considering Indonesia's strongly patriarchal society, where the norms of feminine subordination and submission are legitimized by the ideologies of the state and the strictures of religion. Ultimately, this book challenges the reader with the notion that if the subordinate status of Indonesian women is to be highlighted and some sort of gender equality achieved, then the representations, subjectivities, and practices of Indonesian men must be addressed.