The Perfect Woman: Transgender Femininity and National Modernity in New Order Indonesia, 1968–1978
Abstract
This article traces the rapid emergence of a discourse of transgender femininity between 1968 and 1978 in Indonesia. This was a decade in which the authoritarian, military regime known as the New Order took its form. Sources gathered from popular and expert state media suggest the centrality of transgender femininity in attempts to secure the meanings of sex and gender. In conversation with an emergent global discourse of transsexuality, Indonesian state doctors and psychologists sought to develop an adequate scientific vocabulary and program of treatment for gender variance. Their interest and support collided, however, with the growing centrality of reproduction to definitions of femininity during the very same period. This article offers an in-depth analysis of the role of state expertise about transgender femininity, in doing so grappling with how emergent forms of selfhood deployed through via gender came to be central to the Indonesian project of national modernity.
References
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———. Professing Selves: Transsexuality and Same-Sex Desire in Contemporary Iran. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2014.
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“Pengadilan Mengabulkan Permohonan Iwan Rubianto Berganti Status Wanita.” Kompas, November 15, 1973, 1, 8.
“Pengalamanku Sebagai Seorang Bentjong.” Mingguan Djaja, November 6, 1968, 26–28.
Pols, Hans. “The Development of Psychiatry in Indonesia: From Colonial to Modern Times.” International Review of Psychiatry 18, no. 4 (2006): 366–67.
“Razzia Wadam.” Kompas, January 17, 1969.
Rudnyckyj, Daromir. Spiritual Economies: Islam, Globalization, and the Afterlife of Development. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2010.
“RSTM Akan Lakukan Operasi Perubahan Kelamin Pertama Di Indonesia.” Kompas, May 24, 1975, 3;
“Rumah Tangga Bentjong Dan Penghuninja.” Mingguan Djaja, October 26, 1968, 7–8.
Scott, Joan W.. “Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis.” The American Historical Review 91, no. 5 (1986): 1053-1075.
“Seminar Operasi Penggantian Kelamin.” Majalah Kesehatan 67 (1978): 11–13, 67–68.
“‘Sex Kejiwaan’ Iwan Memang Wanita.” Kompas, 10 October 1973;
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Stryker, Susan. “Transgender History, Homonormativity, and Disciplinarity.” Radical History Review 2008, no. 100 (2008): 145–57.
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“Tjeritera Seorang Bantji Jang Berpendidikan Universiter.” Mingguan Djaja, October 19, 1968, 4, 10.
“Waria Pengganti Istilah Wadam.” Kompas, June 7, 1978.
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“Aturan Bongkar Pasang Kelamin.” Tempo, September 29, 1973, 14–15.
Barker, Joshua. “Engineers and Political Dreams: Indonesia in the Satellite Age.” Current Anthropology 46, no. 5 (2005): 709.
“Beberapa Tjatatan Tentang: Orang-Orang Bantji,” Siasat, May 20, 1951.
“Bentjong (Bantji),” Mingguan Djaja, October 12, 1968.
Blackwood, Evelyn. “Gender Transgression in Colonial and Postcolonial Indonesia.” The Journal of Asian Studies 64, no. 4 (2005): 849–79
Boellstorff, Tom, The Gay Archipelago: Sexuality and Nation in Indonesia. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005.
———. “Waria, National Transvestites.” In A Coincidence of Desires: Anthropology, Queer Studies, Indonesia, 78-113. Durham: Duke University Press, 2007.
Brenner, Suzanne. “On the Public Intimacy of the New Order: Images of Women in the Popular Indonesian Print Media.” Indonesia, no. 67 (April 1999): 13–37.
Budiman, Arief. “'Wanita-Adam’ - Sebuah Persoalan,” Kompas, January 16, 1969.
Butler, Judith. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. New York: Routledge, 1997.
“Buya Hamka Mengenai Kasus Ganti Kelamin & Pertunangan,” Kompas, 22 September 1973, 1, 12.
“Charles d’eon Pria Jang Hidup Sebagai Wanita,” Mingguan Djaja, November 23, 1968, 14–15, 29.
“Dari Bukan Apa-Apa Sampai Ke Perbuatan Terkutuk,” Kompas, March 17, 1970, 3, 5.
Darmadji, Tjiptono. “Masalah Wadam Dan Pemetjahannya,” Kompas, January 16, 1969.
Davies, Sharyn, Gender Diversity in Indonesia: Sexuality, Islam and Queer Selves. London; New York: Routledge, 2010.
“Di Djakarta Terdapat 15,000 Bantji,” Kompas, 5 August 1968, 2.
Djajadiningrat-Nieuwenhuis, Madelon. “Ibuism and Priyayization: Path to Power?” In Indonesian Women in Focus: Past and Present Notions, edited by Elsbeth Locher-Scholten and Anke Niehof, ), 43–51. Dordrecht: Foris, 1987.
“Dr. Herman: Persoalan Vivian Jangan Dibuat Berlarut-Larut.” Kompas, September 29, 1973, 1, 12.
Dwyer, Leslie. “Spectacular Sexuality: Nationalism, Development and the Politics of Family Planning in Indonesia,” in Gender Ironies of Nationalism: Sexing the Nation, edited by Tamar Mayer, 25–62. London; New York: Routledge, 2002.
“Enam RS Ditunjuk Untuk Pelaksanaan Operasi Ganti Kelamin,” Kompas, July 27, 1979.
Errington, Shelly. Meaning and Power in a Southeast Asian Realm. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1989.
Geertz, Clifford, The Religion of Java. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1976.
Helliwell, Christine. “‘It’s Only a Penis’: Rape, Feminism, and Difference.” Signs 25, no. 3 (2000): 789–816.
Hesselink, Liesbeth. “Prostitution: A Necessary Evil.” In Indonesian Women in Focus: Past and Present Notions, edited by Elsbeth Locher-Scholten and Anke Niehof, 205-224. Dordrecht: Foris, 1987.
Howell, Julia Day. “Indonesia’s Salafist Sufis.” Modern Asian Studies 44, no. 5 (2010): 1029–1051.
“Huntsa Musykilah (Trans-Sexual),” Majalah Kesehatan no. 67 (1978): 34–35, 56–58.
Indonesian Ministry of Health, Keputusan Menteri Kesehatan Republik Indonesia Indonesia 253/Men.Kes/SK/VI/1979 “Tentang Penunjukan Rumah Sakit Dan Tim Ahli Sebagai Tempat Dan Pelaksana Operasi Penggantian Kelamin” (1979).
———. Keputusan Menteri Kesehatan Republik Indonesia Indonesia, 191/MENKES/SK/III/1989 “Tentang Penunjukan Rumah Sakit Dan Tim Ahli Sebagai Tempat Dan Pelaksana Operasi Penyesuaian Kelamin.” (1989).
Jackson, Peter. “Capitalism and Global Queering: National Markets, Parallels Among Sexual Cultures, and Multiple Queer Modernities.” GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies 15, no. 3 (2009): 357–95.
Jones, Carla, “Better Women: The Cultural Politics of Gendered Expertise in Indonesia.” American Anthropologist 112, no. 2 (June 2010): 270–282.
Karsono. “Sedikit Tentang Hal Banci.” Majalah Kesehatan, vol. 37 1973, 89–90.
“Kekuatan Do’a Dalam Usaha Menjingkirkan Kebentjongan.” Mingguan Djaja, November 2, 1968, 3–4, 12.
“Kelamin Itu Sudah Berobah.” Tempo, June 21, 1975, 40–41.
“Korban2 Lesbianisme.” Mingguan Djaja, November 30, 1968. 14–15.
Kusno, Abidin. The Appearances of Memory : Mnemonic Practices of Architecture and Urban Form in Indonesia. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2010.
Lim, T. H.. “Hoge Raad Nederland Tentang Perobahan Pencatatan Sipil.” Kompas, March 14, 1974.
Majelis Ulemah Indonesia [Indonesian Council of Islamic Scholars]. “Operasi Perubahan/Penyempurnaan Kelamin.” Fatwa (1980), 6.
“Masalah Bentjong (Bantji) Di Ibukota.” Mingguan Djaja, November 9, 1968, 5–7, 40.
Masdani, A. “Pemeriksaan Psikologik Pada Bantji.” Djiwa no. 2 (1968): 55–60.
Meyerowitz, Joanne J.. How Sex Changed: A History of Transsexuality in the United States. Cambridge, MA.: Harvard University Press, 2002.
Mitchell, Timothy. Rule of Experts: Egypt, Techno-Politics, Modernity. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002.
Murtagh, Ben. Genders and Sexualities in Indonesian Cinema: Constructing Gay, Lesbi and Waria Identities on Screen. London: Routledge, 2013.
Najmabadi, Afsaneh. “Verdicts of Science, Rulings of Faith: Transgender/Sexuality in Contemporary Iran.” Social Research, no. 2 (2011): 533–556.
———. Professing Selves: Transsexuality and Same-Sex Desire in Contemporary Iran. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2014.
Newton, Esther. Mother Camp: Female Impersonators in America. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1979.
Peacock, James L.. Rites of Modernization: Symbolic and Social Aspects of Indonesian Proletarian Drama. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1968.
Peletz, Michael G.. Gender Pluralism: Southeast Asia since Early Modern Times. New York: Routledge, 2009.
“Pembahasan Beberapa Aspek Medis Sexologi.” Majalah Kesehatan, vol. 36 1973, 38–42.
Pemberton, John. “Recollections from ‘Beautiful Indonesia’ (Somewhere Beyond the Postmodern).” Public Culture 6, no. 2 (1994): 241–62.
“Pengadilan Mengabulkan Permohonan Iwan Rubianto Berganti Status Wanita.” Kompas, November 15, 1973, 1, 8.
“Pengalamanku Sebagai Seorang Bentjong.” Mingguan Djaja, November 6, 1968, 26–28.
Pols, Hans. “The Development of Psychiatry in Indonesia: From Colonial to Modern Times.” International Review of Psychiatry 18, no. 4 (2006): 366–67.
“Razzia Wadam.” Kompas, January 17, 1969.
Rudnyckyj, Daromir. Spiritual Economies: Islam, Globalization, and the Afterlife of Development. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2010.
“RSTM Akan Lakukan Operasi Perubahan Kelamin Pertama Di Indonesia.” Kompas, May 24, 1975, 3;
“Rumah Tangga Bentjong Dan Penghuninja.” Mingguan Djaja, October 26, 1968, 7–8.
Scott, Joan W.. “Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis.” The American Historical Review 91, no. 5 (1986): 1053-1075.
“Seminar Operasi Penggantian Kelamin.” Majalah Kesehatan 67 (1978): 11–13, 67–68.
“‘Sex Kejiwaan’ Iwan Memang Wanita.” Kompas, 10 October 1973;
Shiraishi, Saya. Young Heroes: The Indonesian Family in Politics. Ithaca, NY: SEAP Publications, 1997.
Siegel, James T.. Fetish, Recognition, Revolution. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1997.
Stoler, Ann. Race and the Education of Desire: Foucault’s History of Sexuality and the Colonial Order of Things. Durham: Duke University Press, 1995.
Stone, Sandy. “The Empire Strikes Back: A Posttranssexual Manifesto.” Camera Obscura 10, 2 no. 29 (1992): 150–76.
Stryker, Susan. “Transgender History, Homonormativity, and Disciplinarity.” Radical History Review 2008, no. 100 (2008): 145–57.
Suryakusuma, Julia I.. “The State and Sexuality in New Order Indonesia.” In Fantasizing the Feminine in Indonesia, edited by Laurie J. Sears, 92-119. Durham: Duke University Press, 1996.
“Tjeritera Seorang Bantji Jang Berpendidikan Universiter.” Mingguan Djaja, October 19, 1968, 4, 10.
“Waria Pengganti Istilah Wadam.” Kompas, June 7, 1978.
Weston, Kath. “Lesbian/Gay Studies in the House of Anthropology.” Annual Review of Anthropology no. 22 (1993): 339–67.
Wieringa, Saskia. “Discursive Contestations Concerning Intersex in Indonesia.” In Sex and Sexualities in Contemporary Indonesia: Sexual Politics, Health, Diversity, and Representations, edited by Linda Rae Bennett and Sharyn Graham Davies. New York; London: Routledge, 2015.
