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Suffering from pornophobia?
Setiono Sugiharto , Jakarta | Thu, 04/03/2008 1:37 AM | Opinion
The brouhaha over the passage of the online porn law by the House of Representatives recently has sparked an endless debate as to what actually constitutes pornography.
It is, however, not that easy to arrive at a single definition of pornography as everyone has considerably different perceptions of it. Debating it will not be worth the effort because we will never reach any mutual agreement of its precise definition.
Thus, the principle weakness of the law is that its formulation is not based on something well-defined. As such, it is subject to multiple interpretations and consequently cannot act as a binding law.
Issues dealing with indecency have long been subject to heated debate in Indonesian society. The strong opposition to pornography mostly comes from religious and conservative groups. These groups are usually the first party to voice their antagonism against any kind of act they consider indecent and disgraceful.
They often justify their position as "a guardian" against immoral acts whose function it is to safeguard the nation's morality. In essence, they are the moral majority of the nation.
Recently, the antipornography stance has become an infamous slogan for political campaigns. Those living in Tangerang are probably familiar with the slogan, along with the picture of the incumbent mayor, posted on a big banner. It reads Jauhi prostitusi, judi dan miras untuk menciptakan masyarakat yang akhlakqul karimah (Refrain from prostitution, gambling and alcohol in order to create a society of good conduct).
In the name of morality, our society has always been (purportedly) averse to anything deemed indecent or promiscuous. In our context, indecency and promiscuity have been the absolute measure of whether or not one has good morality.
Now with easy online access to porn sites, there is fear, particularly among parents, that their children become consumers of adult-oriented websites.
All of these phenomena suggest our society has been suffering from pornophobia, a term derived from the Greek porne (prostitutes) and phobia (fear), which can literary be rendered as fear of prostitutes.
We are always brainwashed into thinking pornography is the byproduct of Western culture and that it should, by all means, be condemned. The banal axiom is that indecency, be it visual or printed, is incompatible with and can erode our Eastern norms and mores. However, this is not necessarily correct.
If one pays a visit to the Shiva temple of Sukuh on Mount Lawu in Central Java, one can witness a "pornographic" panorama of a large relief in the temple's gateway depicting the male's genitalia (locally called lingga) pressing against the females' vagina (yoni). Along the way to the temple one will be flabbergasted upon seeing an ancient statue of a man holding his erect penis. This, indubitably, bears evidence that pornography is historically emblematic of our ancestors' civilization.
But are we really suffering from pornophobia? Is the endorsement of an online porn law by the House a kind of legal manifestation of a pornophobic society?
Let's not be hypocrites. To be candid, we are, for different reasons, always taking an avid interest in something related to (semi-) pornography. The consumption of (semi-) pornographic material such as foreign hardcore porn films, adult magazines, tabloids, newspapers still prevail ubiquitously. They are readily available for public consumption. Nevertheless, no stern measures have been taken so far by the authorities to ban the selling of these materials.
Now that the online porn law has been endorsed and has come into effect, imposing a severe sanction of a maximum of three years in prison or a fine of up to Rp 1 billion (some US$107,000) for those caught red-handed providing and downloading pornographic websites.
This may certainly augur ill for the owners of many Internet cafes (warnet) mostly operating in the capital. However, the extent to which the new law can be effective in combating pornography and porn acts has been doubted by many.
After all, who can guarantee, upon the passage of the law, the sexual violence rate in the country will automatically plummet? Who can guarantee our young generation will avoid free sex? Who will dare give us the assurance the law will prevent people from committing adultery and being sexual promiscuous? Who can assure us the law will make people refrain from other perverted sexual acts, as has been the case of our respected lawmaker whose leaked sex tape with the country's famous dangdut singer once caused a public uproar?
No one knows for sure, and it will remain to be seen. But one this is for sure. Lust or sexual desire is a divine endowment God has bestowed upon His creations. It is an inherent disposition that cannot be controlled by other people, not even by the leviathan of the endorsed online porn law.
The writer is chief editor of the Indonesian Journal of English Language Teaching. He can be reached at setiono.sugiharto@atmajaya.ac.id.
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Adam MJV, Jakarta (not verified) — Fri, 05/02/2008 - 8:00pm
Prima, you shouldn`t overreact, what Kowasky writes has got nothing to do with Wilders at all of course, in fact Kowasky has got some good points.
Everybody enjoys sex, muslims (including myself) too.
Extremism in religion is never good! Extreme Jewish colonisation is also not good, extreme catholics forcing their religion in South America is wrong as well, and therefore extreme muslims, saying other religions are hedonism, are wrong too.
But that is not the point here. It is about porn, the government accepted this new law to ban online pornography, which is absolutely impossible as most porn on the net originates from the USA. Now how does the government think to ban that?
How easy can it be: If the government is so scared that children see pornography then everybody has got there own responsibility to protect there children for it by using filters!
How can you hit people with impossible fines, Indonesian people will go bankrupt. Will the government try to hit expatriates instead to get more money out of them?
Prostitution is every where around the world, in fact the prostitutes maybe perform the oldest existing "job" in the world... How can you try to say something like this doesn't exist in Indonesia? Does Prima know how many Indonesian girls end up as kind of sex slaves in Saudi Arabia (yes, our fellow muslim brothers...) and the girls are pretending to work as au pair or something like that? You should protect your Indonesian women for something like this. How many brothels and massage parlours with extra service are there in Jakarta, Batam, Surabaya and how come they are there? There would be less brothels if there is less poverty in Indonesia!!! But you can never close all these places as there are always weak man who give in to temptation.
The government would better put their attention to corruption which is the worst that could ever happen to Indonesia! Even the anti-corruption office is corrupt! Indonesia is so rich, but only the rich people enrich themselves! It will never change!
Zachry - Jakarta (not verified) — Fri, 04/25/2008 - 7:10pm
I totally agree with the writer's view.
People in House of Representative who support the endorsement of anti pornographic bills are a bunch of hypocrites, stupid, opportunist, and narrow-minded people. They created the bill to give impression that they come up with something good to the people while they keep on moving with their corruption to enrich themselves all the time. It's to distract people from the real issue that they should be dealing with i.e their corrupted selves.
Lust and sexual desire is indeed a blessing from God for us to enjoy and appreciate. As long as we practise it in a responsible and respectful manner and not harmful other people, the government has no right whatsoever to dictate it. People who despise it in the name of morality are disguising jealousy.
Guile (not verified) — Wed, 04/23/2008 - 8:58am
"The author seems to have been brainwashed into thinking that we have been brainwashed.
Morals are your principles. You do not brainwash yourself."
Morals are your principles? For some people maybe. But you? I doubt it. You've been indoctrinated too (or brainwashed, if you wish).
You don't believe me? Ask yourself this? How different are your morals from your parents? From your clerics? From the majority of people you were raised with? Or did you just happen to innately come to exactly the same moral conclusions as an adult as the people who taught you morality when you grew up?
If you had grown up in a western country with a western family, your morals would be totally different and you know it. I'm not saying better or worse, but definitely different.
We are all ethnocentric to some degree. Some of us try hard to see the other side, other people are just in denial about it and assume that their culture is the only "true" culture and everything that doesn't go along with the their culture is just decadence and immorality. These narrow=minded people are the ones who prevent people of different cultures from living in peace together.
Soemarwoto, K (not verified) — Sat, 04/19/2008 - 9:07pm
"We are always brainwashed into thinking pornography is the byproduct of Western culture and that it should, by all means, be condemned."
The author seems to have been brainwashed into thinking that we have been brainwashed.
Morals are your principles. You do not brainwash yourself.
Their boundaries are difficult to define. Seeing how people like the author's try to push them aside, I doubt if they still exist at all in society.
R. A. Stallmann (not verified) — Mon, 04/14/2008 - 2:15am
I have to respond to a couple of these responses because they are just so ignorant, in terms of both religion and science. First of all, the author of this opinion column AND many of the comments posted argue that since sexual desire is from God, any restraints upon it must go against God's will. I can't speak to the other religions' point of view, but from an Islamic point of view, God gave us sexual and other motivations for two reasons: first, to fulfill some basic function (in this case, reproduction) through moderate and disciplined realization of our desires (in marriage); and second, the opportunity to grow spiritually by disciplining and controlling ourselves, submitting to God by exercising our own free will. Yes, those desires are from God, but it does not mean we have license to go to extremes in following them--quite the contrary. Islamic sages have clarified this point for hundreds of years, going back to the Prophet--the ignorance of these people about Islam is shocking. Secondly, one writer claims that sexual desire is entirely "explained" by sexual selection, therefore there's no need for God. This typical Darwinian view of evolution is simply baseless. Natural and sexual selection explain ONLY the spread of reproductively advantageous traits--it does not explain the origin of those traits, nor how variation is maintained in a population, nor the developmental processes that translate genes into workable phenoypes (anatomy, etc.), nor the structure of DNA, the genome and the proteome--without all of which, natural and sexual selection would be impossible. Finally, the idea that moral outrage is "selected" because it is a "signal" of something is just a story without any hard scientific basis at all. Please, atheists, stop trying to use evolution as a way to argue God's non-existence. It's just ridiculous and self-serving.
Prima (not verified) — Sun, 04/13/2008 - 2:54am
Get a life Kowasky, just get a life! Stop your crooked thinking and acting like Wilders lovers will you? We are not that bad.
T. Cotton, Pattaya Thailand (not verified) — Thu, 04/03/2008 - 5:47pm
Enforcement of the proposed porn law raises all kinds of privacy issues. Do the police have the right to enter people's homes to snoop on what they are doing on the internet? If a parent of 5 children has accessed "porn", is caught and convicted to 3 years in jail and insolvency from the fine, is that fair to the remaining spouse and children?
Will police and prosecutors just use the law as another tool of extortion to enrich themselves?
God endowed all living species with sexual desire, so who are the legislators who are trying to outlaw it? In one sense, they are fighting God's intent.
Borsa — Thu, 04/03/2008 - 10:23am
Lust and sexual desire is not, as the author of the article says, "a divine endowment God has bestowed upon His creations".
Sexual desire is widespread in the animal kingdom, because it results from millions of years of sexual selection. Let us imagine beings who have less sexual desire than others: they are going to mate less frequently and end up in having less children. They will be counter-selected. The fact is that morality too has beneficial effects for reproduction: signs of fidelity, commitment to work and family are important to a potential mate. To claim one's disgust of pornography is a way to signal commitment and it is therefore selected too.
God has no role in sexual selection.
Philippe Borsa
Noumea, New Caledonia
Kowasky, Jakarta (not verified) — Thu, 04/03/2008 - 4:21am
Anti Pornography as Muslim political tool
It all sound noble : anti pornography. It sounds so right, but watch out for tricks played by the Muslim groups.
Ever since the down fall of Soeharto, extermist Muslim groups have been pushing the shariah law into Indonesian judicial institutions. In several regencies , they have successfully put that into practice. They say it is application of Islam law. But who are we? Most Indonesian may not be Muslim. Why do they have to obey YOUR Islamic law ? The Muslim majority has been practicing UNDEMOCRATIC enforcement of their religion into other's life. They are not God's followers, they are a bunch of thugs misusing God's name.
Another example : Why nite life places must be banned during Ramadhan. Their answer is "Bothering with our prayer". If I say your face is bothering with my prayer, can I punch you? Using provocation as an excuse for crime are only for people who think everyone else is an idiot.
This is massive bullying by Muslim group in order to bring Indonesia into become a Muslim country; not a diverse country as our founding fathers wanted when they fighted for the Independence. Thats why these Muslims are traitors in jilbab. Building Indonesia into a country of terorist.
Anti pornography ? Do you wank yourselves once a while ? Well, in shariah law you have already committed sin. You hyprocrites!