A

mid stiff competition to retain popularity and readers, some media outlets continue to promote the objectification of women in the hunt for clicks and market share.

While making news for reasons other than their appearance, women who become subjects in the news are often talked about in relation to their “unique and beautiful” looks, as suggested by headlines.

In the past few weeks, for instance, media outlets have highlighted how a female diplomat, Nara Rakhmatia, 33, robustly dismissed allegations about Indonesia from six heads of Pacific Island countries during the recent UN General Assembly in New York.

Many can argue whether or not Nara’s arguments were politically substantial, but some media outlets gravitated to the storytelling aspect of her beauty, which readers seemed more interested in.

Publications and facts about Nara’s beauty and her impressive job as a diplomat dominate the internet and have become the most read and commented articles at many news websites. Meanwhile, her videos on YouTube are mostly titled with headlines such as “pretty diplomat”.

“Young, pretty, smart and knows the problems. She [Nara] is professional,” a news portal account under the username Joy Lugas said in response to an article about Nara’s educational background.

Many media outlets and their readers have also discussed the beauty of other women in relation to their jobs.

Earlier this year, media outlets published news about a female police officer, Nurmala Hilda, after she frequently posted selfies on her Instagram account.

Media outlets also talked about 16-year-old Gloria Natapradja Hamel with headlines pointing to her beauty originating from her French-Indonesian blood. She made headlines in August when she nearly failed to join the national flag-hoisting team for Independence Day.

Readers respond well to these publications. Aji Mulyanto Sakti, 43, favors these kinds of articles.

“I always like it when beautiful women do something uncommon. For instance, if a news story is titled ‘Pretty Woman Climbs Highest Mountain in the World’, I will open it first,” he said, adding that he preferred “soft” news instead of hard news.

“News like that [about beautiful women] is more entertaining. I will get a headache if I read about politics every day,” Aji said.

This phenomenon, on the other hand, is criticized by activists, who argue that such a practice abuses women’s rights.

“News that highlights the beauty aspect of women instead of what they do is sexist because women should be seen for their professionalism instead of their physical beauty,” women’s rights activist Gadis Arivia said on Sunday.

Gadis said media outlets needed to increase their journalistic ethics by delivering substantive messages to the public, instead of highlighting the beauty of women for clicks.

Media researcher Ignatius Haryanto told The Jakarta Post on Saturday that both media outlets, particularly online outlets, and readers had triggered this phenomenon.

He said media outlets needed to increase traffic. So, aside from hard news, media outlets often published soft news to please readers, such as stories about beautiful
women.

“Readers like it when the media puts out stories about ‘beautiful women this, beautiful women that’. They see it as unique, and hence want to know more,” he said

He said even the most-read articles at the country’s most prestigious media outlets were often soft articles instead of important ones.

“Important articles inform the public about things related to the public interest, while interesting news talks about what is most interesting to the public. These two are very different things and I am sure that interesting news attracts more readers.” (adt)