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To be or not to be feminist
Take to the streets: Indonesia's democratic backdrop has allowed feminist movements to flourish, although a pushback has also been growing
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ake to the streets: Indonesia's democratic backdrop has allowed feminist movements to flourish, although a pushback has also been growing.
While Indonesia is becoming increasingly open to women’s movements like the Women’s March and One Billion Rising, such movements also face growing opposition — most recently from the Indonesia Without Feminism group.
“Even though their agenda is the exact opposite of the feminist fight for women’s autonomy and gender equality, this group has stimulated the discourse for feminist concepts,” Atnike suggested.
“Feminists need to see this as an opportunity to explain the concept of feminism in a more concrete way to society in general.”
For Atnike, feminism is a harmonization of thought and action built by a critical view of unfair dominant practices and conceptions.
“Indonesian women prove that feminism is a way to provide justice for the marginalized, not only for women but also the rural community, the urban poor, those with marginalized gender identities, the disabled, and others.”
Atnike believes that gender equality can only be achieved by changing the perspectives of both men and women. Jurnal Perempuan works with the New Men’s Alliance, a group of male feminist allies that aims to change the paradigm of what it means to be a man.
Mass media plays an important role too. Atnike noticed some media outlets had dedicated columns and journalists to reporting on women’s issues with gender-based perspectives.
“However, this kind of luxury is rarely afforded by the media in general. We’ve seen online publications that are careless in their reporting because of their lack of knowledge of gender equality, as well as their penchant for ‘click baiting’,” she said.
