This chapter examines Indonesian commercial filmmakers’ struggles to undermine
bapakism around the gender relations of power. The period of 2000–2014 saw major
changes in the established structure of the gender relations of power. The changes included a surge of women into key public-sphere roles, especially in politics and the economy, as well as increasingly vocal movements that promoted women’s
empowerment and gender equality. New policies supporting women’s economic and political participation and laws criminalising domestic violence were also legalised during this period. Ultimately, these changes problematised the normalised authoritative patron leadership of men in the public and domestic spheres. The changes triggered a more intensive search for alternative gender ideals, including masculinity. They also, however, provoked stronger attempts to restore the hegemonic masculinity of bapakism
and to emphasise femininity—ibuism. The period also saw the flourishing of
Islamisation, which in fact was then, and still is today, the most visible feature in Indonesian politics and consumer culture (see Chapter 3).
How did the filmmakers deal with contemporary gender politics in their pursuit of an alternative ideal Muslim masculinity which fostered equal gender relations of power? In this chapter I unpack the filmmakers’ aesthetic strategies, intentions and negotiations, as well as public controversies surrounding the production and distribution of cinematic representations which undermine men’s authoritative patron leadership in public and domestic spheres. As this chapter unfolds, I demonstrate that the filmmakers did successfully offer an alternative ideal Muslim masculinity, the Muslim ‘new man’, which challenged the normalised unequal gender relations of power underlying
Evi Eliyanah
show that their struggle was distorted by middle-class biases. The idealisation of an alternative masculinity relied heavily on men’s higher education and training in
reformist education institutions as well as their reformist (secular) networks of Muslims. By relying on these ‘privileges’, the filmmakers ‘other’ lower-class, less educated men.
To this end, analysis in this chapter is focused on the political struggle waged by several Indonesian filmmakers, mostly Muslim, in offering an alternative ideal
masculinity, the Muslim ‘new man’, through the film adaptation of Perempuan
Berkalung Sorban (Women with Keffiyeh, 2009, Hanung Bramantyo). This film is one
of the key works in the burgeoning film Islami genre (see Chapter 3). Furthermore, the
principal filmmakers behind this film, including Hanung Bramantyo (director), Gina S. Noer (scriptwriter) and Faozan Rizal (director of photography), were involved in the production of the movie Ayat-ayat Cinta.1 In this chapter, I will show that these
filmmakers attempted to ‘correct’ Ayat-ayat Cinta’s representation of the ideal Muslim
man and masculinity through their politically loaded Perempuan Berkalung Sorban. In
this latter film, the filmmakers aimed to challenge gender-biased interpretations of Islamic texts which tend to privilege Muslim men and discriminate against Muslim women. Upon its release, the film stirred a major controversy because of the
representation of Islam, (male) Islamic clerics, and the traditional Islamic education institution, pesantren (Islamic boarding schools) (Afrisia 2015a). Considering the film’s
significance, I focus my investigation on the filmmakers’ struggle to reconfigure hegemonic masculinity around the structure of gender relations in this film.
There are two arguments I propose in this chapter. First, I would like to
demonstrate that, as seen in the filmmakers’ struggle to promote the Muslim ‘new man’ as a legitimate ideal through Perempuan Berkalung Sorban, there were attempts by
1Ayat-ayat Cinta is a film adaptation of a novel of the same title, written by Habiburrahman Elshirazy. The novel was released in 2004, and the filming took place in 2007. The film version was produced by Manoj Punjabi and Dhamoo Punjabi for MD Pictures.
Chapter 5. Reel Muslim New Man and the Gender Relations of Power
Indonesian commercial filmmakers to promote an alternative ideal masculinity which fosters equal gender relations of power both in public and domestic spheres. The filmmakers offered screen representations of a religiously justifiable alternative ideal masculinity that encouraged men to treat women as equal partners in both public and domestic spheres. Unfortunately, as my second argument shows, the filmmakers’ struggle was biased towards middle-class Muslim men. The idealisation of the alternative masculinity heavily relied on a male Muslim protagonist who was urban- based, and highly educated in a modernist Islamic education in Indonesia and abroad, while othering rural-based, less-educated men graduates of traditionalist religious educational institutions.
This chapter will unfold as follows. Initially I offer a textual analysis of the representation of the Muslim ‘new man’ offered in the film adaptation of Perempuan
Berkalung Sorban. This is followed by a discussion of the situatedness of the narrative,
in which I unpack its significance amidst arguments associated with contemporary gender politics. These two sections generally show the blossoming hope of being able to represent an alternative ideal masculinity on the silver screen. However, as I shall demonstrate in the penultimate section of this chapter, middle-class biases are apparent in the filmmakers’ political take on hegemonic masculinity. Finally, I will conclude this chapter by summarising my points and establishing linkages to the grand argument of the thesis.