 Jan-Mar 2006 |
ReviewsGay nationalismTom Boellstorff, pThe Gay Archipelago: Sexuality and Nation in Indonesiap, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 2005, ISBN 0691123349, A$41.36 (paperback)
This book examines
homosexuality in Indonesia in a comprehensive and astute manner. It is the
first in depth scholarly analysis on the history and contemporary context
of same-gender desires, love and identity in the Indonesian archipelago.
Boellstorff, a gay cultural anthropologist and linguist, has spent
extensive periods of time over twelve years (1992-2004) in fieldwork that
took him specifically to Surabaya, Makassar and Bali. The results of his
study are not only insightful about the Indonesian experience of
homosexuality and same-gender desire, but are likely to set new standards
in how human sexuality is understood across different cultures.
The structure of the book is well designed. The
introduction fascinates the reader as it engages with ethical concerns of
research on contemporary gay and lesbi experience, culture and everyday
life. Central to Boellstorff’s study is a focus on the personal
experiences and thoughts of his interviewees: traditional banci and waria
(both mean transvestite homosexual), but particularly those people in
Indonesia who refer to themselves as gay or lesbi, something that has
happened only since the 1970s. The book helps us understand what it
means to be gay or lesbi.
After an historical overview of homosexuality in
Indonesia, the book explores the emergence of gay and lesbi identities. A
theoretical model — dubbing culture — provides a useful way of
understanding the complex interaction between the local, national and
global experience of same-gender desire. Throughout the book this
notion of dubbing culture is present, for example, in the very
italicisation of the terms gay and lesbi, to distinguish from the Western
forms of gay and lesbian. In a nutshell, the personal lives of gay and
lesbi people demonstrate ‘the paradoxes of sexuality and nation in
postcolonial Indonesia’ (p 59). It’s almost like saying gay and
lesbi are similar terms to their Western cousins, but not in synch.
Boellstorff’s analysis shows that the role of
mainstream mass media has been crucial to the ways in which gay and lesbi
people come to see themselves in relation to same-gender desire and love.
He identifies print media as the primary source of knowledge about the
terms gay and lesbi, for example, through women’s magazines like Kartini and Femina.
National identity
The fascinating irony of the New Order era of Suharto,
according to the book, is that gay and lesbi people ‘think of
themselves as Indonesians with regard to their sexualities’ (p 72).
That is, the personal understanding of being gay and lesbi is not through
their local belonging but their national belonging. This quirk of success
(of the Suharto regime) is linked to the legacy of the national ideology of
the family principle (azas kekeluargaan), in which heterosexual
marriage and family are folded into the national consciousness as the
binding agent for the archipelago, more powerful than notions of
citizenship. Gay and lesbi people reveal consistently through their
personal stories in the book that marriage and having children is
intrinsic to national belonging, and consequently their sense of belonging.
Sustaining the family principle is fundamental to acts or performance
of deeds (prestasi), which bring respect and recognition of being truly
Indonesian. Boellstorff illustrates how the gay or lesbi person lives with
several, often contradictory personal stories, which he calls the
‘archipelagic self’ in contrast to Western gay and lesbian
experience, which is a single (‘coming out’) self. He relates
how many of his interviewees are amazed, sometimes appalled, that he
won’t be marrying a woman and having children.
The book demonstrates how gay and lesbi Indonesians
‘are the truest children of the archipelago’ (p 202). Using the
metaphor of archipelago, which has enormous meaning in Indonesian history,
culture and polity, the author argues that the essence of the nationalist
ideology can be found in gay and lesbi people. He says that this is in
spite of the fact that gay and lesbi people are not permitted
‘national belonging, authenticity, and recognition’ (p 203).
The Gay Archipelago is an important and timely
discussion of how nation, belonging, same-gender/same-sex identity and
desire as well as geography all intersect in Indonesia. The book provides a
truly intimate account of the personal life-worlds of gay and lesbi folk,
and tells us much about how contemporary Indonesian culture is changed,
challenged and transformed through its archipelagic logic. Boellstorff
has successfully shown in this book that understanding gay and lesbi lives
goes beyond traditional notions of same-gender desire in Indonesia. He has
also challenged recent scholarly thought ‘that culture is by default
local’ (p 218). This book will become a classic in Indonesian and
sexuality studies.
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