ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at a selection of more popular films which might be deemed a response to and reflection of the increased visibility of alternative sexualities in the Indonesian media, and specifically the enthusiastic response that films such as Arisan! received. These representations have not been universally welcomed as ‘positive’, nor do they wholly reject the constructions of homosexuality perceived to have existed during the New Order period. Regardless of the type of gay man that is being constructed, it is quite clear that the increasing visibility of gay men in the Indonesian media which really began in the mid 1990s (Boellstorff 2005: 75) is replicated in cinema. As such, these films have in turn played a considerable role in further exposing Indonesian audiences to the gay subject position. For those viewers who are open to and use queer ways of looking, this proliferation of films can only lead to further discussions and consideration of the position of gay men in Indonesian cultural outputs and of popular discourse concerning non-normative sexualities in Indonesian society. As discussed in Chapter 6 there have been a number of lesbi characters in Indonesian cinema in recent years. Waria and to a much lesser extent transsexuals also continue to feature in a variety of films, though generally as minor characters. Somewhat more frequent are male-bodied effeminate characters that are regularly described in the credits with the pejorative term banci. These invariably comic characters who are generally afforded little agency to express their own subjectivities will be understood by some as representing some sort of non-normative gender performance, while others might also interpret the characters as gay. The inevitable results are marginalization and hegemonic othering. However, all of these groups take a back seat to the increasing prominence given to characters who are clearly marked as gay men and of all the non-normative sexual and gender categories discussed in this book it is the gay man who dominates in post-1998 cinema. This chapter will focus on two of those films which have foregrounded gay characters, Pesan dari Surga (‘Message from Heaven’, dir. Sekar Ayu Asmara, 2006) and Coklat Stroberi (‘Chocolate Strawberry’, dir. Ardy Octaviand, 2007), and one film, Realita Cinta dan Rock ‘n’ Roll (‘The Reality of Love and Rock ‘n’ Roll’, dir. Upi, 2006)1 which in addition to featuring a prominent transsexual character invites a queer reading of the friendship between the two male teenagers.
