Jennie M. Xue

Gender Shock, Sexism, Misogyny and Prostitution

  

[Read directly at TheJakartaPost.com]

by Jennie S. Bev

During the past three weeks that I have been in Jakarta, I have been experiencing “gender shock”. In this city that never sleeps, I feel old, disrespected and disposable as a childless woman in my early 40s. In addition to my “Caucasian” body frame of 172.5 centimeters in height or 181.5 cm in heels, it is hard for me to “blend in” among Indonesians whose average height is 150- to around 160 cm. 

In the US, I felt so alive. Yes, “life begins at 40” and 40-something women in my home state of California are no less physically or intellectually attractive when compared to their 20 to 30-year-old sisters. Also, though your experiences do matter, age is not a hindrance when applying for a job as the law protects you.

Drop-dead gorgeous women in their 40s in Hollywood include actresses Lucy Liu, Jennifer Aniston, Julianne Moore, Halle Berry and Salma Hayek. Drop-dead intelligent women over 40 include top-notch authors and intellectuals Amy Chua, Lisa See, Naomi Wolf, Arianna Huffington, Naomi Klein and the late Iris Chang.

The Lolita Effect and female identity

by Jennie S. Bev

Powerful influences in today’s digital era alter people’s perceptions and eventually alter the condition of the society.

Throughout history, mainstream culture has slanted toward the most influential, which in this case is the producer of the content through various media such as Internet sites, television and print publications. Those who control the production and distribution with their top-bottom decision-making capacity are the de facto power holders.

And they are likely to be heterosexual men.

This worldview is considered universal, and the dominant position of these men has been internalized in such a manner that the world thinks and sees based on their ideals. This further explains why the world is filled with “the Lolita effect,” and many females suffer from so-called “Lolita syndrome.”

Measuring progress amid the patriarchies

by Jennie S. Bev

Adam Smith hypothesized that people are inherently greedy, and that’s what it takes to run the engine of wealth. And to measure a country’s economic health, gross domestic product comes into play.

But while numbers look neutral and impartial on the surface, we should raise our awareness of the fact that they are actually biased toward creating patriarchies.

Today we still slant toward the favoritism of one of the genders, which is reflected in popular concepts in our society. Obviously, a patriarchal capitalism develops within the umbrella of the patriarchy of power. In politics, patriarchy is considered a normal occurrence. In measuring economic health, GDP, the worldwide standard, is a system with a tinge of patriarchy.

Gender equalities and urgency for fair masculinism

by Jennie S. Bev

March 8th is international women’s day.

Indonesian culture and laws reflect a utopian message that men and women live in harmony, in an environment that each gender understands and executes their responsibilities wisely. In this notion, men serve as the heads of the family, the protectors, and the breadwinners, while women as the caretakers of the family members and caring mothers. Alas, not everyone is wise both as a person and an individual of a certain gender, the world is not perfect, and Indonesia is not a utopia, thus such image of perfection is merely a mirage, which comes with consequences.

Today is the 21st century, the era of globalization that Joseph E. Stiglitz has been advocating for fair trade. It is the era in which Web 2.0 citizen journalism has emerged into citizen diplomacy with its real-time technological apparatus that have changed the global culture on digerati and quotidian communities’ levels. It is the era in which women have to work as hard as, or even harder than men, to make differences at world level, not merely for their own families. It is the era that women are equally important politically, socially, economically, and individually.