Indonesia has its own name of
soap operas. It is called as Sinetron, which
stands for Sinema Elektronik (Electronic
Sinema), however in this paper writer will use the word soap opera due to
the familiarity for the readers.
In Indonesia,
soap operas has captured many hearts of Indonesian fans through the use of body
language that might be dramatic enough for some people, as well as the
elevating ratings although the content might be slightly negative. Each soap
operas targeted to different target audience in terms of age groups, such as
for teenagers and housewives. During this period, each TV stations create a
similar genres of soap operas for certain target audience. For instance, during
prime time they provide teenager soap operas, such as Ganteng-Ganteng Serigala (Handsome Wolf), Cowokku Superboy (My
boyfriend is a Superboy) and Diam-Diam
Suka (Secretly Attracted) can reach the highest rating as the most popular
soap operas in SCTV, according to the official website (Unggulan Hari ini, 2000-2012) . While RCTI, in
prime time period they provide two famous operas that are mostly put religious
theme, which are Catatan Hati Seorang
Istri (The Diary of a Wife) and Tukang
Bubur Naik Haji (The Porridge Chef is going to Hajj). Each soap opera
represents female characters that portray societal values. Regarding teen soap
operas, every women are portrayed based on the part of societal demand, where
most girls have to follow modern lifestyle, such as acting very feminine,
seemingly just like a baby doll. On the other hand, religious soap operas
encourage to cover women’s body as much as they can, as well as being a good
Muslim woman; such as serving the husband and still do religious rituals. This
paper will explain about the representation of women image, relating to
globalization in soap operas. The focus of this paper will be about the history
of hijab, as well as the influence of modernism in Indonesia.
Firstly,
the history of hijab in Indonesia came from the Muslim concept. The history of
Islam transmission to Indonesia established during 7th until 8th
century, when there was a free trade. During that time, Indian (Gujarat),
Arabian, Chinese and Persian traders sold spices and gold in Malacca Strait.
Then the interaction between the natives develop, as well as being a trading
partner, until the traders spread the value of Muslim. This transmission gave a
great impact to the natives, particularly who lived on the seaside. Then the
teachings spread to rural areas through interaction
and acculturation among the natives
and the traders to 15th century (Fahrul Rozi Limbong, 2013) , as well as through
marriage, and the transmission through social classes from peasants to
bureaucrats through education. The most direct method of transmission is
through dakwah, where the preachers
spread Muslim rules and values to the society. The influence of Muslim expanded
to several provinces in Indonesia, firstly by Walisongo, who were the palace advisor, and also the people who
reached high spirituality in Islam (Fahrul Rozi Limbong, 2013) . These people used
acculturation method in spreading Muslim values, that’s the reason why they
didn’t put hijab values due to accommodate Hindu and Buddhism culture in
previous years, before the downfall (Jilbab dan Sejarahnya, 2014) . During the decades
of Indonesia, since Indonesia was controlled by foreign countries such as Dutch
and Japanese, assumingly women might have limited access on wearing hijab,
including the regime of Soekarno until Soeharto era, due to the fact that
Soekarno wanted to create diversity without radicalism, also Soeharto gave
limited access for society’s freedom of speech, including the restriction of
hijab in schools and workplaces (Budiman, 2012) . As a result many office required women
to work without hijab, although they actually wear hijab; until the downfall of
Soeharto and the economic crisis. From that reformation, many women started to
wear hijab as the part of their rebellious act (Budiman, 2012) . Then year after year more soap operas
implement religious values inside the story since mid-2000, specifically in
Ramadhan month, such as Doa dan Anugerah
(Pray and Grace), Lorong Waktu (Time Alley), and many more. As many people
put more interest in religious soap operas, soon more soap opera with religious
values emerge.
Nowadays,
the rating of Tukang Bubur Naik Haji and
Catatan Hati seorang Istri has
reached its peak in RCTI. Tukang Bubur
Naik Haji has seized over 1000 episodes, and Catatan Hati Seorang Istri keeps reaching into the highest peak. Based
on the small observation and an interview, both Tukang Bubur Naik Haji and Catatan
Hati Seorang Istri put similar religious values inside each soap opera,
although each values represent different interpretations (Martina, 2014) . Most likely, both of those soap operas
encourage women to be more caregiving, and wear hijab as a part of conforming
religious laws. Also, some women indirectly create the image of women as being
more reserved; even if someone is being mean to them. For instance, one of the
episodes of Catatan Hati Seorang Istri described
when Hana, the main character with hijab, must set a divorce due to the fact
that her husband, Bram, is cheating with his secretary, Karin, or nicknamed as
‘Hello Kitty.’ Even though she is divorced she must still be faithful to her
ex-husband, by still keeping contact. In addition, Hana’s best friend, Annisa, has her
problem of domestic violence in her family. There’s this one episode when she escaped
from home by herself. She went to the mosque where there’s a preacher, Uztad
Jufri (a preacher that she apparently already know), did a preaching session to
women. He said, every women needs to obey their husbands’ rules. If they want
to do something, they must ask permission from the husband’s agreement. While Tukang Bubur Naik Haji focuses on how
women must have good relationship with the neighbors, as well as have less envy
among the neighbors. Moreover every episode there’s constantly religious social
norms that is depicted to the viewers (Martina, 2014) .
Secondly,
teenage soap operas also give different impact of globalization to the society,
specifically the influence of modernism. Every soap operas portray romantic
themes, consumerism, and beauty that (sometimes) can defy a person’s conception
of beauty. In Indonesia, many actors and actresses are casted from their
appearance. They don’t have to be good in acting or singing, as long as their
looks are considered handsome or beautiful, due to fulfill the rating (R. Koesmaryanto Oetomo. S.Kom.) . In addition, some
soap operas seem to copy the story from western movie, with the genre of
fantasy; such as twilight, that might inspire production teams to recreate a
‘new’ version of Twilight which is Ganteng-Ganteng
Serigala (htt1) . This story is
somewhat plagiarized for the reason that Twilight hit many audience that many
movie theaters are full, due to the high interest of teenagers in watching
western movies (Felicia) . According to Agnes
Felicia, based on her qualitative research, most teenagers watch western movies
because the plot is very clear, and the special effects are much cooler, comparing
to local movies that usually don’t put special effects.
The
era of globalization of film in Indonesia was established in 20th
century by the Dutch colonies; the first company was Netherlandsche
Bioscope Maatschappij which was first inaugurated in December
5th 1900, located in Tanah Abang. During the period, only middle-upper people
can have access to watch those movies, and many citizens rather watch Komedi Stamboel that was more
entertaining and populist, comparing to those movies who were still consist of
silent films. Therefore only some people want to watch movie theaters. As the
technology of American movie production developed gradually throughout many
decades, soon western films influence many Asian countries, including
Indonesia. As a result Indonesians soon would rather watch western movies more
often than local movies (Felicia) . Generally, many
Hollywood movies also used beautiful actors and actresses to boost the
marketing of film. This might create the misconception of beauty standards,
which might make women in Asia think that perfect women should be perfectly
shaped, and have white skin. According to beauty myth by Naomi Wolf, in 1960’s
many companies want to recruit women, then use advertisement depicting women in
a prefect beauty as a way to recruit beautiful women, as well as attracting
stakeholders. As a result more profit comes to the company due to beauty
attraction, as a result more and more company use women with certain standards
as the face of the company, then this phenomenon affect every aspects,
including movies that are expanded to Indonesia (Wolf, 2002) ,
then re-created by soap opera production houses. Consequently some teenagers
acting slightly precocious, give their time to have plastic surgery, even being
bulimic and anorexic as a way to stay thin rather than to be who they are (Melinda Smith, 2014) .
The act of globalization is transmittable in
different ways. Just like the acculturation among Muslims and native
Indonesians. This method is called Communication
Accommodation Theory (CAT), where the dealers try to adapt with Indonesians
surroundings by blend in with their everyday culture, as well as learning new
Islamic beliefs without following Arabian culture, as well as the Dutch
colonies when introducing modernization (Griffin, 2011) Since the expansion of technology to
Indonesia emerge, many women can access many information anywhere and anytime,
including watching soap operas. If a girl believes in the world of soap opera,
she might misperceive the conception of reality. For instance, Indonesian soap
operas mainly portrays conflict, just like most stories in film and books.
However, most soap operas always have antagonist girls who are always with
makeup, and usually become the boss’s secretary. This antagonist character
always wants to put the protagonist girl in danger. While protagonist girls are
depicted as powerless and always have limitless patience in solving their
problem, although the character must deal with sexual violence, whether it is
men or women (Menjual Budaya Materialistik Kepada Remaja Perempuan Indonesia Melalui
Sinetron Putih Abu Abu, 2013) . If the audiences
are not that critical, she might be easily influenced by soap operas then
become more consumptive and operates serious bullying action (Menjual Budaya Materialistik Kepada Remaja Perempuan Indonesia Melalui
Sinetron Putih Abu Abu, 2013) . This might be the
effect of hypodermic needle, as a
part of the influence of globalization through soap operas (University
of Twente, n.d.) ,
for the reason that most viewers come from middle-low class (Nielsen, 2011) . Therefore, because of this globalization women
in every age groups behave differently from the way media depicted; such as
teenagers must hang out in hip places constantly, show off and be fashionable.
Otherwise they are considered as nerds, even geeks (Menjual Budaya Materialistik Kepada Remaja Perempuan Indonesia Melalui
Sinetron Putih Abu Abu, 2013) , as well as
compulsive verbal bullying, due to the fact that media portray violence as a
part of life (Film Televisi (FTV) Indonesia dan Tayangan Kekerasan terhadap Perempuan,
2013) .
Moreover, housewives are expected to be obedient to husband, as well as
restrain their desires of choosing paths for their lives due to ‘fulfill’
responsibility as a housewife, while they might actually feel hurt in dealing
with sexual violence (Jurnal Perempuan, 2011) .
Regarding to the theory, CAT theory is relatable to the exchange of globalization because
writer believes that globalization takes interaction, whether it is through
cyber space or face-to-face. If not people would not have new point-of-view,
and there would not be globalization. Furthermore, hypodermic needle might put a part on society, but this theory
could not be fully used because many people now can watch other media, and many
society become more critical in seeing soap operas (Film Televisi (FTV) Indonesia dan Tayangan Kekerasan terhadap Perempuan,
2013) .
In
conclusion, according to some Indonesians, Indonesian soap operas are not
educational because they teach hatred, and the acting is very exaggerating.
This impact of globalization is very negative for middle-low class people, due
to the fact that not all women have access to good education, but thanks to the
rapid internet technology, all social classes can have wider choice of learning
new knowledge, as well as to have more choice in selecting what media they
should watch.
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