This article is translated from Batok.co, our Indonesian language sister site focusing on the local music scene and entertainment news. Read the original article here.
By Rizkiono Unggul Wibisono
Over the past couple of months, both the Indonesian mass media and netizens have shown an unhealthy obsession with dangdut singer Lucinta Luna over her unwillingness to admit to the rumors that she had a sex change operation.
Admittedly, Luna and her dangdut outfit Duo Bunga were rather obscure before she shot to infamy because of the transgender rumors, which first surfaced in January. While the whole scandal suspiciously seems like it could have been engineered to generate buzz, the way many Indonesians reacted to it shows an unsettling degree of immaturity and homophobia during these troubling times for when many are being persecuted for “deviant” sexual identities.
Rumors about Luna began in January when netizens alleged that she appeared on a reality TV show called “Be a Man” which aired in 2008. The show, quite self-explanatorily and exploitatively, puts a group of transgender women, locally known as “waria” (a portmanteau for the Indonesian words for woman and man), through a series of rigorous physical challenges in order to man them up, so to speak.
Luna denied the allegations that she was previously a man, promising publicly that she would give IDR1 billion to anyone who could prove that she was a man. Some fellow celebrities took her up on her offer, demanding the prize money after they released photographic and video proof that supposedly shows a pre-op Luna.
While Luna continues to deny the rumor, the pressure from the public for her to admit that she had a sex change has barely subsided. In a way, the media and netizens have been and are still persecuting her, stripping her bare for all to see just to vindicate the suspicions of busybodies who have nothing better to do.
Why should we be obsessed with other people’s privates? Does Luna having had a penis affect the welfare of humanity? In a country with many starving children who can’t afford to go to school, why has Luna’s gender dominated headlines on so many news and gossip websites lately?
Think of it this way: if you’re not ready to think about humanity and support gender equality or LGBT rights, imagine a crowd of people forcing you to pull down your pants to see what’s inside. Would you willingly let them without a fight?
Neither would any sane individual.
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