Indonesia forgot about the US presidential election and the controversial Job Creation Law when a sex tape, allegedly of singer/actress Gisel Anastasia, surfaced online over the weekend. It’s all everyone’s been talking about since, but the way Gisel is handling what is undoubtedly a huge PR crisis deserves commendation, and we should all move on like she has out of human decency and respect for her privacy.
If you somehow missed the news, a short clip purportedly of Gisel and a man (who is not her current partner but is allegedly a member of her band) having sex went hugely viral over the weekend. Gisel’s name topped the trending charts on social media and her alleged sex tape received widespread coverage by mainstream media as well.
Amid the slut-shaming (as if nobody else in the world films themselves having sex in the privacy of their own homes), the Jakarta Metro Police said it would track down whoever leaked the video over violation of the country’s anti-pornography law, while the Information and Communications Ministry (Kominfo) stopped doing whatever essential work it was not doing to pledge to take down all copies of the clip that have circulated online.
Gisel, who is no stranger to sex tape allegations, has gracefully taken the scandal in stride. Speaking to reporters on Saturday, she denied that she was in the video and said, “I’m not sure how to clarify this, because this is not the first time. I’m actually sad, but it’s fine, I’ll face it.”
On Instagram, Gisel has posted photos of her family, her friends, her cat, and product endorsements as if the sex tape never surfaced.
She has not directly addressed the sex tape in any of her posts, but seemingly took a veiled aim at the scandal with this post:
Gisel has won praise for her nonchalant attitude, which is probably exactly the right strategy for anyone to take in facing such a character-destroying scandal.
“Let her be, as if you all never had sex. Sort your own lives out, don’t be so self righteous,” one commenter wrote criticizing slut-shamers and creeps on Gisel’s Instagram posts.
Last year, Gisel was accused of appearing in a sex tape, which featured a woman who looked like her. The singer denied that she was the woman in the sex tape and acknowledged that her highly-publicized divorce with actor Gading Marten in 2018 may have made her a soft target for such allegations.
Indonesia has a harsh anti-pornography law, but, more often than not, celebrities who find themselves in the middle of sex tape-related scandals escape the brunt of the law.
One notable exception is rock star Nazril Irham, who is popularly known as Ariel, who appeared in a couple of leaked sex tapes involving actresses Luna Maya and Cut Tari, separately, in 2010.
Ariel’s leaked sex tape scandal caused a massive moral panic in Indonesia, ultimately leading to the musician becoming the first charged under Indonesia’s then recently passed pornography law (though he was eventually convicted under UU ITE, the Law on Electronic Transactions and Information) and getting sentenced to three-and-a-half years in jail in 2011. He was released after serving two years of his sentence.
Both Luna Maya and Cut Tari were named suspects by the police in the pornography case but were never brought to trial following Ariel’s conviction. Ariel and Luna’s careers have thrived since, while Cut Tari had chosen to keep a relatively low profile in the entertainment industry.
