Abstract:
In Indonesia, nearly 90% of all types of violence are likely to be directed at women, and the number of victims has climbed by 89% between 2016 and 2022, with the majority of victims aged 13-17 (MoWECP, 2022). Most cases are perpetrated by those known to the victims such as friends or dating partners. These statistics indicate that the school setting may be unsafe for female students. In Indonesia, West Java especially Bandung, the capital city of West Java is still one of the top three populated cities that has the highest rate of sexual harassment. In response, the West Java governor, Ridwan Kamil, launched a program called Stopper, an integrated system to process all kinds of bullying reports, in February 2023. Students can directly report the case to the Stopper system which can be accessed through WhatsApp with a chatbot, website, and QR code. At the secondary school level, the online report is first responded to by school counsellors as the operator of the online reporting system and also mediators who resolve complaints. The same year, the Ministry of Education implemented a regulation on violence prevention within educational institutions that encouraged the school to form a task force.
In analysing a government program or policy, policy analysts often view policy as a solution to a problem. This paradigm seems to have overlooked one important fact that policy creates narratives with multiple interpretations. Driven by Bacchi and Goodwin’s (2016) approach of ‘What the Problem is Represented to be’ (WPR) and Poststructural Interview Analysis (PIA), this research aims to critically examine 1) the problematisation of sexual violence and harassment from boys to girls in two anti-violence program, and 2) the construction of norms, masculinities, and subjectivities in and through the programs.
To date, no studies have investigated how hegemonic masculinity contributes to unequal social relations in gender-based violence policies or programs in Indonesia. So, this project does not explore policy as a solution to a problem but as problematising the problem represented in the policy which will not only contribute to the field of gender, sexuality, and harassment studies in Indonesia but also broadly by profiling the unique obstacles and opportunities presented by this context.
Keywords: gender-based violence, policy, poststructural analysis, problematisation, masculinities
In analysing a government program or policy, policy analysts often view policy as a solution to a problem. This paradigm seems to have overlooked one important fact that policy creates narratives with multiple interpretations. Driven by Bacchi and Goodwin’s (2016) approach of ‘What the Problem is Represented to be’ (WPR) and Poststructural Interview Analysis (PIA), this research aims to critically examine 1) the problematisation of sexual violence and harassment from boys to girls in two anti-violence program, and 2) the construction of norms, masculinities, and subjectivities in and through the programs.
To date, no studies have investigated how hegemonic masculinity contributes to unequal social relations in gender-based violence policies or programs in Indonesia. So, this project does not explore policy as a solution to a problem but as problematising the problem represented in the policy which will not only contribute to the field of gender, sexuality, and harassment studies in Indonesia but also broadly by profiling the unique obstacles and opportunities presented by this context.
Keywords: gender-based violence, policy, poststructural analysis, problematisation, masculinities