Playboy Stirs conflict in Indonesia..

Media texts help to define our world and show the appropriate societal behavior and attitudes. However, the scope of media coverage today has been so frequently misunderstood and misinterpreted as ‘mindless trash’. It has been suggested that most media products these days are deemed to be more fixated with the sensationalism of ‘sexual cultures’.

The publication of Playboy magazine in Indonesia provides a sensational and controversial case study on ideological debates surrounding cultural and political issues. Playboy is an American adult entertainment magazine, founded in 1953 by Hugh Hefner. The magazines are published monthly and feature photographs of nude women, along with various articles on fashion, sports, consumer goods and public figures. In addition, Playboy magazines also publish short fiction by top literature writers. Playboy promotes freedom of speech as the magazine has been known to express liberal opinions on most major political issues. Hefner notes that, ‘I wanted to publish a magazine that influenced and reflected on the importance of individual, on his rights and opportunities in a free society.

In Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim-majority country, Muslims struggle to reconcile radically different sets of social norms and laws, including those derived from Islam, local social norms, and contemporary ideas about gender equality and rule of law. Ideally, Indonesia adopted similar ideologies of a democratic society. However, ideal systems are also an abstract ideal, and in practice, conflicting ideologies do occur.

The Playboy magazines in Indonesia that are published locally by PT. Velvet Silver Media is deemed by the majority of Indonesian radical Muslim leaders (Islam Defender Front) to contain derogatory and degrading pornographic images that could damage the moral fiber of the nation (The Jakarta Post, 9 June 2006). As a result, violent demonstrations occurred to oppose to the idea of turning woman into a sex object. Taufiqurrahman (2006) noted that a day after the first edition of Playboy Indonesia hit newsstands; a throng of Islam Defenders Front (FPI) supporters violently ransacked and burned the editorial office of the magazine in South Jakarta, forcing all staffers to flee. Ironically, these violent outbursts resulted in free publication for the magazine.

In general, the content of Playboy Indonesia is far less provocative than that carried in many other local men’s magazine. According to Ponti Carolus, director of license-holder PT Velvet Silver Media, "(We) will not make women objects and we'll strive to be accepted by women," Ponti said. "Our concept is world-class journalism and lifestyle. We will have a greater emphasis on the literary qualities” (2006, cited in Playboy Indonesia, June 2006). The second edition of Playboy Indonesia is not only free of steamy nude pictorials, but also conspicuously lacking in advertisements. White space occupied the pages where the glossy advertisements that filled April's first edition should have been placed. "These blank pages are dedicated to our loyal clients who have been threatened against placing ads in this magazine," is the message from publisher PT Velvet Silver Media on the blank pages, acknowledging unnamed cell phone, cologne and tobacco advertisers (Playboy Indonesia, June 2006).

Even though, the local adaptation of Playboy Indonesia carries no nudity and instead delves into much more literary subjects, small but noisy groups of Muslim protesters have sought to outlaw it simply because, in their view, the name Playboy is synonymous with obscenity.

I guess the problem is that these people said they were against pornography, when they're not. They're against the name Playboy, the brand. A brand so powerful that it has scared them half to death or moved them to anger. This explains a lot. How intellectually shallow we are, how our society always looks at what's on the surface and doesn't bother to examine what's inside. Regardless, the publication of Playboy magazine in Indonesia exemplifies sexually controversial ideologies in the contemporary media, which stir many disreputable arguments. Ideologies are in fact not neutral and on this view, Indonesian Muslim cultures are continuously involved in constant struggles between competing ideological codes.