Indonesia vs. Playboy
Well, the fury over Muhammed cartoons is not the only thing causing protests in Indonesia this week… Many Indonesians are also protesting against a new local Indonesian version of Playboy that has yet to be published.
The irony of these demonstrations is that Indonesia is already flooded with pornography and it is easy to find much more hardcore material than Playboy being sold by street vendors. Additionally, why would anyone purchase an expensive magazine like Playboy when they can already get cheap material? The Jakarta Post published an article a couple of weeks ago highlighting this point:
This trashy soft-core porn won’t take the bulge out of your wallet, prices are as cheap as Rp 1,000 (around 10 US cents) a poster, while the DVDs, newspapers and magazines sell for a little more.
Besides cheap adult magazines, black market videos and DVDS, Indonesians may also access pornography via the Internet. As a way to prevent this from continuing, the government of Indonesia is planning to join the war on porn drafting an anti-pornography bill that would outlaw all pornography and more.
“The people behind this are using religious values to make their argument, especially Muslim groups. It is not stated in the bill, but the standard being used is the standard of Sharia law.
“They say people are not dressing in line with Indonesian culture. But the fashion in Indonesia now is to wear trousers that are tight around the hips, and even traditional clothes are often designed to show off a woman’s breasts,” she said. [More]
In addition to women’s rights, the bill also poses a threat to cinema. The draft bill proposes to make filming erotic dancing and kissing on the lips illegal. Well, defining ‘erotic dancing’ is something very difficult to do (since some people believe that Irish dancing is erotic) and if they outlaw kissing on the lips on film, then I guess old Hollywood classics like Casablanca will also be outlawed.
Although the bill is still just a draft, the parliament is almost certain that it will pass by the middle of this year. Taking this all into consideration, why would Playboy bother trying to launch a local version of their magazine in this heavy conservative-run Muslim state? Do they want to promote freedom and democracy or do they want media attention?