*This is a response and reflective essay for Jaring-Jaring Merah by Helvy Tiana Rosa (1998) :
http://cerpene.blogspot.co.id/2009/03/jaring-jaring-merah.html
This text
may sounds a little bit
like a feminist’s rant, but it is the truth that this world is too men-centric.
Aside from GPK as the main issue of
Jaring-Jaring Merah,
I would rather give my arguments for
the
perspective of the main character, Inong as a rape victim, because I found
it more relatable.
You’d
either be dead or get raped if you were a woman who lives in the war era. Why
do I state so? Well, according to the history that I know, which is from books and movies, women
were in their weakest state. Reading Jaring-Jaring
Merah brings back some fragments from the past, even though fortunately in this case not my personal
experience. There is this one remarkable dusty book that I found in my
hometown’s library, entitled Momoye:
Mereka Memanggilku, which is
a biography of a Jugun Ianfu (comfort
women for Japanese soldiers).
The detailed experience written in this non-fiction book made me able to visualize the pain vividly, and I think there is some similar familiar aspect of Jaring-Jaring Merah.
If you were pretty, get ready to be a sex slave, but if you were ugly, well you
could say that you were blessed for this case, or you might be dead already. Therefore, just like Inong, she wasn’t burned to death
like the rest of her family and relatives, instead she was left alive because
she was a young pretty woman. By reflecting into the two stories that I
mentioned there is this thing, if women want to stay alive you have to
sacrifice your morals, and oh you have to be attractive.
Then,
is our purpose (women) in this life is just to be all
pretty? That is why one of the line in the story really hits me, “Sayang, dulu ia cantik…,” ujar yang lain.” Why is
being pretty so important? What if Inong were ugly,
but she stills got raped? I wonder what would these
people say. Being a woman itself is hard enough, but did the
attractiveness level also matters? I assume that, if
Inong were ugly, she wouldn’t get raped anyway, because apparently it does
matter. This
level of attractiveness is not only injustice on the issue of women, but it is
also a big transparent issue in societies all around the world. I’m neither
pretty or ugly myself to be honest, but the double standards on this
atrractiveness level is highkey maddening.
Bottom line, maybe my arguments are quite confusing, but
after all these are the things that make me wonder when reading Jaring-Jaring Merah, which is still hard
for me to figure out the exact answer. I assume
that your attractiveness may save your life, but at the same time you may rather
be dead.
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