Galvez Victoria Francesca (U060290Y)

SE3222: Gender in Southeast Asia

Weekly Reflection Essay: Week 6, Tutorial 2
Topic: Gender and Religion, Gender ideology and Transgression
Tutor: Dr Pattana Kitiarsa
Tutorial group: DW1
Tutorial day and time: Wednesday, 10am-12pm
Brenner (1995) and Keyes (1986) relate issues of gender to religion. Brenner
(1995) critiques Javanese official discourses on spiritual potency. She expounds on selfcontrol, status and gender, delineating the alternative view that men do not participate in
the marketplace because of their inability to control their desires (nafsu) and act
rationally (akal). On the contrary, women are better suited to accumulating material and
spiritual resources (19). Keyes (1986) illustrates how persons acquire gender identities
through initiatory processes (67). He points that in Northern Thailand, a man emerges
from initiatory processes with a sexual-social identity in tension with an ideal male
religious identity (68). Blackwood (1998) and Beautiful Boxer focus on gender
transgression in Thailand. Blackwoods (1998) study of the Minangkabau in West
Sumatra raises questions about the relationship between oppressive/patriarchal gender
ideology and gender transgression. She highlights the role of kinship, capitalism,
religion and the state in producing gender transgression (492). Beautiful Boxer, a film
produced and directed by Ekachai Uekrongtham, tells the story of kickboxer Nong
Tooms struggle with his gender identity, and his subsequent gender transgression.
This essay examines two themes. First, it pits hegemonic against counterhegemonic discourses. Specifically, hegemonic notions of spiritual potency, and the
relationship between gender ideology and transgression will be contrasted respectively

with their alternatives. Next, the effects hegemonic discourses have on gender identities
will be discussed.
Brenner (1995) defines spiritual potency as the mastery of others and the self
emotional and behavioural self-control (20). It condemns excessive attention to
financial matters (26). As Keyes (1986) states, it endows one with prestige and status
upon ones rejection of desire and sexuality (69). However, the ideology of spiritual
potency is gender bias. In Buddhism, its ideals are primary for males (68). In Javanese
official discourses, women are believed to be kasar unrefined. Incapable of selfcontrol and highly suited to trade, they are relegated to the lower ranks of the social
hierarchy (Brenner, 1995:26).
Brenner (1995) paints this ideology as hegemonic. It supports the claims of a
particular category of people (priyayi males) to superior status, is likely to be invoked in
formal discourse (Islam) and accorded supremacy (21). Thus, alternative models that
redeem women are ignored. Such consider the devaluation of womens economic
activities (26); the wider range of social styles for women that gives them the reputation
for behaving erratically (28); mens greater nafsu of lust and gambling (33); and
womens conservation of spiritual resources through self-disciple. Likewise, tensions
between the monkly ideal and male Buddhist householder and their resolution are
neglected (Keyes, 1986:69).
Such has effects on gender identities. Women, the spiritually inferior sex, are
subordinate to men and given profane identities as wives, mothers and traders (Brenner,
1995:20). The resolution to the tension between Buddhist and domestic ideals creates an
ambiguous gender identity before and during ordination (Keyes, 1986:70). This is

glossed over. Instead, the male takes on the euphemism of a morally tempered male
householder (Keyes, 1986:89).
From the preceding discussion, we infer that gender identities are political. Those
produced through hegemonic discourses aim at perpetuating status hierarchies and ideals.
However, those given form through alternative viewpoints are not totally innocent or
forgivable. Often, alternative gender identities serve a purpose to subvert dominant
constructs. Although they are useful in contributing to our understanding of the
contextually specific and contingent ways in which masculinities and femininities are
constructed, they are derived from theories of social constructionism. Social
constructionism, like other hegemonies, is an ideology. It attempts to sway and persuade
people, albeit of a different viewpoint. Dependent on religious and societal needs, gender
identities are highly contested and malleable in the conflict between hegemonic and
alternative ideologies of spiritual potency.
Juxtapositions between hegemonic and alternative discourses are too manifest in
the relationship between oppressive gender ideology and gender transgression.
Blackwood (1998) debunks traditional conclusions linking male dominance and an
ideology of oppositional genders to gender transgression (499). In matrilineal West
Sumatra, gender ideology attaches differences to male and female bodies, but does not
encode mens hegemonic superiority (502). Instead, the Islamic gender and kinship
ideology that privileges women and men, yet insists on oppositional genders (a binary
sex/gender system), causes gender transgression to arise among the Minangkabau (503).
The sex/gender system has effects on tomboi identity. It induces tombois to claim
a masculine identity (503). A girl who enjoys male gendered activities has no other

recourse but to assume s/he is a boy. Since the tombois behaviour falls outside the
bounds of proper femininity, s/he denies hir female body and produces a masculine
identity instead (504).
The denial of ones natural sex/gender in favour of the opposites is too,
exhibited in Beautiful Boxer. Nong Toom sees himself as a female in a male boxers
body, an image he has carried since childhood. As a young boy, he is memorized by a
female Thai performer and shares her image of a genteel girl. He loves to engage in
feminine activities singing and dancing, wearing make-up, donning female clothes and
admiring Miss Universe contestants. He detests masculine activities bathing and
sleeping with other men, and the patronizing of female prostitutes. Given these, he finally
concludes that he is not a boy and undergoes a sex change, bringing his feminine
identity in line with his female anatomy. Later, s/he gives up kickboxing for a career in
modeling and acting.
Clearly, the sex/gender dichotomy had an effect on Nong Toom. He denied his
male body and sexuality. Immediately, he took on a feminine identity. His gender identity
was not ambiguous he knew he was female. There was little fluctuation between
identities. Consequently, s/he took up modeling and acting feminine careers, in
comparison with masculine sport of kickboxing.
The sex/gender divide not only affected Nong Tooms natural sex/gender
identity, it elicited responses from the media and his kickboxing competitors. The former
was bent on reinforcing a distinct boundary between male and female identities. This
explains why the media constantly assumed that Nong Toom was biologically and
socially male; they accused him of the publicity stunt of appearing female when he was

actually male. Likewise, Nong Tooms kickboxing competitors witnessed their gender
identities come under fire. Many were tentative about fighting a transvestite, seeing it as
an insult to their masculine identity and nature of the sport. Thus, Nong Toom observes
that the more make-up he put on in the boxing ring (the greater the assertion of
femininity), the harder his opponents would kick him (the greater the reassertion of
masculinity). It is but a furious attempt to reassert their (superior) masculinity against
Nong Tooms (inferior) femininity, since the boxer had thrown gender identities and
power relations into a state of flux and confusion.
To conclude, hegemonies should not be seen as exhaustive. Neither should
alternatives be viewed as absolute. We need to consider both, and their effects on gender
identities. There are multiple possibilities put forth by hegemonic and alternative ideas on
religion and gender, and gender ideology and transgression. These can contest, reinforce,
and contradict one another. Where confusion and chaos are, change is. Where theoretical
diversity and complexity lies, alongside are theoretical beauty, wisdom and insight on
gender and religion, and gender ideology and transgression.

References
Books
Blackwood, Evelyn. Tombois in West Sumatra: Constructing Masculinity and Erotic
Desire. Cultural Anthropology. 13, 4 (November 1998):491-521.
Brenner, Suzanne. Why Women Rule the Roost: Rethinking Javanese Ideologies of
Gender and Self-Control. In Bewitching Women, Pious Men: Gender and Body Politics
in Southeast Asia. Edited by Aihwa Ong and Michael G. Peletz. Berkeley: University of
California Press, 1995, pp. 19-50.
Keyes, Charles F. Ambiguous Gender: Male Initiation in a Northern Thai Buddhist
Society. In Gender and Religion: On the Complexity of Symbols. Edited by
Caroline Walker Bynum, Stevan Harrell, and Paula Richman. Boston: Beacon, 1986, pp.
66-96.
Films
Beautiful boxer [videorecording]/Here! Films; Regent Entertainment; Arclight Films;
GMM PICTURES presents; screenplay by Ekachai Uekrongtham, Desmond Sim Kim
Jin; directed & produced by Ekachai Uekrongtham.
[United States]: Here! Films: TLA Releasing, 2005, c2004.