What can the lived experiences of performing artists in Java, Indonesia tell us about the production and negotiation of gender and local identity?

Drawing from ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Malang, East Java, author Christina Sunardi demonstrates ways individual performers have navigated cultural norms of masculinity and femininity to produce gender and place-based identity on- and offstage. Focusing on dancers who have participated in the performance of cross-gender dance, Fashioning Femininities, Making Masculinities provides insight into the lived experiences of men and waria performing female-style dance and women performing male-style dance.

Exploring onstage-offstage gender negotiations, gender fluidity, gender pluralism, and spirituality, this book is ideal reading for students of Gender and Sexuality Studies, Ethnomusicology, Dance Studies, Performance Studies, Southeast Asian Studies, and Cultural Anthropology.

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• 1 Introduction and learning objectives
  • Malang as a place
  • Importance of place
  • Performing arts in Malang
  • Cross-gender performance
  • Gender and the performing arts
  • Analytical approaches to gender
  • Methodology
  • Author positionality
  • My path to Java
  • Chapter summary
  • Learning objectives
• 2 Male femininity on- and offstage
  • Djupri: Gender fluidity on- and offstage
  • Use of ilmu (spiritual knowledge)
    • Contradictory expectations
    • Onstage–offstage implications
    • A body suit
    • Familial and religious pressures
  • Muliono: Navigating gender
    • Contingent female masculinity
    • Moving away from female roles
  • Mama Samsu: Female masculinity and respectability politics
    • Visibility of waria
    • Struggles for gender inclusive social acceptance
    • Propriety
  • Observations from the field
  • Chapter summary
  • Questions for discussion
• 3 Female masculinity, “layering”, and womanhood
  • Muskayah: Spiritual dimensions and a legacy of female masculinity and creativity
    • Reinforcement and subversion of gender norms
    • Participation in “male” activities
  • Tri Wahyuningtyas: Producing Malangness, disseminating female masculinity
    • Revival and adaptation of Beskalan Lanang
    • Mass dissemination of Beskalan Lanang
    • Internalization of maleness
  • Sri Handayani: Female masculinity in Ngremo Tayub
    • Creativity of women dancers
    • Costume and makeup
    • Heterosexual, homoerotic, and hyperfeminine representations
    • Women, power, and money
    • Legitimization through religious discourse
  • Chapter summary
  • Questions for discussion
• 4 Closing words
• Discussion questions and project/assignment ideas
• References
• Recommended further reading
• Index

Christina Sunardi PhD is Chair of the Department of Dance and Associate Professor of Ethnomusicology at the University of Washington, Seattle, USA.