Skins of Morality: Bio-borders, Ephemeral Citizenship and Policing Women in Indonesia

Abstract

Indonesia’s policewomen were rarely in public (or even police) consciousness prior to 2013. Yet the succeeding five years saw an explosion in visibility. Public furore concerning forced virginity testing of recruits, national debate over permitting women to veil on duty, and social media sites consumed with beauty concomitantly propelled policewomen into the limelight. I draw on these three examples to illustrate how various forms of power are levelled precisely at the borders of a woman’s body, what I frame as bio-borders. I focus on three bio-borders: hymens, veils and beauty. Drawing on Franck Billé’s (2017) work on skin and geopolitical boundaries, I analyse these bio-borders as sites where Indonesia’s neoliberal moral authority is asserted and contested. As an enforcer of state law, a policewoman’s virginity, purity and appearance signify Indonesia’s moral standing and mandate overt surveillance and control. Policewomen thus undergo intense daily moral labour to conform to expectations. As good moral ephemeral citizens showcasing Indonesia’s public face, policewomen: feel unable/unwilling to contest forced virginity testing; are empowered to demand the right to wear the veil on duty; and are complicit in accepting (and enjoying) beauty as a recruitment requirement while simultaneously expressing regret that they are judged on appearance.

Keywords:

• Morality
• Indonesia
• sexuality
• police
• women
• ephemeral citizenship
• moral labour
• borders
• skin

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Maria, Linda and the anonymous reviewers for their astute feedback, support and encouragement. Thank you also to Michael for supporting this special edition. I presented an early version of this paper at the Department of Anthropology at the University of Cambridge and benefited from comments and conversation with Franck, Paolo, Richard, James, Sian, Perveez, Corinna and many others; thank you.

Notes

1. See the following website for an image of a cadet having her bust measured: http://konfrontasi.com/sites/default/files/styles/article_big/public/article/2014/11/Screenshot_112614_120002_AM.jpg?itok=gXZkwYr1. See the following website for an image of a cadet undergoing physical testing: http://static.gatra.com/images/gatracom/nur/03-mar/Proses%20seleksi%20tingkat%20pusat%20penerimaan%20perwira%20prajurit%20TNI%20dok.jpg

2. All names are pseudonyms.

3. See the following website for an image entitled “My vagina is mine. Refuse virginity testing”: https://goo.gl/images/1xVqol

4. My evidence for this statement comes from a series of in-depth interviews conducted in Jakarta in 2011 with agencies providing funding and/or assistance to and/or oversight of Indonesia’s police force. Interviews were conducted with the US International Criminal Investigative Training Assistance Program, Australian Federal Police, Indonesian Police Chief Boy Salamudin, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Asia Foundation, Search for Common Ground, Japan International Cooperation Agency, International Organisation for Migration, New Zealand Police, Jakarta Centre for Law Enforcement Cooperation, Kemitraan Partnership for Governance Reform, and the Centre for Reporting and Analysing Financial Transactions. A clear theme of the interviews was that foreign funders had significant impact on shaping Indonesia’s police.

5. A productive engagement with Foucault could be developed here, especially in relation to Foucault’s concept of bio-power, which has parallels with my notion of bio-borders. However, I want to take my analysis in a slightly separate direction to focus on specific tangible physical borders – hymens, veils and skin. Moreover, I engage with Foucault’s concept of bio-power in a separate article (see Davies, 2015b).

6. Were space available, productive comparison could be made with expectations placed on military women.