Falling into the gay world: Manhood, marriage, and family in Indonesia
type: CreativeWork
description: "This thesis examines conceptions of homosexuality among lower income gay men of various ethnicities in Jakarta, Indonesia. The primary focus is on the relationship between homosexuality and conceptions of male gender, and it is argued that sexuality plays a minimal role in defining adult male identity in Indonesia which is instead achieved through marriage and reproduction. While the significance of family in defining individual identity is well demonstrated in the literature for many Asia countries, this thesis examines the problematic incorporation and resistance to local and national cultural conceptions which define men as necessarily married and integrated into a ""traditional"" family structure. Particular focus is on Jakarta's first gay organization, the Associated Brotherhood for People of the Same Heart (IPOOS), which now draws over a thousand people to its monthly meetings and weekly drag performances. Within daily organizational life and during public performances, the men of this study creatively reformulated dominant Indonesian conceptions and family and male identity by incorporating them into an gay social domain."
abstract: "This thesis examines conceptions of homosexuality among lower income gay men of various ethnicities in Jakarta, Indonesia. The primary focus is on the relationship between homosexuality and conceptions of male gender, and it is argued that sexuality plays a minimal role in defining adult male identity in Indonesia which is instead achieved through marriage and reproduction. While the significance of family in defining individual identity is well demonstrated in the literature for many Asia countries, this thesis examines the problematic incorporation and resistance to local and national cultural conceptions which define men as necessarily married and integrated into a ""traditional"" family structure. Particular focus is on Jakarta's first gay organization, the Associated Brotherhood for People of the Same Heart (IPOOS), which now draws over a thousand people to its monthly meetings and weekly drag performances. Within daily organizational life and during public performances, the men of this study creatively reformulated dominant Indonesian conceptions and family and male identity by incorporating them into an gay social domain."
author: Howard, Richard Stephen
language: eng
keywords: Cultural Anthropology, Individual and Family Studies
date published: 2011-05-07T11:54:09Z
date modified: 2026-07-22T22:25:12Z
provider: University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: http://hdl.handle.net/2142/19007