“Indonesian Women Stare at Suspectsâ€: Bharada E’s Masculine Instabilities in The Instagram Fandom Account @richliefams.id

Moch. Zainul Arifin, Benni Setiawan and Cahyaningrum Dewojati

Studies in Media and Communication, 2023, vol. 11, issue 6, 115-133

Abstract: In the context of staring at the suspect, women's and men's eyes see things differently. Recently, the Indonesian people were shocked by the falsification of a scenario by the top police officers of the Republic of Indonesia regarding the death of Brigadier J. Bharada E, who became the suspect in the shooting of Brigadier J, got a lot of female supporters. Because of that, there are five females who manage an Instagram account @richliefams.id to support Bharada E. As a member of the National Police with the image of a guardian of masculinity, Bharada E is stared at and constructed by the female gaze. This article examined how the female gaze objectifies and constructs the masculinity of Bharada E, an Indonesian police officer who became a murder suspect. The research results showed that the female gaze on the Instagram account @richliefams.id made Bharada E an object of enjoyment for watching. In staring, the female gaze constructed the masculine image of Bharada E with various instabilities, ranging from hypermasculinity to powerlessness, such as active-passive instability, conqueror-subjugated instability, and masculine-feminine instability. The image of masculinity showed differences when it was correlated with tribes and job classes. In addition, the five women managing the Instagram account @richliefams.id made Bharada E's image a commodity to be traded for capital gain. Thus, the female subjectivity behind @richliefams.id which objectified and commodified the image of Bharada E was still under the logic of neoliberal hegemony.

Date: 2023
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