Research Study: Gender Expression in Waria’s Case


One of the most interesting subjects in discourse analysis is gender. “Man” and “woman” is the first thing that usually comes up in people’s mind when they heard about gender. What about the people who are in between? Transexual and transgender people are also exist. Transexual is a term for those who want to change their sexuality with surgery, change their appearance into the opposite sex, while transgender belongs to the people who behave, express, and identify themselves as the opposite sex without any surgery (Pardo, 2008). Transgender and transexual people, especially the man who want to be a woman, imitates women’s appearance and style that use to be called as waria, has their own way to show their gender and sexual identity, which is stated by Pardo (2008), that “the ways we signal our gender to society: style and behaviors that are perceived by those around us” is called as: gender expression.
Most of waria work as singing beggar or work at beauty parlor since they are rejected by their parents (Bolin, 1988 as cited in Pardo, 2008), and so they do not have a good level of education. In Indonesia, people still cannot accept the existence of waria, they are underestimated and even mocked by the people. When waria felt that they are not acceptable, they try to declare that they are exist, they have the same right to live. When the community became wider, they want to rebel and show that they do not care about what people think about them, if people deny their existance, then they will just do as they please. They show it trough the way they dressed, and they way they talk.
Most of waria communities live at marginal area, so they are accustomed to communicate with vernacular and accustom to use rude words. This fact is match with Platt theory (as cited at Siregar, 1998) which stated that social identity, including; age, sex, education level, and social economic background influence the language usage.
The data below is got from a 15 minutes conversation between two she-male hair dressers at a beauty salon in Karawang:
A: “iih gue serem amat jadi dia ya,dikit-dikit matiin orang, nyari duit cuma buat ke dukun. Sayang banget. Padahal nyari duitnya oge ngajualan hanceut heula”
In Bahasa: (Iih gue takut kalau jadi dia, sedikit-sedikit membunuh orang, cari uang hanya untuk pergi ke dukun, sayang sekali, padahal mencari uangnya juga dengan berjualan buah dada)     
Those waria might think that girls will talk about everything when they were gather. But the fact is waria speaks more free than girls when they were gather they even act more girly than the real girls. Unfortunately, the way they speak, in order to be heard like a girl sometimes is too redundant. They speak very free because they think that in that beauty salon’s room, everyone is a woman, and everyone and it is a common thing if they talk about sexual things.
A: ”Iih si Doni mah hideung pisan sia, lele na jumbo”
In Bahasa: (Ih si Doni, kamu hitam sekali, lele*-nya berukuran besar) *penis
B: “hideung-hideung oge maneh mah doyan
In Bahasa: (hitam-hitam juga kamu suka)
A: “Dih manehna mah teu bersyukur pisan sia, ku gusti Allah geus dibere lelaki nu bageur, kabur.. ngejablai deui mereun.. Teu nyaho eta sabaraha orang tiap malem anu ngobok-ngobok
In Bahasa: (Kamu itu tidak bersyukur kepada Allah, sudah diberikan laki-laki yang bagus, malah pergi.. menjual diri ya.. tidak tahu berapa orang yang tiap malam menyentuh kamu)
The situation does not only happen in beauty salon or a woman-only place, but also in public place. The conversation below was found in a public economic train in Jakarta:
A she-male said; “Heh, tetek lu tuh, kemana-mana” to his friend who is a waria too.
They might realize that they are different, so they use their own language to communicate with each other. They used rude words, which most of people think that it is taboo to say in front of people. It was a form of declaration that they are exist, they are not a man, nor a woman, and they have their own way of living and they do not afraid of what people might think about them.
They must have realized which words are impolite and which are not. They use rude words because they chose it, and to show their intimacy and solidarity to their community as a form of their identity declaration. As the conclusion, the way waria interacts with each other, express themselves in front of public, rebel against the common values; using taboo and improper words in front of public, and even the way they flirt to the ‘normal’ men, is the form of gender expression of the waria community.



References
Pardo, S. T. 2008. Growing Up Transgender: Research and Theory. Adapted on June 2011 from http://www.actforyouth.net/resources/rf/rf_trans-identity_0308.pdf
Roen, Katrina. 2001. Transgender Theory and Embodiment: the risk of racial marginalisation. Adapted on June 2011 from http://www.ucm.es/info/rqtr/biblioteca/Transexualidad/transgender%20theory%20and%20embodiment%20risk%20of%20racial%20marginalis~.pdf
Anonym. n.d. Bahasa Gaul pada Kalangan Waria di Jalan Gadjah Mada Medan: Tinjauan Sosiolonguistik. Adapted on June 2011 from http://typecat.com/pdf/analisis-bahasa-di-kalangan-waria.html

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