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Vaginal Practices in Indonesia
By Iwu Dwisetyani Utomo and Terence H. Hull
Throughout Indonesia, a majority of women regularly engage in a number of practices to "clean," "dry," "tighten," or "deodorize" their vaginas. These practices derive from longstanding traditions designed to achieve conformity with expectations about the appearance, function, and sexual performance of the vagina. These are rooted in a widespread belief that "tight sex" or "dry sex"-vaginal intercourse without any or with minimal lubrication in the vagina-is more pleasurable for men and gender norms that require women to "please" men. The vaginal practices range from the innocuous to the dubious to potentially extremely harmful.
In recent years, the widespread use of traditional and now modern products to dry, tighten, lubricate, or cleanse the vagina is a growing concern.1 The traditional preparations are called jamu and are sold throughout the nation, either as raw products in the market, or in commercially manufactured packets sold in supermarkets or small shops. Jamu is a combination of herbs and roots in the form of fresh or dried leaves, seeds, roots, or bark, often crushed into powder and prepared with hot water, honey, and lime juice. The preparations can also be packed as pills or capsules, or manufactured into ointments or lotion. Jamu was made famous in the ancient palaces of Surakarta (Solo) and Yogyakarta (Central Java),2 but today jamu is a multi-million dollar industry encompassing a huge range of products.
Vaginal Practices Across the Life Cycle
Women are enculturated to "clean" their vaginas early on in their lives. Young girls in Indonesia are trained to routinely wash their vagina and anus with water every time they use the toilet, a practice locally known as cebok . This is regarded as a natural part of personal hygiene and is likely to have a benign impact on health. In fact, young men are likewise taught to wash their genitals after using the toilet, a Muslim tradition.
Girls are further taught standards of vaginal "cleanliness" and the practices to maintain vaginal attractiveness at the onset of menstruation. Mothers, older sisters, or older female relatives show the young girl how to prevent "bad" odor and ensure the menstrual blood will "flow properly." During their first menstrual cycles, girls are taught to drink traditional herbal tinctures made from turmeric and tamarind juice that is believed to eliminate "the fishy smell" as well as flush out blood. Javanese people also believe menstruation may cause girls to become fat, and girls are introduced to drinking Jamu Galian Putri (literarily meaning Girls' Mixture jamu) as a means of weight control.
Many Indonesian women learn and adopt new or more elaborate vaginal practices at marriage. Among the Javanese and Sundanese, and many other ethnic groups, a bride is prepared for the nuptials by a professional wedding dresser ( tukang pais ). There is no standard way of preparation, but jamu is typically used to reduce vaginal odors and any "excessive" secretions. Occasionally, the dresser will advise the bride to undergo a special pre-wedding beauty treatment. At a beauty salon or spa, the bride might have her vagina "smoked," by sitting on a chair with a whole in the middle over a charcoal fire on which special herbs are placed to create a fragrant steam.
Because of the common belief that sexual pleasure, especially men's sexual pleasure, relies on friction, married women are often anxious about having an "excessively moist" vagina. A large proportion of women wash the outer genitalia with a betel leaf solution, purported to clean and dry the vagina, when they practice the routine washing cebok . Betel leaf solution is now commercially packed in the form of moistened tissues or liquid soaps and shampoos. Many women have also started using Jamu Sari Rapat (literarily means the essence of tightness ) or other jamu products that promise to tighten and dry the vagina.
The most recent innovation of jamu products is Tongkat Madura, a calcium carbonate rod about 15 cm in length and 3 cm wide that is inserted into the vagina to absorb fluid or vagina discharge and then rinsed and reused. This product is now available across Indonesia , and even in markets of neighboring countries. The advertisement for Tongkat Madura on an Internet site states that it "is made from traditional herbs and is especially formulated to deodorize, tighten and cleanse the vagina."3 Interviews with women who have used the device indicate that it is sometimes abrasive.
After a woman gives birth, anxiety over the tightness of the vagina often becomes a pressing concern, and jamu and other methods of tightening and drying the vagina are expected not only to return the vagina to a pre-delivery state but also to improve the health of new mothers. The postpartum jamu consists of a package of various preparations meant to be drunk for forty days after delivery to regain women's health, reduce body weight, increase breast milk, regain eyesight as well as tighten the vagina.
In recent years, there has been an explosion of vaginal practices in the urban areas of Indonesia . Gurah Vagina is a vaginal "flushing" practice done by traditional healer. Some medical professionals advertise the Ozonisasi of the vagina without much information as to what ozone is supposed to do. Beauticians offer V-spas (vagina spas) with various treatments including vagina fogging/steaming ( Kendedes ). In extreme cases, private medical clinics provide laser or conventional surgery for hymen "restoration," cosmetic vagina surgery as well as making the vagina tighter after multiple births.
Harmful Consequences; Physical and Social
For many of the vaginal practices described above, the goal is heightened sexual pleasure achieved through "tight" or "dry sex." Throughout Indonesia , many women and men believe that the tightness associated with unlubricated sex can increase pleasure for men by providing maximum friction between the vagina and the penis during sexual intercourse. Tight sex is often painful for the woman and can cause scratches to the vaginal walls, making women susceptible to infection, including HIV. In fact, the drying substances themselves can cause irritation to vaginal tissues, disturb the natural environment of the vagina, and may even promote infection
Powerful gender norms motivate these efforts to have the "ideal" vagina and discourage women from questioning these practices or complaining about discomfort during sex. Women are taught to "please" men and give sexual pleasure to their husband to prevent him searching for sexual services outside the home. Older generations teach younger generations that women should maintain the tightness and "hygiene" of their vaginas by reducing normal vaginal lubrication and eliminating any "odor."
Trained to maintain their bodies to please men's sexual needs, women themselves are dismissive (at best) of the idea that they can initiate sex or talk about their sexual preferences. Women's sexual pleasure is rarely discussed but instead denied or considered unimportant. Thus not surprisingly many may not understand what an orgasm is. For most women, sex is about the duty to become pregnant, bear children, and raise them, as well as the duty to please their husbands. Men, on the other hand, are taught to expect women to live up to these standards, and for themselves to be masculine and strong in bed. This is not a foundation for mutual understanding or mutual pleasure, but rather the basis of mutual ignorance.
Unfortunately, most Indonesian women are not aware that the vaginal practices they use might be harmful to their health. Information on the practices is absent from public health discussion and policy. The government does not test or regulate the products used in beauty salons or sold in the market place nor does it oversee the procedures used by traditional healers, medical practitioners, and surgical clinics. Most importantly, the curricula used in the formal and informal school systems tend to reinforce rather than question the gender norms that promote risky vaginal practices.4 This means that the community is encouraged to be complacent on a matter that is both dangerous and disadvantageous for millions of women.
Education that emphasizes gender equality, sexual and reproductive rights, and complete and accurate information about sexuality and sexual and reproductive health would create a foundation for women and their communities to abandon these wholly unnecessary and potentially harmful practices.
Author bio:
Iwu Dwisetyani Utomo is a Research Fellow with the National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health at Australian National University . Email Iwu.Utomo@anu.edu.au .
Terence H. Hull is Professor of Demography and Sociology Program at the Research School of Social Sciences and National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health at Australian National University. Email Terry.Hull@anu.edu.au.
References
- Joesoef, M., Sumampouw, H., H.,Linnan, M., Schmid, S., Idajadi, A. and St Louis, M. (1996) Douching and sexually transmitted diseases in pregnant women in Surabaya, Indonesia, American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 174, 115-119. Hudiono, E.S. (nd) Dry sex among sex workers and low income women in Sub-District Krembangan Surabaya, Demography and Sociology Program, Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University, Unpublished Project Report.
- Beers, Sj. 2001. Jamu the ancient Indonesian art of herbal healing, Periplus Editions (HK), Singapore.
- Jamu Herbal Stick (2006), accessed 26 June 2006, <http://www.indonesianmusic.com/jamu/madurastick.htm>.
- Utomo, I.D. (2003) Adolescent Reproductive Health in Indonesia : Status, Policies, Programs, and Issues. POLICY Project. Utomo, I.D. (2003) Reproductive health education in Indonesia : school versus parents' roles in providing sexuality information, Review of Indonesian and Malaysian Affairs Journal, 37:1, 107-134.
