On Friday, 13 October 2023, the French Language and Literature Department held a guest lecture for the Introduction to Gender class. On this occasion, Dati Fatimah, a practitioner in the field of gender, was invited as a speaker. Dati is a Gender Consultant and Member of the SRI Institute Commissioner.

As the opening of this class, Dati shared her career background as a practitioner in the field of Gender. She also explained about the SRI Institute which is a research and education institution that focuses on gender issues. Sri Institute was established to develop perspectives on equality and justice by analysing social phenomena that reflect the unique experiences of each subject of study.

Next, Dati began to direct the audience towards the topic of the lecture this time, which was about gender equality. Dati asked a reflective question, “Where are we in the gender equality that we have practised?”. Indeed, we have heard a lot about the issue of gender equality. This issue is also supported by the sustainable development programme campaign or we often hear the term SDG’s. Indonesia itself has implemented the programme, but in practice, there are often still things that are not in accordance and even out of line.

Dati said that gender construction is unequal. Moreover, in the social construction that exists in our environment, gender is standardised, making it rigid and hierarchical. “Whereas gender is fluid,” said Dati. The fact is that it is not like that, there are men who have feminine traits as well as women who have masculine traits.

The concept of masculinity and femininity is normalised in the implementation of life and makes gender functions compartmentalised. As if a man must always be masculine and a woman must be feminine. In fact, women and men must anticipate, find room for manoeuvre, negotiate. The idea of gender equality aims to humanise not only women but also men.

Students of Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM) from various faculties have created a miniature temple model toy that can be played with being arranged one by one using the interlock system found in the miniature stones as found in the original ancient temple. The miniature model was named “Mandira Brick, ” a sacred building built with an array of stones.

The Mandira Brick PKM-K team was accompanied by Fahmi Prihantoro, S.S., M.A. The PKM-K team is a collaboration team from various cross-disciplines, namely Archaeology, Geodesy Engineering, and Banking at Universitas Gadjah Mada. Chaired by Ahmad Zaki, the Mandira Brick PKM-K Team consists of Krista Satya Nugraha (Archaeology 2021), Putri Zelda Prabaswari (Archaeology 2021), Muhammad Zaki Ramadhan (Banking 2021), and Muhammad Farrell Wardhana (Geodesy Engineering 2021).

The background of the idea is that there are still many misconceptions by the public regarding the construction of ancient temples in Indonesia, misunderstood information in the form of myths that are widely believed by the public regarding the construction of temples in ancient times such as temple stones that were glued together using egg whites, temple construction carried out by spirits, and so on. In fact, the temple buildings were built with a stone arrangement with a hook system (Interlock) by the ancestors of the Indonesian Nation.

Concerned by these problems, the UGM PKM-K Mandira Brick Team developed a miniature temple model product of the Ancient Javanese era that adopts a hook system as the original temple, Mandira Brick has three main points in its product, namely education on cultural heritage preservation, education on temple construction systems, and education on temple architectural art. A Mandira Brick product will consist of a baseplate, miniature temple stones, and adhesive glue.

Currently, Mandira Brick has three product variations that have a price range of 185,000 for Ratu Boko Arch, Rp190,000 for Banyunibo Temple, and 190,000 for Sukuh Temple. The temples are taken with the aim of popularising temples that are less well-known but have beauty, tourist attraction, and historical significance that is not inferior to well-known temples such as Prambanan Temple and Borobudur Temple.

Women have a significant role in the tourism sector where data obtained from the World Tourism Organization (WTO) shows that 60-70% of world tourism sector workers are women (WTO, 2008). However, unfortunately, the role of women in the tourism sector is still limited to domestic roles with typical activities such as cooking, making souvenirs or handicraft items, and taking care of the cleanliness of accommodation/lodging (Monica, 2018). Women’s involvement in business ventures in the tourism sector is also more informal on a small-medium scale. Similar to other sectors, women’s involvement in tourism at the managerial or decision-making level is still very limited.

One of the pillars of the world tourism recovery agenda from the crisis caused by the pandemic is strengthening the role of women in local communities driving tourism and tourism businesses as innovators, leaders, policymakers, and decision makers (G20 Guideline, 2022). Thus, various efforts are needed to increase the capacity and involvement of women, one of which is by allowing them to take a central position in tourism management.

Technological advances, especially in the world of social networking, can indirectly influence language use when interacting with interlocutors. Interacting via social media also uses language. Politeness in language is an important thing that speakers can use in communicating so that the person they are talking to does not feel pressured, cornered or offended. Politeness is also needed in responding to news. Thousands and even millions of news are circulating on social media. Not all of the news is true. There is also fake news or hoaxes. This fake news will target all groups, including mothers. Mothers are a group of people who are vulnerable to information. The Master of Linguistics Study Program at the Faculty of Cultural Sciences, apart from teaching and developing language knowledge, is also committed to educating the public in language on social media, especially language politeness in responding to fake news. For this reason, community service activities in 2023 are focused on responding to fake news on social media in the women’s environment of Caturtunggal and Terban Districts.

Monday, 16 October 2023, the Department of Javanese Language, Literature and Culture held a public lecture seminar entitled “Brother-Sister Love in Modern Javanese Literature: A Critique for Literary Researchers”. The seminar is free and open to the public at Soegondo Auditorium, Faculty of Cultural Sciences, Universitas Gadjah Mada. The seminar featured a senior lecturer from the Australian National University, Dr George Quinn. Rudy Wiratama, S.I.P., M.A., lecturer of Javanese Language, Literature and Culture Study Programme, Universitas Gadjah Mada also attended the seminar as moderator.

As the opening speaker, Dr George Quinn shared his educational background and his experience when he studied at Universitas Gadjah Mada. Dr George Quinn continued his presentation by discussing Javanese novels, including “Puspitasari”, “Truntum” by Siti Aminah, and “Kinanti” by Margareth Widhy Pratiwi.

In this presentation, Quinn interprets Javanese romance novels containing incestuous marriages or marriages performed by couples who have family or kinship ties from the point of view of Javanese literature. The first interpretation is that Javanese society has a perspective that the ideal love relationship between husband and wife is like the sincere love of brother and sister. Therefore, we may often hear in Javanese areas a wife calling her husband as mas, and a husband will call his wife as dik. The second interpretation is that this incestuous relationship is already owned by the ancient mythical story of the love story of Dewi Sri and Sedhana. There is also the story of Prabu Watugunung in Babad Tanah Jawi and the story of Sangkuriang from West Java.

So why do ancient myths with incest elements play a role in the development of Modern Javanese literature? It seems that these ancient stories have become a collective memory in modern times. This makes stories about romance in kinship continue to be reproduced. Apart from being fictitious stories that aim to entertain, these incestuous stories also serve as a medium to learn that incestuous relationships are something that should be avoided. The moral message is easier to understand when it is packaged in the form of myths and stories.

This seminar was nicely packaged. The topic chosen was very interesting. The audience followed the seminar carefully. The seminar was closed with a question and answer session. Hopefully this seminar can be a reflective medium for us and Javanese literature continues to develop in this modern era.