I Love Dugem': Young Women's Participation in the Indonesian Dance Party Scene

This paper explores the impact of the global phenomenon of electronic dance music culture (EDMC) on contemporary constructions of femininity in Indonesia. The focus is on the various methods young women use to establish 'a sense of place' in nocturnal dance spaces, through new forms of identity construction and public interaction. In particular I seek to demonstrate how this contemporary Western youth sub-culture has been influential in shaping a new form of femininity in Indonesia, and how this femininity is articulated through young women's involvement in the Indonesian 'rave' and dance scenes—known locally as parti or dugem (dunia gemerlap).[1] The paper considers how femininity, including female sexuality, is socially constituted through Indonesian state and mainstream discourse, and how young women are negotiating and challenging these hegemonic concepts of feminine identity through their participation in EDMC.