Devi Asmarani: Socialize Feminism Through Media

Devi Asmarani’s anxiety as a female journalist encouraged her to become one of the co-founders of Magdalene.co. A website magazine that has the main mission of breaking patriarchy and bringing the issue of feminism closer to the wider audience.

Women and the media, two things that are both simultaneously and mutually hostile. The media often make women as objects of commodities used by industry. Jean Kilbourne, a feminist and media observer from America, said that advertisements that are disseminated in the media help create stereotypes that ultimately affect the level of violence against women. Not only advertising, the content of media with a special segment of women often does not represent women with all their problems or even written from a masculine side. “I want to create something issue based, from women to women. The idea is from there. Representing women’s experiences in a more inclusive and authentic way. Women’s experiences vary. Authentic. But the idea of beauty itself is very dictated by the media at this time, “Devi said while explaining Magdalene’s birth in September 2013.

Humble feminism

On the fourth year of Magdalene’s birth, it managed to attract the attention of readers aged 25-35 years. The second age segment that often reads Magdalene is the age of 18-24 years. “This is according to our target. Our content is indeed adult content. Our content needs certain level of curiosity, “said the holder of a Bachelor of Arts degree majoring in journalism from the University of North Alabama.

Criticizing social phenomena from the point of view of feminism in a way that is easily understood by people is one of the main strategies that Magdalene did. Examples of articles published in Magdalene that have been shared with more than 9,000 times on Facebook are Two Days of Testing the Application of Polygamy, This Is What I Discover. A Magdalene reporter revealed his experience of being a member of the Ayo Polygami application. The investigative report revealed that most members of this application were men. They also told me that his wife did not know his participation in the application which encouraged his users to find this polygamous partner.

Open to Contributors and Men

Ruth Indira Rahayu, a feminist researcher and one of the lecturers in the Writing Course Like Women Writing, once analyzed that one of the distinctive characteristics of women in speaking through writing is to associate social phenomena with reflection into themselves. Magdalene opened a forum for contributors to vent their happiness as women. “In one day, three entries can be submitted by contributors. The writing criteria published in Magdalene must match the tone and spirit content of Magdalene. All writing must go through an editorial process and is widely edited. Magdalene is a web magazine, not a blog. If writing is not good, we cannot use it, “Devi explained.

One of the things that was quite surprising, Magdalene did not only attract women’s attention. Based on Google Analytics data, forty percent of Magdalene readers are male. This opens up opportunities for education about gender justice for men. “In Indonesia this is the most difficult because there are cultural aspects. Men are considered the breadwinner. “The only way a woman who has a family can succeed, not only on a career basis but also achieving mental, physical and happiness health, is when she has a partner who shares the same burden,” said Devi who has experience as a journalist for more than eighteen years.

Through Magdalene, Devi hopes to educate the public about gender equality and eliminate discrimination. “There are potential investors who have criticized us and said that Magdalene is too serious. It’s like chicken with eggs. Media is happy because people are stupid. We continue to be fed up with stupid news so that people are more stupid. You as a cooking investor want to invest in ignorance? “Said Devi while laughing to close the interview.