The Jakarta Post - Weekender

Twenty years after his screen debut, Emon, the simpering character from the hugely successful 1980s film franchise Catatan Si Boy, enjoys resonant, almost iconic status. But Rizal Iwan asks if Indonesia’s favorite sissy really is as queer as folk?

The local cinema screen is slowly becoming a comfortable place for gay characters. But long before the lovable Sakti got cuddly with his hunky boyfriend Nino in urban comedy Arisan (2004), a generation before tough girl Reggie began her star-crossed affair with needle-happy Vela in drug-addled Detik Terakhir (2005) and way before masochist Kuta dripped wax all over his skin because of a doomed love affair with a married man in Pesan dari Surga (2006), there was already a character of legendary proportions who sashayed just a little bit too close to the queer side.

His name is Emon. And only time will tell whether any of the recent gay characters will get close to having his enduring resonance. Emon is indeed Indonesia’s most beloved banci, or sissy. Decades after his heyday – even after the more recent sissy phenomenon of stick-thin comedian Aming or the comeback of comedy troupe Srimulat’s Tessy – people still refer to him whenever a sissy situation comes up. His shrill shrieking is still imitated and his trademark lines quoted in various limp-wristed jokes in today’s TV shows or daily conversations.

Emon first sprung onto the Indonesian film scene in 1987 as a supporting character in Catatan Si Boy, a film that fusses over the loves and lives of Jakarta’s rich urban youngsters. The teen crowd pleaser was so commercially successful it turned into a money-machine that spawned four sequels, and became one of the era’s ultimate youth icons.

Emon is the effeminate sidekick to the title character, and he is always on hand as Boy muses about his next conquests, falls out with girlfriends, roughs it up with villains or ponders which expensive car he should drive the next day. Emon stole the show; he was so loved by moviegoers that the studio created a whole other film just for him, Catatan Si Emon (1991)

What is interesting about Emon’s presence is that everything about the Catatan Si Boy films is so politically correct. Boy is a character imbued with extraordinary virtue and squeaky clean wholesomeness. Not only is he rich and handsome, he faithfully does his prayers, gets along with his parents and somehow possesses the martial art skills of a stunt man. In short, he is society’s ideal young man: Good-looking, good-hearted, masculine and devout.

Then there is Emon, a character best described – and who all the other characters in the films refer to – as a sissy. He acts in that recognizable, parodic way assigned to a sissy, with flailing limp wrists and the unmistakable sissified dialect.

Of course, “sissy” is almost immediately associated with homosexuality. Despite the fact that sissy and homosexual are two different concepts, being a sissy is one of the most widely recognized (if misleading) stereotypes of a homosexual.

So, what is a sissy (and thus presumably homosexual) character like Emon doing in such a politically antiseptic film like Catatan Si Boy? Isn’t he the antithesis of society’s image of an ideal man? Then why did the Indonesian public embrace him? And this sissy is a relatively important character, not one with acceptably safer roles like, say, the girlfriend’s hairdresser.

However, Emon is not as politically incorrect as you might think. In fact, he’s probably the most politically correct character in the films. That’s because he – or rather the filmmakers – played his cards right.

Despite sporting the stereotypical characteristics of a sissy, Emon’s sexuality remains obscure. There is never the insinuation that he is a full-fledged homosexual. In a film that treats sexuality quite casually for the time’s standard, Emon was the only character without any sexual urges.

Still, audiences do tend to wonder, which is why the filmmakers deliberately sexuality. It is repeatedly stated by different characters in the film that Emon is not a homosexual, but merely “a spoiled brat.”

“The way I perceived the part, Emon is not gay, he just behaves effeminately,” says Didi Petet, the actor who originated the role and is still considered the definitive Emon. “He’s just a rich, spoiled kid, and that’s why he becomes like that. In playing him, I never thought of him as a homosexual.”

In preparing for the role, he says he only focused on the exterior, seeking input from effeminate friends, such as on how they walk and hold cigarettes.

No one felt the need to go inside Emon’s psyche. “He’s just comic relief, and that’s what I was holding on to, in bringing him to life.”

Still, the obvious connection between a sissy and a homosexual led to a slip in the pretense. A lesbian character enters Catatan Si Boy 3. In the film’s final scene, the gang thinks it would be a good idea to set up Emon with the lesbian lady. “Who knows, maybe Emon will turn normal,” I believe was the line from one of the characters.

So, are they admitting that Emon is somewhat… “abnormal”? And if he is just a spoiled mama’s boy, then why is matchmaking him with a lesbian considered a solution?

“What is abnormal is just his behavior. There was never any discussion about his sexual preference,” explains Petet.

The filmmakers’ insistence on Emon’s heterosexuality continued with Catatan Si Emon, where Emon is finally smitten with a girl and spends the film pursuing her romantically. Perhaps the filmmakers intended the film to be an eventual answer to a long-hovering question among the Catatan Si Boy’s devotees.

So why all the fear of acknowledging the likelihood that Emon, like about 80 percent of effeminate boys, is gay?

Perhaps this question is best when answered with another question: Would Indonesia have taken Emon to their hearts if he was homosexual?

Indonesians do not have a problem with accepting sissies on screen. Sissies are a source of amusement, as long as they play their designated role. Emon lives up to this requirement. Although part of the principal ensemble, Emon is hardly a significant character. He stays on the peripheral. He is just there to be laughed at, with his series of camp antics and faux pas. He is the weakling who must always run and hide behind Boy and wait for him to save the day. If anything, dependent Emon bolsters Boy’s masculinity.

Nevertheless, Emon was a sympathetic character who was good for the box office. So, in an era when gay characters were always depicted – and therefore perceived – as someone to be pitied or hated, the filmmakers could not afford to have him as a gay man.

“If Emon had had a crush on Boy, viewers wouldn’t have liked that,” muses Petet.

Indeed, people would have reacted strongly, and probably stayed away from the movie. So the filmmakers stripped the suspect sissy of all potentially problematic sexual attributions.

In its way, it is an interesting form of gay-bashing on screen.

But there is ironic poetry in the denial of Emon’s sexuality – and his eventual resurrection in heterosexuality – for commercial reasons. It actually mirrors what is going on in society; a reflection of what countless gay boys and girls encounter growing: The sissy and tomboy forced to conform and acquiesce to power by denying their sexuality.

To some extent, even in this day and age of the burgeoning gay movement, it is still very much an issue. Perhaps that is why Emon is still strongly celebrated after 20 years, because there is more relevance to him than just his bitchy remarks and catchy shrieks.

Home