Auliana Sakinah Putri
Feminist Society - Alpha Girls is an Indonesian original series that premiered on the streaming platform VIU on Friday, 5 July 2024. Alpha Girls is a series of family dramas with elements of comedy. In simple terms, the series tells the life of a successful businessman named Alpha (Tanta Ginting) who has two wives, Nova (Tessa Kaunang) and Luna (Yeyen Lidya). From the two wives, Alpha was gifted two daughters named Ivy (Tissa Biani) and Sierra (Jihane Almira).
As a spectacle, the series provides
enough entertainment with elements of tickling comedy and is relatable enough
to be prepared because it raises the theme of family. But behind this quite
entertaining story, it is clearly captured how patriarchal it is still rooted
in Indonesian culture. The synopsis of the story seems to want to normalize the
culture of patriarchy and the domination of men over women. There are several
issues that can be highlighted in the series.
Normalizing Polygamy
From a religious perspective,
especially Islam does allow polygamy under certain conditions. However, this
does not necessarily make it easy for men to commit polygamy. A man who commits
polygamy must obtain permission from his first wife and perform it when there
are biological conditions that cannot be met by the first wife such as the need
for conjugal sex and for procreation. Polygamy can also be based on the purpose
of raising orphan women or poor widows with a legitimate path according to
Sharia in the form of marriage for the sole purpose of increasing devotion to
God. But the reason for polygamy from Alpha is completely at odds with
religious values and does not indicate any such urgency. Revealed in the story,
Alpha's goal of continuing to marry is because he only wants to acquire a son
who can carry on his company. Such reasons are subjective and indicate only the
nature of male egoism.
Commercializing Women's Self-Esteem
In the series Alpha Girls are also
told the conditions where Alpha's first wife and second wife always do not get
along and compete continuously. One of the most interesting is Alpha's attitude
in persuading his two wives when there is a dispute. Where Alpha often
apologizes to his wives by seducing them into giving away luxury items. As seen
in episode 7 where Alpha is discovered by his two wives to have remarried to
the wife of the third. On the basis of this, both wives are angry with Alpha and
leave the house, unwilling to meet Alpha. In the episode, Alpha persuades Luna
(his second wife) with the lure of being bought the latest Hermes bag. It shows
how women's self-esteem can be bought with money and luxury as if
commercializing women's self-esteem and perceiving women as objects. The
depiction also seems to belittle the condition of infidelity, which seems to be
a minor mistake and can be easily forgiven simply by buying things as an
apology. However, infidelity can also have an impact on families, where
children will tend to be depressed and mentally disturbed when they find out
their parents are cheating, let alone end up in divorce.
Underestimating Women's
Abilities
Alpha's main reason for continuing
to marry was to find sons in order to carry on his company (Alpha Corps). The
premise of the series seems to illustrate that women can't lead companies and
shouldn't be running public jobs. In practice, this does not only occur in the
context of companies or private institutions but also includes government
institutions. Although today the number of women in the Civil Apparatus of the
State (ASN) is more than men, the women who occupy the seats of the High
Leadership Officials (PPT) are still under 20 percent.
You can also read: Gender Bias in AI: Mitigating Strategies
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View More:
Muhammad Syarif. Dampak Perceraian
terhadap Psikologis, Emosional, dan Mental Anak dalam Perspektif Hukum Islam.
SYARIAH Journal of Islamic Law. Volume 4. Number 2. (2022). http://dx.doi.org/10.22373/sy.v4i2.580
https://www.dailysia.com/alpha-girls/
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