From Divine Instruction to Human Invention: The Constitution of Indonesian Christian Young People’s Sexual Subjectivities through the Dominant Discourse of Sexual Morality

Abstract

Based on a study of 22 young people aged 16–24 years old, this article examines the constitution of young Indonesian Christians’ sexual subjectivities through the dominant discourse of sexual morality. It is concerned with how this discourse has been drawn on and resisted as these young people become sexual subjects. I argue that the dominant discourse of sexual morality has positioned Indonesian young people within a binary of being either “moral” (maintaining heterosexual abstinence until marriage) or “immoral” (engaging in sex), to the extent that other ethical sexual relationships and pleasures become unthinkable. This article also provides evidence that the dominant discourse of sexual morality has been contested in the constitution of Indonesian Christian young people as sexual subjects. Three alternative ways in which participants resist the religious sexual moral codes imposed upon them are discussed, namely: casting off religion altogether, reinterpreting religious morality, and practising a double morality.