“Bukan Perempuan Biasa ” (Not Ordinary Women): The Identity Construction of Female Celebrity in Indonesian Media Rachmah Ida 1 Department of Communication Science, Faculty of Social and Political Science s, Airlangga University. You can imitate her action, but it is impossible to imitate her fortune (Ki Ageng Soerjomentaram cited in Jatman, 1996: 208) ABSTRACT Celebrities’ gossips and their social life has long been a commodity of the Indonesian capitalist media. Since gossips and the female celebrity’s sto ries are the product of those strong groups (i.e. capitalist media) in the society, so their figures that have been constructed by the media have influenced the views of society to the ideological interests of the media and their apparatuses. The images of female celebrities in this case can be seen as exemplifying figures of diverse, confident and liberated women as public figures which in turn could help to legitimate resistant to the concept of the ‘autonomous women.’ This text -based work focuses on stories and coverage of the top-rated high-earning female celebrities during 2001 to 2004. The paper looks at how social class and gender are involved and rearticulated in the formation of the celebrity personality in post -authoritarian Indonesia. Key words: Female celebrities, celebrities culture, cultural identity constructions, gender politics, female autonomy. Ayu Azhari, a prominent female film star, was in a hurry to reach her lavish car. A journalist and a cameraman ran after her in the car park of o ne shopping mal in Jakarta. ‘Ah, don’t talk, if there’s no fact,’ Ayu said. This scene, which was broadcasted for less than thirty seconds, attracted Ella, a housewife and a fan of Ayu Azhari. Her eyes were fixed on her TV screen, regardless of Hafiz, her youngest son of two years old, whimpering for a spoon of his meal, so reported Koran Tempo (16 January 2003). The shots of a tense Ayu Azhari fleeing the pursuit of the infotainment journalist and cameraman appeared on BM on TV of Lativi channel, the so-called ‘infotainment’ program of celebrity gossip and stories. BM on TV (an acronym for Bintang Millenia, a brand of weekly entertainment tabloid) is an example of the latest growth of local tabloidisation of contemporary television news, which has flourish ed on the national private television stations everyday in Indonesia. Indeed, it is hard not to talk about celebrity gossip in Indonesia these days. Private television stations bombard the audience with hours of gossip shows from early in the morning until evening. Various infotainment programs, produced by independent production houses, sell the juiciest celebrity stories of the week. Although those infotainment programs have been criticised for their low standard of journalistic style, and for the fact t hat they all look alike for running the same stories in the same formats with similar shots and presenters of a similar type, those entertainment programs seem to attract the viewers who care more about what the celebrities are doing than about the latest political corruption issue in the country. Ella, the housewife viewer reported by Koran Tempo above, is typical of those viewers who show their interest in the details of celebrity’s lives. Ella’s interest in Ayu Azhari’s coverage seems to signify that there is a curiosity and pleasure in consuming personal details and affairs of the media figures in recent Indonesia. A star is defined by Variety magazine as, ‘a curious 1 Correspondence: R. Ida. Department of Communication Science s, Faculty of Social and Political Science, Airlangga University. Jl. Airlangga 4 -6 Surabaya 60286, Indonesia. E-mail: r_ida@unair.ac.id