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Saturday, March 7, 2020

Bucin

Two new slang terms in the Indonesian language have come into popular usage, both indicating a man who is controlled by/afraid of his wife (or mate). The one is bucin, a portmanteau word taken from the term budak cinta (love slave), popularized by millennials and members of Generation Z. The other is an acronym, ISTI (Ikatan Suami Takut Istri or association of husbands afraid of their wives), used mainly by married baby boomers. Yet a third, this having a religious nuance, is the portmanteau word Istiqomah and is short for Ikatan Suami Takut Istri Kalau di Rumah, husbands afraid of wives when at home, usually referring to married men who go wild only when outside their homes.

"In a patriarchal society like Indonesia," as a commentary piece in the Jakarta Post has it, "these terms, normally used in jokes among men, only reflect deep-rooted gender inequality in the country. The cynical abbreviations suggest that men should instead demonstrate supremacy over women, for example by way of abuse or by leaving all the household chores to women."

Ironically, or perhaps not so ironically, a rise in abuse of women has mirrored the adoption and common usage of these popular terms in culture, with cases of rape, abuse, verbal or physical violence increasing precipitously over the last few years. Nobody wants to be a bucin, right.

Control has been the province of Indonesian men for ages, and still is. Moreover, they are often aided and abetted by out of pace laws and archaic cultural mores, nearly as persuasive for women as they are for men. But times are changing, and that irrepressible fact is stuck in a lot of male craws.

Thus the term bucin, and the desire to avoid being called bucin.

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