Years of Dressing Dangerously: Modern Women, National Identity and Moral Crisis in Sukarno's Indonesia, 1945-1966

Charles P. Sullivan's PhD dissertation (History, University of Michigan, 2020) reads Indonesian women's magazines (Wanita, Puspa Wanita, Varia) from 1945-66 to argue that the Lubang Buaya narrative about Gerwani worked as a 'post-text' of long-running anxieties over modernity, moral crisis and the 'Mother of the Nation' ideal. Chapter 1 (pp. 1-50) frames Gerwani's slander as gendered pretext for the killings and as support for a genocide reading; Chapter 7 (pp. 353-424) traces the press narrative, the 'confessions' (Djamilah), Irma Nasution, and the fracture of Kaum Wanita, ending with 'Gerwani's New Order'.

Disertasi doktor Charles P. Sullivan (Sejarah, University of Michigan, 2020) membaca majalah wanita (Wanita, Puspa Wanita, Varia) 1945-66 untuk berargumen bahwa narasi Lubang Buaya tentang Gerwani bekerja sebagai 'pasca-teks' dari kecemasan lama tentang modernitas, krisis moral, dan citra 'Ibu Bangsa'. Bab 1 (hlm. 1-50) membingkai fitnah terhadap Gerwani sebagai dalih bergender bagi pembunuhan dan mendukung pembacaan genosida; Bab 7 (hlm. 353-424) menelusuri narasi di pers, 'pengakuan' (Djamilah), Irma Nasution, dan retaknya Kaum Wanita, ditutup dengan 'Orde Baru Gerwani'.

“Sullivan argues the 'perceived moral failings of Gerwani' created the primary emotional justification for destroying the communist movement, a narrative of sexual deviance that 'permitted, nay required, the mass destruction of the Indonesian left' (p. 26).”