Against all odds, Gerakbudaya continues to thrive. Pak Chong’s bookstore isn’t just a bookstore, but a cherished community hub, a creative borough packed with a solid, wellcurated selection of books by local and regional authors with a slant towards social sciences and Southeast Asian studies.
It started in 2016 when six women joined forces and came up with a story of five teenage girls growing up in a society where masculinity is glorified, femininity scorned, and sexual discrimination and harassment rampant. Writers Angela M Kuga Thas and Serene Lim of EMPOWER (a non-profit women’s rights organisation), Huda, Mischa Selamat, poet activist Illya Sumanto, Juana Jaafar (observer of media and politics) and illustrator Amelie P M P worked tirelessly to bring their idea to life, and the result is ‘REVOLUSIS: Pencetusan’.
What’s ‘REVOLUSIS: Pencetusan’ all about?
Angela: ‘REVOLUSIS: Pencetusan’ is about five teenage girls, best friends, who begin to see their world through each other's eyes and experiences when they enter the most prestigious school in their township. The girls live in a society where being strong, athletic, and not showing your emotions are valued above all else, but all that didn’t matter much to the girls as long as they could remain BFFs.
Juana: More importantly, it’s also a story about teens with a conscience and using their agency to act on it.
How did the idea come about?
Serene: ‘REVOLUSIS: Pencetusan’ is about stories we all have wanted to read and find in a bookstore for a long, long time. You know, stories about young girls who are different and unlike the stereotypical depiction of what and how a young girl should be. Especially not as a mere love interest or a complementary character to the protagonist. Instead of waiting, we thought why not make it ourselves?!
Angela: We were coming up with all sorts of names, but it was Mischa who blurted out the name and it was so apt. We all knew at once that that was the name of our graphic novel! We wanted something that said ‘sisterhood’, and something that spoke to a strength that was collective yet independent in every way.
The team behind 'REVOLUSIS: Pencetusan' at the launch of the graphic novel; L-R: Mischa Selamat, Serene Lim, Illya Sumanto and Amelie P M P; Photo: Gerakbudaya
Why do you think ‘REVOLUSIS: Pencetusan’ should be essential reading for teens and young adults?
Mischa: Personally, I feel that ‘REVOLUSIS: Pencetusan’ is different from the vast majority of Malay graphic novels out there. It's a story that pulls your attention to issues that are usually discussed reluctantly, even by adults.
Huda: There’s also the fact that when it comes to local comics, there’s a lack of diversity in the way the female characters are portrayed. If the comic has an ensemble cast, the boys would outnumber the girls and the girls are limited to ‘girly girl’ or ‘tomboy’ stereotype. ‘REVOLUSIS: Pencetusan’ breaks that mould by having an all-girl ensemble with diverse personalities, backstories and character designs that aren’t quite mainstream (at least locally). If we can help any reader feel less lonely with our characters and their story, I feel that our effort is a success.
‘REVOLUSIS: Pencetusan’ aims to develop counter narratives and messages in Bahasa Malaysia that conventionalise the principles of gender equality and non-discrimination. Could you elaborate on that?
Mischa: First off, we want to assure teenagers and young adults – regardless of gender – that they can be whoever they aspire to be, and not be restricted with notions like ‘but that's a girly thing!’ or even ‘no matter how well-educated you are, a woman’s place is in the kitchen’. We also want to break toxic gender stereotypes; there’s nothing wrong with men showing their emotions, just as there's nothing wrong with women not being gentle and coy.
Serene: There’s something very cruel about a world that doesn’t accept you for who you are, reject that part of you, and seeks to shape and mould you into something else. We want to tell our readers that it’s okay to be different and non-conforming to societal expectations, and there’s no one ‘right’ way to live your life. I myself have been through that, and I remember relating with characters from stories of young girls who defy their ‘prison’ and break through eventually. I hope through ‘REVOLUSIS: Pencetusan’, readers will find that association too.
Juana: I think the very fact our story is about a group of girls using their personal and collective agency to act on their conscience – and take on the world of adults – is a significant counter-narrative for our audience here. What’s more, the group is made up of teens from different backgrounds and who present themselves differently. These differences matter in a media environment that perpetuates certain ideas of gender roles and expressions.
The whole process of coming up with a graphic novel usually takes time. But ‘REVOLUSIS: Pencetusan’ was done in a month! How was that done?
Angela: The artwork and editing took a month, and huge thanks to the graphic novelist for wanting to work with us. But as writers, we started working on ‘REVOLUSIS: Pencetusan’ way before that. We started identifying potential writers in September 2016, and only managed to raise the necessary funds in August 2017 to do the workshop, to learn how to write for a graphic novel, for our writers' working meetings and other costs. Plus, there were a lot of discussion and back and forth as to how to approach the writing.
We were six women coming together without really knowing each other, certainly not as graphic novel writers. But we each had the same desire to see this idea come alive. To be honest, we didn’t actually write; instead, we were storytellers, and we told the story together bit by bit, revisiting, reworking, retelling... it was uncanny.
'REVOLUSIS: Pencetusan' is available in-store at Gerakbudaya and online; RM29.
