“When House Becomes Home”—Reading Normativity in Gender Equality Advocacy in Post-tsunami Aceh, Indonesia

This article contributes to the ongoing discussion on the question of feminism, gender, and post-tsunami response (Akerkar, 2007; Hyndman, 2008) by offering an analysis of the normative boundaries of gender policies in the context of post-tsunami reconstruction in Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam. The analysis focuses on the normative ideals portrayed in Oxfam International’s radio drama “Women Can Do It Too!” broadcast in the tsunami-affected coastal areas in Aceh in 2006 and 2007. What kinds of images of tomorrow does the radio drama construct as the ideal picture for Aceh? How do these idealized sexed, gendered, and sexualized images intersect with other social hierarchies? Drawing on postcolonial feminism, queer studies, and “feminism and development/disaster” literature, this article argues that by focusing solely on gender inequalities and promotion of equality between men and women/girls and boys, the radio drama normalizes heteronormativity and other social hierarchies. Using the image of the empowered adolescent girl, the radio drama’s plot aligns with the neoliberal developmental discourse of “working hard,” silencing other experiences of social hierarchies in Aceh.1