Bambang Muryanto, Yogyakarta – Several studies have found increasing levels of frustration, anger, stress, fear, anxiety and other negative emotions during the pandemic.
While some people have turned to meditation, yoga, aromatherapy and other calming methods to cope with their negative emotions, a group of Yogyakartan youth has found an unusual way to vent their pent-up emotions: a cussing competition.
The Jawasastra Cultural Movement (JCM) is holding a worldwide Javanese-language swearing contest to curse out COVID-19, the (current) public enemy #1.
"Our swearing contest aims to help the public channel their frustrations, especially those [people] who have had to stop their activities because of the COVID-19 pandemic," JCM head Yani Srikandi told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.
Yani said that all participants need do was to create a 3-minute video of them cursing the pandemic in the Javanese language and then upload it to Instagram with an explanatory caption.
The contest opened on July 8 and closes on Aug. 7, with complete information available on the JCM website.
"It is an 'international' contest, since the pandemic is a global phenomenon, and Javanese anywhere in the world are welcome to participate," she said.
"However, they are prohibited from making racist, pornographic or sexist [remarks]," she stressed.
Yani explained that swearing was a long-held cultural tradition in Javanese civilization, and that it was not always used to express anger. Cursing, she said, was also used to express joy.
"When I joined [my] philology classes, I found an [ancient Javanese] manuscript containing curse words. So, even poets at the [royal palace] knew how to swear," she said.
JCM held a similar event in 2018 to criticize widespread social unrest prompted by issues of ethnicity, religion and race (SARA). (nal)