Relations of adultery, poligamy, polyamory and various intimate relationships with more than one partner have emerged in the past decade among urban Indonesians. Words are coined to describe modern romantic relationship practices such as "friends and romance”, “nap friends”, “complicated relationship”, “friends with benefit”, “single but taken”, “open relationship”, etc.
“Obviously, there has been a shift of intimacy interaction ongoing among Indonesian people," said Dian Arymami in her doctoral promotion at UGM Graduate School on Thursday (27/7).
According to Dian, "extradyadic" is a label that explains the practice of intimacy relationships happening among main partners. This relation is one of phenomenons of romantic relationships that came to the forefront as a discourse and practice in Indonesia in mid 2000s.
Extradyadic relation, she said, described minor indications of the emerging amorous relations change between man and woman in Indonesia. The phenomenon surfacing to the praxis can be seen as rebel practices against the structure and social order of the people.
"This also showed the ongoing shift of values in the 'ideology' and norm levels that are closely related to the potential social structure change among Indonesian people," said the Communications lecturer of UGM defending her dissertation titled Redefinition of Intimacy in Schizophrenic Society.
Dian said the complexities of intimacy relationship practices are the core of social interaction that affect people’s social lives. Unfortunately, studies on intimacy phenomenon tend to forget the main subject as the core of studies that juxtaposes as the personal and social arena. Extradyadic intimacy relation studies tend to be cast on psychologic view to study the subject and sociological point of view in studying the intimacy relationships amid social structures.
"Complexities intersection of personal as well as social domains in parallel often disappears while in fact, phenomenon of extradyadic relationships is a combination of personal psychic development, social behaviour and social dynamics," she said, accompanied by promoter, Dr. Wening Udasmoro, DEA., M.Hum, and co-promoter, Dr. Ratna Noviani. Dian passed cum laude.