Doing chemical sexualities, becoming a jago Masculinities, personhood, and precarity in West Papua

This dissertation frames the practices of penis and sexual enhancement as a lens through which to understand evolving masculinities in West Papua. The practices of penis and sexual enhancement in West Papua, embedded in the history of male initiation and beliefs about gender and sexuality, are merging with new technologies. Young men in West Papua today encounter myriad drugs, foods, drinks, cosmetics, and other substances to enhance their bodies and sexual performance, not just traditional herbs. They turn to chemicals to transform and enhance their bodies in their attempts to embody their desired gendered personhood. This dissertation argues that a specific form of masculinity emerges from the practices of chemical sexuality among young men in West Papua is jago masculinity. The concept of jago – literally means a fighting cock – has a trajectory in Indonesian history of masculinity to understand the relations between acts of violence, masculinity, and power. Young men used the term to refer to the masculinity they aspired to through their chemical practices: to be a virile man, whose penis and sexual prowess are a champion among peers, capable of dominating women sexually. Jago is a form of relational gendered personhood, constituted through relations with other persons, with heterosexuality, with chemical sexualities, and with precarious places. This dissertation shows the way in which jago masculinity as a kind of masculinity constructed through the practices of chemical sexuality within wider—precarious and violent—contexts of society, economy, history and politics in West Papua.