The irony of Islamization: sexuality, piety and power on Malaysian screens

Abstract

This article examines the wider social and political contexts for film reception in Malaysia, focusing on the ways that religious themes interact with social hierarchies around gender, class and ethnicity. Despite the prevailing phenomenon of state-sponsored Islamization in Malaysia, didactic Islamic-themed films produced in Malaysia are relatively unpopular among local audiences. At the same time, Malay-language television drama series and commercial films that feature overt physical intimacy between heterosexual couples have garnered huge public support, even when seemingly at odds with Islamic teachings. This article argues that audiences’ broad preferences for films with more sexual content do not necessarily indicate wavering commitments to Islam. Rather, the turn away from didactic films is shaped by local articulations of Islam in relation to specifically Malaysian sensibilities, cultural identities and ethical norms. Furthermore, the ways in which sexual films and dramas frame physically intimate scenes through hierarchies of ethnicity, class and gender make them acceptable and attractive, despite their ostensible transgressions of religious norms.

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