ABSTRACT
Young women’s experiences of heterosexual relationships prior to marriage in Mataram involve varying degrees of emotional intimacy, social and sexual freedom, and personal risk. This chapter centers on the particular life stage of maidenhood as experienced in the social and cultural context of a modernizing Indonesian city. Courtship and pre-marital relationships are represented from a predominantly female perspective, stemming from the author's own sexual subjectivity and sexually specific research focus. Young women in Mataram generally develop an interest in their bodies as reproductive and sexual bodies, and become attracted to the opposite sex around menarche. However, the onset of romantic relationships for the majority of women is still significantly later than in western contexts and more modernized parts of Indonesia. Depending on a couple’s familiarity and the family’s approval, the man may be permitted to relax in more private areas of the woman’s home.
