The Representation of Healthy Women on the Packaging Design of Traditional Medicine (Jamu)

Listia, and Tripoli, Faruk and Wahyono, Bayu (2014) The Representation of Healthy Women on the Packaging Design of Traditional Medicine (Jamu). In: the 10th Bienniale Convention Pasific and Asian Communication Assocoation 2014, 24-06-2014 - 26-06-2014, Bandung - Indonesia.

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Abstract

Jamu is an Indonesian traditional medicine used for maintaining health and treating ailments based on experience and handed down through generations. Jamu in the form of powder is packaged in the packaging design show women in various poses and objects in outdated appearances. We believe that jamu packaging design have meanings and could become the representation of Indonesian healthy women. We choose jamu packaging design from five big producers which have survived for at least three to four generations: Air Mancur, Sido Muncul, Jamu Jago, Nyonya Meneer and Jamu Iboe. This research aims to read the meaning that represented on jamu packaging design for woman’s health and reveal the ideology behind them. We analyses twelve packaging designs consist of seven packaging designs which use woman photographs and five packaging designs which use woman illustrations. The analysis uses Roland Barthes semiotic theory that reveals the linguistic message, the denoted image and rhetoric of the image. Texts and images on jamu packaging design seem to describe jamu as a traditional product and jamu as a modern product. Generally, the representation of healthy women is tend to be modern, eventhough jamu is well known as a natural product and closely associate with traditionality. Active women describe healthy women, they can do activities inside and outside house, dinamic like men. The concept of health is not always related with pretty face but mostly about ideal body outside and inside. Healthy is mostly related with the inside body especially women reproductive organs. As a signification, jamu signifies the ideology of femininity. Jamu tends to represent healthy women as modern and natural. However, there are always negotiation between ‘feminine’ and ‘masculine’, ‘traditional’ and ‘modern’, ‘natural’ and ‘cultural’ in lingustic and image messages.

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