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One important theme attached to pop culture is the politics of representation and sub-cultural identity. The pop singer Madonna and then the Spice Girls are frequently regarded as the representation of modern women offering a different face of feminism ideology. Successfully entering the market competition, Madonna, through her cry of 'material girl', characterizes herself as an independent woman in the still dominating patriarchal world while challenging the burden of morality placed on the shoulders of women. She asks young women to rebel against male-centred traditions and unashamedly exposes her sensuality as a source of power and even domination, or in short celebrating 'being women'. The flag of Girl Power is also waved by the 1990'sBritish female singers, the Spice Girls, who call young girls to "be strong, be brave, be loud and control your own destiny. Believe that your self can do anything you want to do and be confident. We have to be independent, but it does not mean that you don't need a boy" (Swastika 2004: 66).

Those who attempt to voice critically about the injustice done by the state frequently face the government's" iron hands ". Indonesia history has noted how some Indonesian critics from various fields are accused of threatening national stability so that they have to be culturized through many kinds of terror. Conscience writers (Mangunwijaya s term) are the easy targets of state violence because they portray the powerless, "wong cilik" (the common folk/little people) as the victims of development, and the inappropriateness of the elites' behavior. For an authoritative regime. such criticism doesn't sound good because it makes look bad in front of the public. In the New Order regime. Wiji Thukul is one of Indonesian poets who does an advocacy for "wong cilik ". His poems are screams of the people from huts,factories. and graves.