CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
In this
chapter presents background of the study, problem of the study, objective of the study, significance of the
study, scope and limitation, and definition
of the key terms.
1.1 Background of the Study During the time, injustice phenomenon toward
women could happen in everywhere either
in public area or domestic area. In those areas, women are definite, presented and treated. Women was
claimed to act “receive” what was determined
for her, while, men was accustomed and trained to do hegemony and take decision to others, especially for women.
Suchthe unstable of gender construction,
continuously, was preserved by the culture. It was like a patriarchal culture that is one of the clear examples of
the women phenomena in the world and
this phenomenon can be in the form of prohibition and limitation the role of women in the public area etc.
In the case of patriarchal
culture, the women in one family have no chance and no role to do something except serving the
husband, child, and as if to be the servant
in their own home. Whatever the reasons, the limitation of the women role and the others discrimination happened in any
timesassociate with the one sex or gender
identified as a bias act or bias gender.
In a glance, gender issues are not related
with Islam. Yet, Islam is full of moral
command which correlate with gender. By well mannered idiomatic language, Allah SWT utters: Means:
“On the contrary,
live with them
on a footing
of kindness and
equity (An-Nisa’: 19).
They are your garments and
you are their
garments (Al-Baqoroh: 187). Your wives are as a field unto you; so
approach your field when or how you will
(Al-Baqoroh: 223).” Islam, basically, more emphasizes on the equality and
justice between men and women, included
into household life and compliance the sexual requirement between the husband and the wife (Ilyas, 2003:
6). Actually, both men and women have
the same function and position in society and also have the same right to give their opinion. Furthermore, not
only men who have critical and logical
reasoning to discuss and appraise any kindsof problems, but women also have it too.
Therefore, braveness is needed to
act and perform based on the conviction that
women are also God’s creature who has the ability to think and need to ask questions and get the answers without lowering
downtheir existence as creature.
All at once to fall out the
common myth that occur and attentive either by men or women, that is the myth of women inferiority
as emotional creature and men superiority
as rational creature.
Related with gender issues, nowadays, there
are many women activists or feminists
who study gender problem that happened inthe society. The feminists were more interested to see how women were
marginalized and were viewed in law
position by the society. One of the great powerof the marginalized toward women was done through media. In this case,
media do not only become the main attention
of communication but also politics, social, and culture.
Media, for example, also become
special attention of the feminist struggle.
They see media as the instrument
of ideology, how the dominant group was put in proper place, the elite group was beneficial,
whilethe minority group was discriminated
(Eriyanto, 2005:3). Therefore, this research used discourse analysis to help it to show how women were treated
unfairly and viewed in low position in media.
The term of discourse analysis is
a common term used in many science disciplines
and have various definitions. Though, there is a great gradation from those various definitions, basically,
discourse analysis is related with the study of language or language in used. Hikam (1996:
78-86) divided discourse analysis into
three paradigm of inquiry that is developing and competing in human sciences, such as positivist discourse analysis,
interpretive discourse analysis, critical
discourse analysis.
Critical discourse analysis is a
type of discourse analytical research that primarily studies the way social power abuse,
dominance, and inequality are enacted,
reproduced, and resisted by text and talk in the social and political context. With such dissident research,
critical discourse analysts take explicit position, and thus want to understand,
expose, and ultimately resist social inequality
(Rasmussen, 1996). While according Fairclough, CDA sees "language as social practice": "CDA sees discourse - language use in
speech and writing - as a form
of `social practice'.
Describing discourse as
social practice implies
a dialectical relationship
between a particular discursive
event and the situation(s), institution(s) and social structure(s), which frame it: The
discursive event is shaped by them, but
it also shapes them. That is, discourse is socially
constitutive as well
as socially conditioned
- it constitutes
situations, objects of
knowledge, and the
social identities of and
relationships between people and groups
of people. It
is constitutive both
in the sense
that it helps
to sustain and reproduce the
social status quo, and inthe sense that
it contributes to transforming it.” (Fairclough
and Wodak 1997: 258) In CDA
perspectives, beside power; domination; and inequality, gender (feminist) is also an interesting discursive,
even, feministwas being a paradigm in CDA–when
there are domination and social inequality(Cameron, 1990). Because of that, here, this research takes Mona Lisa
Smile Film as the object of the study since
both of them have synchronization, namely: the main character’s experiences which have gender bias, in which
need to be studied by using critical discourse
analysis method.
Mona Lisa Smileis a film directed
by: Mike Newell. “Mona Lisa Smile” strives
to be an emotion filled story about women’sroles during the 1950’s or the era of Eisenhower, but the outcome is a flimsy
uneven film. Katherine Watson (Julia
Roberts) is an independent woman that has just landed a job as art history professor at the renowned Wellesley College
during the mid-1950. The college is an
all-women school that nurtures perfection and skillful academics.
However, the school is run by its alumni and
believes that women should receive an
education, but after getting married, they should do nothing but be a housewife. The privileged students are taught
invaluable rules of etiquette and propriety,
like how to cross and uncross their legs, as a means to attract a suitable husband. Wellesley openly prepares its pupils
not for careers but for lives of domesticity
and subservience. Thrust into this staid arena, as Wellesley's new history of art teacher, is the freethinking
and liberal Katherine Watson (Julia Roberts).
By considering some cases of Mona
Lisa Smile Film, it is necessary to analyze
the gender bias that happened in the film. These simple reasons to develop this project on critical discourse
analysisare: first, most of us as human beings
want to liberate from injustice and inequality. However, only few people have the power and they are oppressed by the
others. Second, as the languageusers, people choose the words, phrases, and
sentences on certain topics to convey their
ideas or feelings. How the language-users interpret what the others mean, and how they use the language to influence the
others. Third, the discursive practice
does not only explore, convey and direct the reader’s mind but it also gives the limitation to the others by
following what the discourse-person wants.
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