Background of the Study

10 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study

Literary work is something created by people who have sense of art, we can enjoy the literary works by reading, watching, and listening. People as a part of literary community or society can create and enjoy literary work, but many people outside cannot enjoy or produce the literary work because they think that literary work only can be enjoyed by certain society or community that is literary community. Whereas, in fact, literary work can be enjoyed by whole people in the world, including people who do not know anything about art, because many of literary works have a significance, message, and issue that have relation to the worlds-view around us in certain era inside it. Generally, literary work is created by creator to entertain the enjoyer but, sometimes literary work is made by the creator to influence the enjoyers’ mind in order they can accept what the creator’s idea in his or her literary work. Many of literary critics said that literary work contents of propaganda unsure inside it, in order the enjoyer can accept certain attitude from the creator of literary work. There are many kinds of literary works in the world, among other things are: novel, poem, and drama. But those things slowly are left by the fans because drama or poem is considered as old work. Nowadays, people tend to choose a modern entertainment. Many people around the world agree that film is a modern 11 entertainment, so it is not a wonder that film becomes the famous swan song. Film is the famous swan song because film not only becomes an entertainment for the enjoyer but also becomes a medium to convey a message and express the emotion. 1 Films are cultural artifacts created by specific cultures, which reflect those cultures, and, in turn, affect them. 2 Commonly in a film, the film maker tells about social life, politic issue, education, law, murder, adultery, and many more that ever happened in the world. But, sometimes, the film maker also makes a film about his or her experience has ever happened in her or his life. And usually the things about women are good topic to be a film. The film maker uses women character as his or her inspiration for her or his works, because women’s life full of sacrifice, struggle, riddle, and discrimination. Therefore, gender discrimination and violence often happen to the women in this world. The discrimination and violence toward woman happen because gender differences between man and woman. Many people think that gender and sex are same. In fact, gender is difference with sex. Sex is a biological attribute differences between man and woman, for instance: only man has penis and sperm, and only woman has vagina and breast. The characteristics tend to the nature. Meanwhile, gender comes from human thought, and human also can change it from time to time. According to Sabrina Petro Ramet, gender is…one of the most effective means of social control. 3 It means that who has one of certain gender can control another. In society, they recognize men have characteristics such as strong, brave, rational, curious, smart, and intellect. These characteristics are 1 Salman Aristo, Seminar Tentang Membaxca Film, Ciputat 8 April 2008 2 http:en.wikipedia.orgwikiFilm. retrieved on October 11, 2008 3 Sabrina Petro Ramet, Gender reversal and gender cultures, p.2 12 known with masculine. Meanwhile, women have characteristics such as weak, irrational, emotional, maternity, beautiful and gentle. These characteristics are known as feminine. Basically, those characteristics about men and women are formed by the social and cultural construction. Society formed and placed woman as a server of man. Woman as man’s server must accept and obey what the man wants. Men use their power to impose one will upon another. 4 It means man has great power to control woman’s life. This perception also makes differences in the division of labor where men in public sphere and women in domestic sphere. 5 Usually gender inequalities often happen in several areas such as in family, in education, and in the work field. Why this unfair thing often happens to woman than man, because many people see that woman is a weak person, so they think they can do anything to woman. St. Thomas Aquinas is sure that “woman is imperfect men . 6 Women usually get unpleasant and unfair thing in work field, education, and law. For example in a film entitled Gracie, Gracie’s father did not permit his daughter to play football, besides he knew his daughter could play a football like a boy. Gracie’s father supposed that she could not fight against boy because she was the only a girl, Gracie’s father ever said to her that you were a girl meanwhile Johnny was a boy so you could not play football like Johnny. This case can be classified as gender discrimination because Gracie’s father permitted his boy to play football meanwhile he did not permit his daughter to play football. The injustice thing like 4 Alice,B Kehoe, Manifesting Power, p.17 5 Men, Gender Division, and Welfare, edited by Jennie Popay, Jeff Harn, and Jeanette Edard, p.19 6 Raman Selden, Panduan Pembaca Teori Sastra Masa Kini, Gajah Mada University Press, p.135 13 this often happened, and again the victim was woman. Certain society and culture sometimes distinguish woman and man from what they do every day. Girls shall do like girls playing Barbie, helping their mother, cooking in the kitchen etc. And men shall act like men playing football, hiking, climbing, etc. This is the society perception about man and woman. Society perception towards women makes them inferiority and subordinate, because of that they must take a real action to change it. So many aspirations come from the feminist, such as: Sarah Grimke, Margareth Fuller, Virginia Woolf, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and many more, they are the first generation of feminist movement in the world first-wave. 7 They insist that there are no differences between men and women in all aspects, for example: in politic, government, education, law, and society. Because many of them still feel, there are differences between men and women in those aspects, especially in America. At that time there is no rights for women to give her voice in the election. The point of feminist movement is to change the society, culture, and men perception about women, and to get same opportunity, right, and gender equality with men in all aspects. Basically, there are many forms of feminism. They are Liberal feminism, Radical Feminism, Marxist feminism, and Socialist Feminism. Those forms of feminism were called as second wave’s feminist movement. 7 First-wave feminism refers to a period of feminist activity during the nineteenth and early twentieth century in the United Kingdom and the United States. It focused on de jure officially mandated inequalities, primarily on gaining womens suffrage the right to vote. The term first wave was coined retroactively in the 1970s. The womens movement then, focusing as much on fighting de facto unofficial inequalities as de jure ones, acknowledged its foremothers by calling itself second-wave feminism. From Wikipedia the free encyclopedia retrieved on august 2008. 14 Feminist movement has inspired the film makers to raise woman’s life and struggle as a story in her or his work. And one of the film makers who take a topic about woman’s life is Davis Guggenheim. Davis Guggenheim is an Academy Award-winning American film director and producer. Davis serves on the board the Creative Commons. He is married to actress Elisabeth Shue. Guggenheim is the son of Academy-award winning filmmaker Charles Guggenheim and Marion Guggenheim. He graduated from Brown University in 1986. His most recent film is Gracie, which takes place in 1978. It is about a teenage girl who overcomes the loss of her brother and fights the odds to achieve her dream of playing competitive soccer. The film is loosely based on the experiences of his wife, Elisabeth Shue. 8 This film told about the character of woman, named Gracie. She was fifteen years old, cute, energetic, hard worker and the most important thing was she loved football very much, where this game identical with men. Gracie movie told about a woman character in a family life. Her family disagreed if their daughter played football like a boy. They thought football was boy’s game where woman could not play in this game. Moreover, when her brother died, Gracie felt alone in this world because only her brother could understand her. Her life began when she was fifteen years old. She and her big brother Johnny were very close and understand each other. But all of that things changed very fast when Johnny died. Gracie felt alone in this world because her parents and her small brother never respect her. Finally Gracie decided to play football like her brother Johnny. But at that time there was no woman’s football 8 http:en.wikipedia.orgwikiDavis_Guggenheim retrieved on September, 6 2008 15 club, so if she wanted to play football she should play with man’s football team. Before she could play football with man’s football club she must pass the test to play football with man’s football team. In this test Gracie got unpleasant thing from the man. They watched Gracie in the wrong place, the gender discrimination also happened to Gracie in family, Gracie asked her father to coach her playing football like Johnnie but her father rejected it and said to her. I coached Johnnie, Johnnie was a boy and it’s this simple. You’re not tough enough. Gracie’s father thought that women had no power to do something full of risk such as playing football. They always thought woman was weak and gentle. The situation encountered by Gracie was called gender inequalities that appeared because the existence of gender differences. Actually gender is not to be problem in so far as that is not bringing about gender inequalities. Gender inequalities are manifested in several forms such as violence, stereotype, marginalization, subordination, and burden which felt by women. From those problems above, the writer is interested to analyze about gender discrimination and violence that happened to Gracie. Using relevant theories the writer wants to do a deeper analysis about gender discrimination and violence that happens to Gracie and how she solves her problem that happens to her. Through those considerations the writer gives a title on this paper “Gender Discrimination and Violence in Gracie Movie”. 16

B. Focus of the Study