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CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
A. Background of The Study
Language reflects the culture and the importance of the way of life in a society. That is why the words people use in their language show or reflect their
perception about the world. One of the perceptions which are reflected through their language is the perception about the sexes. This kind of perception becomes
general for people in the society as they differentiate roles, abilities, and status of people with their sexes. It leads people to use sexist language, which is language
that shows the distinction between the sexes, in their daily life, consciously or unconsciously. Mills said that
What extend our perception of the world, and what we understand ‘natural sex roles to be, is in fact influenced by the language we speak. Mills
1995: 83.
People see men and women as different subjects. It is not just because of their biological sex but also a belief that men and women have different qualities
as the members of society. Until the late 1990s, women were put in the second place while men were put in the first place Davies 2004: 304. As the result of
being at the second place, women became the minority, people judged that women were less worthy than men. People state that women are weak creatures, cannot be
leaders or they are not born to lead, and the main job for women is to be a good house-wife in which they should take care of the house, kitchen, husband and
children at home and women are not suitable for the careers like politicians,
doctors, chief of the offices, etc. As what Alan Dundes said, “The female path is that of love, marriage, and childbearing, not in careers like doctors, lawyers,
Indian chief” Ahmad 2009: 11. These kinds of statement is considered as the example of gender stereotype which is shown by the used of sexist language.
The use of sexist language is related to gender stereotypes. It is because sexist language consists of speech that shows gender stereotypes and unequality
between men and women. Therefore, as the result of the gender stereotypes in the society, the phenomenon of gender stereotypes also could be found in literary
works. One of the works which shows gender stereotypes which can be seen through the use of sexist language is a movie entitled The Iron Lady. The Iron
Lady is a documentary movie about the first female Prime Minister in Britain that created in 2011. This movie was chosen because there are many sentences that
show gender stereotypes in the dialogue of the movie. The gender stereotypes are seen through the use of sexist language in the dialogue that is uttered by both male
and female characters which show the distinctions between both male and female which are unequal and are constructed by the society.
B. Problem Formulation
Based on the above background, the problems of this research can be formulated as follows:
1. What kind of sexist languages are found in the movie’s dialogue? 2. What stereotypes are revealed through the use of sexist language in The Iron
Lady?
C. Objectives of the Study
This research is aimed to find out kinds of sexist language in The Iron Lady. The second objective of this study is to find out the gender stereotypes
which are revealed through the use of sexist language in the dialogues.
D. Definition of Terms
To help us to understand this research, we should have a better understanding about the definition of Stereotypes. Pilcher and Whelehan in their
book Fifty Key Concepts in Gender Studies, stated that “A stereotype is a method of understanding, which works through classifying individual people
into a group category” 2004: 166. As well as understanding about Stereotypes, it is important for the reader
to have an understanding about the words ‘sex’ and ‘gender’. The word ‘sex’ in sexist language and the word ‘gender’ in gender stereotypes have different
meaning. However, these two words are related to each other. Gender is the differences between men and women that constructed by culture and society,
while sex is the differences between men and women which are constructed biologically. Jane Pilcher and Imelda Whelehan gave an explanation about the
relation between gender and sex in their book Fifty Key Concepts in Gender Studies. They stated that gender was used as an analytical category to draw a line
of demarcation between biological sex differences and the way these are used to inform behavior and competencies, which are then assigned as either
‘masculine’ or feminine’ 2004: 56.
Next, the writer assumed that the readers also need an understanding of Sexist language. Mills in her book Feminist Stylistics stated that, “sexist
language is that language-use, conscious or unconscious on part of the speakers, which may alienate females and males, and which may lead to the
establishment of an environment which is not conducive to communication and effective social interactions” 1995: 86.
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CHAPTER II THEORETICAL REVIEW
In this chapter, the writer will present the review of related studies, the review of related theories and the theoretical framework. The first one is the
review on related studies which contains the previous researches done by other researchers or writers on the same topic. The second one is the review on related
theories which explains the theories used to answer the problems of the research. The last one is the theoretical framework which is applying the theories which are
relevant for this research.
A. Review on Related Studies
The first previous study was done by Afrilla Nita Sari entitled “Chinese Stereotypes of Women in Question Using the Women’s Contribution in Buck’s
Selected Novels The Good Earth, The Mother, and Imperial Woman” 2007. According to Sari, there were three main problems discussed in her thesis. The
first problem was about the contribution of each female character based on the personality, the second was about the stereotypes of women revealed in those
novels, and the last problem was about in what way and why the contribution challenged the stereotypes.
Sari used the theories of character and characterization and review of 19
th
Century Chinese Society to answer the problems. Sari used the socio-cultural approach to give an understanding about her study. Sari explained that socio-
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