loves Rosemary but his friends cannot understand why he has lowered his standards to date a fat woman like her. From then on, Hal experiences a new
journey of life which transforms him into a person with a new perspective. At the end, he no longer values women based on their looks.
Beyond its pleasure, the film reflects the ideal image of women’s physical appearances and behaviors, and also its stereotypes which contribute in defining
American myth of women’s beauty. Every society has its own characteristic of what it means to be a beautiful woman. Since it is a myth, it gives effect, images,
and values and finally becomes a belief in certain community. Popular movie, since it is created and consumed by humans, often presents such a myth. It
attracts the researcher to analyze how the myth of women’s beauty governs somebody’s behaviors as reflected in Shallow Hal and also how Shallow Hal
presents American stereotypes of women’s beauty.
B. Scope of the Study
The researcher limits the analysis on some points, such as Hal’s personal opinions, interests, attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors associated with his
perspectives on women’s beauty which then govern the way he judges and values women and also govern the way Hal positions himself as a man in relation to his
sexual activity. Such an analysis is done also to other significant characters. Besides that, the analysis on the attitude, ideas, ways of thinking and physical
appearance of the female characters are done also to get the description of American myth of women’s beauty.
C. Research Questions
1.
How does the myth of women’s beauty govern somebody’s behavior as
reflected in Shallow Hal? 2.
How does Shallow Hal present American stereotypes of women’s beauty?
D. Objective
Based on the problem statements above, the researcher puts the objectives of the study as follows:
1. To explore how the myth of women’s beauty governs somebody’s
behavior as reflected in Shallow Hal. 2.
To explore how Shallow Hal presents American stereotypes of women’s beauty.
3. To explain, describe, and explore American myth of women’s beauty.
E. Benefits
The research is expected help the readers to recognize the cultural construction of the myth of women’s beauty. The researcher hopes that this
research will be a significant reference and give much contribution in understanding American culture since the research is carried out in American
studies.
F. Research Methodology
1. Data and Data Sources The data employed in this research are divided into main data and
supporting data. The source of the main data is the movie Shallow Hal that comes in the form of its motion picture VCD and DVD. It is a 20
th
Century Fox Release. The story was written by Bobby Farrelly, Peter Farrelly, and Sean
Moynihan. The directors are Bobby Farrelly Peter Farrelly. Shallow Hal was released on November 9
th
2001 in America and casted by Gwyneth Paltrow, Jack Black, Jason Alexander, Joe Viterelli, Rene Kirby, Bruce McGill, Tony Robbins,
etc. The main data come in form of the dialogues of the characters, their attitudes, behaviors, and ideas, visual and photographic images, including sets of
convention in film such as the lighting, camera angle, sound effect etc. The source of the supporting data are articles, reviews, comments,
criticism and other information related to the movie; books; encyclopedia; and many other materials.
2. Technique of Collecting and Processing data This research is a libraryreferential study. The researcher employed
library research by reading and collecting many references as many as possible to answer the problem statements. The researcher read many references to collect the
data and gathered more information to support the study.
To have a good understanding about the movie, the researcher watched its motion picture repeatedly. Its VCD helps the researcher to understand the story as
it provides an Indonesian translation. The DVD helps the researcher to catch more the dialogues among characters since it provides an English subtitle. The reviews
and synopsis of the movie provided by many cites on internet support the researcher to understand the main data. All of the data were classified and selected
in the relation of the subject matter. Then, the researcher applied the approaches to analyze and interpret the movie in connection to its problem statements. Finally,
the researcher evaluated and examined the results, making a conclusion and recommendation for further research.
G. Theoretical Approach
