Three have been female directors in the past-such as Dorothy Arzher or Ida Lupino – but most of these are neglected. But even if the the director is
female, it doesn’t necessarily follow that the director is feminist. In Blue Steel 1989, point Break 1991 and Strange Days 1995 Kathryn Bigelow proves that
she can have as much testosterone as any male director. Even when in the first film she puts a woman at the centre- Jamie Lee Curtis it is hardly a traditional
female figure. Part of the project of feminist film criticism is to identify the different
kinds of screen representation of women. In its scope, multiple voices in feminist film criticism illuminate the range of theoretical, critical, and educational
direction open to feminist students of film and encouranges readers to participate in assessing and shaping the critical context in which film are produced and
received.
15
C. Feminist Ideology
Feminism is the belief in the right of women to have political, social, and economic equality with men. The word feminism originated from the French word
feminist in the nineteenth century, either as a medical term to describe the feminization of male body, or to describe women with masculine traits. However,
15
Ibid. PP.88-91
more than a social concept, feminism is a concept about equality between men and women in politic, economic, education and social; or organized activities,
which struggles women’s right and their needs. Thus, feminism takes sides to women, who are discriminated, exploited, and ignored.
16
That feminism movement begins from an idea, which among form of disclosure toward oppression ideology in the name of gender, the search about the
women oppression grew and it was meant to tell about the creation of liberation was true. Women movement in Europe and North America is divided into three
waves. The first wave of feminist movement began in the 19th century, precisely in 1848. In that year, a convention was held in Seneca Falls, USA. The convention
tried to declare another version of the Declaration of Independence, which did not represent the women aspiration that declared, ‘All men are created equal.’
Therefore, to bring the equality between men and women, the the convention declared another version; ‘All men and women are created equal.’
17
While ideas do not necessarily cause social movement, ideology is central component in the life of any social movement. Ideology was a term used in
Marxist theory to show how the worker under capitalism might be living in a state of false consciousness of distorted reality about their relations to capital. The
argument went that once they began to see these relations as they really are ones
16
Jane Pilcher and Imelda, Fifty Key Concepts in Gender Studies, Trown Br Idge, Wiltshire: The Cromwell Press Ltd, 2004, P. 48.
17
Euis Amalia, Pengantar Kajian Gender, Jakarta: Pusat Studi Wanita 2003, P.93
of oppression and exploitation then a class based revolution could overthrow capitalism by seizing the means of production.
The emphasis is on the relationship of ideology to lived experience, and in this light ideology could be defined as the representation of the imaginary
relationship of individuals to the real conditions of their existence. According to the Althusser’s in his statement “ raw materials needed to reproduce them include
not only sufficient wages for food, clothing, housing, and childrearing, but also an appropriate form of education to prepare them for the work they will end up
doing. Not only must education provide the fundamental skills appropriate for labour power to reproduce itself, it must also pass on the skills of citizenship
appropriate to their class rules of morality, civic, and professional conscience and ultimately rules of order established by class domination.”
The process of the ideology of gender that makes appeal to the essential differences of biological sex and builds up a knowledge of acceptable and
unacceptable feminine behaviour, which has already been communicated to women through the process of education and gender socialisation within the
family, does this most effectively.
18
This representation is, furthermore, replayed by various means in the public domain, through codes of dress, film, and TV representations of women,
the way unfeminine behaviour by actual women is treated by the press or in the law courts so that it is constantly reinforced while allowing for subtle shifts by
18
Jane Pilcher. Op.cit. PP.75-76
which ideology can also contain contradictions and maintain stability for example the idea of the career woman.
19
The basic idea in feminist research is the effort to understand the position of women. Women’s rule will become the central topic in this research. It is clear
enough that feminist ideological criticism is an effort to interpret film and to know more about the image of women throughout the film. Through this, it can be
considered much how do this critic is needed in order to analyze the phenomena of women reveal in literary work, without this approach, it must be hard to
understand more.
19
Ibid. P.77
CHAPTER III RESEARCH FINDINGS
A. Data Description of Precious Character
According to the theory of character and characterization, characterization may involve developing a variety of aspects of a character such as: Physical
Appearance, Educational Background, Financial Status, and Social Status. The following are the data of description of the characterization of Precious along with
the description and situation. Precious’s
Characteristics Minutes
Scene
About Physical Appearance
01:20
19:23
Precious: I wish I had a light-
skinned boyfriend with real nice hair, and I want to be on the cover
of a magazine. But first, I want to be in one of them BET videos.
Momma said I can’t dance, plus she said who wants too see my big
ass dancing, anyhow? Precious:
there’s always
something wrong with these tests, these tests paint a picture of me
with no brain. These tests paint a picture of me and my mother, my
whole family, as less than dumb, just ugly, black grease to be wiped
away, find another job for sometimes I wish I was dead.
