relationship with her. In relationship, Steele is the Submissive and Grey is the Dominant. A Submissive is the D
ominant‘s property that must receive everything done by her Dominant, obey him, and take his order, if not; there will be
punishment for her.
B. Approach of the Study
The approach of the study is Gender Studies Approach, discussing about gender and the contribution of class in women‘s oppression. As explained in
A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature,
gender studies helps to understand the portrayal of the female and male characters in the story.
Furthermore, gender studies helps to explain why the oppression is experienced by the female character rather than the male character.
However, in gender studies, the gender trouble itself is supported by other factor, like class.
Following Michel Foucaults theory of sexuality, she means by technology that sexuality, commonly thought to be a natural as
well as a private matter, is in fact completely constructed in culture according to the political aims of the societys dominant class.
Guerin et al, 2005: 237 The contribution of class helps to explain what is thought to be natural and
normal in society is actually constructed by the dominant class because they have power in society to control and to shape the way each individual perceives the
world, especially the relation of one class to another and between the sexes. The class system helps to reveal why the oppression is done by the dominant class
towards the rest class.
C. Method of the Study
Close reading and library research are the methods of the study. First, E.L. James‘
Fifty Shades of Grey
is the primary resource of this study. To support this study, library research is done to find the supporting data, theories, articles, and
other literatures. The main references are Tong‘s
A Feminist Thought
2009, Fussell‘s
Class: A Guide Through the American Status System
1992, Ridgeway‘s
Gender, Status, and the Social Psychology of Expectations
1993, Glover and Kaplan‘s
Genders
2000, Abram‘s
A Glossary of Literary Terms
1999. There were some steps done to conduct this study. First thing was the story
was read using the method of close reading to collect important and complete data, and the problems came up afterwards. Second, the appropriate theories were
selected. The next step was answering the first problem formulation and the second problem formulation afterwards. The first problem formulation was
answered using the theory of character and characterization. To answer the second problem formulation, Gender Perspective, Theory of Class, and Relation between
Class and Gender are applied. The last step was making a conclusion.
