4
of her students to apply to a law school. She thinks that they can be leaders in the future.
Her ideas and ways of teaching are contrary to the methods deemed acceptable by the schools directors, conservative women who believe firmly that
Katherine should not use her class to express her point of views and she should stick only to teach art. Katherine is being intimidated. She is warned that she could be fired
if she continues to interact with students as she has been doing. Although Katherine has been warned about her teaching that is not suitable
with the syllabus, that has been stated by the school, but she still uses her principle in teaching at Wellesley. She feels that the young women at Wellesley College have the
right to pursue higher education and career. She believes that women need to be changed if they want to achieve better futures.
This film shows Katherine’s persistence and fighting in making changes at Wellesley, although she has to face many intimidations that come from people around
her there that dislike what she does. These show the feminist ideas in Katherine’s character. That is why the writer wants to analyze this film by using feminist theory.
B. Focus of the Research
Based on the background of the study above, this research is focused on extrinsic elements. The writer tries to analyze what intimidations experienced by
main character and how the main character in Mona Lisa Smile film shows feminist ideas in the era of 1950’s.
5
C. Research Question
The questions in this research are: 1.
What intimidations were experienced by Katherine Watson related to women role in Mona Lisa Smile film?
2. How does Katherine Watson show feminist ideas in her fighting against the
intimidations she experienced in Mona Lisa Smile film?
D. Significance of the Research
This research aims to share the widest perception of women condition in 1950s as second class citizen and correlate the literary work to the progress of women
movement liberation. Moreover, it can give enlightenment to the other researchers in exploring feminist ideas by using feminist theory developed by Betty Freidan.
E. The Objective of the Research
The objectives of this research are: 1.
To understand what intimidations were experienced by Katherine Watson related to women role in Mona Lisa Smile film.
2. To understand how Katherine Watson shows feminist ideas in her fighting
against the intimidations she experienced in Mona Lisa Smile film.
6
F. Research Methodology
In the research methodology, there are some important aspects such as method, technique of data analysis, data analysis, and analysis unit.
1. Method of the Research
To strengthen the research questions and significant of the research, the method that is used in this research is qualitative method. According to Bogdan
Taylor in Moleong 2004:3 qualitative methodologies refer to research procedures which produce descriptive data: people’s own written or spoken words and
observable behavior. This method describes and analyzes feminist ideas in film
“Mona Lisa Smile”.
2. Data Analysis
In this research, the data that is collected qualitatively analyzed. In this analysis, the writer explains the data in this film by analyzing the main character in
Mona Lisa Smile film by using Feminist theory.
3. Research Instrument
The instrument that is used in this research is the writer herself. The writer tries to get qualitative data about what intimidations experienced by the main
characters related to women role in Mona Lisa Smile film and how the main character shows feminist ideas in her fighting against the intimidations she experienced in
Mona Lisa Smile film by watching the film, understanding the story, collecting the
7
data and classifying the main character in Mona Lisa Smile film itself. Furthermore, the writer relates the existing text with the feminist theory.
4. Analysis Unit
Analysis unit that is used in this research is Mona Lisa Smile film. Mona Lisa Smile
is a 2003 American film that was produced by Revolution Studios and Columbia Pictures, directed by Mike Newell, written by Lawrence Konner and Mark
Rosenthal.
5. Place and Time
This research is executed on the ninth semester of 2008 - 2009 academic years at English Letters Department of State Islamic University of Syarif Hidayatullah
Jakarta
8
CHAPTER II
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
A. Feminism
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
feminisme in the nineteenth century, either as a medical term to describe the
feminization of male body, or to describe women with masculine traits
5
. It is a discourse that involves various movements, theories, and philosophies which are
concerned with the issue of gender difference, advocate equality for women, and campaign for womens rights and interests. When it was used in the United States in
the early part of the twentieth century it was only used to refer to one group of women: ‘namely that group which asserted the uniqueness of women, the mystical
experience of motherhood and women’s special purity’ Jaggar 1983: 5. It soon became understood to denote a political stance of someone committed to changing
the social position of women. Since then the term has taken on the sense of one who believes that women are subjugated because of their sex and that women deserve at
least formal equality in the eyes of the law.
5
Jane Pilcher and Imelda Imelda, Fifty Key Concepts in Gender Studies.Trown Br Idge, Wiltshire: The Cromwell Press Ltd,. 2004,
9
Feminism concerns themselves with women’s inferior position in society and with discrimination encountered by women because of their sex
6
. Furthermore, one could argue that all feminists call for changes in the social, economic, political or
cultural order, to reduce and eventually overcome this discrimination against women. And these lead women to a feminist movement.
According to Soenarjati Djajanegara the aim of feminist movement is “… meningkatkan kedudukan dan derajat perempuan agar sama atau sejajar dengan
kedudukan serta derajat laki-laki.” Thus it is clear that the feminism’s aim is to have
equal right and position between women and men. The main objective of feminism is to encourage the idea that women and men are totally different in biology but have
the same position and rights.
7
In the early nineteenth century, feminist movement demanded in the law, economic and social field. They considered the political right was not needed. In
economic, feminist demanded property right. Before marriage, the property belonged to their father and their husband. After the women get married, it automatically
becomes the property of their husbands. Furthermore, almost working fields were limited of women. In social life, demand was to get the same opportunity in education
as men.
8
In the past men wanted the women to be good housewife who manage household and family. As a result they could only spend their lives in domestic.
6
Jane Freedman, Concept in The Social Sciences Feminism .Buckingham: Open University Press, 2001, p. 1
7
Soenarjati Djajanegara, Kritik Sastra feminis, Jakarta: Gramedia Pustaka Utama. 2003, p.4
8
Ibid, h p.6
10
The feminist movement of the nineteenth century had several different streams of thought within it. Olive Banks 1981, writing of the British and American
scene, separated three groups; the evangelical, the Enlightenment and the communitarian socialist traditions
9
. Each grouping had its roots in the late eighteenth century. The evangelical feminists drew their inspiration from their religious beliefs
Quakers, Unitarians, and other non-conformists and were focused on the social issues of the day. Their feminism was closely related to campaigns to abolish slavery,
introduce temperance, and attack prostitution, pornography and immorality. The second group of feminism identified by Banks 1981 drew inspiration from the
Enlightenment which swept intellectual circles Europe in the late eighteenth century. John Stuart and Mary Wollstonecraft were the central figures in this tradition. They
emphasized the importance of rational thought, evidence, and the theoretical ideas of the rights, autonomy and individualism. The communitarian socialist tradition grew
out of the French Saint-Simonian movement, and then added Marxist ideas in the later part of the century. Among those who were inspired by socialism are those
Banks calls Utopians, who anted communal living, free love and pooled child- rearing.
In addition, according to Concept in the social sciences feminism by Jane freedman there are basic version of this categorization would divide feminisms and
feminists into three loose groups: liberal feminists, Marxist or socialist feminism, and
9
Amanda Coffey and Sara Delamont, Feminism and the Classroom Teacher; Research, Praxis and Pedagogy,
11
radical feminism. Liberal feminism equal opportunities, draws on the diversity of liberal thought dominant in Western society since the Enlightenment, and affirms that
women’s subordinate social position can be addressed by existing political processes under democracy. For liberals the key battle is access to education; following Mary
Wollstonecraft, it is argued that if men and women are educated equally, then it follows that they will get equal access to society. In addition, liberal feminists would
be more likely to accept in limited terms that women and men might well be suited to the separate spheres of home and workplace and simply lobby for greater recognition
of housework and caring the wages for housework debate in the 1970s emerged largely from this position.
Socialist or Marxist feminism for Further discussion of the differences and similarities, see Whelehan 1995 links changes in women’s social conditions with the
overthrow of industrial capitalism and changing relations of the worker to the means of production. For them, revolution is the only answer, although as time has gone on
socialist feminists have become more cynical about the prospect of a socialist revolution effecting a change in the lives of women, given the tenacious ideological
grip of the current meanings of gender differences. Nonetheless, socialistMarxist feminists are always mindful of the way society is riven by class and race distinctions
as well as those of gender and that it is more useful to consider oppression as multi- pronged and inter related rather than arguing that one form is more destructive than
others.
12
This assumption that men as part of the problem should be part of the solution was a theme in early radical feminism, even though radical feminism is usually
associated in the popular consciousness with separatism and man-hating. Radical feminists see men’s domination of women, as the result of the system of patriarchy,
which is independent of all other social structures-that is, is it not a product of capitalism. Radical feminists, particularly in the USA, emerged largely from new left
and civil rights political groupings. Their politics was broadly radical left, but they become hugely disenchanted with the male-dominated power play witnessed in left-
wing radical groupings and formed the Women’s Liberation Movement in order to allow a space for the consideration of women’s oppression outside of the confines of
male-oriented knowledge and politics. Their conviction that women-centered politics could only be devised in a women-only space led to a policy of separatism, at least at
the level of policy –making and meetings. This politics of radicalism, while drawing political lessons from the new left and civil right movements, wanted a political
formation freed from the taint of maleness and therefore espoused leaderless groupings, job-sharing and structurelesness- well beyond the parameters of
contemporary democracy. Many of their aspirations have been ridiculed or misunderstood by others and radical feminists are all too often sent up as dungarees,
man-hating lesbians, totally obsessed with the politically correct, partly because of the way in which they wanted to shape their own movement was intended to reflect
their rejection of anything that smacked of the male political imperative.
13
Feminist groupings have always contained representations from women of color, working class women and lesbiansbisexual women; yet many became
increasingly disenchanted by the ways in which their involvement in the movement rendered their own identities and concerns invisible, despite the rhetoric of reflecting
the peeds of all women. The historical development of feminist especially in Britain and the USA is
commonly divided into several key periods, some characterized by a relative absence of feminist thought and mobilization, and others by the sustained growth both of
feminist criticism and of activism with a high public profile.
10
The earlier period dating from at least the mid to late nineteenth century up until about the 1920s,
became “first wave” feminism. In turn, the resurgent feminist analyses and activism dating from the 1960s became ‘second wave’ feminism.
The different feminist positions that have been articulated since the 1970s have generated different research agendas for education Weiner 1994. However,
both first-wave and second-wave feminism have been concerned with the education and intellectual development and opportunities for women, along with tackling
violence against women and children raising the status of women’s and children’s health, and ensuring that female voices and experiences are treated seriously.
10
Jane Pilcher and Imelda Imelda 2004, op. cit.
14
B. Feminist Theory
