CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
A. Background of the Study
Allah has created mankind on earth with many advantages. Mankind is given sense of art to create film, poem, and drama. It cannot happen if mankind
does not have sense of art. We are as God’s creature shall be proud because we are given many advantages to make something special on earth. But, many people
do not realize that they have a talent to make something special. A long time ago, people have created a film to be enjoyed. In America, many film makers create a
film to be enjoyed by whole people in the world. Nowadays, film is the famous one of swan-song because film not only
becomes an entertainment for the enjoyer but also becomes a medium to convey a message and express emotion.
1
Films are cultural artifacts created by specific cultures, which reflect those cultures, and, in turn, affect them.
2
Commonly in a film, the film maker tells about social life, education, law, murder, adultery,
oppression, and many more that ever happened in the world. But, sometimes, the film maker also makes a film based on his or her experience has ever happened in
her or his life. And usually women’s life is a good topic to be a film. The film maker raises women character as his or her inspiration for her or his works,
because women’s life full of sacrifice, struggle, riddle, and oppression. And the oppression toward woman often happens to women in this world.
1
Rosida Erowati, Seminar Tentang Membaca Film, Ciputat 8 April 2008
2
http:en.wikipedia.orgwikiFilm. retrieved on October 11, 2008
1
There are many aspects which influence unfair things toward woman, but there is one aspect dominantly about unfair thing to woman that is the patriarchal
system. In patriarchal system they only know that woman is their server, so that, they put woman’s position lower than men. The dominance of patriarchy toward
woman is fought by feminist activists. They do not agree that a woman is not better than a man. Many assumptions come from feminist, they judge that the
patriarchal system tries to eliminate woman’s role in many aspects of life, for instance, in education, law, state, and politic.
This unfair thing makes the women feel inferior and subordinate. They agree to take a real action to change it. So many aspirations come from the
feminists, such as: Sarah Grimke, Margareth Fuller, Virginia Woolf, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and many more, they are the first generation of
feminist movement in the world first-wave.
3
They insist there are no differences between men and women in all aspects, for example: in family, government,
education, law, and society. Because many of them still feel, there are differences between men and women in those aspects, especially in America. At that time
there is no right for women to give her voice in the election. The point of feminist movement is change the society, culture, and people perception about women to
get same opportunity, right, and gender equality with men in all aspects. Basically, there are many forms of feminism. They are Liberal feminism, Radical
3
First-wave feminism refers to a period of feminist activity during the nineteenth and early twentieth century in the United Kingdom and the United States. It focused on de jure
officially mandated inequalities, primarily on gaining womens suffrage the right to vote. The term first wave was coined retroactively in the 1970s. The womens movement then, focusing as
much on fighting de facto unofficial inequalities as de jure ones, acknowledged its foremothers by calling itself second-wave feminism. From Wikipedia the free encyclopedia retrieved on august
2008.
Feminism, Marxist feminism, and Socialist Feminism. What is called the Liberal feminism is a view to placing women who have full freedom and individual. It
states that the flow of freedom and equality is rooted in rationality and the separation between private and public world. Every human being, according to
them, has the capacity to think and act rationally, as well as in women. The root of oppression and backwardness in women is due to errors caused by women
themselves. Women must prepare themselves so they can compete in the world in
terms of free competition and have equal status with men. Radical Feminism
emerged since the mid-1970s in which this school offers ideology separatist struggle of women. In its history, this flow appears as a reaction to a culture of
sexism or the social dominance based on gender in the West in the 1960s, primarily against sexual violence and pornography industries. Understanding male
oppression of women is one fact in the present system of society there. And this movement is as the name of radical. Marxist Feminism is a theory flow of
women to view the problem within the framework of criticism of capitalism. And Socialist Feminism connects the oppression of women to Marxist ideas about
exploitation, oppression and labor. Socialist feminists think unequal standing in both the workplace and the domestic sphere holds women down. Socialist
feminists see prostitution, domestic work, childcare and marriage as ways in which women are exploited by a patriarchal system that devalues women and the
substantial work they do. Those forms of feminism were called as second wave’s feminist movement.
About film, many film makers tell about woman’s oppression in their work, they assume that woman’s character is the best one to be used as a film; in
many films we never see there is no woman character inside. It proves that woman is the important thing in a movie. And one of the directors who rise about woman
oppression is Peter Mullan. He raises woman character as the major character in his movie, his movie entitled The Magdalene Sisters tells about unfair things
toward woman that is done by men. This movie tells about three women character named Margaret, Rose and Bernadette. They experience various kind of unfair
things done by men, firstly she is considered as “dirty” woman by her father, and then her father sends her to one place named Magdalene, this place is a laundry
which is managed by nuns voluntarily. This place is considered as rehabilitation place for the woman. In other
words, woman is considered as “dirty woman” placed in this place, Margaret, Rose and Bernadette feel, they are eliminated by her superiors, moreover in
Magdalene, they see that many nuns in Magdalene are done cruelty by the pastures. Mostly, in this place women are experienced oppression done by men;
this condition makes Margaret, Rose and Bernadette think to break the oppression toward women in Magdalene. They effort to break woman’s oppression toward
the patriarchal system is same with many feminist assumptions to fight back toward unfair things.
This story inspires the writer to analyze what kind of oppression toward woman in The Magdalene Sisters and how they solve her problem to free from the
patriarchal system. From those considerations the writer formulates a title to this
thesis “An analysis of oppressions experienced by three female characters in The Magdalene Sisters movie.”
B. Focus of the Study
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