Later on, when they became mothers, they continued the tradition of footbinding to their daughters. It is like an oppression that never ends.
Marriage in China is part of patriarchal culture. Marriage is a family matter so if a woman does not like her future husband, she cannot resist him. She must obey
his father’s decision and she should remain married to her husband. Therefore, a marriage in China is actually not to build a family that leads to a romantic
relationship between husband and wife but it is just for continuing family line. Tsai Wen-Hui in Leng Shao Chuan states that
In traditional China, marriage was arranged by the parents and often through a mediator or go-between, without the consent of the young
people concerned. There was no romantic love, no dating, and no courtship in mate selection for it was feared that the free choice of a
partner would threaten the dominance of parental affection, loyalty, and authority. Arranged marriage thus strengthened parental control
over sons and especially over daughters-in-law. Tsai in Leng Shao- chuan 1989: 228
Moreover, marriage in China is done to achieve only one purpose which is to have sons. Therefore, in a family, girls are children who are not expected to be born.
This is because “Girls were considered less valuable than boys, as girls would marry and move away whereas boys would stay nearby and take care of their parents in old
age” Chai, May-Lee and Winberg Chai, 2014: 114. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
Simone de Beauvoir in The Second Sex also agrees that the purpose of marriage in China is done to have children. Through marriage, women in China are
totally controlled by their husbands. Through marriage woman is now no longer lent from one clan to
another: she is torn up by the roots from the group into which she was born, and annexed by her husband’s group; he buys her as one buys a
farm animal or a slave; he imposes his domestic divinities upon her; and the children born to her belong to the husband’s family.
Beauvoir, 1989: 82
3. Theory of Feminism
Maggie Humm in The Dictionary of Feminist Theory states that feminism is the ideology of women’s liberation since intrinsic in all its
approaches is the belief that women suffer injustice because of our sexes. Humm, 1990: 74
The quotation above clearly describes that the birth of feminism is an effort to counter the control of men over women and the struggle to abolish the paradigm that
has developed in the society about the condition of women. Feminist believe that the condition of women, where women are controlled, oppressed, exploited derived
from gender inequality. A gender role that governs the roles of women and men who are appropriate and acceptable in the social norms formed the man to be someone
who is more superior and tended to dominate or control the women.
The oppression of women is not caused by the natural factor. The condition of women is socially constructed. As stated by Ashley Montagu in The Natural
Superiority of Women PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
Women have been conditioned to believe that they are inferior to men, and they have assumed that what everyone believes is a fact of nature.
Because men occupy the superior positions in almost all societies, such superiority is taken to be a natural one.Montagu, 1953: 23.
Simone de Beauvior also agrees that the condition of women is constructed from the society. Simone de Beauvoir in Bressler states that women should have the
courage to break what all this time they believed that the position of women in society was not born, but it was created by the society through the patriarchal system.
Women should establish their own identity if they want to be free completely as autonomous beings Beauvoir in Bressler, 1998: 182.
Because the condition of women is socially constructed, feminists believe that how to change the condition for women is to break down the patriarchal system. As
stated by Rosemarie Tong in Feminist Thought, to liberate women from oppression, male control over women must be eliminated. Men and women have to eliminate
patriarchal ideology that exaggerates the differences in men and women biologically Tong, 2009: 52.
In the world of male dominance, women are forced to obey and submit to men and patriarchal system. They will get the consequences if they do not follow the
patriarchal system as stated by Deborah L. Madsen in Feminist Theory and Literary Practice
Women are defined as ‘other’ or they are ignored, rendered invisible and silent, if they do not fit the patriarchal scheme. Outside the
dominant definitions of male-dominated culture women exist only as insane, inarticulate or irrelevant. Madsen, 2000: 18
Besides being alienated by society, there will be other risks. As the quotation of Dworkin in Madsen’s Feminist Theory and Literary Practice, women are under
threat of male violence if they do not become passive and put themselves lower than men. In order to prevent the violence from men rape, wife beating, forced
childbearing, medical butchering, sex-motivated murder, and sadistic psychological abuse, women must demonstrate compliance with the men by internalizing the
patriarchal values, which remain the stereotype that men are more powerful than women, show the loyalty to men, and do not even try to resist male control Dworkin
in Madsen, 2000: 16.
In dealing with the issues of gender inequality, feminism made various efforts that can be done to fight the injustice that disadvantage women. Living in an
oppressive environment make women plan a strategy or system actions that will be run to resist patriarchy. Women might develop a guerilla tactic to resist patriarchy by
creating a female bond to support each other, as is the case of this novel. Therefore, a female bond in the form of female friendship is very important
for women to survive living under patriarchal culture. Female friendship is important especially after women get married. It is because “women were forced to break with
their natal families at marriage and begin as strangers in their husbands’ families” Raymond, 2001: 105. By facing these conditions, female friendship is very
important for women to survive in Chinese patriarchal culture. By the existence of female friendship, women will feel they are not alone in this world because there are
their fellows who were expecting their presence. As it is known that “the Chinese female was likely to be unwanted from her first days of existence” Raymond, 2001:
106. Female friendship gives strength for women to want to stay alive. The existence of female friendship also makes a positive contribution for the
better future of women. Women who are in a relationship of friendship will deliver an important aspect of female friendship. As stated by Janice G. Raymond,
When women cease believing in the primacy and primordiality of hetero-relations, they will see that the first goal of feminism is not to
bring women and men together but to bring women together. Female friendship is the process by which this goal is achieved. Raymond,
2001: 43
Sasha Roseneil in Kathy Davis, Mary Evans and Judith Lorber also agrees with the importance of female friendship. As Roseneil states that feminism values
female friendship because female friendship “is seen as political solidarity, as constitutive of feminist movements and the basis of collective identity, and it is seen
as a mode of personal support, intimacy and care, and, as such, productive of self- identity” Roseneil in Davis, Evans, and Lorber, 2006: 323-324.
One of the terms used by Raymond in female friendship is GynAffection. GynAffection is a synonym for female friendship. Affection means “the state of
influencing, acting upon, moving, and impressing, and of being influenced, acted PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
upon, moved, and impressed by other women”Raymond, 2001: 8. Therefore, affection is an important feeling in female friendship. This is because the power of a
woman to influence her friend in the action of changing her life. Without this female friendship, women do not have spirit and motivation to make movements.
Women who have decided to have a friendship will be mutually helping one another. A sense of solidarity will appear automatically for helping one another so
that they can survive. Facing the same experience makes them bound and allowing them to strengthen their friendship.
Moreover, Elizabeth Ann Bartlett uses Albert Camus’s thought of rebellionas an idea to find the true meaning of rebellious feminism. In Rebellious Feminism:
Camus’s Ethic of Rebellion and Feminist Thought, Bartlett finds the connection between Camus’s thought and feminism. According to Camus, friendship is a
concept of rebellion. It means that it is one of the actions taken to rebel. As he states that “…while “rebellion” does involve a negative activity of resisting oppression, it
also acts in a positive way to affirm human dignity, solidarity, friendship, justice, liberation, and beauty” Bartlett, 2004: 1. Therefore, the meaning of rebellion in this
study is because women live under patriarchal society, women need to affirm their friendship because friendship is very important for their survival. Women need to
affirm friendship because female friendship provides emotional support which is very helpful for their survival living under patriarchal culture. By affirming
