Representation Of Males In Valerie Solanas' "SCUM" Manifesto'.

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ABSTRACT

Skripsi ini membahas mengenai teks analisis, dengan menggunakan

SCUM Manifesto karya Valerie Solanas, seorang radical feminist, sebagai sumber data. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengungkap bagaimana bagian pembukaan dari teks SCUM Manifesto merepresentasikan pria.

Teori utama yang saya aplikasikan dalam membongkar representasi pria dalam SCUM Manifesto adalah Appraisal, sebuah teori yang merupakan bagian dari Systemic Functional Grammar, yang pada dasarnya adalah instrument tolak ukur akan seberapa besar intensitas kebencian terhadap pria yang tertuang dalam SCUM Manifesto.

Hasil analisis menunjukkan bahwa bagian awal dari SCUM Manifesto

merepresentasikan pria secara negatif, khususnya mengenai sifat pria yang egocentris. Representasi negatif ini muncul khususnya melalui penggunaan

amplifications. Namun karena sumber penilaian negatif ini bersifat monogloss,

saya menyimpulkan bahwa representasi terhadap pria yang terkandung dalam

SCUM Manifesto kurang objektif, dan sumber representasi tersebut hanya berdasar pada pengalaman si penulis saja.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS ... i

ABSTRACT ... ii

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION ... 1

Background of the Study ... 1

Statement of the Problem ... 5

Purpose of the Study ... 5

Method of Research ... 5

Organization of the Thesis ... 5

CHAPTER TWO: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK... 6

CHAPTER THREE: REPRESENTATION OF MALES IN VALERIE

SOLANAS’ “SCUM manifesto”

………

20 CHAPTER FOUR: CONCLUSION ... 44

BIBLIOGRAPHY ... 50

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CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

It is not a secret anymore that the gender inequality issue has become a problem in America. Many women accepted their unequal status without question, but there were also others who took an active interest in political life and who became increasingly dissatisfied with their continuous exclusion. Feminists in America answered this problem with a movement which is known as women liberation movement.

Their movements are divided into three waves, namely the first wave, the second wave and the third wave. However, considering the vast range of feminism, I will only focus on the second wave of feminism for my analysis for the simple reason that the second wave of feminism has different purposes compared to the other waves. The second wave of feminism was more concerned about inequality and problems of working-class women. I am of the opinion that this wave has a more significant role in spreading the spirit of feminism compared to the first wave of feminism, which only concerned middle-class single women. The superiority of the second wave of feminism is clearly

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reflected as every single feminist could have their ideas and opinions, which distinguishes this wave from the third wave of feminism.

In the third wave, there is no all-encompassing single feminist idea, which I believe “killed” the inspiration of feminists in this era. Furthermore, the third wave of feminism lacks a cohesive goal and also it does not have a set definition that can distinguish itself from the second-wave feminism. On the other hand, “the second wave of feminism focused on de facto inequalities, or unofficial inequalities, and also felt that de jure and de facto inequalities were inextricably linked issues that needed to be addressed together”. (georgetowncollege) For this reason, the second wave of feminism offers various names and methods in fighting for their ideology such as Carrol Hanisch with her inspirational songs that criticized gender inequality and Shulamith Firestone who founded New York Radical Women that functions as media for women to express their opinion about gender inequality. I personally think it is more challenging to analyze the second wave than the other waves.

The term 'Second Wave' was coined by Marsha Lear and refered to the increase in feminist activity which occurred in America. In America, the second- wave feminism rose out of the Civil Rights and anti-war movements in which women, disillusioned with their second-class status even in the activist environment of student politics, began to band together to contend against discrimination. The tactics employed by The Second Wave Feminists varied from highly-published activism, such as the protest against the Miss America beauty contest in 1968, to the establishment of small consciousness-raising groups. Furthermore, Second Wave Feminism not only made an impact upon western societies, but also continued to inspire the struggle for women's rights across the world (georgetowncollege).

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It is undeniable that the second wave of feminism was famous for radical ideas as it is explained in Feminist Thought, the goal of radical feminist is to eliminate gender system that has been created by our society. They believe that the system is the root of oppression on women. Every radical feminist seeks to overthrow the patriarchal standards of current society by attacking the underlying beliefs and causes of the patriarchy. Thus, the radical feminism tries to attack the social beliefs of masculinity and feminity (Tong 66)

It is interesting to study the ideology of radical feminism and how they tried to give a negative representation about masculinity in their text through several strategies that can be discovered by using several linguistic features. Moreover, it is also a challenge for me as a male to see the other side of feminism. Another thing that encourages me to choose radical feminism is because radical feminist has a unique approach to express their action and ideology in society. For that reason, I intend to analyze the practice of ridiculing a certain gender by a person who is a radical feminist.

There are a lot of important figures in radical feminist organization; however, I will only focus on Valerie Solanas, an influential and controversial radical feminist figure. Solanas, who was born in Ventnor City, New Jersey was an American radical feminist writer and the author of SCUM manifesto. She claimed that she regularly suffered from sexual abuse at the hands of her father and her grandfather. Her parents were divorced when she was 11, and her mother remarried shortly afterwards. During 1966 until 1967, Solanas tried her fortune as a playwright. She wrote a play entitled Up Your Ass about a man-hating prostitute and a panhandler. It is believed that this play reflected her infliction. (womynkind.org)

Several considerations lie behind my decision to analyze Solanas’ text. The first one is because she is the most radical feminist among the radical ones.

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As a proof, Valerie Solanas had a radical vision in a relatively young age of making an all-female society and degeneration of males. She poured her vision of a society without males in the tract entitled SCUM (Society for Cutting Up Men) manifesto. Another consideration why I choose Valerie Solanas is because of her bravery to fight back males’ domination towards females in her era.

In this thesis, I will analyze how Solanas represent male in her text. According to Halliday and Hassan, “the text is used in linguistics to refer to any passage, spoken or written, of whatever length, that does form a unified whole” (1). However, due the limitation of time and length of the thesis, I only focus on the opening part of the text, as this text is thirteen pages long. I believe, that the part can give enough evidence on Solanas’ point of view, as the text is an argumentative one, and in argumentative text, the opening part is “thesis statement” or the position of the writer (Paltridge 110)

The particular part of the text is analyzed by applying Martin and Rose’s theory of Appraisal, which concerns about various resources a text producer can use to negotiate social relationships by “telling our listener how we feel about things and people” (Martin and Rose 26).

The reason why I choose text analysis is that this study device seems to be very helpful to reveal what the language above the sentence or above the clause is, and therefore it is concerned with larger and more detailed linguistic fields. It is also concerned with the language use in social contexts. These subfield of linguistics will help me to analyze and reveal the real intention of the writer implicitly or explicitly. In the end, hopefully, this topic can make readers aware that writers usually have certain intentions and attitudes in their text. Thus, by doing the study, I hope I can show how that works, so that readers are encouraged to be more critical when dealing with texts they find in their daily life (1115).

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1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

1. What linguistic elements are applied to create the representation of masculinity in Valerie Solanas’ SCUM manifesto?

2. How is masculinity represented in the text?

1.3 PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

1. To reveal the linguistic elements used to create the representation of masculinity in Valerie Solanas’ SCUM manifesto

2. To show how masculinity is represented in the text

1.4 METHOD OF RESEARCH

The method used was library research. I began the research for this thesis by finding and reading some books that were relevant with the topic discussed. I also searched for some further explanation about the basic concept of text analysis. After that I analyzed the text based on appropriate theory and wrote the research report.

1.5 ORGANIZATION OF THE THESIS

I divide the thesis into four chapters. The first chapter is the Introduction, which consists of the Background of the Study, Statement of the Problem, Purpose of the Study, Method of Research and Organization of the Thesis. Chapter Two contains the Theoretical Framework. Chapter Three is the analysis of the text. The last chapter, Chapter Four, is the Conclusion of all those analyses. At the end of the thesis, I put the Bibliography and Appendix.

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CHAPTER FOUR

CONCLUSSION

After analyzing the clauses concerning male‟s characteristic in the thesis statement part of SCUM manifesto, I find that the most dominant kind of attitude displayed in the clauses is negative personal judgment. Those clauses belong to negative personal judgment because all of them present the evaluation of male‟s character. There are five characteristics of male that are being evaluated: inferior to female, egocentric, physical, sexual-driven, and physically passive.

Concerning the description of male as inferior to female analyzed in Chapter Three, I find that the appraisal analysis shows this result:

NO Clauses Attitude Amplification Source of Attitude 1 The male is a biological

accident

The Y (male) gene is an

incomplete X (female) gene 2

…the male is an

incomplete female, a walking abortion, aborted at the gene stage

To be male is to be

deficient, emotionally limited

Maleness is a deficiency disease

…males are emotional cripples 3 4 5 6 (-) personal judgment (-) personal judgment (-) personal judgment (-) appreciation (-) personal judgment (-)personal judgment Metaphor No amplification Metaphor Attitudinal lexis Metaphor Metaphor Monogloss Monogloss Monogloss Monogloss Monogloss Monogloss

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In the table above, I find that negative personal judgment dominates five from six clauses. I only find one negative appreciation in clause number five. From these findings, I find that the negative evaluation of male‟s character as inferior to female is quite intense as five out of six clauses have amplification. I find that the inferiority of male is represented exaggeratedly through the use of metaphors which cast down the image of male. Furthermore, this evaluation is very subjective. It is proved by the source of the attitude which is monogloss, since it means that all evaluations come from the writer‟s own opinion. In this part, the clauses deconstruct the social construction that believes male as superior to female.

Concerning the description of male as egocentric, the appraisal analysis shows this result:

1 The male is completely egocentric, trapped inside himself, incapable of empathizing or identifying with others, or love, friendship, affection of tenderness

He is a completely isolated unit, incapable of rapport with anyone

…he is incapable of mental

passion, mental interaction… … he can’t relate to anything other than his own physical sensation

He is a half dead, unresponsive lump, incapable of giving or

receiving pleasure or happiness… …he is at best an utter bore, an inoffensive blob…

He is trapped in a twilight zone halfway between human and apes…

…(he) is far worse off than the apes because unlike the apes, he is capable of a large array of negative feelings – hate, jealousy, contempt, disgust, guilt, shame,

doubt…

…he is aware of what he is and

what he isn‟t

9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 (-) personal judgment (-) personal judgment (-) personal judgment (-) personal judgment (-) personal judgment (-) personal judgment (-) personal judgment (-) personal judgment (-) personal judgment No amplification Intensifier& focus No amplification Metaphor Metaphor & Attitudinal lexis Focus No amplification Intensifier Intensifier Monogloss Monogloss Monogloss Monogloss Monogloss Heterogloss Monogloss Monogloss Monogloss

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From the findings above, I believe those clauses are quite criticizing. It is proved by the use of amplification in almost of all the negative personal judgment. I also find the use of double amplification in clause number six and eight which gives a very intense evaluation that male is worse than animal. These clauses deconstruct the social construction that represent male as rational. Moreover, I find that all the clauses are monogloss in terms of the source of the attitude. Thus, I can say that the deconstruction made is very subjective.

Concerning the description of male as physical, the appraisal analysis shows this result:

Compared to the previous two evaluations of male‟s character described above, I think the evaluation about male‟s physicality is less criticizing. It is clearly seen NO Clauses Attitude Amplification Source of Attitude 1 Althoughcompletely

physical, the male is unfit evenfor stud service

…he is, first of all, incapable

of zestfully, lustfully, tearing off a piece

….but (he) instead is eaten up with guilt, shame, fear and insecurity, feelings

rooted in male nature… …he is not empathizing with his partner

….but is obsessed with how he's doing, turning in an A performance, doing a good plumbing job.

he's a machine, a walking dildo 2 3 4 5 6 (-) personal judgment (-) personal judgment (-) personal judgment (-) personal judgment (-) personal judgment (-)personal judgment Intensifier& Attitudinallexis No amplification No amplification Attitudinal lexis No amplification Metaphor Heterogloss Monogloss Monogloss Monogloss Heterogloss Monogloss

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from the use of amplification, in which some clauses show no amplification. I also find that clause number one and five apply heterogloss, which means the attitudes come from other source, not the writer only. This is so because the representation of male in this part is somehow different from the previous two representations which are deconstructions of the social construct. In this part, male is represented in accordance to the social construct, as stronger than female, but they are mocked as physically useless.

Concerning the description of male as sexual-driven, the appraisal analysis shows this result:

Even though there are only four clauses evaluating this character of male, I believe these clauses are quite criticizing. I come to this opinion after considering that almost all the negative personal judgments are intensified with amplification. I also find that in clause number one and four there are two amplifications which double the negative image toward male. This evaluation is very subjective since almost all the source of the attitude is monogloss in which the evaluations are

pure from the writer‟s opinion.

NO Clauses Attitude Amplification Source of Attitude 1 …_{the male is,}_nonetheless_,

obsessed with screwing…

… he’ll swim through the

river of snot, wade nostril-deep througha mile of vomit if he thinks there‟ll be a

friendly pussy awaiting him

… he‟ll screw a woman he

despises, any snaggle- toothed hag

(-) personal judgment

(-) personal judgment (-) personal

judgment (-)personal

judgment

Intensifier& Attitudinal lexis

Metaphor No amplification Attitudinal lexis&

Focus

Heterogloss Monogloss

Monogloss Monogloss

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Concerning the description of male as physically passive, the appraisal analysis shows this result:

On the clauses above, I find that all the attitudes are negative personal judgment. I also find that almost all attitudes are amplified which make these clauses show intense criticism. In clause number five, I find the use of two amplifications in criticizing male who seems to need to claim what he has taken from female. In my opinion, the clause is intensified more than the rest because this clause is a repetition of the idea mentioned in clause number four. However, I believe, these evaluations are very subjective since the source of attitude are all monogloss.

Based on the appraisal analysis of the thesis statement of SCUM manifesto, I come to the conclusion that Valerie Solanas is a male-hater or mysandry. It is proved from the attitude that she shows in this particular part of her text. She gives a very negative evaluation of the male‟s character by deconstructing the social construction that portrays male as superior to female. On the other hand, when she keeps the representation of male in accordance to NO Clauses Attitude Amplification Source of Attitude

1 …the male is physically passive

He hates his passivity…

So he projects it into women,

defines the male as active, then sets out to prove that he is

Since he‟s attempting to

prove an error…

…he must „prove’ it again and again…

2 3 4 5 (-) personal judgment (-) personal judgment (-) personal judgment (-) personal judgment (-)personal judgment Focus Attitudinal lexis No amplification Intensifier& Focus Monogloss Monogloss Monogloss Monogloss Monogloss Attitudinal lexis

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the social construct, she represents the characteristics exaggeratedly or mockingly. I also find there is a possibility that Solanas hides behind the ideology of Radical Feminist to legitimate her own idea about male.

As this research only deals with a very limited part of the text, there is still a possibility that the research is made deeper by analyzing the whole text. Moreover, I would like to give suggestions those who want to further analyze Valerie Solanas and her radical feminist ideology. There is another work of hers

entitled “Up Your Ass”. Those interested in revealing her ideology should analyze

this work also and apply other theories in order to deepen the analysis. More theories on Discourse Analysis and social practice can also be applied.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

References:

Gerot, Linda and Peter Wignell. Making Sense of Functional Grammar. Antipodean Educational Enterprises, 1994.

Hall, Stuart. Representation: Cultural Representation and Signifying Practices (Culture, Media and Identities Series). Sage, 1997

Halliday, MAK, and Ruqaiya Hasan. Cohesion in English. New York: Longman, 1976

Hornby, A.S. Oxford Advance Learner’s Dictionary. Oxford University Press, 1995

Martin, JR, and David Rose. Working with Discourse Meaning beyond the clause. London: Continuum, 2007

Ogunyemi, OC. Womanism: The Dynamics of the Contemporary Black Female Novel in English. University of Chicago Press, 1993

Paltridge, Brian. Making Sense of Discourse Analysis. Antipodean Education Entreprise, 1998

Tong, Rosemarie Putnam, Feminist Thought, Westview Press; Third Edition edition , 2008

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Electronic publication:

Dijk, Teun A. Van. “18 Critical Discourse Analysis.” 359

<http://www.discourses.org/OldArticles/Critical%20discourse%20analysis. pdf>

Georgetowncollage.com. 2001. 20 May 2010.

<http://www.georgetowncollege.edu/Departments/ws/1st,_2nd,_3rd_wave .htm>

Free online dictionary. Farlex. 2011. 28 May 2011 <http://www.thefreedictionary.com/

Mediaknowall. Wison Karina. 2000. 19 May 2010

<http://www.mediaknowall.com/as_alevel/alevkeyconcepts/alevelkeycon. php?pageID=gender>

Primary Text:

SCUM manifesto. 1967. 3 March 2010.

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46 Maranatha Christian University From the findings above, I believe those clauses are quite criticizing. It is proved by the use of amplification in almost of all the negative personal judgment. I also find the use of double amplification in clause number six and eight which gives a very intense evaluation that male is worse than animal. These clauses deconstruct the social construction that represent male as rational. Moreover, I find that all the clauses are monogloss in terms of the source of the attitude. Thus, I can say that the deconstruction made is very subjective.

Concerning the description of male as physical, the appraisal analysis shows this result:

Compared to the previous two evaluations of male‟s character described above, I think the evaluation about male‟s physicality is less criticizing. It is clearly seen

NO Clauses Attitude Amplification Source of

Attitude 1 Althoughcompletely

physical, the male is unfit evenfor stud service

…he is, first of all, incapable

of zestfully, lustfully, tearing off a piece

….but (he) instead is eaten up with guilt, shame, fear and insecurity, feelings rooted in male nature…

…he is not empathizing with his partner

….but is obsessed with how he's doing, turning in an A performance, doing a good plumbing job.

he's a machine, a walking dildo 2 3 4 5 6 (-) personal judgment (-) personal judgment (-) personal judgment (-) personal judgment (-) personal judgment (-)personal judgment Intensifier& Attitudinal lexis No amplification No amplification Attitudinal lexis No amplification Metaphor Heterogloss Monogloss Monogloss Monogloss Heterogloss Monogloss

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47 Maranatha Christian University from the use of amplification, in which some clauses show no amplification. I also find that clause number one and five apply heterogloss, which means the attitudes come from other source, not the writer only. This is so because the representation of male in this part is somehow different from the previous two representations which are deconstructions of the social construct. In this part, male is represented in accordance to the social construct, as stronger than female, but they are mocked as physically useless.

Concerning the description of male as sexual-driven, the appraisal analysis shows this result:

pure from the writer‟s opinion.

NO Clauses Attitude Amplification Source of

Attitude 1 …_{the male is,}_nonetheless_,

obsessed with screwing…

… he’ll swim through the river of snot, wade nostril-deep througha mile of vomit if he thinks there‟ll be a

friendly pussy awaiting him … he‟ll screw a woman he

despises, any snaggle- toothed hag

(-) personal judgment

(-) personal judgment (-) personal

judgment (-)personal

judgment

Intensifier& Attitudinal lexis

Metaphor

No amplification

Attitudinal lexis& Focus

Heterogloss

Monogloss

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48 Maranatha Christian University Concerning the description of male as physically passive, the appraisal analysis shows this result:

NO Clauses Attitude Amplification Source of

Attitude 1 …the male is physically

passive

He hates his passivity…

So he projects it into women,

defines the male as active, then sets out to prove that he is

Since he‟s attempting to

prove an error…

…he must „prove’ it again and again…

2 3

(-) personal judgment

(-) personal judgment (-) personal

judgment (-)personal

judgment

Focus

Attitudinal lexis No amplification

Intensifier& Focus

Monogloss

Monogloss Monogloss

Monogloss Monogloss Attitudinal lexis

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49 Maranatha Christian University the social construct, she represents the characteristics exaggeratedly or mockingly. I also find there is a possibility that Solanas hides behind the ideology of Radical Feminist to legitimate her own idea about male.

entitled “Up Your Ass”. Those interested in revealing her ideology should analyze

this work also and apply other theories in order to deepen the analysis. More theories on Discourse Analysis and social practice can also be applied.

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50 Maranatha Christian University