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THE RESISTANCE OF WOMEN TOWARDS SEXUAL
TERRORISM AS SEEN IN EVE ENSLER’S
THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra
in English Letters
By
LAURENCYA HELLENE LARASATI RURUK
Student Number: 07 4214 055
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
YOGYAKARTA
2014
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THE RESISTANCE OF WOMEN TOWARDS SEXUAL
TERRORISM AS SEEN IN EVE ENSLER’S
THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra
in English Letters
By
LAURENCYA HELLENE LARASATI RURUK
Student Number: 07 4214 055
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
YOGYAKARTA
2014
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STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY
I certify that this undergraduate thesis contains no material which has been
previously submitted for the award of any other degree at my university, and that,
to the best of my knowledge, this undergraduate thesis contains no material
previously written by any other person except where due reference is made in the
text of the undergraduate thesis.
Yogyakarta, August 15, 2014
Laurencya Hellene Larasati Ruruk
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LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN
PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS
Yang bertanda tangan di bawah ini, saya mahasiswa Universitas Sanata Dharma:
Nama
Nomor Mahasiswa
: Laurencya Hellene Larasati Ruruk
: 07 4214 055
Demi pengembangan ilmu pengetahuan, saya memberikan kepada perpustakaan
Universitas Sanata Dharma karya ilmiah saya yang berjudul:
THE RESISTANCE OF WOMEN TOWARDS SEXUAL TERRORISM AS
SEEN IN EVE ENSLER’S THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES
beserta perangkat yang diperlukan (bila ada). Dengan demikian saya memberikan
kepada perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma hak untuk menyimpan,
mengalihkan dalam bentuk media lain, mengelolanya dalam bentuk pangkalan
data, mendistribusikan secara terbatas dan mempublikasikannya di internet atau
media yang lain untuk kepentingan akademis tanpa perlu meminta ijin dari saya
maupun memberikan royalti kepada saya selama tetap mencantumkan nama saya
sebagai penulis.
Demikian pernyataan ini saya buat dengan sebenarnya.
Dibuat di Yogyakarta
Pada tanggal: 15 Agustus 2014
Yang menyatakan,
Laurencya Hellene Larasati Ruruk
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.Every Cloud Has a Silver Lining.
“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the
human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of
circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”
― Viktor E. Frankl
“You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In
fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know
who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it.”
― Maya Angelou
“Whenever we think we know the future, even for a second, it
changes...Assuming the worst that can happen or we step forward into
the unknown and assume it will be brilliant.”
― Grey’s Anatomy
“Without great solitude no serious work is possible.”
― Pablo Picasso
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FOR MY MOST PRECIOUS ONES IN THE WORLD
MY FAMILY, WHOM I EXTREMELY ADORE
FROM THE BOTTOMMOST OF MY BEATING HEART
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First of all, I would like to thank Him who makes all of the impossible
possible. Without His blessing and guidance, I might not have the strength and
faith to carry on whenever I encounter tough situations along the way.
Secondly, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my thesis
advisor, Ni Luh Putu Rosiandani, S.S., M.Hum. for the never-ending lesson and
support. I probably fail to continue and finish this thesis if not because of her
encouragement. Moreover, my deep gratitude also goes to Drs. Hirmawan
Wijanarka, M.Hum. as my thesis co-advisor for the corrections and suggestions to
improve this thesis, and also as the former head of English Letters Department for
allowing me to be back and to continue my study. In addition, I would like to
thank Dewi Widyastuti, S.Pd., M.Hum. for the critique and advice to make this
thesis even better.
I would also like to thank all of the Fathers whom I met inside and outside
classes, lecturers and staff of Sanata Dharma University, especially English
Letters Department, all whom I met along the way. I will forever be in debt for the
second chance that was given to me, all the help, support, attention, valuable
experiences, and the welcoming smile that I get every time I am in the campus.
I would like to dedicate this thesis to my biggest love in the world, my
family, my parents who shower me with lots of love and support in their own
unique and comical ways, my little big sister who annoys me every time she ruins
my ‘me time’, and my big little brother who scolds me whenever he knows that I
am being lazy. Thank you for being with me through thick and thin.
Last but not least, I would like to thank all of my friends. Naming them
one by one would be unfair for those whom I might forget to mention, therefore, I
thank all of these precious people whom I met along the way and stays around no
matter how terrible my personality and behavior is. I hope this friendship lasts
forever, and I wish you tremendous happiness and success in your life.
Laurencya Hellene Larasati Ruruk
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
TITLE PAGE………………………………………………………………
APPROVAL PAGE……………………………………………………......
ACCEPTANCE PAGE……………………………………………………
STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY...........................................................
LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI……………...
MOTTO PAGE…………………………………………………….............
DEDICATION PAGE……………………………………………..............
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS……………………………………………….
TABLE OF CONTENTS………………………………………………….
ABSTRACT…………………………………………………………………
ABSTRAK…………………………………………………………………...
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CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION……….....................................................
A. Background of the Study……………………………………...
B. Problem Formulation…………………………………………..
C. Objectives of the Study..............................................................
D. Definition of Terms…………………………………………....
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CHAPTER II: THEORETICAL REVIEW..................................................
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A. Review of Related Studies……………………………………...
6
B. Review of Related Theories…………………………………….. 8
1. Theory of Monologue………………………………………. 8
2. Theory of Sexual Terrorism………………………………… 10
3. Theory of Resistance in Relation to Radical Feminism........ 16
C. Theoretical Framework…………………………………………. 24
CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY………………………………….........
A. Object of the Study…………………………………………....
B. Approach of the Study………………………………………...
C. Method of the Study……………………………………..........
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CHAPTER IV: ANALYSIS.........................................................................
A. The Sexual Terrorism as Seen through the Experiences of
Women in The Vagina Monologues…………………………...
1. Inside the Family and Within Marriage……………………
a. “Hair”…………………………………………………..
b. “I was Twelve. My Mother Slapped Me.”……………..
c. “The Little Coochi Snorcher that Could”……………...
d. “The Memory of Her Face (Part I)”.................................
e. “Crooked Braid”………………………………………..
2. Outside the Family and Marriage…………………………...
a. “The Flood”…………………………………………….
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b. “The Vagina Workshop”………………………………..
c. “Because He Liked to Look at It”……………………..
d. “My Angry Vagina”……………………………………
e. “The Memory of Her Face (PartII)”……………………
f. “They Beat the Girl Out of My Boy…or so They Tried”
3. Within the Situation of War………………………………..
a. “My Vagina was My Village”………………………….
b. “Under the Burqa”……………………………………..
c. “Say It”…………………………………………………
B. The Resistance of the Women towards the
Sexual Terrorism……………………………………………….
1. Physical and Verbal Resistance……………………………
a. “Hair”…………………………………………………..
b. “My Angry Vagina”……………………………………
c. “The Little Coochi Snorcher that Could”……………..
d. “I was There in the Room”…………………………….
e. “They Beat the Girl Out of My Boy…or so They Tried”
f. “Crooked Braid”……………………………………….
g. “Say It”…………………………………………………
2. Mental or Inner Resistance…………………………………
a. “The Flood”…………………………………………….
b. “My Vagina was My Village”………………………….
c. “Under the Burqa”……………………………………...
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CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION…………………………………………….
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BIBLIOGRAPHY...........................................................................................
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APPENDIX…………………………………………………………………..
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ABSTRACT
LAURENCYA HELLENE LARASATI RURUK. The Resistance of Women
towards Sexual Terrorism as Seen in Eve Ensler’s The Vagina Monologues.
Yogyakarta: Department of English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma
University, 2014.
In this present time, most women believe that what happened in the past,
remains in the past, however, some literary works prove that, until this present
time, women are still oppressed and considered as the inferior class to men. One
of the literary works containing the evidence is The Vagina Monologues by Eve
Ensler. The monologues inside it share the experiences of various women who
have been physically, mentally, and sexually terrorized. From those experiences
of the women in the monologues, this thesis tries to identify the sexual terrorism
that is experienced by each woman in each monologue, and at the same time, tries
to examine the resistance of the women towards the sexual terrorism.
There are two problems formulation which are discussed in this thesis. The
first one is how sexual terrorism is described through the experiences of the
women in The Vagina Monologues, and the second is how those women resist the
sexual terrorism that they experience.
Feminism approach is used in this thesis in order to see the accurate
analysis of the condition of the woman in each monologue. In addition, the writer
uses the theory of monologue, the theory of sexual terrorism, and the theory of
resistance in relation to radical feminism to support the argument in the analysis.
In writing the analysis, the writer uses the method of library research. The primary
source of this thesis is The Vagina Monologues, and other sources are taken from
printed and electronic books, and also the previous undergraduate theses and
article discussing the similar topic to this thesis.
In summary, from the analysis it can be concluded that obviously or
vaguely, physically or mentally, men use sexual terrorism as a tool to control
women’s autonomy over their own body, sexuality, and reproduction. It occurs to
any woman in any situation, and the examples from the monologues are wife
beating within marriage, sexual harassment by lovers or strangers, rape and sexual
torture at war, sexual abuse of children, transgender bullying, and many other
vicious treatments toward women. Sexual terrorism is there to keep women in the
subordinate position. It is established in order to snatch the freedom from the
women. The awareness of the women towards the sexual terrorism triggers their
resistance towards it. Each woman experiences different situation of sexual
terrorism, therefore their ways of resisting the terror are also varied. Some of the
women are unable to physically resist the sexual terror that happens to them,
however, some of them can resist and free themselves from the vicious treatments
that they experienced.
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ABSTRAK
LAURENCYA HELLENE LARASATI RURUK. The Resistance of Women
towards Sexual Terrorism as Seen in Eve Ensler’s The Vagina Monologues.
Yogyakarta: Program Studi Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Sanata
Dharma, 2014.
Di masa sekarang ini, sebagian besar wanita meyakini bahwa situasi telah
berubah, akan tetapi, beberapa karya sastra membuktikan bahwa sampai dengan
saat ini, wanita masih tertindas dan dianggap sebagai kelas yang lebih rendah dari
pria. Salah satu karya sastra yang berisi bukti tersebut adalah The Vagina
Monologues oleh Eve Ensler. Monolog-monolog di dalamnya membagikan
pengalaman dari berbagai macam wanita yang diteror secara fisik, mental, dan
seksual. Dari pengalaman para wanita di dalam tiap monolog, skripsi ini mencoba
mengenali terorisme seksual yang dialami oleh tiap wanita tersebut di tiap
monolog, dan di saat bersamaan, mencoba membahas tentangan para wanita
terhadap terorisme seksual tersebut.
Terdapat dua permasalahan yang dibahas di dalam skripsi ini. Yang
pertama adalah bagaimana terorisme seksual dideskripsikan melalui pengalaman
para wanita dalam The Vagina Monologues, dan yang kedua, bagaimana para
wanita itu menentang terorisme seksual yang mereka alami.
Pendekatan feminisme digunakan di dalam skripsi ini untuk melihat
analisis akurat terhadap kondisi wanita di tiap monolog. Sebagai tambahan,
penulis menggunakan teori monolog, teori terorisme seksual, dan teori resistansi
dalam kaitannya dengan feminisme radikal untuk mendukung penjelasan di dalam
analisis. Dalam menulis analisis, penulis menggunakan metode studi pustaka.
Sumber utama dari skripsi ini adalah The Vagina Monologues, dan sumbersumber lain diambil dari buku cetak dan elektronik, dan juga skripsi-skripsi
terdahulu dan artikel yang membahas topik yang serupa dengan skripsi ini.
Ringkasnya, dari analisis dapat disimpulkan bahwa secara jelas atau
samar, secara fisik ataupun mental, para pria menggunakan terorisme seksual
sebagai alat untuk mengontrol otonomi para wanita atas tubuh, seksualitas, dan
reproduksi mereka. Ini terjadi pada wanita mana pun, pada situasi apa pun, seperti
contoh-contoh dari monolog yang ada, penganiayaan terhadap istri di dalam
pernikahan, pelecehan seksual oleh kekasih maupun orang tak dikenal,
pemerkosaan dan penyiksaan seksual di masa perang, kekerasan seksual pada
anak, penindasan kaum transeksual, dan masih banyak perlakuan keji lainnya
terhadap wanita. Terorisme seksual ada untuk menjaga posisi wanita sebagai yang
lebih rendah, ini dikembangkan untuk merebut kebebasan dari para wanita.
Kesadaran para wanita akan terorisme seksual memicu tentangan mereka
terhadapnya. Tiap wanita mengalami situasi terorisme seksual yang berbeda,
maka cara mereka menghadapi teror pun beragam. Beberapa dari wanita itu tidak
dapat secara fisik melawan terror seksual yang menimpa mereka, akan tetapi,
beberapa dari mereka dapat menentang dan membebaskan diri dari perlakuan keji
yang mereka alami.
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CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. Background of the Study
Terrorism, when we see or hear the word “terrorism”, we will be directed
to incidents such as the suicide bomb tragedies, bank robberies, airplanes hijacks,
ethnic wars, racial massacres, and many other horrible incidents. However,
according to Carole J. Sheffield, there is a different kind of terrorism, the kind that
is more familiar and seems natural to all societies, it is sexual terrorism. The
targets of sexual terrorism are women of all age, race, and class. Sexual terrorism
is the common characteristic of rape, wife battery, incest, pornography,
harassment, and all forms of sexual violence (1984: 3).
Growing up in an era that looks like it has already given a better condition
for women, makes most of the people forget about the horrible cases that women
can or still encounter in everyday life. Consciously or unconsciously, women are
still considered to be in a state of being weak targets. Women are still feeling
insecure, afraid, and threatened within the society, within marriage, and even
within family. For some people, the opinion that women are still considered weak
might be seen as a pessimistic idea, however some facts, whether from the news
or literary works, prove that women are still vulnerable and are still being the
target of violence and terror. Women are still being the victims of sexual
terrorism.
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As stated by Gloria Steinem:
These last three decades of feminism were also marked by a deep anger as
the truth of violence against the female body was revealed, whether it took
the form of rape, childhood sexual abuse, anti-lesbian violence, physical
abuse of women, sexual harassment, terrorism against reproductive
freedom, or the international crime of female genital mutilation (2008:
xxxiii).
As also shared by Carole J. Sheffield through her article, men use violence
as the tool to control women, “Violence and its corollary, fear, serve to terrorize
females and to maintain the patriarchal definition of woman’s place” (1984: 3).
The intention is to make women frightened, and therefore it is easier to dominate
them physically and psychologically. She also said that, “Violence and the threat
of violence against females represent the need of patriarchy to deny that a
woman’s body is her own property and that no one should have access to it
without her consent” (1984:3).
The other evidences of sexual terrorism are presented by Deborah L.
Madsen through her examples of misogynistic practices in several literary works
such as, Possessing the Secret of Joy, a novel by Alice Walker, which exposes the
reality of sexual mutilation and the imprisonment of women in their bodies, and
Maxine Hong Kingston’s description of Chinese foot-binding in China Men.
Earlier corsetry in Western society represents the same kind of women violation
in which women are physically tortured, unable to move freely and to breathe
easily, in order to be called a beauty. The threat of being rape and violently
assaulted keeps women confined in terms of where they can go and when, because
women as victims can be accused to be in a wrong situation. “Intimidation,
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terrorism, fear – these strategies keep women in a subordinate position where they
are dominated by men” (2000: 153).
Sexual terrorism against women is also the primary concern of the radical
feminist movement. As stated in Feminist Theory and Literary Practice, “The use
of sexual violence by men as a strategy for sustaining patriarchal control of
women rose to prominence as a major feminist issue in the 1970s” (2000: 12).
Another statement is taken from ‘The New York Radical Feminist Manifesto’:
Radical feminism recognizes the oppression of women as a fundamental
political oppression wherein women are categorized as an inferior class
based on their sex. It is the aim of radical feminism to organize politically
to destroy this sex-class system. As radical feminists we recognize that we
are engaged in a power struggle with men, and that the agent of our
oppression is man in so far as he identifies with and carries out the
supremacy privileges of the male role (quoted by Madsen, 2000: 153).
From her statement, it can be seen that actually the issue on sexual terrorism is
still becoming a concern among radical feminists because women are still treated
as the subordinate of men, based on their sexuality. Women are still terrorized
based on their sex, and women will always struggle within the oppression as long
as men still have the control over them. Therefore, radical feminism aims to
destroy the superiority of men and to end the oppression of women by men as the
resistance towards the sexual terrorism.
Eve Ensler also stated her deep concern towards the violence against
women. She is well-known as the founder of V-Day, which is a movement to stop
violence against women. In the book, Ensler provides the monologues that are
based on her interviews with various women around the world. The monologues
are talking about the sexual violence experienced by those interviewed women.
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Those experiences in the monologues lead the writer to see different kinds of
sexual terrorism experienced by each interviewed woman. Each experience and
each thought of the women will also be used to show the resistance of those
women towards the sexual terrorism. However, not all monologues show a clear
evidence of sexual terrorism and the resistance towards it. There are also some of
the monologues that vaguely show the evidence of sexual terrorism and the
resistance. The women have different experience and resistance because they
come from different places, races, cultures, societies, and religions.
In this study, the writer chooses The Vagina Monologues as the object of
the study because this study aims to reveal the resistance of the women that have
experienced sexual terrorism, and Eve Ensler provides the evidences needed by
the writer to conduct this study. This study tries to see beyond the experiences and
the responses of those women to reveal the fact that actually women are still
experiencing sexual terrorism and they resist it. By trying to see the resistance of
those women, this study also aims to show the strength of women and by that they
may no longer be claimed as targets. As also stated in the book, “Ending violence
against women means opening to the great power of women, the mystery of
women, the heart of women, the wild, unending sexuality and creativity of women
– and not being afraid” (2008: xxiii).
B. Problem Formulation
From the above background of the study, the writer then formulates two
problems that need to be analyzed:
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1. How is the sexual terrorism described through the experiences of the women
in The Vagina Monologues?
2. How do the women resist the sexual terrorism in The Vagina Monologues?
C. Objectives of the Study
This study consists of two objectives. The first one is to identify the sexual
terrorism through the experiences of the women, and the second is to examine
how the women resist the sexual terrorism that they experienced.
D. Definition of Terms
In order to avoid misinterpretation of some terms used, the writer provides
the definition of the terms in its relation to the topic discussed.
1. Sexual Terrorism
: it is a system that functions to maintain male
supremacy through actual and implied violence (Sheffield, 1984: 3).
2. Resistance
: an act done by someone subordinate, that in
response to power, do challenge power, and contain at least a possibility, that
power gets undermined by the act (Vinthagen, 2007: 7). The fundamental and
possible normative value of resistance is its creation or expansion of space for
making choices… (2007: 21).
3. Radical Feminism
feminism
argues
: aims to destroy the sex-class system…Radical
that
women’s
oppression
comes
from
women’s
categorization as an inferior class to the class ‘men’ on the basis of their
gender (Humm, 1995: 231).
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CHAPTER II
THEORETICAL REVIEW
A. Review of Related Studies
The objectives of this study are to see the sexual terrorism through the
experiences of the women and to identify how those women resist the sexual
terrorism that they experienced in The Vagina Monologues. In order to compare
and to support the arguments stated in this study, the writer provides the following
three related studies.
Several researchers have used The Vagina Monologues, radical feminism
and women resistance as their object of study in their articles and undergraduate
theses. In this part, the writer provides an undergraduate thesis that was written on
the topic of resistance and an undergraduate thesis that was written on the topic of
radical feminism, the first undergraduate thesis was written by Henrica Angelia
Indriawati Sumarno entitled “Resistance against Black Women’s Oppression Seen
through the Main Character in April Sinclair’s Coffee Will Make You Black”, the
second undergraduate thesis was written by Raynesta Mikaela Indri Malo entitled
“Radical Feminism as seen through the Female Characters in Harumi Setouchi’s
Beauty In Disarray”. Moreover, the writer also provides an article discussing
about The Vagina Monologues by Alyssa Reiser entitled “Our Vaginas, Not
Ourselves: A Critical Analysis of the Vagina Monologues”.
Henrica Angelia Indriawati Sumarno’s undergraduate thesis focused on
how Stevie as a black woman and also as the main character in Coffee Will Make
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You Black resists the oppression against her. Stevie resists the oppression through
her thought and action. When she reaches her consciousness of being oppressed,
she assures herself to have self-respect. According to Sumarno, in the end Stevie
changed her appearance into natural African-American look and speaks up her
voice about freedom through her poem entitled “What Good” (2011: ix).
Raynesta Mikaela Indri Malo’s undergraduate thesis focused on how the
two female characters in the Harumi Satouchi’s Beauty In Disarray, Noe Ito and
Raicho Hiratsuka, portray the spirit of radical feminism in the situation where
women are in the subordinate position under patriarchal system. According to
Malo, Japan was known to hold the patriarchal system that subordinate women
and restrict them from getting the same opportunities with men in various aspects
of life. The situation then provokes the two female characters to fight against that
system with their own way (2008: x).
Alyssa Reiser’s article focused on the issues of domestic violence and rape
culture, her own experience as a woman as well as the experiences of her femaleidentified friends and family, feminist theory, and a limited but representative
amount of critical scholarship as a lens through which to observe and to state the
effectiveness of The Vagina Monologues as emancipatory feminist theater.
Specifically, she is concerned about the ahistorical ‘culture of vaginas’ that the
play’s author, Eve Ensler, speaks to and about, and its universalizing effect on
abstracted womanhood (2010: 1).
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From the three related studies, the writer positioned this study as the
complement of the three previous studies. Basically, this study is the combination
of the main issues that were discussed in the three previous studies. However,
there are also differences in the terms and theories that are used in this study. This
study also provides a different perspective of the resistance of women against
patriarchal system in The Vagina Monologues. Instead of discussing the
patriarchal system in general, the writer tries to reveal the product of the system,
which is sexual terrorism.
B. Review of Related Theories
Theories that are used in this study are the theory of monologue, the theory
of sexual terrorism and the theory of resistance in relation radical feminism. These
theories will be used to analyze the problems in this study.
1. Theory of Monologue
In order to identify the resistance of the women in The Vagina
Monologues, the writer needs to analyze the women’s thoughts, feelings, and
actions. Therefore, this theory is provided in order to help the writer analyzes the
women through the way they share their experience in the monologue.
According to Stefanie Lethbridge and Jarmila Mildorf, characters in drama
typically talk to one another, and the entire plot is usually carried by and conveyed
through their verbal interactions (2004: 122). Still according to Lethbridge and
Mildorf, language in drama can be presented either as monologue or dialogue,
“Monologue means that only one character speaks while dialogue always requires
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two or more participants” (2004: 122). Further, they explained that, “A special
form of monologue, where no other person is present on stage beside the speaker,
is called soliloquy” (2004: 122). A soliloquy is usually used in order to present a
character in a more detailed ways and also on a more personal level. Therefore, in
a soliloquy, the characters are able to show what is on their mind, to explain their
feelings, and motives, and to convey their thoughts (2004: 122).
Another explanation from J. A. Cuddon about soliloquy:
A soliloquy is a speech, often of some length, in which a character, alone
on the stage, expresses his thoughts and feelings. The soliloquy is an
accepted dramatic convention (q.v.) of great importance and the various
uses it has been put to show the strengths and advantages of such a
convention. Its advantages are inestimable because it enables a dramatist
to convey direct to an audience important information about a particular
character: his state of mind and heart, his most intimate thoughts and
feelings, his motives and intentions (1998: 838).
Monologues and soliloquies have one thing in common, each of them
involves a single speaker. The difference between them is not about the speaker, it
is more about the audience or characters who listen to the speech.
A monologue is a speech given by a single person to an audience…A
monologue might be delivered to an audience within a play…or it might
be delivered directly to the audience sitting in the theater and watching the
play. But a soliloquy…is a speech that one gives to oneself. In a play, a
character delivering a soliloquy talks to herself — thinking out loud, as it
were — so that the audience better understands what is happening to the
character internally (http://www.cliffsnotes.com, 2014).
From the explanation above, it can be seen that through monologues, the
women’s characteristics, thoughts, and feelings can be identified through their
speech. This theory will be used to identify the characteristics as well as the
context of the woman in each monologue.
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2. Theory of Sexual Terrorism
a. Components of Sexual Terrorism
According to Carole J. Sheffield, sexual terrorism is a system by which
men frighten women, and by frightening, men control and dominate women. It
can be identified through rape, wife battery, incest, pornography, harassment, and
all forms of sexual violence (1984: 3). Still according to Sheffield, there are five
components of sexual terrorism: ideology, propaganda, indiscriminate and amoral
violence, voluntary compliance, and society’s perception of the terrorist and the
terrorized (1984: 5).
First, ideology, it is a united set of beliefs about the world that explains the
way things are and provides a vision of how they should be (1984: 5). Sheffield
argues that patriarchy is the ideological foundation of sexism in almost all
societies. The focus of patriarchal ideology is the superiority of men and the
inferiority of women, which at the same time provides the justification for sexual
terrorism (1984: 5). The central idea of patriarchy is masculinity, which must
include the tendency of doing violence and all characteristics necessary for
survival, such as aggression, control, emotional reserve, rationality, and sexual
potency (1984: 5). Mark Feigen Fasteau, in The Male Machine argues that men
have some kind of belief that they have some kind of capacity for violence in each
of them. This capacity for violence represents the primal untamed base of
masculinity (quoted by Sheffield, 1984: 5).
Second, propaganda, it is the systematic distribution of information for the
purpose of promoting a particular ideology (1984: 5). Sheffield argues that
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propaganda is therefore biased or even false information because its purpose is to
present one point of view and to discredit the opposing points of view. The
propaganda of sexual terrorism can be found in all expressions of the popular
culture such as films, television, music, literature, advertising, pornography, and
also in the ideas of patriarchy conveyed in science, medicine, and psychology
(1984: 5).
Third, indiscriminate and amoral violence, they are the heart of sexual
terrorism. According to Sheffield, every woman at any age, at any time and in any
place is a potential target of violence (1984: 5-6). Susan Brownmiller argues that
rape is a “…conscious process of intimidation by which all men keep all women
in a state of fear” (quoted by Sheffield, 1984: 6). Furthermore, Sheffield states
that amorality pervades sexual violence, that eventually causes child molesters,
incestuous fathers, wife beaters, and rapists often do not understand that they have
done anything wrong. Moreover, their views are usually approved by police
officers, lawyers, and judges, so that crimes of sexual violence are rarely punished
(1984: 6).
Sheffield states that violence must be used to maintain terrorism, however,
continuous violence can be costly and overwhelming. Therefore, in order to make
sure the continuance of sexual terrorism, the forth component that is voluntary
compliance, is used as a strategy (1984: 6). Still according to Sheffield, sexual
terrorism is maintained by a system of sex-role socialization that in effect instructs
men to be terrorists in the name of masculinity and women to be victims in the
name of femininity (1984: 6).
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The last component is society’s perception of the terrorist and the
terrorized. So far, this final component is what differs sexual from political
terrorism. According to Sheffield, in political terrorism, society may condemn or
condone the terrorist depending on their political views, however, they still
sympathize with the victim. On the other hand, in sexual terrorism, society blames
the victim and excuses the offender. The offender is believed to be either ‘sick’,
and therefore in need of consideration from the society, or is acting out normal
male desires (1984: 6).
b. Types of Sexual Terrorism
i. Rape
According to Diana E. H. Russell, the generally accepted definition of rape
is “sexual intercourse with a female, not the wife of the perpetrator, without the
consent of the female” (quoted by Sheffield, 1984: 6). In addition, Sheffield states
that passive resistance or submission, even in a situation that is considered lifethreatening, is not considered as clear evidence that the rape was against one’s
will (1984: 7).
ii. Wife Assault
According to Sheffield, for many centuries, it has been assumed that a
husband has the right over his wife. Therefore, he is believed to have the right to
punish or discipline his wife even with physical force. Moreover, Sheffield states
that there is even a popular expression originated from English common law
called the “rule of thumb” which has the meaning of permission for a husband to
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physically punish his wife with a whip or a stick but the size cannot be bigger than
his thumb (1984: 7).
iii. Sexual Abuse of Children
According to Sheffield, defining sexual abuse of children is very difficult
because the law is complex and often contradictory. In general, sexual abuse of
children includes: statutory rape, molestation, carnal knowledge, indecent
liberties, impairing the morals of a minor, child abuse, child neglect, and incest
(1984: 7).
iv. Sexual Harassment
Sheffield states that many of the studies on sexual harassment focus on
the sexual intimidation on the job and at school (1984: 8). According to Lin Farley
in Sexual Shakedown: The Sexual Harassment of Women on the Job, it can take
form in any or the entire following situation: staring at, commenting upon, or
touching a woman’s body, requests for acceptance in sexual behavior, repeated
unwanted invites for dates, demands for sexual intercourse, and rape (quoted by
Sheffield, 1984: 8).
c. Characteristics of Sexual Terrorism
i. Violence against Females Cuts across Socioeconomic Lines
One of the most common false beliefs is that sexual terrorism happens
only within the poor, uneducated, non-white communities. In reality, sexual
terrorism occurs within all kinds of society, because there are no typical criteria of
an abusive man. They are from all ages, races, and religions; they
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come from all communities with any range of income levels and education levels;
they are married, single, separated, and divorced (Sheffield, 1984: 8-9).
ii. Crimes of Sexual Violence Are the Least Likely to Be Reported
According to FBI, rape is the most often committed and, at the same time,
also seriously underreported crime. From the reported cases, FBI estimates that
forcible rape occurs every six minutes; if added with the calculation of the
underreported cases, it might be estimated to occur every two minutes (1984: 9).
Other cases that are extremely under reported are child sexual abuse and
incest. For the case of child sexual abuse, Vincent De Francis argues that there is a
wide gap between the reported incidence and the actual number of incidence, “the
reported incidence represents the top edge of the moon as it rises over the
mountain” (quoted by Sheffield, 1984: 10), means the reported incidence is just a
small revealed part of the whole incidence.
iii. Crimes of Violence against Females Have the Lowest Conviction Rates
According to Sheffield, the main reason for underreported sexual assaults
is that because women are afraid. Women are made believe that male’s sexual
behavior is their responsibility. Therefore, they believe that they should stay silent
and passive about their victimization, because even though they report the sexual
assaults done to them, no one will believe them, and as the result, the offender
will not be punished for what he has done to them either (1984: 11).
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iv. Blaming the Victim of Sexual Violence is Pervasive
In a male-dominated society, people tend to blame the victim and excuse
the offender. Sheffield argues that men create a myth that victims of sexual
violence are actually the suspects themselves. They believe that every women has
a hidden desire to be victimized, therefore when they are involved in an incidence
of sexual terrorism, they either actually willing to participate on the victimization
or they lied about it. This myth was created by men in order to avoid punishment
for their act of sexual terrorism (1984: 13).
We can see that based on the myth, the victim becomes the offender and
the offender becomes the victim. The victim causes the victimization by seducing
or anticipating the incidence, while men as the offender was seduced and because
of that they could not help themselves and follow their natural biological desire.
The point is that society believes women must have done something wrong that
trigger sexual terrorism to happen (1984: 14).
v. Sexual Violence is Not Taken Seriously
Another myth about the sexual terrorism in society is that, “When the
existence of sexual violence can no longer be denied, a common response is to
joke about it in order to belittle it” (quoted by Sheffield, 1984: 15). This myth,
according to Sheffield, also makes sexual terrorism to be seen as less important
and less serious matter (1984: 15).
vi. Sexual Violence is Not about Sex
According to A. Nicholas Groth in his study, Men Who Rape: The
Psychology of the Offender: “careful clinical study of offenders reveals that
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rape is in fact serving primarily nonsexual needs. It is the sexual expression of
power and anger” (quoted by Sheffield, 1984: 16). This indicates that actually
men do not rape for sexual pleasure, instead, they rape to show their power and
dominance over women.
Del Martin founds that wife beating is actually the example of power
abuse. Battering husbands use violence as the proof of superiority. Moreover,
Martin characterized the battering husband as:
He is probably angry with himself and frustrated by his life. He may put
up a good front in public, but in the privacy and intimacy of his home he
may not be able to hide, either from himself or his wife, his feelings of
inadequacy and low self-esteem. The man who is losing his grip on his job
or his prospects may feel compelled to prove that he is at least the master
of his home. Beating his wife is one way for him to appear a winner
(quoted by Sheffield, 1984: 17).
The same reason for sexual harassment is also not about sex, it is about
power. Lin Farley argues:
…sexual harassment of women at work arose from men’s need to maintain
control of women’s labor. Sexual harassment serves to keep women
(individually and collectively) economically inferior and ensures the
system of male dominance (quoted by Sheffield, 1984: 17).
3. Theory of Resistance in Relation to Radical Feminism
Stellan Vinthagen in his research stated that, “any activity of the
subordinated which, in the view of power holders, causes a problem or is a threat
to power, could count as resistance” (2007: 5).
Still according to Vinthagen, “…resistance is the kind of actions which
dissolve, undermine, question or challenge such subordination – and ultimately,
produce non-subordinate relations” (2007: 6).
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According to James Scott, there are two main forms of resistance, they are
public and disguised resistance. As mentioned by Vinthagen in his research, “he
divides resistance into two forms (public and disguised) which corresponds to
three forms of domination (material, status, and ideological), resulting in six types
of resistance” (2007: 8).
Resistance exist in the public form as public declared resistance (open
revolts, petitions, demonstrations, land invasions, etc) against material
domination; assertion of worth or desecration of status symbols against
status domination; or, counter ideologies against ideological domination.
And, resistance exists in the disguised form (low profile, undisclosed or
“infra-politics”) as everyday resistance (e.g. poaching, squatting,
desertion, evasion, foot-dragging) or direct resistance by disguised
resisters against material domination; hidden transcripts of anger or
disguised discourses of dignity against status dominator; or dissident
subcultures (e.g. millennial religion, myths of social banditry, class
heroes) against ideological domination (Vinthagen, 2007:8).
Moreover, Vinthagen also shares seven basic forms of nonviolent
resistance, they are: discursive resistance (example: fact findings), competition
(example: building new society and social system instead of which is being
resisted), non-cooperation (example: boycotts), selective cooperation (example:
helping the opponent with relief work during a sudden natural catastrophe),
withdrawal (example: escape to other areas), hindrance (example: interventions),
and humoristic undermining (example: self-irony) (2007: 12).
As concluded by Vinthagen:
Resistance is not necessarily directing people, telling them what to do but
enable them to make their own choices…Thus, resistance doesn’t
annihilate the social bonds of society, it simply, construct new ones while
deconstructing others – and, in the best of cases – opens the space for a
freer choice (2007: 21).
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Related to resistance as the opening space for freer choices and the
production of non-subordinate relations, according to Rosemarie Tong, in the
scope of radical feminism theory, there are two basic perspectives on how women
can resist the sexual terrorism, they are radical-libertarian feminism perspective
and radical-cultural feminism perspective, accordingly these two perspectives
provide two different options as how women can choose from between those two,
the best way for them to resist the sexual terrorism, “depending on their camp,
these feminists voiced very different views about how to fight sexism” (2009: 49).
Tong explained further that:
Radical-libertarian feminists claimed that an exclusively feminine gender
identity is likely to limit women’s development as full human persons.
Thus, they encouraged women to become androgynous persons, that is,
persons who embody both (good) masculine and (good) feminine
characteristics or, more controversially, any potpourri of masculine and
feminine characteristics, good or bad, that strikes their fancy (2009: 50).
In addition to Tong’s explanation, one of the first radical-libertarian
feminists, Joreen Freeman stated that:
…a “Bitch” does not want to limit herself to being a sweet girl with little
in the way of power. Instead, she wants to embrace as part of her gender
identity those masculine characteristics that permit her to lead life on her
own terms (quoted by Tong, 2009: 50).
From the above explanation, it can be seen that according to radicallibertarian feminists, women have to free themselves from the restrictions of
female biology. For a woman to be biologically female does not make her
obligated to show or possess only feminine characteristics. Women can be
masculine and feminine at the same time. They have the right to choose their own
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gender roles and characteristics at their own will. By doing so, women can acquire
their freedom and become independent.
On the contrary, radical-cultural feminists encourage women with an
advice to emphasize women’s “femaleness”. As explained by Alice Echols:
…radical-cultural feminist expressed the view that it is better for women
to be strictly female/feminine. Women, they said, should not try to be like
men. On the contrary, they should try to be more like women, emphasizing
the values and virtues culturally associated with women…and
deemphasizing the values and virtues culturally associated with
men…Moreover, and in the ideal, women should appreciate that, despite
cultural variations among themselves, all women share one and the same
female nature, and the less influence men have on this nature, the better
(quoted by Tong, 2009: 50-51).
It can be seen that radical-cultural feminists have the opposite perspective
about how women free themselves from male domination. According to this
group, the fewer women are influenced by masculinity the better, and women
should be fully feminine and should not try to be like men. This way, women can
gain their freedom because they do not have any influence from men and so the
women become more independent.
The other opposite ideas between radical-libertarian feminists and radicalcultural feminists are on their different views about the issue of gender, sexuality,
and reproduction.
a. Views on Gender
Kate Millett, as one of the noticed radical-libertarian feminists, insisted
that the roots of women’s oppression are buried deep in patriarchy’s gender
system. Male control of the public and private worlds maintains the situation of
patriarchy, therefore, male control must be eliminated in order to liberate women.
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THE RESISTANCE OF WOMEN TOWARDS SEXUAL
TERRORISM AS SEEN IN EVE ENSLER’S
THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra
in English Letters
By
LAURENCYA HELLENE LARASATI RURUK
Student Number: 07 4214 055
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
YOGYAKARTA
2014
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THE RESISTANCE OF WOMEN TOWARDS SEXUAL
TERRORISM AS SEEN IN EVE ENSLER’S
THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra
in English Letters
By
LAURENCYA HELLENE LARASATI RURUK
Student Number: 07 4214 055
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
YOGYAKARTA
2014
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STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY
I certify that this undergraduate thesis contains no material which has been
previously submitted for the award of any other degree at my university, and that,
to the best of my knowledge, this undergraduate thesis contains no material
previously written by any other person except where due reference is made in the
text of the undergraduate thesis.
Yogyakarta, August 15, 2014
Laurencya Hellene Larasati Ruruk
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LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN
PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS
Yang bertanda tangan di bawah ini, saya mahasiswa Universitas Sanata Dharma:
Nama
Nomor Mahasiswa
: Laurencya Hellene Larasati Ruruk
: 07 4214 055
Demi pengembangan ilmu pengetahuan, saya memberikan kepada perpustakaan
Universitas Sanata Dharma karya ilmiah saya yang berjudul:
THE RESISTANCE OF WOMEN TOWARDS SEXUAL TERRORISM AS
SEEN IN EVE ENSLER’S THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES
beserta perangkat yang diperlukan (bila ada). Dengan demikian saya memberikan
kepada perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma hak untuk menyimpan,
mengalihkan dalam bentuk media lain, mengelolanya dalam bentuk pangkalan
data, mendistribusikan secara terbatas dan mempublikasikannya di internet atau
media yang lain untuk kepentingan akademis tanpa perlu meminta ijin dari saya
maupun memberikan royalti kepada saya selama tetap mencantumkan nama saya
sebagai penulis.
Demikian pernyataan ini saya buat dengan sebenarnya.
Dibuat di Yogyakarta
Pada tanggal: 15 Agustus 2014
Yang menyatakan,
Laurencya Hellene Larasati Ruruk
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.Every Cloud Has a Silver Lining.
“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the
human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of
circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”
― Viktor E. Frankl
“You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In
fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know
who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it.”
― Maya Angelou
“Whenever we think we know the future, even for a second, it
changes...Assuming the worst that can happen or we step forward into
the unknown and assume it will be brilliant.”
― Grey’s Anatomy
“Without great solitude no serious work is possible.”
― Pablo Picasso
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FOR MY MOST PRECIOUS ONES IN THE WORLD
MY FAMILY, WHOM I EXTREMELY ADORE
FROM THE BOTTOMMOST OF MY BEATING HEART
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First of all, I would like to thank Him who makes all of the impossible
possible. Without His blessing and guidance, I might not have the strength and
faith to carry on whenever I encounter tough situations along the way.
Secondly, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my thesis
advisor, Ni Luh Putu Rosiandani, S.S., M.Hum. for the never-ending lesson and
support. I probably fail to continue and finish this thesis if not because of her
encouragement. Moreover, my deep gratitude also goes to Drs. Hirmawan
Wijanarka, M.Hum. as my thesis co-advisor for the corrections and suggestions to
improve this thesis, and also as the former head of English Letters Department for
allowing me to be back and to continue my study. In addition, I would like to
thank Dewi Widyastuti, S.Pd., M.Hum. for the critique and advice to make this
thesis even better.
I would also like to thank all of the Fathers whom I met inside and outside
classes, lecturers and staff of Sanata Dharma University, especially English
Letters Department, all whom I met along the way. I will forever be in debt for the
second chance that was given to me, all the help, support, attention, valuable
experiences, and the welcoming smile that I get every time I am in the campus.
I would like to dedicate this thesis to my biggest love in the world, my
family, my parents who shower me with lots of love and support in their own
unique and comical ways, my little big sister who annoys me every time she ruins
my ‘me time’, and my big little brother who scolds me whenever he knows that I
am being lazy. Thank you for being with me through thick and thin.
Last but not least, I would like to thank all of my friends. Naming them
one by one would be unfair for those whom I might forget to mention, therefore, I
thank all of these precious people whom I met along the way and stays around no
matter how terrible my personality and behavior is. I hope this friendship lasts
forever, and I wish you tremendous happiness and success in your life.
Laurencya Hellene Larasati Ruruk
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
TITLE PAGE………………………………………………………………
APPROVAL PAGE……………………………………………………......
ACCEPTANCE PAGE……………………………………………………
STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY...........................................................
LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI……………...
MOTTO PAGE…………………………………………………….............
DEDICATION PAGE……………………………………………..............
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS……………………………………………….
TABLE OF CONTENTS………………………………………………….
ABSTRACT…………………………………………………………………
ABSTRAK…………………………………………………………………...
i
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iv
v
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ix
xi
xii
CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION……….....................................................
A. Background of the Study……………………………………...
B. Problem Formulation…………………………………………..
C. Objectives of the Study..............................................................
D. Definition of Terms…………………………………………....
1
1
4
5
5
CHAPTER II: THEORETICAL REVIEW..................................................
6
A. Review of Related Studies……………………………………...
6
B. Review of Related Theories…………………………………….. 8
1. Theory of Monologue………………………………………. 8
2. Theory of Sexual Terrorism………………………………… 10
3. Theory of Resistance in Relation to Radical Feminism........ 16
C. Theoretical Framework…………………………………………. 24
CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY………………………………….........
A. Object of the Study…………………………………………....
B. Approach of the Study………………………………………...
C. Method of the Study……………………………………..........
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25
26
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CHAPTER IV: ANALYSIS.........................................................................
A. The Sexual Terrorism as Seen through the Experiences of
Women in The Vagina Monologues…………………………...
1. Inside the Family and Within Marriage……………………
a. “Hair”…………………………………………………..
b. “I was Twelve. My Mother Slapped Me.”……………..
c. “The Little Coochi Snorcher that Could”……………...
d. “The Memory of Her Face (Part I)”.................................
e. “Crooked Braid”………………………………………..
2. Outside the Family and Marriage…………………………...
a. “The Flood”…………………………………………….
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b. “The Vagina Workshop”………………………………..
c. “Because He Liked to Look at It”……………………..
d. “My Angry Vagina”……………………………………
e. “The Memory of Her Face (PartII)”……………………
f. “They Beat the Girl Out of My Boy…or so They Tried”
3. Within the Situation of War………………………………..
a. “My Vagina was My Village”………………………….
b. “Under the Burqa”……………………………………..
c. “Say It”…………………………………………………
B. The Resistance of the Women towards the
Sexual Terrorism……………………………………………….
1. Physical and Verbal Resistance……………………………
a. “Hair”…………………………………………………..
b. “My Angry Vagina”……………………………………
c. “The Little Coochi Snorcher that Could”……………..
d. “I was There in the Room”…………………………….
e. “They Beat the Girl Out of My Boy…or so They Tried”
f. “Crooked Braid”……………………………………….
g. “Say It”…………………………………………………
2. Mental or Inner Resistance…………………………………
a. “The Flood”…………………………………………….
b. “My Vagina was My Village”………………………….
c. “Under the Burqa”……………………………………...
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CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION…………………………………………….
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BIBLIOGRAPHY...........................................................................................
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APPENDIX…………………………………………………………………..
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ABSTRACT
LAURENCYA HELLENE LARASATI RURUK. The Resistance of Women
towards Sexual Terrorism as Seen in Eve Ensler’s The Vagina Monologues.
Yogyakarta: Department of English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma
University, 2014.
In this present time, most women believe that what happened in the past,
remains in the past, however, some literary works prove that, until this present
time, women are still oppressed and considered as the inferior class to men. One
of the literary works containing the evidence is The Vagina Monologues by Eve
Ensler. The monologues inside it share the experiences of various women who
have been physically, mentally, and sexually terrorized. From those experiences
of the women in the monologues, this thesis tries to identify the sexual terrorism
that is experienced by each woman in each monologue, and at the same time, tries
to examine the resistance of the women towards the sexual terrorism.
There are two problems formulation which are discussed in this thesis. The
first one is how sexual terrorism is described through the experiences of the
women in The Vagina Monologues, and the second is how those women resist the
sexual terrorism that they experience.
Feminism approach is used in this thesis in order to see the accurate
analysis of the condition of the woman in each monologue. In addition, the writer
uses the theory of monologue, the theory of sexual terrorism, and the theory of
resistance in relation to radical feminism to support the argument in the analysis.
In writing the analysis, the writer uses the method of library research. The primary
source of this thesis is The Vagina Monologues, and other sources are taken from
printed and electronic books, and also the previous undergraduate theses and
article discussing the similar topic to this thesis.
In summary, from the analysis it can be concluded that obviously or
vaguely, physically or mentally, men use sexual terrorism as a tool to control
women’s autonomy over their own body, sexuality, and reproduction. It occurs to
any woman in any situation, and the examples from the monologues are wife
beating within marriage, sexual harassment by lovers or strangers, rape and sexual
torture at war, sexual abuse of children, transgender bullying, and many other
vicious treatments toward women. Sexual terrorism is there to keep women in the
subordinate position. It is established in order to snatch the freedom from the
women. The awareness of the women towards the sexual terrorism triggers their
resistance towards it. Each woman experiences different situation of sexual
terrorism, therefore their ways of resisting the terror are also varied. Some of the
women are unable to physically resist the sexual terror that happens to them,
however, some of them can resist and free themselves from the vicious treatments
that they experienced.
xi
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ABSTRAK
LAURENCYA HELLENE LARASATI RURUK. The Resistance of Women
towards Sexual Terrorism as Seen in Eve Ensler’s The Vagina Monologues.
Yogyakarta: Program Studi Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Sanata
Dharma, 2014.
Di masa sekarang ini, sebagian besar wanita meyakini bahwa situasi telah
berubah, akan tetapi, beberapa karya sastra membuktikan bahwa sampai dengan
saat ini, wanita masih tertindas dan dianggap sebagai kelas yang lebih rendah dari
pria. Salah satu karya sastra yang berisi bukti tersebut adalah The Vagina
Monologues oleh Eve Ensler. Monolog-monolog di dalamnya membagikan
pengalaman dari berbagai macam wanita yang diteror secara fisik, mental, dan
seksual. Dari pengalaman para wanita di dalam tiap monolog, skripsi ini mencoba
mengenali terorisme seksual yang dialami oleh tiap wanita tersebut di tiap
monolog, dan di saat bersamaan, mencoba membahas tentangan para wanita
terhadap terorisme seksual tersebut.
Terdapat dua permasalahan yang dibahas di dalam skripsi ini. Yang
pertama adalah bagaimana terorisme seksual dideskripsikan melalui pengalaman
para wanita dalam The Vagina Monologues, dan yang kedua, bagaimana para
wanita itu menentang terorisme seksual yang mereka alami.
Pendekatan feminisme digunakan di dalam skripsi ini untuk melihat
analisis akurat terhadap kondisi wanita di tiap monolog. Sebagai tambahan,
penulis menggunakan teori monolog, teori terorisme seksual, dan teori resistansi
dalam kaitannya dengan feminisme radikal untuk mendukung penjelasan di dalam
analisis. Dalam menulis analisis, penulis menggunakan metode studi pustaka.
Sumber utama dari skripsi ini adalah The Vagina Monologues, dan sumbersumber lain diambil dari buku cetak dan elektronik, dan juga skripsi-skripsi
terdahulu dan artikel yang membahas topik yang serupa dengan skripsi ini.
Ringkasnya, dari analisis dapat disimpulkan bahwa secara jelas atau
samar, secara fisik ataupun mental, para pria menggunakan terorisme seksual
sebagai alat untuk mengontrol otonomi para wanita atas tubuh, seksualitas, dan
reproduksi mereka. Ini terjadi pada wanita mana pun, pada situasi apa pun, seperti
contoh-contoh dari monolog yang ada, penganiayaan terhadap istri di dalam
pernikahan, pelecehan seksual oleh kekasih maupun orang tak dikenal,
pemerkosaan dan penyiksaan seksual di masa perang, kekerasan seksual pada
anak, penindasan kaum transeksual, dan masih banyak perlakuan keji lainnya
terhadap wanita. Terorisme seksual ada untuk menjaga posisi wanita sebagai yang
lebih rendah, ini dikembangkan untuk merebut kebebasan dari para wanita.
Kesadaran para wanita akan terorisme seksual memicu tentangan mereka
terhadapnya. Tiap wanita mengalami situasi terorisme seksual yang berbeda,
maka cara mereka menghadapi teror pun beragam. Beberapa dari wanita itu tidak
dapat secara fisik melawan terror seksual yang menimpa mereka, akan tetapi,
beberapa dari mereka dapat menentang dan membebaskan diri dari perlakuan keji
yang mereka alami.
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CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. Background of the Study
Terrorism, when we see or hear the word “terrorism”, we will be directed
to incidents such as the suicide bomb tragedies, bank robberies, airplanes hijacks,
ethnic wars, racial massacres, and many other horrible incidents. However,
according to Carole J. Sheffield, there is a different kind of terrorism, the kind that
is more familiar and seems natural to all societies, it is sexual terrorism. The
targets of sexual terrorism are women of all age, race, and class. Sexual terrorism
is the common characteristic of rape, wife battery, incest, pornography,
harassment, and all forms of sexual violence (1984: 3).
Growing up in an era that looks like it has already given a better condition
for women, makes most of the people forget about the horrible cases that women
can or still encounter in everyday life. Consciously or unconsciously, women are
still considered to be in a state of being weak targets. Women are still feeling
insecure, afraid, and threatened within the society, within marriage, and even
within family. For some people, the opinion that women are still considered weak
might be seen as a pessimistic idea, however some facts, whether from the news
or literary works, prove that women are still vulnerable and are still being the
target of violence and terror. Women are still being the victims of sexual
terrorism.
1
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As stated by Gloria Steinem:
These last three decades of feminism were also marked by a deep anger as
the truth of violence against the female body was revealed, whether it took
the form of rape, childhood sexual abuse, anti-lesbian violence, physical
abuse of women, sexual harassment, terrorism against reproductive
freedom, or the international crime of female genital mutilation (2008:
xxxiii).
As also shared by Carole J. Sheffield through her article, men use violence
as the tool to control women, “Violence and its corollary, fear, serve to terrorize
females and to maintain the patriarchal definition of woman’s place” (1984: 3).
The intention is to make women frightened, and therefore it is easier to dominate
them physically and psychologically. She also said that, “Violence and the threat
of violence against females represent the need of patriarchy to deny that a
woman’s body is her own property and that no one should have access to it
without her consent” (1984:3).
The other evidences of sexual terrorism are presented by Deborah L.
Madsen through her examples of misogynistic practices in several literary works
such as, Possessing the Secret of Joy, a novel by Alice Walker, which exposes the
reality of sexual mutilation and the imprisonment of women in their bodies, and
Maxine Hong Kingston’s description of Chinese foot-binding in China Men.
Earlier corsetry in Western society represents the same kind of women violation
in which women are physically tortured, unable to move freely and to breathe
easily, in order to be called a beauty. The threat of being rape and violently
assaulted keeps women confined in terms of where they can go and when, because
women as victims can be accused to be in a wrong situation. “Intimidation,
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terrorism, fear – these strategies keep women in a subordinate position where they
are dominated by men” (2000: 153).
Sexual terrorism against women is also the primary concern of the radical
feminist movement. As stated in Feminist Theory and Literary Practice, “The use
of sexual violence by men as a strategy for sustaining patriarchal control of
women rose to prominence as a major feminist issue in the 1970s” (2000: 12).
Another statement is taken from ‘The New York Radical Feminist Manifesto’:
Radical feminism recognizes the oppression of women as a fundamental
political oppression wherein women are categorized as an inferior class
based on their sex. It is the aim of radical feminism to organize politically
to destroy this sex-class system. As radical feminists we recognize that we
are engaged in a power struggle with men, and that the agent of our
oppression is man in so far as he identifies with and carries out the
supremacy privileges of the male role (quoted by Madsen, 2000: 153).
From her statement, it can be seen that actually the issue on sexual terrorism is
still becoming a concern among radical feminists because women are still treated
as the subordinate of men, based on their sexuality. Women are still terrorized
based on their sex, and women will always struggle within the oppression as long
as men still have the control over them. Therefore, radical feminism aims to
destroy the superiority of men and to end the oppression of women by men as the
resistance towards the sexual terrorism.
Eve Ensler also stated her deep concern towards the violence against
women. She is well-known as the founder of V-Day, which is a movement to stop
violence against women. In the book, Ensler provides the monologues that are
based on her interviews with various women around the world. The monologues
are talking about the sexual violence experienced by those interviewed women.
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Those experiences in the monologues lead the writer to see different kinds of
sexual terrorism experienced by each interviewed woman. Each experience and
each thought of the women will also be used to show the resistance of those
women towards the sexual terrorism. However, not all monologues show a clear
evidence of sexual terrorism and the resistance towards it. There are also some of
the monologues that vaguely show the evidence of sexual terrorism and the
resistance. The women have different experience and resistance because they
come from different places, races, cultures, societies, and religions.
In this study, the writer chooses The Vagina Monologues as the object of
the study because this study aims to reveal the resistance of the women that have
experienced sexual terrorism, and Eve Ensler provides the evidences needed by
the writer to conduct this study. This study tries to see beyond the experiences and
the responses of those women to reveal the fact that actually women are still
experiencing sexual terrorism and they resist it. By trying to see the resistance of
those women, this study also aims to show the strength of women and by that they
may no longer be claimed as targets. As also stated in the book, “Ending violence
against women means opening to the great power of women, the mystery of
women, the heart of women, the wild, unending sexuality and creativity of women
– and not being afraid” (2008: xxiii).
B. Problem Formulation
From the above background of the study, the writer then formulates two
problems that need to be analyzed:
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1. How is the sexual terrorism described through the experiences of the women
in The Vagina Monologues?
2. How do the women resist the sexual terrorism in The Vagina Monologues?
C. Objectives of the Study
This study consists of two objectives. The first one is to identify the sexual
terrorism through the experiences of the women, and the second is to examine
how the women resist the sexual terrorism that they experienced.
D. Definition of Terms
In order to avoid misinterpretation of some terms used, the writer provides
the definition of the terms in its relation to the topic discussed.
1. Sexual Terrorism
: it is a system that functions to maintain male
supremacy through actual and implied violence (Sheffield, 1984: 3).
2. Resistance
: an act done by someone subordinate, that in
response to power, do challenge power, and contain at least a possibility, that
power gets undermined by the act (Vinthagen, 2007: 7). The fundamental and
possible normative value of resistance is its creation or expansion of space for
making choices… (2007: 21).
3. Radical Feminism
feminism
argues
: aims to destroy the sex-class system…Radical
that
women’s
oppression
comes
from
women’s
categorization as an inferior class to the class ‘men’ on the basis of their
gender (Humm, 1995: 231).
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CHAPTER II
THEORETICAL REVIEW
A. Review of Related Studies
The objectives of this study are to see the sexual terrorism through the
experiences of the women and to identify how those women resist the sexual
terrorism that they experienced in The Vagina Monologues. In order to compare
and to support the arguments stated in this study, the writer provides the following
three related studies.
Several researchers have used The Vagina Monologues, radical feminism
and women resistance as their object of study in their articles and undergraduate
theses. In this part, the writer provides an undergraduate thesis that was written on
the topic of resistance and an undergraduate thesis that was written on the topic of
radical feminism, the first undergraduate thesis was written by Henrica Angelia
Indriawati Sumarno entitled “Resistance against Black Women’s Oppression Seen
through the Main Character in April Sinclair’s Coffee Will Make You Black”, the
second undergraduate thesis was written by Raynesta Mikaela Indri Malo entitled
“Radical Feminism as seen through the Female Characters in Harumi Setouchi’s
Beauty In Disarray”. Moreover, the writer also provides an article discussing
about The Vagina Monologues by Alyssa Reiser entitled “Our Vaginas, Not
Ourselves: A Critical Analysis of the Vagina Monologues”.
Henrica Angelia Indriawati Sumarno’s undergraduate thesis focused on
how Stevie as a black woman and also as the main character in Coffee Will Make
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You Black resists the oppression against her. Stevie resists the oppression through
her thought and action. When she reaches her consciousness of being oppressed,
she assures herself to have self-respect. According to Sumarno, in the end Stevie
changed her appearance into natural African-American look and speaks up her
voice about freedom through her poem entitled “What Good” (2011: ix).
Raynesta Mikaela Indri Malo’s undergraduate thesis focused on how the
two female characters in the Harumi Satouchi’s Beauty In Disarray, Noe Ito and
Raicho Hiratsuka, portray the spirit of radical feminism in the situation where
women are in the subordinate position under patriarchal system. According to
Malo, Japan was known to hold the patriarchal system that subordinate women
and restrict them from getting the same opportunities with men in various aspects
of life. The situation then provokes the two female characters to fight against that
system with their own way (2008: x).
Alyssa Reiser’s article focused on the issues of domestic violence and rape
culture, her own experience as a woman as well as the experiences of her femaleidentified friends and family, feminist theory, and a limited but representative
amount of critical scholarship as a lens through which to observe and to state the
effectiveness of The Vagina Monologues as emancipatory feminist theater.
Specifically, she is concerned about the ahistorical ‘culture of vaginas’ that the
play’s author, Eve Ensler, speaks to and about, and its universalizing effect on
abstracted womanhood (2010: 1).
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From the three related studies, the writer positioned this study as the
complement of the three previous studies. Basically, this study is the combination
of the main issues that were discussed in the three previous studies. However,
there are also differences in the terms and theories that are used in this study. This
study also provides a different perspective of the resistance of women against
patriarchal system in The Vagina Monologues. Instead of discussing the
patriarchal system in general, the writer tries to reveal the product of the system,
which is sexual terrorism.
B. Review of Related Theories
Theories that are used in this study are the theory of monologue, the theory
of sexual terrorism and the theory of resistance in relation radical feminism. These
theories will be used to analyze the problems in this study.
1. Theory of Monologue
In order to identify the resistance of the women in The Vagina
Monologues, the writer needs to analyze the women’s thoughts, feelings, and
actions. Therefore, this theory is provided in order to help the writer analyzes the
women through the way they share their experience in the monologue.
According to Stefanie Lethbridge and Jarmila Mildorf, characters in drama
typically talk to one another, and the entire plot is usually carried by and conveyed
through their verbal interactions (2004: 122). Still according to Lethbridge and
Mildorf, language in drama can be presented either as monologue or dialogue,
“Monologue means that only one character speaks while dialogue always requires
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two or more participants” (2004: 122). Further, they explained that, “A special
form of monologue, where no other person is present on stage beside the speaker,
is called soliloquy” (2004: 122). A soliloquy is usually used in order to present a
character in a more detailed ways and also on a more personal level. Therefore, in
a soliloquy, the characters are able to show what is on their mind, to explain their
feelings, and motives, and to convey their thoughts (2004: 122).
Another explanation from J. A. Cuddon about soliloquy:
A soliloquy is a speech, often of some length, in which a character, alone
on the stage, expresses his thoughts and feelings. The soliloquy is an
accepted dramatic convention (q.v.) of great importance and the various
uses it has been put to show the strengths and advantages of such a
convention. Its advantages are inestimable because it enables a dramatist
to convey direct to an audience important information about a particular
character: his state of mind and heart, his most intimate thoughts and
feelings, his motives and intentions (1998: 838).
Monologues and soliloquies have one thing in common, each of them
involves a single speaker. The difference between them is not about the speaker, it
is more about the audience or characters who listen to the speech.
A monologue is a speech given by a single person to an audience…A
monologue might be delivered to an audience within a play…or it might
be delivered directly to the audience sitting in the theater and watching the
play. But a soliloquy…is a speech that one gives to oneself. In a play, a
character delivering a soliloquy talks to herself — thinking out loud, as it
were — so that the audience better understands what is happening to the
character internally (http://www.cliffsnotes.com, 2014).
From the explanation above, it can be seen that through monologues, the
women’s characteristics, thoughts, and feelings can be identified through their
speech. This theory will be used to identify the characteristics as well as the
context of the woman in each monologue.
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2. Theory of Sexual Terrorism
a. Components of Sexual Terrorism
According to Carole J. Sheffield, sexual terrorism is a system by which
men frighten women, and by frightening, men control and dominate women. It
can be identified through rape, wife battery, incest, pornography, harassment, and
all forms of sexual violence (1984: 3). Still according to Sheffield, there are five
components of sexual terrorism: ideology, propaganda, indiscriminate and amoral
violence, voluntary compliance, and society’s perception of the terrorist and the
terrorized (1984: 5).
First, ideology, it is a united set of beliefs about the world that explains the
way things are and provides a vision of how they should be (1984: 5). Sheffield
argues that patriarchy is the ideological foundation of sexism in almost all
societies. The focus of patriarchal ideology is the superiority of men and the
inferiority of women, which at the same time provides the justification for sexual
terrorism (1984: 5). The central idea of patriarchy is masculinity, which must
include the tendency of doing violence and all characteristics necessary for
survival, such as aggression, control, emotional reserve, rationality, and sexual
potency (1984: 5). Mark Feigen Fasteau, in The Male Machine argues that men
have some kind of belief that they have some kind of capacity for violence in each
of them. This capacity for violence represents the primal untamed base of
masculinity (quoted by Sheffield, 1984: 5).
Second, propaganda, it is the systematic distribution of information for the
purpose of promoting a particular ideology (1984: 5). Sheffield argues that
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propaganda is therefore biased or even false information because its purpose is to
present one point of view and to discredit the opposing points of view. The
propaganda of sexual terrorism can be found in all expressions of the popular
culture such as films, television, music, literature, advertising, pornography, and
also in the ideas of patriarchy conveyed in science, medicine, and psychology
(1984: 5).
Third, indiscriminate and amoral violence, they are the heart of sexual
terrorism. According to Sheffield, every woman at any age, at any time and in any
place is a potential target of violence (1984: 5-6). Susan Brownmiller argues that
rape is a “…conscious process of intimidation by which all men keep all women
in a state of fear” (quoted by Sheffield, 1984: 6). Furthermore, Sheffield states
that amorality pervades sexual violence, that eventually causes child molesters,
incestuous fathers, wife beaters, and rapists often do not understand that they have
done anything wrong. Moreover, their views are usually approved by police
officers, lawyers, and judges, so that crimes of sexual violence are rarely punished
(1984: 6).
Sheffield states that violence must be used to maintain terrorism, however,
continuous violence can be costly and overwhelming. Therefore, in order to make
sure the continuance of sexual terrorism, the forth component that is voluntary
compliance, is used as a strategy (1984: 6). Still according to Sheffield, sexual
terrorism is maintained by a system of sex-role socialization that in effect instructs
men to be terrorists in the name of masculinity and women to be victims in the
name of femininity (1984: 6).
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The last component is society’s perception of the terrorist and the
terrorized. So far, this final component is what differs sexual from political
terrorism. According to Sheffield, in political terrorism, society may condemn or
condone the terrorist depending on their political views, however, they still
sympathize with the victim. On the other hand, in sexual terrorism, society blames
the victim and excuses the offender. The offender is believed to be either ‘sick’,
and therefore in need of consideration from the society, or is acting out normal
male desires (1984: 6).
b. Types of Sexual Terrorism
i. Rape
According to Diana E. H. Russell, the generally accepted definition of rape
is “sexual intercourse with a female, not the wife of the perpetrator, without the
consent of the female” (quoted by Sheffield, 1984: 6). In addition, Sheffield states
that passive resistance or submission, even in a situation that is considered lifethreatening, is not considered as clear evidence that the rape was against one’s
will (1984: 7).
ii. Wife Assault
According to Sheffield, for many centuries, it has been assumed that a
husband has the right over his wife. Therefore, he is believed to have the right to
punish or discipline his wife even with physical force. Moreover, Sheffield states
that there is even a popular expression originated from English common law
called the “rule of thumb” which has the meaning of permission for a husband to
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physically punish his wife with a whip or a stick but the size cannot be bigger than
his thumb (1984: 7).
iii. Sexual Abuse of Children
According to Sheffield, defining sexual abuse of children is very difficult
because the law is complex and often contradictory. In general, sexual abuse of
children includes: statutory rape, molestation, carnal knowledge, indecent
liberties, impairing the morals of a minor, child abuse, child neglect, and incest
(1984: 7).
iv. Sexual Harassment
Sheffield states that many of the studies on sexual harassment focus on
the sexual intimidation on the job and at school (1984: 8). According to Lin Farley
in Sexual Shakedown: The Sexual Harassment of Women on the Job, it can take
form in any or the entire following situation: staring at, commenting upon, or
touching a woman’s body, requests for acceptance in sexual behavior, repeated
unwanted invites for dates, demands for sexual intercourse, and rape (quoted by
Sheffield, 1984: 8).
c. Characteristics of Sexual Terrorism
i. Violence against Females Cuts across Socioeconomic Lines
One of the most common false beliefs is that sexual terrorism happens
only within the poor, uneducated, non-white communities. In reality, sexual
terrorism occurs within all kinds of society, because there are no typical criteria of
an abusive man. They are from all ages, races, and religions; they
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come from all communities with any range of income levels and education levels;
they are married, single, separated, and divorced (Sheffield, 1984: 8-9).
ii. Crimes of Sexual Violence Are the Least Likely to Be Reported
According to FBI, rape is the most often committed and, at the same time,
also seriously underreported crime. From the reported cases, FBI estimates that
forcible rape occurs every six minutes; if added with the calculation of the
underreported cases, it might be estimated to occur every two minutes (1984: 9).
Other cases that are extremely under reported are child sexual abuse and
incest. For the case of child sexual abuse, Vincent De Francis argues that there is a
wide gap between the reported incidence and the actual number of incidence, “the
reported incidence represents the top edge of the moon as it rises over the
mountain” (quoted by Sheffield, 1984: 10), means the reported incidence is just a
small revealed part of the whole incidence.
iii. Crimes of Violence against Females Have the Lowest Conviction Rates
According to Sheffield, the main reason for underreported sexual assaults
is that because women are afraid. Women are made believe that male’s sexual
behavior is their responsibility. Therefore, they believe that they should stay silent
and passive about their victimization, because even though they report the sexual
assaults done to them, no one will believe them, and as the result, the offender
will not be punished for what he has done to them either (1984: 11).
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iv. Blaming the Victim of Sexual Violence is Pervasive
In a male-dominated society, people tend to blame the victim and excuse
the offender. Sheffield argues that men create a myth that victims of sexual
violence are actually the suspects themselves. They believe that every women has
a hidden desire to be victimized, therefore when they are involved in an incidence
of sexual terrorism, they either actually willing to participate on the victimization
or they lied about it. This myth was created by men in order to avoid punishment
for their act of sexual terrorism (1984: 13).
We can see that based on the myth, the victim becomes the offender and
the offender becomes the victim. The victim causes the victimization by seducing
or anticipating the incidence, while men as the offender was seduced and because
of that they could not help themselves and follow their natural biological desire.
The point is that society believes women must have done something wrong that
trigger sexual terrorism to happen (1984: 14).
v. Sexual Violence is Not Taken Seriously
Another myth about the sexual terrorism in society is that, “When the
existence of sexual violence can no longer be denied, a common response is to
joke about it in order to belittle it” (quoted by Sheffield, 1984: 15). This myth,
according to Sheffield, also makes sexual terrorism to be seen as less important
and less serious matter (1984: 15).
vi. Sexual Violence is Not about Sex
According to A. Nicholas Groth in his study, Men Who Rape: The
Psychology of the Offender: “careful clinical study of offenders reveals that
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rape is in fact serving primarily nonsexual needs. It is the sexual expression of
power and anger” (quoted by Sheffield, 1984: 16). This indicates that actually
men do not rape for sexual pleasure, instead, they rape to show their power and
dominance over women.
Del Martin founds that wife beating is actually the example of power
abuse. Battering husbands use violence as the proof of superiority. Moreover,
Martin characterized the battering husband as:
He is probably angry with himself and frustrated by his life. He may put
up a good front in public, but in the privacy and intimacy of his home he
may not be able to hide, either from himself or his wife, his feelings of
inadequacy and low self-esteem. The man who is losing his grip on his job
or his prospects may feel compelled to prove that he is at least the master
of his home. Beating his wife is one way for him to appear a winner
(quoted by Sheffield, 1984: 17).
The same reason for sexual harassment is also not about sex, it is about
power. Lin Farley argues:
…sexual harassment of women at work arose from men’s need to maintain
control of women’s labor. Sexual harassment serves to keep women
(individually and collectively) economically inferior and ensures the
system of male dominance (quoted by Sheffield, 1984: 17).
3. Theory of Resistance in Relation to Radical Feminism
Stellan Vinthagen in his research stated that, “any activity of the
subordinated which, in the view of power holders, causes a problem or is a threat
to power, could count as resistance” (2007: 5).
Still according to Vinthagen, “…resistance is the kind of actions which
dissolve, undermine, question or challenge such subordination – and ultimately,
produce non-subordinate relations” (2007: 6).
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According to James Scott, there are two main forms of resistance, they are
public and disguised resistance. As mentioned by Vinthagen in his research, “he
divides resistance into two forms (public and disguised) which corresponds to
three forms of domination (material, status, and ideological), resulting in six types
of resistance” (2007: 8).
Resistance exist in the public form as public declared resistance (open
revolts, petitions, demonstrations, land invasions, etc) against material
domination; assertion of worth or desecration of status symbols against
status domination; or, counter ideologies against ideological domination.
And, resistance exists in the disguised form (low profile, undisclosed or
“infra-politics”) as everyday resistance (e.g. poaching, squatting,
desertion, evasion, foot-dragging) or direct resistance by disguised
resisters against material domination; hidden transcripts of anger or
disguised discourses of dignity against status dominator; or dissident
subcultures (e.g. millennial religion, myths of social banditry, class
heroes) against ideological domination (Vinthagen, 2007:8).
Moreover, Vinthagen also shares seven basic forms of nonviolent
resistance, they are: discursive resistance (example: fact findings), competition
(example: building new society and social system instead of which is being
resisted), non-cooperation (example: boycotts), selective cooperation (example:
helping the opponent with relief work during a sudden natural catastrophe),
withdrawal (example: escape to other areas), hindrance (example: interventions),
and humoristic undermining (example: self-irony) (2007: 12).
As concluded by Vinthagen:
Resistance is not necessarily directing people, telling them what to do but
enable them to make their own choices…Thus, resistance doesn’t
annihilate the social bonds of society, it simply, construct new ones while
deconstructing others – and, in the best of cases – opens the space for a
freer choice (2007: 21).
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Related to resistance as the opening space for freer choices and the
production of non-subordinate relations, according to Rosemarie Tong, in the
scope of radical feminism theory, there are two basic perspectives on how women
can resist the sexual terrorism, they are radical-libertarian feminism perspective
and radical-cultural feminism perspective, accordingly these two perspectives
provide two different options as how women can choose from between those two,
the best way for them to resist the sexual terrorism, “depending on their camp,
these feminists voiced very different views about how to fight sexism” (2009: 49).
Tong explained further that:
Radical-libertarian feminists claimed that an exclusively feminine gender
identity is likely to limit women’s development as full human persons.
Thus, they encouraged women to become androgynous persons, that is,
persons who embody both (good) masculine and (good) feminine
characteristics or, more controversially, any potpourri of masculine and
feminine characteristics, good or bad, that strikes their fancy (2009: 50).
In addition to Tong’s explanation, one of the first radical-libertarian
feminists, Joreen Freeman stated that:
…a “Bitch” does not want to limit herself to being a sweet girl with little
in the way of power. Instead, she wants to embrace as part of her gender
identity those masculine characteristics that permit her to lead life on her
own terms (quoted by Tong, 2009: 50).
From the above explanation, it can be seen that according to radicallibertarian feminists, women have to free themselves from the restrictions of
female biology. For a woman to be biologically female does not make her
obligated to show or possess only feminine characteristics. Women can be
masculine and feminine at the same time. They have the right to choose their own
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gender roles and characteristics at their own will. By doing so, women can acquire
their freedom and become independent.
On the contrary, radical-cultural feminists encourage women with an
advice to emphasize women’s “femaleness”. As explained by Alice Echols:
…radical-cultural feminist expressed the view that it is better for women
to be strictly female/feminine. Women, they said, should not try to be like
men. On the contrary, they should try to be more like women, emphasizing
the values and virtues culturally associated with women…and
deemphasizing the values and virtues culturally associated with
men…Moreover, and in the ideal, women should appreciate that, despite
cultural variations among themselves, all women share one and the same
female nature, and the less influence men have on this nature, the better
(quoted by Tong, 2009: 50-51).
It can be seen that radical-cultural feminists have the opposite perspective
about how women free themselves from male domination. According to this
group, the fewer women are influenced by masculinity the better, and women
should be fully feminine and should not try to be like men. This way, women can
gain their freedom because they do not have any influence from men and so the
women become more independent.
The other opposite ideas between radical-libertarian feminists and radicalcultural feminists are on their different views about the issue of gender, sexuality,
and reproduction.
a. Views on Gender
Kate Millett, as one of the noticed radical-libertarian feminists, insisted
that the roots of women’s oppression are buried deep in patriarchy’s gender
system. Male control of the public and private worlds maintains the situation of
patriarchy, therefore, male control must be eliminated in order to liberate women.
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