The Portrayal of Women in P!nk’s and The Pussycat Dolls’ Albums in the View of Postfeminism.

Maulana Subhan Fuad_{, 2014.}

The Portrayal of Women in P!nk’s and The Pussycat Dolls’ Albums in the View of Postfeminism

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The Portrayal of Women in P!nk’s and The Pussycat

Dolls’ Albums in the View of Postfeminism

A Research Paper

Submitted to the English Departement of FPBS UPI as a partial requirement to achieve Sarjana Sastra degree

by

Maulana Subhan Fuad

0807522

English Education Department

Faculty of Language and Arts Education

Indonesia University of Education

Maulana Subhan Fuad_{, 2014.}

The Portrayal of Women in P!nk’s and The Pussycat Dolls’ Albums in the View of Postfeminism

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The Portrayal of Women in P!nk’s and The

Pussycat Dolls’ Albums in the View of

Postfeminism

Oleh

Maulana Subhan Fuad

Sebuah skripsi yang diajukan untuk memenuhi salah satu syarat memperoleh gelar Sarjana Sastra pada Fakultas Pendidikan Bahasa dan Seni

© Maulana Subhan Fuad 2014 Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia

Agustus 2014

Hak Cipta dilindungi undang-undang.

Skripsi ini tidak boleh diperbanyak seluruhya atau sebagian, dengan dicetak ulang, difotokopi, atau cara lainnya tanpa izin dari penulis.

Maulana Subhan Fuad_{, 2014.}

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PAGE OF APPROVAL

THE PORTRAYAL OF WOMEN IN P!NK’S AND THE PUSSYCAT DOLLS’ ALBUMS IN THE VIEW OF POSTFEMINISM

By:

Maulana Subhan Fuad 0807522

Approved by:

The Head of English Department Faculty of Language and Arts

Education

Indonesia University of Education

Prof. Dr. H. Didi Suherdi, M. Ed. NIP. 196211011987121001

Main Supervisor

Bachrudin Musthafa, M.A., Ph. D.

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The Portrayal of Women in P!nk’s and The Pussycat Dolls’ Albums in the View of Postfeminism

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ABSTRACT

This present study entitled The Portrayal of Women in P!nk’s and The Pussycat Dolls’ Albums in the View of Postfeminism is aimed at unearthing the patterns which are acquired after analysing the portrayal of female personas in every single

song lyrics that possesses the characteristics of postfeminism in P!nk’s Funhouse and The Pussycat Dolls’ Doll Domination. Using a qualitative method, particularly textual analysis, the discussion of the present study is framed within theory of backlash postfeminism (Faludi, 1991) and popular culture (Magoulick, 2006). The study proves that the pattern in P!nk’s is more visible than in The

Pussycat Dolls’ one because it possesses all of the characteristics of postfeminism. Moreover, although both of the female personas in their albums share the same characteristics, the study shows that the way the female personas are described is different from each other. Overall, the female personas are portrayed as women who reject the notion of feminism in the form of being individual, returning to men, suffering from female identity crisis, and experiencing self doubt. However, these kinds of women’s portrayals support the idea of the bad representation of women in popular culture. It is explained that women tend to be depicted wrongly for being true to themselves as in desiring to have a romantic relationship with men and be happy about it without any compulsions.

Keywords: portrayal, female persona, postfeminism, song lyrics, P!nk, The Pussycat Dolls, popular culture

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ABSTRAKSI

Penelitian yang berjudul The Portrayal of Women in P!nk’s and The Pussycat Dolls’ Albums in the View of Postfeminism ini bertujuan untuk menemukan pola-pola yang didapatkan setelah menganalisis penggambaran-penggambaran persona wanita dalam setiap lirik lagu yang memiliki karakteristik postfeminisme dalam album P!nk berjudul Funhouse dan The Pussycat Dolls yang berjudul Doll Domination. Dengan menggunakan metode kualitatif, khusus analisis tekstual, pembahasan dari penelitian ini dibingkai dengan teori Backlash Feminism (Faludi, 1991) dan kebudayaan popular (Magoulick, 2006). Hasil penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa pola-pola yang ada pada album P!nk lebih terlihat dibandigkan dengan yang ada pada albumnya The Pussycat Dolls karena memiliki semua karakteristik postfeminisme. Bahkan, walaupun semua persona wnaita yang ada pada kedua album tersebut mempunyai karakteristik yang sama, hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa persona-persona wanita dideskripsikan secara berbeda. Secara garis besar, persona wanita dalam kedua album tersebut digambarkan sebagai wanita yang memungkiri nilai-nilai feminisme dengan cara lebih bersifat individu, mencari pendamping pria, mengalami krisis identitas sebagai wanita, dan mengalami keraguan terhadap diri sendiri.Namun, penggambaran-penggambaran wanita yang tadi secara tidak langsung mendukung nilai-nilai representasi wanita yang kurang menyenangkan dalam kebudayaan populer. Hal ini dijelaskan karena wanita cenderung digambarkan secara salah hanya karena mereka jujur kepada diri mereka sendiri dalam menginginkan mempunyai hubungan romantis dengan pria dan berbahagia bersamanya tanpa tekanan-tekanan sosial.

Kata kunci: penggambaran, persona wanita, posfeminisme, lirik lagu, P!nk, The Pussycat Dolls, kebudayaan populer

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The Portrayal of Women in P!nk’s and The Pussycat Dolls’ Albums in the View of Postfeminism

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

STATEMENT OF AUTHORIZATION ... i

PREFACE ... ii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ... iii

ABSTRACT ... v

TABLE OF CONTENTS ... vi

LIST OF TABLES ... ix

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION ... 1

1.1. Background of Study ... 1

1.2. Reason for Choosing the Topic ... 3

1.3. Research Question ... 4

1.4. Aims of the Study ... 4

1.5. Scope of the Study ... 4

1.6. Significance of the Study ... 5

1.7. Research Method ... 5

1.8. Research Procedures ... 5

1.9. Clarification of Terms ... 6

1.10. Organization of the Paper ... 6

CHAPTER II THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ... 8

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2.1. Postfeminism ... 8

2.2. Song Lyric as One of Literary Genres ... 10

2.3. Persona ... 11

2.4. Women, Popular Culture, and Pop Music ... 12

2.5. Previous Research ... 15

CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ... 17

3.1. Subject of the Study ... 17

3.2. Research Question ... 17

3.3. Research Methodology ... 18

3.4. Data Analysis ... 18

3.5. Context of the Study ... 19

3.6. Data Presentation ... 20

CHAPTER IV FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION ... 22

4.1. Findings .. ... 22

4.1.1. Postfeminist Characteristics in P!nk’s Funhouse ... 22

A, General Negative Reaction to Feminism ... 23

B. Focus on the Individual Instead of A Collective Sisterhood ... 24

C. A Return to Men ... 25

D. Female Identity Crisis ... 27

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4.1.2. Postfeminist Characteristics in The Pussycat Dolls’ Doll Domination 29

A, General Negative Reaction to Feminism ... 30

B. Focus on the Individual Instead of A Collective Sisterhood ... 31

C. A Return to Men ... 33

D. Women’s Self Doubt ... 35

4.1.3. The Portrayal of Female Personas in P!nk’s & The Pussycat Dolls’ Albums 36 4.2. Discussion ... 39

CHAPTER V CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS ... 47

5.1. Conclusions ... 47

5.2. Suggestions ... 48

REFERENCES ... 49

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CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

This chapter covers the introduction of the study including the background of the study, research question, the aim of the study, the scope of the study, the significance of the study, research methodology, clarification of terms and the organization of the paper.

1.1. Background

In 2008, there were two of the biggest hits albums released in Hollywood.

Those were The Pussycat Dolls’ Doll Domination and P!nk’s Funhouse. Doll Domination debuted at number four on the Billboard 200 chart, selling 80,000 copies in its first week (Yahoo! Music, 2012). While according to Canadian Recording Industry Association (2013), this second album from The Pussycat Dolls also acquired some platinum in Australia, Canada, Ireland, and Russia. The

platinum was also obtained by P!nk’s Funhouse in several countries such as UK, US, Australia, Austria, Canada, German, Ireland, and Russia. Funhouse debuted at number two on the United States Billboard 200 Chart issued on November 18, 2008, with sales of 180,000 and as of June 2012, the album has sold 1,960,000 copies.

According to AceShowbiz (2012), The Pussycat Dolls are

[...] an American pop girl group and dance ensemble, founded in Los Angeles by choreographer Robin Antin in 1995 as a burlesque troupe. After attracting national attention, Antin negotiated a record deal with Interscope Records in 2003 turning the group into a music franchise, which developed a global image and commercial brand overseen by Antin, Interscope and various partners. The first recording group (Nicole Scherzinger, Melody Thornton, Ashley Roberts, Jessica Sutta, Kimberly Wyatt and Carmit Bachar) produced two albums and numerous singles between 2004 and 2009. In 2009, Billboard ranked the The Pussycat Dolls as the 80th most successful musical act of the 2000s.

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By singing pop songs, The Pussycat Dolls are easily recognised since their first debut in music industry in 2004. Because it is considered to be a music

franchise, The Pussycat Dolls are formed as ‘pop’ as it cannot only from their

genre of music, but also their appearance, video clips, song lyrics, fashion, and attitude. They usually appear in highly sexualized costumes and behaviours, especially in their music videos.

Different from The Pussycat Dolls, P!nk is a single fighter or a soloist in a music industry. Born as Alecia Moore 33 years ago, P!nk recorded her solo debut,

Can't Take Me Home in 2000, with a variety of song writing partners and dance-pop and R&B producers. Later, in October 2001, P!nk released her second album named M!ssundaztood with her first single Get the Party Started and it became her biggest hits in her career.

Both The Pussycat Dolls and P!nk have several similarities; one of them is their song lyrics that mostly tell about how the woman in each of their songs survives and solves some conflicts related to their gender. To reveal the way their actions towards them, this study chose song lyrics of The Pussycat Dolls’ Doll Dominationand P!nk’s Funhouse.

Song lyric is interesting to be discussed because it has broad themes depending on the genre of the music. One of the most fascinating music genres is pop music that still develops from time to time. In spite of it, according to Parker-Pope (2008), a new report in The Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine said that one in three popular songs contains explicit references to drug or alcohol use. However, this fact seems not affecting pop songs to be less popular. Nevertheless, there are also a lot of popular songs that expresses about life,

especially female’s life in 2000s.

Ramachandran (1999, as cited in Hyman, 2010, p.245) said that the purpose of literature (including song lyric) is not only represents reality but also enhances or amplifies it. Then, the content of song lyrics is usually attached to

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circumstances and conditions in a real life. It is believed that song lyric represents the real world, including the portrayal of women appeared there which are constructed by language.

Therefore, in relation of the idea above, this study investigated the portrayal of women in every song lyric and found the patterns which constructed

them. The study includes all of the songs both P!nk’s Funhouse and The

Pussycat Dolls’ Doll Domination.

To elaborate the issue, Feminist Literary Criticism is believed as the most appropriate theory to depict such portrayal of females. Since all of the song lyrics are written in the early 2000s, Feminist Literary Criticism that will be used to analyse the subject of the research is Postfeminism. Tasker and Negra (2007, as cited in Lazar, 2009, p.372) explain that even though characteristics of postfeminism had derived in the popular media in the UK and USA in the early 1980s, it was during the 1990s that the term became concretized as a discursive phenomenon. Postfeminism is also suitable to be employed because the subject in this research is female and postfeminism “can be an extremely valuable descriptor for recognizing and analyzing recent shifts in female representations and ideas

about feminism” (Lotz, 2001, as cited in Isbister, 2008, p.1).

1.2. Reason for Choosing The Topic

This study analysed the portrayal of women in every single song of P!nk’s

Funhouse and The Pussycat Dolls’ Doll Domination. The albums were chosen because most of the songs present female personas. However, the song writers of each album might be different in representing and constructing the portrayal of women.

Furthermore, the study also aims to compare the patterns of how the portrayal of women is constructed both in Funhouse and Doll Domination. By

Maulana Subhan Fuad_{, 2014.}

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comparing the patterns, it is acquired which pattern that is better in portraying

women in the view of postfeminism based on Faludi’s Backlash (1991).

In other words, this study does not thoroughly show that P!nk and The Pussycat Dolls are perfect examples of postfeminist products, but also as two of many expressions of postfeminism that will help the readers to understand how postfeminism can be manifested in song lyrics—whether it is purposely or not.

1.3. Research Question

In conducting the study, the writer tries to seek the answer of these following questions:

1. From the point of view of postfeminism proposed by Faludi (1991),

how are the female personas in P!nk’s and The Pussycat Dolls’ albums portrayed?

2. What patterns emerged from the portrayals of female personas in

P!nk’s and The Pussycat Dolls’ albums?

1.4. Aims of the Study

The purposes of this study are:

1. To reveal the portrayals of women in P!nk’s Funhouse and The

Pussycat Dolls’ Doll Domination and to discover which song lyric that has a characteristic of postfeminism proposed by Faludi (1991).

2. To find out the patterns based on the female portrayals that emerged in

P!nk’s and The Pussycat Dolls’ albums.

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The study investigates how women in P!nk’s Funhouse and The Pussycat

Dolls’ Doll Domination are described and presented. The postfeminism framework theory proposed by Faludi (1991) is also used to examine whether the portrayals of women are manifested by postfeminism notion or not.

1.6. Significance of the Study

The study focuses on the portrayal of women in P!nk’s Funhouse and The

Pussycat Dolls’ Doll Domination which construct the patterns. It is expected that the study provides a different view of understanding the portrayals and the patterns by comparing and analysing them. Moreover, this study is hoped to give

a fruitful and positive impact both on English Department’s students and the

larger society.

1.7. Research Method

This study uses qualitative method because the role of literature will be background knowledge in answering the research problem (Cresswell, 2007, p.53). In addition, it is because the collected data for this study were in the form of words or text.

The collection of the data were taken from the twelve songs of P!nk’s

Funhouse and the sixteen songs of The Pussycat Dolls’ Doll Domination. The

data were analysed to reveal the women’s portrayal in both albums and to

compare the patterns that construct the depiction of women in the view of postfeminism.

1.8. Research Procedures

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1. reading and close-reading all of the song lyrics in P!nk’s Funhouse and

The Pussycat Dolls’ Doll Domination,

2. highlighting the female personas’ acts, thoughts, and speeches as the textual evidence,

3. filtering the female personas in both albums by using Faludi’s postfeminism (1991),

4. analysing and comparing the data results,

5. presenting the data results framed by the related theories to answer the research question,

6. discussing and interpreting the analysed data,

7. drawing the conclusions of the analysed and interpreted data, and 8. making the suggestion for further research.

1.9. Clarification of Terms

 Portrayal : a depiction of someone or something in a work of art or literature; a picture (Online Oxford Dictionaries, 2012).

 Postfeminism : is a highly contested term, used to refer to: (1) those contemporaries of Third Wave feminists who disavow feminism, finding it divisive or to have outgrown its relevance and appeal, and focus instead on the social liberties women have already won and also (2) those Third Wave feminists who actively claim feminism but who are also working to transform it into what they hope will be an “updated” and more dynamic movement (Mukherjea, 2011, p.2).

 Pop Culture : modern popular culture transmitted via the mass media and aimed particularly at younger people. (Online Oxford Dictionaries, 2014).

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The paper is organized as follows:

CHAPTER I

This chapter consists of background of the study, research questions, aims of the study, scope of the study, significance of the study, clarification of the terms, and organisation of the paper.

CHAPTER II

It contains theoretical review that provides a basis for conducting the statement of problems.

CHAPTER III

This section consists of the research methodology, discussion of the steps and procedures of the study, and the data resources in conducting the study.

CHAPTER IV

This chapter contains the research findings and discussion. In this part, the result of the research will be presented.

CHAPTER V

This last chapter contains the interpretation towards the result of the research in a form of conclusion and suggestion related to the research.

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The Portrayal of Women in P!nk’s and The Pussycat Dolls’ Albums in the View of Postfeminism

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The Portrayal of Women in P!nk’s and The Pussycat Dolls’ Albums in the View of Postfeminism

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CHAPTER III

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This chapter presents the research methodology which encompasses the research question, the research subject and context, the research procedure, the data collection, the data analysis and the data presentation.

3. 1. Subject of the Study

The study focuses on the female personas in P!nk’s Funhouse and The

Pussycat Dolls’ Doll Domination which were released and becoming popular in 2008. These song lyrics were chosen to be analysed because they portrayed the female personas and were able to be compared with each other in the way they were constructed as women. It relates with the discussion of the study that deals with the tendency of women being portrayed in pop culture and in the view of postfeminism.

3. 2. Research Questions

The study was conducted to seek the answer of this following questions:

1. From the point of view of postfeminism proposed by Faludi (1991), how

are the female personas in P!nk’s and The Pussycat Dolls’ albums

portrayed?

2. What patterns emerged from the portrayals of female personas in P!nk’s

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3.3. Research Methodology

This study uses qualitative method because the role of literature will be background knowledge in answering the research problem (Cresswell, 2007, p.53). Moreover, it is because the collected data for this study are in the form of words or text—the textual evidence were collected from the song lyrics that construct the portrayals of women. Then, the textual evidence were analysed to acquire the answers for the research questions.

To gain a further and deeper understanding towards the texts, a close reading also needs to be applied in this study. Brouilette (2009) states that the idea of close reading is thinking how a piece of writing is constructed to have an enhanced perceptive towards the impact and the meaning of the text. It is like if the text is treated as a machine, then it needs to be taken apart until it can be seen the tiniest parts of it which relates each other and makes the machine work as good as it is.

3.4. Data Analysis

The steps conducted to fulfil the content analysis and close reading in this study are as follows:

- First, reading throughout the song lyrics carefully to understand and to

find out the portrayal of women presented in P!nk’s Funhouse and The

Pussycat Dolls’ Doll Domination. By reading all of them four times, the textual evidence finally were collected from the song lyrics considering the things that shaped the portrayal of female personas. The first and second readings were conducted to understand the song lyrics better; and the third and the fourth ones were to underline and to collect the textual

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evidence regarding to the way the female personas act, think, and behave as women.

- Second, listing the textual evidence in form of tables to be categorised in

the view of Faludi’s Backlash (1991). This step was taken to make the analysis easier to be done. Moreover, by using this theory, the portrayals

of women both in P!nk’s Funhouse and The Pussycat Dolls’ Doll Domination were identified whether they have any characteristics of postfeminism or not.

- Third, comparing the portrayal of women in P!nk’s Funhouse and The

Pussycat Dolls’ Doll Domination. In this part, the results of the

comparison revealed the pattern of women’s portrayals both in P!nk’s and The Pussycat Dolls’.

- Fourth, examining whether both the patterns of women’s portrayals in

P!nk’s Funhouse and The Pussycat Dolls’ Doll Domination tend to represent women in unpleasant way as in the popular culture or not.

- Last, the findings of the study were examined and interpreted; therefore the conclusion could be drawn.

3.5. Context of the Study

The source of the data in this study is gathered from the twelve song lyrics

in P!nk’s Funhouse (2008), those are So What, Sober, I Don’t Believe You, One

Foot Wrong, Please Don’t Leave Me, Bad Influence, Funhouse, Crystal Ball,

Mean, It’s All Your Fault, Ave Marry A, and Glitter in the Air. The study reveals

the portrayals of women in every single song lyric; then those are compared with

the portrayals of women in sixteen song lyrics in The Pussycat Dolls’ Doll Domination (2008), those are When I Grow Up, Bottle Pop, Whatcha Think About That, I Hate This Part, Takin’ Over the World, Out of This Club, Who’s Gonna Love You, Happily Never After, Magic, Halo, In Person, Elevator, Hush Hush, Love the Way You Love Me, Whatchamacallit, and I’m Done. What is compared

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in this study is the propensity on how the portrayal of women is built in song lyrics that are included in two popular albums in 2008—and both of the singers are female.

In addition, the results of the comparison of how the women are portrayed

in P!nk’s Funhouse and The Pussycat Dolls’ Doll Domination are analysed further whether these reflect most of the depiction of women in pop culture or not. Moreover, the portrayals of women in these two albums are also observed in the view of postfeminism to discover how much they were manifested by the value of postfeminism.

3.6. Data Presentation

The data are presented in the form of tables in order to answer the research question in an orderly form.

Table 3.1.

Samples of The Portrayal of Women

No. Song

Titles Postfeminist’s Characteristics Woman's general rejection towards Feminism

Focus on the individual Desire for more traditional feminity Female identity crisis Woman's self-doubt 1. P!nk’s

Sober

- I don't wanna be the girl who laughs the loudest/ Or the girl who never wants to be alone/

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I don't wanna be that call at 4 o'clock in the morning/ 'Cos I'm the only one you know in the world that won't be home//

2. The

Pussycat

Dolls’

I’m Done

I don't want to fall in love/ Just want to have a little fun/ Then you came and swept me up and now/ I'm done so done/ Falling madly deeply/ I Surprise myself enough to find/ That what's become this love and now I'm done so done, I'm done//

- - - -

The complete presentation of the data is available in the appendices section.

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CHAPTER V

CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS

This chapter consists of two parts. The first part is the conclusion of the study based on the findings and discussion that have been presented in the previous chapters. The second part is the suggestions for the readers as well as other researchers who might have an interest in conducting further research related to song lyrics and/or postfeminism.

5. 1. Conclusions

The present study is aimed to analyse what kind of signification the

portrayals of female persona in P!nk’s Funhouse and The Pussycat Dolls’ Doll Domination in the view of postfeminism based on Faludi’s Backlash (1991). After conducting the study and analysing the findings, it is revealed that only some of

the song lyrics both in P!nk’s Funhouseand The Pussycat Dolls’ Doll Domination

that carry the postfeminist characteristics. Fortunately, they are still able to create the patterns. Moreover, it is also discovered that the pattern created by the portrayals of female persona in Funhouse album is more complete than the one in

Doll Domination due to the absence of one of the postfeminist characteristics in it.

Relying to the findings and the discussion in the chapter four, both of the

patterns in P!nk’s Funhouseand The Pussycat Dolls’ Doll Domination show that the existence of men is what women want in their life—whether it is their wildest dream or not. This depiction somehow creates an assumption that women are dependent human beings since they tend to feel incomplete of the absence of men and does not feel ashamed to admit that they want them—or in popular culture, it is called a negative attitudes about women.

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However, it is a proof that postfeminist backlash theory can be applied to song lyrics adequately. Although the theme of the song lyrics are mostly about shallow love stories, at the same time it makes the theory is easier to be applied because when it comes to love stories, women are mostly behind it all. The song

lyrics seem to be sending subtle message something like “I was wrong, I cannot have it all” or “The equality is achieved. Now, let us go back to our traditional

femininity: finding the Mr. Right!”. Women nowadays are free to choose their life

and being happy about it.

5. 2. Suggestions

After conducting the present study, there are some suggestions that are hopefully would be useful for future studies in the same field. First, related to the song lyrics, it would be better to pick the recent popular song lyrics such as

Lorde’s Pure Heroine (2013) or Lady GaGa’s ARTPOP (2013). Besides being written by women, both of the albums mostly talk about women and have major success internationally.

Second, related to the issue of postfeminism, it will be very interesting to conduct the study within the same theoretical framework in other literary works, such as novels, short stories, poems, or even movie scripts. Moreover, it is suggested to not only analyse the literary works written by the women but also by men who write about women.

Last, Department of English Language and Literature is suggested to provide more literary theories and practices in order to make the students have a better understanding to comprehend theoretical frameworks in doing textual analysis.

Maulana Subhan Fuad_{, 2014.}

The Portrayal of Women in P!nk’s and The Pussycat Dolls’ Albums in the View of Postfeminism

Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu |perpustakaan.upi.edu

REFERENCES

Braithwaite, A. (2004). Politics of/and backlash. Journal of International Women’s Studies, 5(5),18-33. Retrieved from

www.bridgew.edu/soas/jiws/jun04/backlash.pdf

Brooks, A. (1997). Postfeminisms: Feminism, cultural theory and cultural forms.

London: Routledge.

Brouillette, S. (2009). Literary interpretation: Literature and urban experience. Retrieved May 19, 2013, from

ocw.mit.edu/.../MIT21L_701s09_res01_Guid_Close_Read.pdf

Creswell, J. W. (2007). Educational research: Planning, conducting and evaluating quantitative and qualitative research. 3rd Edition. United States of America: Pearson Education.

Cuddon, J. A. (1999). A dictionary of literary terms and literary theory (4th ed.). Retrieved from http://www.pdfebookds.com/The-Penguin-Dictionary-of-Literary-Terms-and-Literary-Theory-Penguin-Dictionary-PDF1-29414/

Faludi, S. (1991). Backlash: The undeclared war against American women.

Retrieved from

http://gendersexandsocmvmnts.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/faludi-susan- backlash-the-undeclared-war-against-american-women-three-rivers-press-19912006.pdf

Gagne, K. (2001). Ally mcbeal and the problem of postfeminism. Retrieved from

http://ken-gilbert.com/images/pdf/AllyMcBeal%26Postfeminisim.pdf

Glasburgh, M. M. (2006). Chick lit: The new face of postfeminist fiction?

(Doctoral Thesis, University of North Carolina, USA). Retrieved from

Maulana Subhan Fuad_{, 2014.}

The Portrayal of Women in P!nk’s and The Pussycat Dolls’ Albums in the View of Postfeminism

Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu |perpustakaan.upi.edu

Holt, J. (2006). The ideal woman. Retrieved from

www.csustan.edu/honors/documents/journals/soundings/Holt.pdf

Hyman, J. (2010). Art and neuroscience. Retrieved from the University of Oxford website:

http://hoot.queens.ox.ac.uk/academics/hyman/files/art_and_neuroscience.pd f

Isbister, G. (2008). Sex and the city: A postfeminist fairy tale. Retrieved from the University of Sydney website:

http://unisa.edu.au/com/csaa/onlineproceedings.htm

Klarer, M. (1998). An introduction to literary studies. London: Routledge.

Lamb, B. (2013). What is pop music? Retrieved December, 20, 2013, from http://top40.about.com/od/popmusic101/a/popmusic.htm

Lazar, M. M. (2009). Entitled to consume: Postfeminist femininity and a culture of post-critique. Retrieved from

http://dcm.sagepub.com/content/3/4/371.refs.html

Leonardi, M. & Dickinson, E.(2007). Feminism for stupid girls: A feminist rhetorical critique of a popular song by Pink. Retrieved from

http://citation.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_research_citation/1/8/6/ 8/0/pages186803/p186803-1.php

Magoulick, M. (2006). Women in popular culture. Retrieved from the Georgia College & State University website:

http://www.faculty.de.gcsu.edu/~mmagouli/popculture.htm

Mukherjea, A. (2011). My vampire boyfriend: Postfeminism, “perfect”

masculinity, and the contemporary appeal of paranormal romance.

Maulana Subhan Fuad_{, 2014.}

The Portrayal of Women in P!nk’s and The Pussycat Dolls’ Albums in the View of Postfeminism

Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu |perpustakaan.upi.edu

Parker-Pope, T. (2008, February 5). Under the influence of…music? The New York Times Online. Retrieved from

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/02/05/under-the-influence-ofmusic/

Pop Culture. (2014). Oxford online dictionary. Retrieved August 24, 2014, from

http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/pop-culture?q=Pop+culture+

Popular Culture Definition. (2013). Retrieved December, 20 2013, from

http://popularcultureonfridays.wordpress.com/popular-culture-definition/

Portrayal. (2012). Oxford online dictionary. Retrieved November 8, 2012, from http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/portrayal

Starrett, C. (2012). Similar yet distinct art forms: Poetry and song lyrics. Retrieved January 10, 2013, from

http://www.songlyricist.com/lyricorpoem.htm

The Pussycat Dolls Biography. (2012). Aceshowbiz. Retrieved from

http://www.aceshowbiz.com/celebrity/the_pussycat_dolls/biography.ht ml

University of North Carolina. (2013). A brief history of music and popular culture in America. Retrieved the University of North Carolina website: http://www.uncp.edu/home/acurtis/Courses/ResourcesForCourses/Mu sic&PopCulture.html

Yocum, S. C. (2010). Rhetorical construction of gender: How women are portrayed in popular music today. Retrieved from

http://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/comssp/24/

Zeisler, A. (2008). Feminism and pop culture: Seal studies. Available at

http://books.google.co.id/books/about/Feminism_and_Pop_Culture.html?i d=BP7X_8WJjKMC&redir_esc=y

Maulana Subhan Fuad_{, 2014.}

The Portrayal of Women in P!nk’s and The Pussycat Dolls’ Albums in the View of Postfeminism Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu |perpustakaan.upi.edu

I don't wanna be that call at 4 o'clock in the morning/ 'Cos I'm the only one you know in the world that won't be home//

2. The

Pussycat

Dolls’ I’m Done

I don't want to fall in love/ Just want to have a little fun/ Then you came and swept me up and now/ I'm done so done/ Falling madly deeply/ I Surprise myself enough to find/ That what's become this love and now I'm done so done, I'm done//

- - - -

The complete presentation of the data is available in the appendices section.

Maulana Subhan Fuad_{, 2014.}

The Portrayal of Women in P!nk’s and The Pussycat Dolls’ Albums in the View of Postfeminism Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu |perpustakaan.upi.edu

CHAPTER V

CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS

This chapter consists of two parts. The first part is the conclusion of the study based on the findings and discussion that have been presented in the previous chapters. The second part is the suggestions for the readers as well as other researchers who might have an interest in conducting further research related to song lyrics and/or postfeminism.

5. 1. Conclusions

The present study is aimed to analyse what kind of signification the

portrayals of female persona in P!nk’s Funhouse and The Pussycat Dolls’ Doll Domination in the view of postfeminism based on Faludi’s Backlash (1991). After conducting the study and analysing the findings, it is revealed that only some of

the song lyrics both in P!nk’s Funhouseand The Pussycat Dolls’ Doll Domination

that carry the postfeminist characteristics. Fortunately, they are still able to create the patterns. Moreover, it is also discovered that the pattern created by the portrayals of female persona in Funhouse album is more complete than the one in

Doll Domination due to the absence of one of the postfeminist characteristics in it.

Relying to the findings and the discussion in the chapter four, both of the

patterns in P!nk’s Funhouseand The Pussycat Dolls’ Doll Domination show that the existence of men is what women want in their life—whether it is their wildest dream or not. This depiction somehow creates an assumption that women are dependent human beings since they tend to feel incomplete of the absence of men and does not feel ashamed to admit that they want them—or in popular culture, it is called a negative attitudes about women.

Maulana Subhan Fuad_{, 2014.}

The Portrayal of Women in P!nk’s and The Pussycat Dolls’ Albums in the View of Postfeminism Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu |perpustakaan.upi.edu

However, it is a proof that postfeminist backlash theory can be applied to song lyrics adequately. Although the theme of the song lyrics are mostly about shallow love stories, at the same time it makes the theory is easier to be applied because when it comes to love stories, women are mostly behind it all. The song

lyrics seem to be sending subtle message something like “I was wrong, I cannot have it all” or “The equality is achieved. Now, let us go back to our traditional

femininity: finding the Mr. Right!”. Women nowadays are free to choose their life

and being happy about it.

5. 2. Suggestions

After conducting the present study, there are some suggestions that are hopefully would be useful for future studies in the same field. First, related to the song lyrics, it would be better to pick the recent popular song lyrics such as

Lorde’s Pure Heroine (2013) or Lady GaGa’s ARTPOP (2013). Besides being written by women, both of the albums mostly talk about women and have major success internationally.

Second, related to the issue of postfeminism, it will be very interesting to conduct the study within the same theoretical framework in other literary works, such as novels, short stories, poems, or even movie scripts. Moreover, it is suggested to not only analyse the literary works written by the women but also by men who write about women.

Last, Department of English Language and Literature is suggested to provide more literary theories and practices in order to make the students have a better understanding to comprehend theoretical frameworks in doing textual analysis.

Maulana Subhan Fuad_{, 2014.}

The Portrayal of Women in P!nk’s and The Pussycat Dolls’ Albums in the View of Postfeminism Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu |perpustakaan.upi.edu

REFERENCES

Braithwaite, A. (2004). Politics of/and backlash. Journal of International Women’s Studies, 5(5),18-33. Retrieved from

www.bridgew.edu/soas/jiws/jun04/backlash.pdf

Brooks, A. (1997). Postfeminisms: Feminism, cultural theory and cultural forms.

London: Routledge.

Brouillette, S. (2009). Literary interpretation: Literature and urban experience. Retrieved May 19, 2013, from

ocw.mit.edu/.../MIT21L_701s09_res01_Guid_Close_Read.pdf

Creswell, J. W. (2007). Educational research: Planning, conducting and evaluating quantitative and qualitative research. 3rd Edition. United States of America: Pearson Education.

Cuddon, J. A. (1999). A dictionary of literary terms and literary theory (4th ed.). Retrieved from http://www.pdfebookds.com/The-Penguin-Dictionary-of-Literary-Terms-and-Literary-Theory-Penguin-Dictionary-PDF1-29414/ Faludi, S. (1991). Backlash: The undeclared war against American women.

Retrieved from

http://gendersexandsocmvmnts.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/faludi-susan- backlash-the-undeclared-war-against-american-women-three-rivers-press-19912006.pdf

Gagne, K. (2001). Ally mcbeal and the problem of postfeminism. Retrieved from

http://ken-gilbert.com/images/pdf/AllyMcBeal%26Postfeminisim.pdf

Glasburgh, M. M. (2006). Chick lit: The new face of postfeminist fiction?

(Doctoral Thesis, University of North Carolina, USA). Retrieved from

Maulana Subhan Fuad_{, 2014.}

The Portrayal of Women in P!nk’s and The Pussycat Dolls’ Albums in the View of Postfeminism Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu |perpustakaan.upi.edu

Holt, J. (2006). The ideal woman. Retrieved from

www.csustan.edu/honors/documents/journals/soundings/Holt.pdf

Hyman, J. (2010). Art and neuroscience. Retrieved from the University of Oxford website:

http://hoot.queens.ox.ac.uk/academics/hyman/files/art_and_neuroscience.pd f

Isbister, G. (2008). Sex and the city: A postfeminist fairy tale. Retrieved from the University of Sydney website:

http://unisa.edu.au/com/csaa/onlineproceedings.htm

Klarer, M. (1998). An introduction to literary studies. London: Routledge.

Lamb, B. (2013). What is pop music? Retrieved December, 20, 2013, from http://top40.about.com/od/popmusic101/a/popmusic.htm

Lazar, M. M. (2009). Entitled to consume: Postfeminist femininity and a culture of post-critique. Retrieved from

http://dcm.sagepub.com/content/3/4/371.refs.html

Leonardi, M. & Dickinson, E.(2007). Feminism for stupid girls: A feminist rhetorical critique of a popular song by Pink. Retrieved from

http://citation.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_research_citation/1/8/6/ 8/0/pages186803/p186803-1.php

Magoulick, M. (2006). Women in popular culture. Retrieved from the Georgia College & State University website:

http://www.faculty.de.gcsu.edu/~mmagouli/popculture.htm Mukherjea, A. (2011). My vampire boyfriend: Postfeminism, “perfect”

masculinity, and the contemporary appeal of paranormal romance.

Maulana Subhan Fuad_{, 2014.}

The Portrayal of Women in P!nk’s and The Pussycat Dolls’ Albums in the View of Postfeminism Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu |perpustakaan.upi.edu

Parker-Pope, T. (2008, February 5). Under the influence of…music? The New York Times Online. Retrieved from

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/02/05/under-the-influence-ofmusic/ Pop Culture. (2014). Oxford online dictionary. Retrieved August 24, 2014, from

http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/pop-culture?q=Pop+culture+

Popular Culture Definition. (2013). Retrieved December, 20 2013, from

http://popularcultureonfridays.wordpress.com/popular-culture-definition/ Portrayal. (2012). Oxford online dictionary. Retrieved November 8, 2012, from

http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/portrayal Starrett, C. (2012). Similar yet distinct art forms: Poetry and song lyrics.

Retrieved January 10, 2013, from

http://www.songlyricist.com/lyricorpoem.htm

The Pussycat Dolls Biography. (2012). Aceshowbiz. Retrieved from

http://www.aceshowbiz.com/celebrity/the_pussycat_dolls/biography.ht ml

University of North Carolina. (2013). A brief history of music and popular culture in America. Retrieved the University of North Carolina website: http://www.uncp.edu/home/acurtis/Courses/ResourcesForCourses/Mu sic&PopCulture.html

Yocum, S. C. (2010). Rhetorical construction of gender: How women are portrayed in popular music today. Retrieved from

http://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/comssp/24/

Zeisler, A. (2008). Feminism and pop culture: Seal studies. Available at

http://books.google.co.id/books/about/Feminism_and_Pop_Culture.html?i d=BP7X_8WJjKMC&redir_esc=y