The Portrayal of Elastigirl in Challenging Gender Stereotypes in Disney’S Incredibles 2

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THE PORTRAYAL OF ELASTIGIRL IN CHALLENGING GENDER STEREOTYPES IN DISNEY’S INCREDIBLES 2

AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS

Presented as a Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra in English Letters

By ESTHER DEBORAH KALAUSERANG Student Number: 164214089

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS FACULTY OF LETTERS UNIVERSITAS SANATA DHARMA YOGYAKARTA 2020 PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

THE PORTRAYAL OF ELASTIGIRL IN CHALLENGING GENDER STEREOTYPES IN DISNEY’S INCREDIBLES 2

AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS

Presented as a Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra in English Letters

By ESTHER DEBORAH KALAUSERANG Student Number: 164214089

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS FACULTY OF LETTERS UNIVERSITAS SANATA DHARMA YOGYAKARTA 2020

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The believer would tell you to make your mark. Don’t wait for permission; assert yourself and impose your will on the status quo.

-Elastigirl-

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For my beloved parents and siblings Jimmy, Yanti, Pauline and Abe, for my dogs Chiko and Beauty, who have been faithfully supporting me

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I am truly grateful that my last days in the English Letters Department of

Sanata Dharma University have come to an end that I can complete my studies for a Bachelor degree, by the grace of Christ Jesus, my Lord and Savior. It is a privilege for me to be a part of the family of Sanata Dharma University, hence I would like to thank several people who have supported me in finishing this undergraduate thesis.

First, I would like to express my deepest gratitude for my thesis advisor,

Sri Mulyani, Ph.D., who helped me in completing this research, and also to my co- advisor, Hirmawan Wijanarka, M.Hum., whose inputs I truly appreciate. I am grateful to have inspiring people whom I can rely on and also look up to.

Next, I would like to thank my family and friends who are my greatest support in completing my studies, especially to my parents, Jimmy and Yanti.

Thank you for patiently guiding me through my adulthood. For my siblings, Pauline and Abe, thank you for being there for me and for the Star Wars memes that made me laugh. For my ‘underground’ girl gang, Clara and Fanny, also for Patricia and

Novi, I could not do it without you guys. For Sekar, thank you for this research’s heads-up. Lastly, to Endah, to my Every Nation Campus family and to my friends whom I have not mentioned, thank you for your endless support! Cheers for joyful beginnings.

Esther Deborah Kalauserang

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

TITLE PAGE………………………………………………………….………...ii APPROVAL PAGE ………………………………………………………….....iii ACCEPTANCE PAGE ………………………………………………..………..iv STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY …………………………………………....v LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH …………………………………………………………………………………………....…vi MOTTO PAGE …………..……………………………………………...... vii DEDICATION PAGE ………………………..……………………………….viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS …………………………………………..………...ix TABLE OF CONTENTS ……………………………………………………..…x LIST OF FIGURES ………………………………………………………...….xii ABSTRACT ……………………………………………………………...…….xiii ABSTRAK ……………………………………………………….……..…...…..xiv CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION …………………………………………..…1 A. Background of the Study ……………………………..….………………..1 B. Problem Formulation ……………………………………………..……..5 C. Objectives of the Study ……………………………...……………….….6 D. Definition of Terms ……………………………………………………...6 CHAPTER II: REVIEW OF LITERATURE ……………………..…………8 A. Review of Related Studies ……………………………………………….8 B. Review of Related Theories …………………………………………….14 1. Theory of Character and Characterization ……… …………...... 14 2. Film-Making Techniques ………………………...…………...... 17 3. Theory of Gender Stereotypes …………………………………..20 4. Liberal Feminist Criticism ………………………………...…….22 C. Theoretical Framework ………………………………………....………26 CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY ………………………………………….28 A. Object of the Study ……………………………………….………….…28 B. Approach of the Study ……………………………………………….…30 C. Method of the Study …………………………………………….………32

CHAPTER IV: ANALYSIS ...... ………...... …34 A. The Portrayal of Elastigirl……………………………………………..…34 B. The Way Elastigirl Challenges Disney’s Gender Stereotypes through Her Portrayal ………………………………………………….…...………...55 C. Ideologies Signified through the Portrayal of Elastigirl in Challenging Disney’s Gender Stereotypes in Relation to Liberal Feminist Perspective ………………………………..…………...………...………62

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CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION ………………………………………....……69 REFERENCES ……………………………………….……………………..…71 APPENDICES ……………………………………….………………………...73 Appendix 1: Summary of Brad Bird’s Incredibles 2 (2018) ……...……..73 Appendix 2: Summary of Brad Bird’s The Incredibles (2004)…….….…75 .

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LIST OF FIGURES

No. Figure Page

1. Fig 1. Elastigirl stands in front of the mirror 36 2. Fig 2. Dolly shot of Elastigirl stretching into a parachute 36 3. Fig 3. Zoom-in of Elastigirl’s hand 38 4. Fig 4. Close-up of Elastigirl answering Dash’s phone call 38 5. Fig 5. Elastigirl and Bob discussing her job offer 41 6. Fig 6. Slow zoom-in of Elastigirl hesitating on Winston’s offer 41 7. Fig 7. Extreme long shot of Elastigirl saving the ambassador 44 8. Fig 8. Extreme shot of Elastigirl saving Evelyn 44 9. Fig 9. Elastigirl arguing with Bob on the dinner table 47 10. Fig 10. Bob arguing with Elastigirl on the dinner table 47 11. Fig 11. Dolly shot of Elastigirl riding the elasticycle 47 12. Fig 12. Close-up of Elastigirl’s sour expression 53 13. Fig 13. Bob knocking down his head on the coffee table 53 14. Fig 14. Elastigirl’s comical expression while calling Bob 53 15. Fig 15. Bob and his children on the breakfast table 54 16. Fig 16. Bob’s gesture of protecting his family 54

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ABSTRACT

KALAUSERANG, ESTHER DEBORAH. (2020). The Portrayal of Elastigirl in Challenging Gender Stereotypes in Disney’s Incredibles 2.Yogyakarta: Department of English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Universitas Sanata Dharma. Film is one of the tools that signifies ideologies behind the portrayal of its characters. Gender stereotypes and feminism become the object for the researcher to examine how Elastigirl challenges Disney’s stereotypes through her portrayal in the film Incredibles 2 (2018), a film written and directed by Brad Bird. This film explores the values of gender equality through Elastigirl’s portrayal and her relationship with her husband Bob. There are three objectives in this research. The first examines how the female protagonist Elastigirl is portrayed in the film. The second discovers how Elastigirl challenges Disney’s gender stereotypes through her portrayal. The last reveals the ideologies signified through the portrayal of Elastigirl in challenging Disney’s gender stereotypes in relation to liberal feminism perspective. There are several steps to achieve the aforementioned objectives. The approach used is feminist approach. The theories used are the theory of character and characterization, film-making techniques, theory of gender stereotypes and theory of liberal feminism. First, close reading is applied for the primary source of the research while Elastigirl’s characterization is examined. The second step analyzes the way Elastigirl challenges Disney’s gender stereotypes through her portrayal with the film-making techniques, theory of gender stereotypes and related studies concerning Disney’s gender stereotypes. Finally, the last step discovers what ideologies are signified through the portrayal of Elastigirl in challenging Disney’s gender stereotypes in relation to liberal feminism. Elastigirl is an elastic, independent and competitive individual. Elastigirl challenges Disney’s gender stereotypes by being a nurturer with opportunity to explore external activities, a strong and independent person with choice to value who she is and a logical, aggressive and competitive individual. The ideologies signified through the portrayal of Elastigirl in challenging Disney’s gender stereotypes in relation to liberal feminism are women’s greater recognition and self- value as individuals, women’s public and private recognition of their freedom and privacy, women’s equality of opportunity to succeed in the public realm as men do and the commercial purposes of the film to boost its worldwide box office income. Elastigirl’s portrayal does not only challenge gender stereotypes found in Disney’s previous films, but also challenges today’s various views on how a woman should be portrayed.

Keywords: gender stereotypes, liberal feminism, ideologies, Disney.

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ABSTRAK

KALAUSERANG, ESTHER DEBORAH. (2020). The Portrayal of Elastigirl in Challenging Gender Stereotypes in Disney’s Incredibles 2.Yogyakarta: Department of English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Universitas Sanata Dharma. Film adalah salah satu alat yang menyampaikan ideologi di balik penggambaran karakternya. Stereotip gender dan feminisme adalah objek peneliti untuk menganalisis bagaimana Elastigirl menantang stereotip Disney melalui perannya dalam film Incredibles 2 (2018), sebuah film yang ditulis dan disutradarai oleh Brad Bird. Film ini mengeksplorasi makna kesetaraan gender melalui penggambaran tokoh Elastigirl dan hubungannya dengan suaminya, Bob. Penelitian ini memiliki tiga tujuan. Tujuan pertama memeriksa bagaimana protagonis wanita Elastigirl digambarkan dalam film. Tujuan kedua menemukan bagaimana Elastigirl menantang stereotip gender Disney melalui penggambarannya. Tujuan terakhir mengungkapkan ideologi yang disampaikan melalui penggambaran tokoh Elastigirl dalam menantang stereotip gender Disney dalam kaitannya dengan perspektif feminisme liberal. Ada beberapa langkah untuk mencapai tujuan tersebut. Pendekatan yang diterapkan adalah pendekatan feminis. Teori utama yang digunakan adalah teori karakter dan karaterisasi, teknik pembuatan film, teori stereotip gender dan teori feminisme liberal. Pertama, close reading diterapkan untuk sumber utama penelitian saat karakterisasi Elastigirl diteliti. Langkah kedua menganalisis cara Elastigirl menantang stereotip gender Disney melalui penggambarannya melalui teknik pembuatan film, teori stereotip gender, dan studi terkait mengenai stereotip gender Disney. Langkah terakhir mengungkap ideologi yang disampaikan melalui penggambaran Elastigirl dalam menantang stereotip gender Disney dengan feminisme liberal. Elastigirl adalah individu yang elastis, mandiri dan kompetitif. Elastigirl menantang stereotip gender Disney dengan menjadi sosok yang merawat yang memiliki kesempatan mengeksplorasi kegiatan eksternal. Dia orang yang kuat dan mandiri dengan pilihan untuk menghargai siapa dirinya dan seorang individu yang logis, agresif, dan kompetitif. Ideologi yang disampaikan melalui penggambaran Elastigirl dalam menantang stereotip gender Disney dalam kaitannya dengan feminisme liberal adalah: pengakuan dan nilai diri perempuan yang lebih besar sebagai individu, pengakuan publik dan pribadi perempuan atas kebebasan dan privasi mereka, persamaan kesempatan perempuan untuk berhasil di ranah publik seperti kaum pria serta tujuan komersial film untuk meningkatkan pendapatan box office internasionalnya. Penggambaran Elastigirl tidak hanya menantang stereotip gender yang ditemukan dalam film-film Disney sebelumnya, namun berbagai pandangan hari ini tentang bagaimana seorang wanita harus digambarkan. Kata kunci: gender stereotypes, liberal feminism, ideologies, Disney.

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CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study According to Athur Krystal, citing Marcus and Sollors, in his article ‘What

Is Literature?: In Defense of the Canon’ published in harpers.org, “literary means not only what is written but what is voiced, what is expressed, what is invented in whatever form” (Krystal, 2009). This means that literature is not only limited to narrative texts nor famous classical works. It can be confirmed that everything expressing something, either it is music, photography, paintings and even films, are considered to be a form of literature.

One of the tools that help society form its perspective of the world is through film. By analyzing a particular film, one may know what values are being communicated to people as their perspective of the world is shaped, and what message the film is trying to deliver to its audience. Richard Barsam and Dave

Monahan in Looking at Movies define that films are essential tools to help one see and learn about the world. Moreover, film is also a tool to deliver certain ideologies of the creator. “The movies we see shape the way we view the world around us and our place in that world,” they stated, “what’s more, a close analysis of any particular movie can tell us a great deal about the artist, society or industry that created it”

(Barsam & Monahan, 2006, p.2).

As particular message needs a particular way to be delivered to the society, so does a particular film needs a particular genre. “Genre refers to the categorization

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of narrative films by the stories they tell and the ways they tell them...As our world revolves and audience perspectives change, genre movies adapt to reflect these cultural shifts” (Barsam & Monahan, 2006, p.87). From the previous statement, it is possible to imply that a certain genre will emerge when there is a certain cultural shift that occurs. In other words, it is the process by which a particular genre is adapted to meet the expectations of a changing society, known as generic transformation (Barsam & Monahan, 2006, pp.109-110). Disney Pixar’s animated superhero film directed by Brad Bird entitled Incredibles 2 (2018) is one of the examples of generic transformation, meeting the ‘demands’ of viewers where there is a cultural shift regarding gender stereotypes.

Previously, in the first sequel entitled The Incredibles released in 2004,

Bob (a husband with superpower) was the main star of the show and working as the ‘financial backbone’ of the family, while his wife Helen (a wife also with superpower) often stayed at home and looked after the kids. The first sequel recounted how Bob Parr accepted a ‘fake’ mission offered by Mirage, a woman who worked for Bob’s enemy Buddy Pine (whom Bob previously rejected as his sidekick) a.k.a Syndrome. Syndrome planned to send a dangerous robot

(Omnidroid) to attack Mettroville by testing it with powers belonging to superheroes such as Bob beforehand. Later, Syndrome would ‘put up a show’ as a hero in fighting the Omnidroid and promote his invention that enables everyone to have superpowers. The fake mission was an opportunity for Bob to receive a higher pay and relive his identity as a superhero, because at the moment all the superheroes in Metroville (including Helen and himself) was forced into hiding as ‘normal’

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people under the Superhero Relocation Program due the collateral damage they caused. As Bob continued to embark in this ‘fake’ mission, he was captured by

Syndrome. After discovering what Bob was up to, Elastigirl went to save her husband by flying a jet plane with her stowed-away children, Dash and Violet

(leaving baby Jack-Jack at home with his babysitter). Long story short, Helen,

Violet and Dash were also captured by Syndrome but managed to escape with the help of Mirage. They went to save Metroville as one family with Lucius a.k.a

Frozone, a friend of the Incredibles, saved Jack-Jack from the attempted kidnap by

Syndrome and killed Syndrome as Bob threw his car to the enemy’s aircraft. At the end of the film, a villain called the Underminer showed up while the Incredibles prepared to fight him off together.

However, as Incredibles 2 was launched in 2018, there was a reversal of gender roles. Bob did not become the main star, but Helen his wife. Mr. Incredibles was no longer a ‘working man’ who earned the financial income for the family.

Instead, he stayed at home and took care of the kids, as temporarily assumed in the story, because there was a political problem regarding the legal status of superheroes. At first, the film began as the Incredibles fought the Underminer together. Although they managed to save the town, they caused collateral damages and sparked the government’s fury. As a result, the superheroes (the Incredibles and

Frozone) were cut from the financial support of the Superhero Relocation Program, that left them on their own. However, Frozone offered the Incredible couple to join a rich businessman named Winston Deavor and his sister Evelyn in their project to defeat the villain Screenslaver and also broadcast the positive image of superheroes

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to earn society's trust again. Helen was chosen as the ‘face’ of these superheroes to participate in Winston’s project. She was considered more eligible than Mr.

Incredibles because she caused less collateral damage. With her new job, Bob stayed at home and faced challenges in taking care of the children while the now- popular Elastigirl provided for her family and was promoted as the savior of the town when Screenslaver was defeated. Helen too was challenged by Evelyn to have the stage for her own in this ‘man’s world’ as she indirectly suggested the idea that

Helen should be free from her husband’s ‘shadow’. However, Helen rejected the idea and made it clear that she still had her own core beliefs. As things turned out,

Screenslaver was Evelyn herself. She wanted to eliminate superheroes from the society due to her childhood hate of the superheroes who failed to save her murdered father. She planned to broadcast a negative image of these heroes to the world at the superhero summit that will legalize the superheroes’ status again on the Everjust shipp. Evelyn screen-hypnotized all of the newly-discovered superheroes who were invited, such as Voyd and her friends. She even hypnotized

Helen herself and Bob who came to save his wife. Eventually, the three of

Incredibles kids came to the rescue, freeing all of the superheroes from the screen hypnotize. The superheroes stopped the ship from crashing into the city and got

Evelyn arrested before she could escape. In the end, superheroes were made legal and acknowledged by the society. The film finished when the Incredibles were about to go to the movie theatre with Violet’s boyfriend, Tony, leaving him waiting as they changed their mind to participate in a criminal chase.

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In Incredibles 2, Helen was not portrayed as a damsel in distress nor as a

100 percent domestic wife. Instead, Helen was out to save the world and her family but still chose to maintain her identity as a mother. Furthermore, she challenges

Disney’s gender stereotypes and becomes the temporary provider of the family while she collaborated with Bob to take care of the family. “The film is a feminist triumph,” wrote Anna Smith in theguardian.com, “while feisty young heroines –

Princess Merida in Brave, Riley Andersen in Inside Out, Moana, Finding Dory – are becoming more common in the Disney-Pixar universe, Incredibles 2 is unusual in offering older, urbane, complicated female characters” (Smith, 2018). Thus, through this particular movie, Disney Pixar socialized its perspective of women empowerment to society through the image of Helen: known as Elastigirl, who self-value herself as a mother and a superhero by choice. Hence, this research entitled “The Portrayal of Elastigirl in Challenging Disney’s Gender Stereotypes in

Incredibles 2” focuses on analyzing how the protagonist Elastigirl challenges

Disney’s stereotypes through her portrayal by relating it with the liberal feminist approach.

B. Problem Formulation This undergraduate thesis aims to answer several questions related to the topic, as follows:

1. How is the female protagonist Elastigirl portrayed in Incredibles 2?

2. How does Elastigirl challenge Disney’s gender stereotypes through her

portrayal in Incredibles 2?

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3. What are the ideologies signified through the portrayal of Elastigirl

in challenging Disney’s gender stereotypes in relation to liberal feminism’s

perspective in Incredibles 2?

C. Objectives of the Study In accordance with the aforementioned problems, this undergraduate thesis aims to uncover Disney gender stereotypes that are challenged by the protagonist.

Firstly, it discusses how the female protagonists Elastigirl is portrayed in the film

Incredibles 2. Secondly, it analyzes how Elastigirl challenges Disney’s gender stereotypes through her portrayal. Thirdly, it examines what are the ideologies signified through the portrayal of Elastigirl in challenging Disney’s gender stereotypes in relation to liberal feminism’s perspective. The answer to the first and second problem determine the answer of the core problem. How Elastigirl is portrayed in the film as a major lead and how she challenges Disney’s gender stereotypes help the researcher examine what are the ideologies signified through

Elastigirl’s portrayal in challenging Disney’s gender stereotypes in relation to liberal feminist perspective. Those are the objectives explained and highlighted in this undergraduate thesis.

D. Definition of Terms

There are several important definitions of terms which are presented by this study. The purpose of the definition of terms is to avoid further misunderstanding on certain terms that are generally understood or commonly used on a regular basis.

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Gender. Encyclopedia of Sex and Gender edited by Carol Ember and

Melvin Ember defines that gender is “two or more classes of persons who are believed to be different from each other; society has different roles and expectations for different genders (most societies have two genders—male and female—but others have more than two)” (Ember & Ember, 2003, p.xxvi). However, in this study, the researcher presents two genders: the feminine and masculine gender.

Stereotype. Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology defines that stereotype is

“a way of representing and judging other people in fixed, unyielding terms” and that “they are reduced to the stereotype that results from this, rather being viewed as individuals with their own personal features and qualities” (Ritzer, 2007, p.4781). The stereotype presented in this study focuses on gender stereotypes given by the Disney company to its female protagonists.

Ideology. Moramollu in the journal ‘Ideology and Literature’ (defines that

“ideology is accepted as a commonsense view of things presented by the powerholder class. In this way the interests of the ruling class is secured”

(Moramollu, 2016, p.455). Ideology “promotes the values and interests of dominant groups within society” (p.455). In this study, the term ‘ideology’ is not only used to refer to the ideology of gender stereotypes in Incredibles 2 but also the ideology of commercial purpose as well.

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CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

A. Review of Related Studies

This part reviews related studies that discuss Disney’s gender stereotypes assigned to its female protagonists. The first study is The Gendered World of

Disney: A Content Analysis of Gender Themes in Full-Length Animated Disney

Feature Films written by Beth A. Wiersma published in 2000, a dissertation. The second study is entitled From Shapeshifter to Lava Monster: Gender Stereotypes in Disney’s Moana by Madeline Streiff and Lauren Dundes published in 2017. The third study is an article published in 2018 written by Suzan G. Brydon entitled I’ve

Got to Succeed, So She Can Succeed, So We Can Succeed: Empowered Mothering,

Role Fluidity and Competition in Incredible Parenting. These related studies help the researcher in providing ground for further analysis.

The Gendered World of Disney: A Content Analysis of Gender Themes in

Full-Length Animated Disney Feature Films written by Beth A. Wiersma discusses the gender themes and gender roles portrayed in Disney’s sixteen full-length animated feature films from Snow White (1937) until the release of Toy Story

(1995). In this study, Wiersma uncovers the stereotypes that Disney has given to women, in accordance with Walt Disney’s patriarchal views about women and the social construction of reality and Disney films through the selected sixteen full- length animated feature films. These films meet the researcher’s criteria: 1) they are on the top 25 best-selling home video list, 2) there is a plot to the story, and 3) they

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are rated for general audiences. Eight of the sixteen films that Wiersma presented were produced before Disney’s death in 1970 and the rest of them are produced after his death, serving as a “clear and equal division in order to make comparisons”

(Wiersma, 2000, pp. 26-37). This qualitative study discovers that male characters outnumber the female characters, which did not represent the reality where the percentage of male and female are almost equal (p.107). Instead, it shows prominence of male over female, emphasizing that it’s a “man’s world”

(p.108). Furthermore, in this study, Wiersma wrote that “women are portrayed as performing more in-home labor, less out-of-home employment, and hold a little familial or societal power” (2000). Moreover, in this study, Disney gave the stereotypes that a female protagonist should be ‘attractive’ in terms of physical appearance and youth. To be physically attractive is to be thin, having developed or developing breasts, narrow waist and hips which gave the hourglass figure look

(p.108). The young but less attractive female characters are presented the way unattractive older women or female villains are described, with exaggerated features (although they are fat or thin), being loud or abrasive, having dark colors on the face and sporting unattractive hairstyles (pp.108-109). In this way, Disney portrays old age as something less pleasant.

The physical appearance and the portrayal of female characters as young, attractive and good have not changed since Disney started producing full- length animated feature films in 1937. Older women are still portrayed as unattractive although some are kind and gentle while others are dark and evil...Once again the message presented is that attractive people have positive traits and that unattractive people don’t. In other words, if people want to be happy, they must be attractive (Wiersma, 2000, pp. 131-132). The problem remains that these other categories such as the matronly older women do not play major role scenes in these stories. This is most likely

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related to the issue of what people will buy and profit margins. Most people don’t want constant reminders of what it means to grow old. The fact is everyone is going to grow older and it doesn’t necessarily have to be portrayed as an unpleasant experience (Wiersma, 2000, p.109). In addition, Wiersma also concluded that Disney’s female characters “fall along many of the traditional stereotyped lines, but changes are evident” (p.132). They are still portrayed as passive, dependent, emotional and romantic but have made progress as individuals who can stand up for themselves and being independent in recent films (p.132). However, “the problem is that these females are still subjected to the stereotyped belief that females need someone to watch over them, take care of them and provide for them” (p.132).

Another related study that uncovers Disney’s gender stereotypes is entitled

From Shapeshifter to Lava Monster: Gender Stereotypes in Disney’s Moana by

Madeline Streif and Lauren Dundes published in 2017. This study discusses how

Disney still presents its gender stereotypes in Moana, a full-length animated film of an adventurous-spirited Polynesian princess in search of self-discovery. Moana was released one year before Incredibles 2, achieving the box office of $643 million worldwide by April 2017 (Streif & Dundes, 2017). Moana is also released after Frozen (2016), offering similar theme of women with power. In contrast with the previous related study, Streif and Dundes uncovers that Disney no longer stereotyped women as a men-dependent individual (as depicted by Elsa in Frozen and Moana) but linking powerful females with power abuse. At the same time, this study examines how Disney emphasizes the equilibrium symbols of both sexes by associating femininity with heart (Elsa’s frozen heart and Te-Fiti’s stolen heart) and masculinity with phallic-like symbols (Kristoff’s sword and Maui’s fish hook). In

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Moana, Disney reinforces gender stereotypes to women that have been suggested by its previous films by depicting that women exercising authority, power and control are society-threatening figures working with ‘heart’ instead of ‘head’.

Since according to portrayals by Disney, women seem to be driven by their hearts and not their heads, their aberrant or stolen hearts severely impair them. Audiences see powerful female characters who are ultimately good but whose perceived lack of emotional control devastates society. “Out-of- control” women need to conform to compartment modeled by gentle, loving, nurturing, reformed Te Fiti who returns to procreativity but shuns aggression and maintains her muteness which limits her literal and metaphorical voice and reinforces the patriarchal hierarchy. Yet while women think with their hearts, men such as Maui think with their fish hooks, a gender gulf seemingly necessary for equilibrium. In Moana, the pat “happy ending” consists of the return of Te Fiti’s heart (procreativity) and the reuniting of Maui with his fishhook (manhood). As a result, there is now order in the world because each sex regains what is arguably their sole driving and sustaining force (Streif & Dundes, 2017, p. 12). Furthermore, Disney told the viewers that female protagonist’s self-exploration is often limited by the control of men, such as Elsa and Moana experienced with their father, associating them with the figure of Electra in greek mythology. Lastly,

Disney also gave the stereotype that women’s passivity is something general, and activity is monstrosity.

Moana returns to stereotypical tropes of masculinity and femininity, demonstrating Disney’s tendency to imply that mighty females abuse power, in this case Te Ka, Te Fiti’s alter ego, whose vengeance has caused devastating blight. In a parallel of the virgin or vamp dichotomy, the body of the character’s benevolent form, Te Fiti, fades into the earth in a sleeping position, connoting dormancy and a willing, if temporary, relinquishment of her power and control. As with Elsa in Frozen, when angry, Te Fiti becomes a monster, specifically Te Ka, the lava monster, complete with a primordial reptilian-like gait as she surges towards Moana in the creature’s final moments before returning to her form as Te Fiti...The implication is that females’ humanity continues to be characterized by passivity while activity, namely wielding power, is linked to monstrosity (Streif & Dundes, 2017, p. 12)

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The last related study written by Suzan G. Brydon entitled “I’ve Got to

Succeed, So She Can Succeed, So We can Succeed”: Empowered Mothering, Role

Fluidity, and Competition in Incredible Parenting presents an analysis of Disney

Pixar’s breakthrough of social topic in the film Incredibles 2 in terms of empowered and collaborative parenting. This media criticism “builds on previous research of male mothering in Finding Nemo by visiting the subsequent 11 Pixar animated films, with in-depth exploration of their most recent release, Incredibles 2”

(Brydon, 2018, p.1). It also highlights the film’s presentation of gender role fluidity when Helen and Bob Parr co-operated to save their family and the world, going against the traditional gender role stereotypes of families in general.

Brydon wrote that although the prequel of Incredibles 2 is creative and progressive in some ways, it also relied on traditional stereotypes.

Creative and progressive in some ways, The Incredibles (2004) also relied on long-standing stereotypes about gender and family roles, with father, Bob Parr / Mr. Incredible, as a career-driven and hyper-masculine superhero focused on his breadwinning abilities and led astray by another woman, and mother, Helen/Elastigirl, as a stay at home mom who literally stretches herself thin to save her family and her marriage… Despite the impressive strength and abilities exhibited by the female superheroes in The Increibles, ultimately the film emphasizes same old patriarchal, heteronormative structure we have seen in family films again and again (Brydon, 2018, pp. 180-181). Disney had been showing patriarchal and powerful cinematic messages and depicting hyper-feminine females (Brydon, 2918). However, Brydon founds out that the sequel Incredibles 2 is offering “a slow shift into the complexities of modern parenting and a recent embrace of empowered mothering”.

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This study starts off with the idea of motherhood in American cultural texts and Disney discourse on the hypermasculinity and hyperfemininity of its prominent characters. It also discusses how Disney made changes in its recent films that allow its male characters perform a mothering act, showing a man’s vulnerable side and being involved in a communal family such as Marlin in Nemo, Mr. Fredrickson in

Up and Miguel’s existence in Coco. Next, the study discusses the idea of empowered mothering (showing that Elastigirl in Incredibles 2 is an empowered mother but not a feminist mother), role fluidity that Bob and Helen have both as a parent and superhero and the collaborative and competitive caregiving Elastigirl and Mr. Incredible share in nurturing the family (co-parenting relationship).

The three aforementioned related studies are significant to this research because those studies discuss Disney’ gender stereotyping that has occurred throughout different films and how Incredibles 2 offered a breakthrough in the topic of gender stereotyping. Although the research objects of each respective studies are different, the topics are still closely related to this research . The first study written by Wiersma (2000), The Gendered World of Disney: A Content Analysis of Gender

Themes in Full-Length Animated Disney Feature Films, help the researcher to classify what are Disney’s gender stereotypes given to its female characters from

1937 - 1995 (the film Snow White - Toy Story). Meanwhile, the second study From

Shapeshifter to Lava Monster: Gender Stereotypes in Disney’s Moana written by

Madeline Streif and Lauren Dundes informs the researcher of a narrower and up- to-date scope of Disney’s latest gender stereotypes in 2016 and 2017, as it mentions dominant female characters (Elsa in Frozen and Moana in Moana) who are similar

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to Elastigirl in terms of strength and their potentially-destructive power. Last but not least, Suzan G. Brydon’s “I’ve Got to Succeed, So She Can Succeed, So We Can

Succeed”: Empowered Mothering, Role Fluidity, and Competition in Incredible

Parenting offered the researcher the gender roles and stereotypes breakthrough between The Incredibles (that functions as this research’s secondary data) and

Incredibles 2 (the primary data). Comparing this research with previous related studies, this research also highlights the same topic, namely Disney’s gender stereotyping. However, this research examines how Elastigirl challenges Disney’s gender stereotypes through her portrayal in relation to liberal feminism’s perspective and focuses on different object of study, namely the film Incredibles 2.

This research highlights that women can have the equal freedom as men do when she maintains her equality through her individual choice and having the equal opportunity as shown in Elastigirl’s portrayal that challenges Disney’s gender stereotypes.

B. Review of Related Theories

There are several theories used to answer the aforementioned problem formulations. In this section, the researcher explains these theories, which consist of the theory of character and characterization, film-making technique, theory of gender stereotypes and the liberal feminist criticism.

1. Theory of Characters and Characterization

Characters are human elements inside a film. In Art of Watching Films by

Boggs & Petrie, characters must seem real, understandable, and worth caring about

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in order to interest the viewers. When these characters perform their task well, the viewers will give a response in turn. It could be hatred or admiration (2008, p. 60).

According to Barsam and Monahan in Looking at Movies, the visual vocabulary of film is designed to play upon those same instincts that we use to navigate and interpret the visual and aural information of our “real life” (2010, p.3). Visual elements and cinematic language are tools to help viewers understand how a certain character is portrayed, and what she is represented for. Through these characters, viewers can also understand the core message of a film that is unfolded through visual elements and its cinematic language. This theory help the researcher to answer the first problem formulation: how is Elastigirl portrayed in the film

Incredibles 2.

In Art of Watching Films by Boggs and Petrie, there are eight ways for viewers to understand the characterization of a character, or how is a particular character constructed throughout the movie. First, it is the characterization through appearance. First-impression assumptions will be made by the viewers when they see the character’s facial features, dress, physical build, mannerisms and the way he moves (2008, pp. 60-61). Their judgement can change over time as the movie progresses. Second is the characterization through the dialogue: what the character says and how he delivers it. The character’s word choice represents his thoughts, attitude, emotions and social-economic backgrounds. Those are revealed through stress, pitch, grammar, sentence structure and particular dialects used. “Therefore, viewers must develop a keen ear, attuned to the faintest and most subtle nuances of meaning revealed through the human voice — listening carefully not only to what

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is said but also to how it is said” (2008, pp. 61-62). Third, external actions also play an important part. Appearance of the character can be misleading if there are no actions to expose who the character actually is. Through external action, the character’s personality is disclosed to the viewers. As Boggs and Petrie noted, when

“the motivation for a character's action is clearly established, the character and the plot become so closely interwoven that they are impossible to separate, and every action that the character takes in some way reflects the quality of his or her particular personality” (2008, p. 63). Fourth is the character’s internal action, what is inside his mind and emotion. It is made up of his secrets, unspoken thoughts, daydreams, fears and fantasies. Through the aid of visual elements, such as shots, film punctuation and montages, the character’s internal action will be exposed to the viewers (2008, p. 63). Fifth, reactions of other characters towards the main star also serve a crucial need. The way others perceive him often “serves an excellent means of characterization”, even when the hero himself has not earned his visual first impression from the viewers (2008, p. 63). Sixth is the contrast through dramatic foils. “One of the most effective techniques of characterization is the use of foils — contrasting characters whose behavior, attitudes, opinions, lifestyle, physical appearance, and so on are the opposite of those of the main characters,” noted Boggs and Petrie (2008, pp. 64-65). By doing so, the main character’s individual being stands out in such way as black and white. Next, the usage of characterization through caricature and leitmotif is also present. Caricature exaggerates the character’s one or more dominant features or personality traits.

Leitmotif is the repetition of a single action, phrase or idea by a character until it

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becomes a trademark or theme song for that character (2008, pp. 65-66). Lastly, choice of name affects the construction of the particular character as well. This specific technique is known as name typing. For example, the name ‘Dick’ is slang for ‘detective’ and ‘Tracy’ means ‘to trace’. If both names are combined, it means that detectives trace criminals. In short, names represent the character’s identity and thus reflecting appropriate qualities of sound, meaning or connotation (2008, pp.

66-67).

2. Film-Making Technique

Film-making technique is also known as cinematography, which is defined as “the process of capturing moving images on film or a digital storage device” as

Barsam and Monahan quoted in Looking At Movies (2006, p.226). It is a particular technique in film to communicate a certain message to the audience through how visual language in every scene is directed. In addition, the concept of cinematography is not only applied to live-action films, but also in animated films as well. Whether it is in live-action films or animated films, these film-making techniques will always be “an intricate language that can contribute to a movie’s overall meaning as much as the story, mise-en-scene, and acting do” (p.226).

Film-making consists of essential techniques in order to enable the audience to interpret the message precisely. Several essentials in making a film are the techniques on shots, camera angles, camera movement, lighting, scale and also proximity. There are more film-making techniques that are applied, however, the

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researcher presents the techniques seen in the still images examined in the analysis chapter in relation to the portrayal of Elastigirl.

First of all, several film-making techniques on shots, camera movement and camera angles are close-up shot, extreme long shot (or establishing shot), dolly (or tracking) shot, aerial shot, zoom and eye-level shot. The function of close-up shot is usually to capture the object or person’s emotion by generally focusing on the face or showing the full head, including the shoulders (p.252). Other close-up shots can also focus on other parts of the body, such as the hand, eye or mouth and

“provide an exclusive view of the character’s emotion or state of mind, yet it can also show a face lacking emotion or thought” (p.252). In contrast, an extreme long shot, or establishing shot, functions differently. Taken from a great distance, “the subject is often a wide view of location” and recorded along with the background behind to provide the audience “an informative context” by emphasizing the subject’s “relationship to the surroundings” (p.251). A moving surrounding and moving object are also obviously seen when it comes to the dolly shot, or tracking shot. In a dolly shot, the camera is “fixed to a wheeled support...(that) permits the cinematographer to make noiseless moving shots” and making the subject growing bigger into the frame, “gaining significance not only through being bigger in the frame but also through those moments in which we actually see it growing bigger”

(p. 267). Next, the aerial shot offers the audience with a bird’s-eye view of a scene.

Usually an aerial shot is taken from an aircraft or high crane as if the audience is omniscient (p.264). Then, the zoom technique magnifies the image or the subject of the frame without changing any spatial relationship between the camera and

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subject, and gives a dramatic, cinematic and stylistic effect to the screen (pp. 268-

269). Lastly is the eye-level shot. Barsam and Monahan explains that “eye-shot is made from the observer’s eye level” (p.259). The eye-level shot “usually implies that the camera’s attitude toward the subject being photographed is neutral” (p.

259).

Afterwards, several essentials of the film-making techniques are lighting, scale and proximity. The element focused on lighting is the quality, which has an important role in telling the story of the subject (p.238). Hard lighting (or high-key- lighting) shines directly on the subject, exposes detail and gives a clear outline between the illumination and shadow and sometimes, hard lighting is associated with series or tragic stories (p.238). On the contrary, soft lighting (or low-key- lighting) hits the subject from various directions, softening the details, blurring the line between illumination and shadow and decreases the contrast, associating the subject’s story as romantic or comical (p.238). Scale is also one of the most essential techniques of film-making to deliver its meaning through the size and placement of a particular object or part of a scene in relation to the rest (p.264). Barsam and

Monahan explain that “the type of shot affects the scale of the shot and thus the effect and meaning of a scene”, as done by Steven Spielberg in exaggerating the scale of his apotasaurus that could not fit into the frame in Jurasic Park (1993)

(p.264). Lastly, the final film-making technique explained is proximity. A subject’s implied proximity to the camera or to other subject “has been placed there to develop the narrative’s outcome and meaning” (p.249). Moreover, one’s

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interpretation of these “on-screen spatial relationships happen as unconsciously and automatically as they do in everyday life,” explained Barsam and Monahan (p.249).

3. Theory of Gender Stereotypes

Deborah L. Best in ‘Gender Stereotypes’ in Encyclopedia of Sex and

Gender edited by Ember, Carol R. & Ember, Melvin (2003) states that gender stereotypes are beliefs about “how men and women differ in their psychological make-up” (p. 11).

Gender stereotypes refer to the psychological traits and behaviors that are believed to occur with differential frequency in the two gender groups (e.g., men are more “aggressive,” women are more “emotional”). Stereotypes are often used as support for traditional sex roles (e.g., women are nurses, men are construction workers) and may serve as socialization models for children (Ember & Ember, 2003, p.11). Lippa in Gender, Nature and Nurture (2005) (quoting Rosenkrantz, Vogel,

Bee, Boverman & Broverman, 1968) explains that common gender stereotypes assigned to men are personality traits of being competitive, logical, skilled in business and self-confident, while women are gentle, aware of the feelings of others easily express tender feelings. “Strong, aggressive, cruel, coars and adventurous were consistently associated with men at all age levels, and weak, appreciative, soft- hearted, gentle and meek were consistently associated with women,” Best wrote based on the study of children’s sex stereotypes done by Williams and Best (Ember

& Ember, 2003, p.19). These adjectives assigned to men and women are in line with

Best’s explanation of ascription, which deals with sex-trait stereotypes and endorsement that is concerned with how these traits are incorporated into self and ideal-self description (masculinity and femininity) (Ember & Ember, 2003, p.11).

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Furthermore, gender stereotypes do not only cover personality traits, but in terms of physical traits, social roles, occupation, sexuality and abilities, which results in a negative consequence for women (Lippa, 2005, p. 112).

People also hold stereotypes about men's and women's physical traits (muscular, soft, hairy), social roles (provides, does house work), occupations (engineer, librarian), and sexuality (has a high sex drive, sexually attracted to men)...Furthermore, there are certain kinds of abilities, such as math and mechanical skills, that people believe show sex differences favoring men (Lippa, 2005, p.112). Best states that gender stereotypes help one to predict others’ behavior, but it also fail to recognize individual differences and overlap between groups, causing no allowance for variability and treating a certain group as the same (ae.g., all men are aggressive) (p.11). These stereotypes are held by children, teens and adults; by single and married people; and by educated and uneducated people, and even consistent across cultures (Lippa, 2005, p.112). Best quotes that although there might be variation across societies, there is still clear tasks and traits assigned with the basis of gender and “in no society is the status of women superior to that of men” (Deborah L. Best quotes Munro & Munroe, 1975/1994) (Ember & Ember,

2003, p.17).Best added that women are generally assigned with “domestic” activities while men are engaged with “external” activities.

In virtually all human groups, women have greater responsibility for “domestic” activities while men have greater responsibility for “external” activities. Women are responsible for cooking, food preparation, carrying water, caring for clothing, and making household things, and men are involved with hunting, metalwork, and weapon making, and travel further from home (D’Andrade, 1966). Women are responsible for child rearing (Weisner & Gallimore, 1977), and men have major responsibilities for child rearing in only 20% of the 80 cultures examined (Katz & Konner, 1981; West & Konner, 1976)...However, in many cultures these socially assigned duties are now being shared, with men engaging in more domestic activities

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and women in more external, particularly economic, activities (Ember & Ember, 2003, p. 17). In other words, because of gender stereotypes, women are generally seen as the homemakers (nurturers) while men are breadwinners (providers) due to cultural expectations that influence the concept of femininity and masculinity (Ember &

Ember, 2003, p.19, 21) When these gender stereotypes are established, boys are taught to become independent and adventurous while girls have to be nurturant and affiliative, incorporating men and women’s self-concepts and aspects of masculinity and femininity (Embers & Embers, 2003, p.21).

This model illustrates how, with only minor variations, people across different cultures come to associate one set of the characteristics with men and another set with women...This relatively minor biological differences between the sexes and can be amplified of diminished by cultural practices and socialization, making gender differences in roles and behaviors generally modest but in some cases culturally important (Ember & Ember, 2003, p.21).

4. Liberal Feminist Criticism Liberal feminist criticism focuses on women’s individual freedom and in the equality of opportunity that women can receive as men do. Susan Wendell in A

(Qualified) Defense of Liberal Feminism states that:

Liberal feminism is not committed to a number of philosophical positions for which its is frequently criticized, including abstract individualism, certain individualistic approaches to morality and society, valuing the mental/rational over the physical/emotional, and the traditional liberal way of drawing the line between the public and private. Moreover, liberal feminism’s clearest political commitments, including equality of opportunity, are important to women’s liberation and not necessarily incompatible with the goals of socialist and radical feminism (Wendell, 1987, p.65).

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Liberal feminism grows from liberalism, and has several prominent figures such as

Marry Wollstonecraft and John Stuart Mill. Furthermore, liberal feminism is committed to major economic re-organization, re-distribution of wealth and equality of opportunity (Wendell, 1987, p.66). It demands public and private recognition of women’s freedom and privacy and the idea that “the value of women as human beings is not instrumental to the welfare of men and children and that it is equal to the value of men” (p.66). Most importantly, liberal feminism emphasizes the equality of legal rights for women, end to de facto discrimination on the basis of sex and states that education means social reform and human fulfillment (p.66).

...Liberal feminism’s clearest political commitments (are): to the promotion of women’s greater recognition and self-vale as individuals, to equality of opportunity, to the promotion of equal education for girls and boys, to ending sex prejudice and de facto discrimination, to equality of legal rights, and to the use of education as a major tool of social reform…(Wendell, 1987, p.66). To elaborate more, Wendell also explained that women also take place in political equality, which means legal equality, equal rights to political participation, freedom of thought, freedom of expression and freedom of action (by not harming others).

She views that the liberal idea of political equality suggests that all human beings are “equally valuable in virtue of some basic characteristics or capacities we all share, regardless of our social backgrounds and present social contexts” (p.70).

Rosemary Tong, in Feminist Thinking, also feels the same urge as well in terms of equality, saying that “discrimination against women is unfair,” and that

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“women should have as much cance to succeed in the public realm as men do”

(Tong, 2009, p.2). She explains that:

Liberal feminists wish to free women from oppressive gender roles--that is, from those roles used as excuses or justifications for giving women a lesser place, or no place at all, in the academy, the forum and the marketplace (Tong, 2009, p.34). In addition, Wendell explains the reason why there needs to be political equality between men and women by quoting J.S. Mill’s two conviction in his article The Subjection of Women.

Women need political equality to safeguard their own interests and that political inequality interferes with the happiness of both women and men. In addition, Mill argued that women must have liberty of action because it is necessary to their happiness, both as a means to fulfilling their desires and because freedom of choice is, in itself, an important ingredient of happiness (Wendell, 1987, p.73). Wendell clarified that a commitment to the value of individuals, ethical priority of individual over groups and self-development does not mean that one can be ‘selfish’ or “independent of one’s relationship with other people”(p.75). Instead, through women’s self-development in education and opportunity, Wollstonecraft implied that women can benefit others, such as being “better wives and mothers”

(p.75). However, when there is inequality between both sexes, people’s relationships are damaged, either it is women-men relationship nor those among men. As a result, there is also “damage done to… the potential unrealized in them”

(p.75). On the other hand, Wendell highlights that women should value themselves more as human beings because they have often focus on pleasing, nurturing and caring for others (as men and children), although society allows men to “indulge in

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certain kind of emotional and practical selfishness” but expecting “women will aspire to pleasing men and acting out the role of a selfless nurturer” (p.76).

What many women are striving for is a balanced, complex interplay between concern for oneself and concern for others, which includes the understanding that one’s own welfare is not and cannot be independent of the welfare of other people (Wendell, 1987, p.83). This causes a potential problem of distribution to arise, whereas equality of opportunity for both sexes is a good solution in order to allow both parties to equally value reason, emotion, bodily processes, mind and their mental capacity and to eliminate any forms of sex discrimination by not viewing the other as more inferior or superior. Balance can be achieved through the equality of opportunity, specifically in terms of equal employment as well. Equal employment means to end sex prejudice and stereotyping. It also means to create equal employment opportunity for women, by having equal responsibility for childcare and housework. Moreover, Rosemarie Tong also explained Betty Friedan’s view that it is just as important for men to develop their private and personal selves (although they might not be ready, willing or able to embrace the “househusband” role) as it is for women to develop their public and social selves (Tong, 2009, p.30).

Thus, it might be necessary either to get men to take equal responsibility for childcare and housework, or to socialize the labor women do at home so that it does not have to be the responsibility of individual women, in order to create equal employment opportunity...such as opportunity to develop one’s full capacities or opportunity to have both satisfying work and a happy family life…(it) would certainly seem to require an end to women’s double work-day and fair redistribution of responsibility for childcare and housework (Wendell, 1987, pp. 85-86). Men who realize this also realize women’s liberation is men’s liberation. A man does not have to be “just a breadwinner” or just a runner in the rat race.

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Like his wife, he, too, can be an active participant in the thick web of familial and friendship relationships he and she weaves together (Tong, 2009, p.30).

C. Theoretical Framework

This research examines the portrayal of Elastigirl in challenging gender stereotypes in Disney’s Incredible 2. The focus of the study is to analyze how the protagonist Elastigirl challenges Disney’s stereotypes through her portrayal in

Incredibles 2 by relating it with the liberal feminist approach. Therefore, there are three problem formulations stated in this research.

The first problem formulation is answered by applying the theory of characterization and film-making techniques. The eight ways for viewers to understand the characterization of a character (in Art of Watching Films by Boggs and Petrie) help to identify how Elastigirl is portrayed as a hero through her appearance, dialogue, external action, etc. Based on Barsam and Monahan’s

Looking at Movies, the film-making techniques are also used to analyze Elastigirl’s portrayal. The techniques are techniques on shots, camera angles, camera movement, lighting, scale and proximity. All of these audiovisual data (based on how Elastigirl fulfills the previous eight steps) is gathered and act as a foundation for solving the second and third problem.

The second problem formulation is answered by the identification result of

Elastigirl’s portrayal by connecting it with the theory of gender stereotypes and the related studies of Disney’s gender stereotypes. The theory of gender stereotypes

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help the researcher analyse how Elastigirl challenges these gender stereotypes that were given by Disney in its previous films.

The third problem formulation is answered by applying the theory of liberal feminism after connecting it with the first and second problem formulation. This theory is applied to identify the ideologies signified in Elastigirl’s challenges of

Disney’s gender stereotypes through her portrayal in relation to liberal feminism in the film Incredibles 2.

Finally, by completing the analysis, this research expects to have temporary results that are insightful and critical. Therefore, this research can bring an important contribution to the study of gender stereotypes.

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CHAPTER III

METHODOLOGY

A. Object of Study

The object of the study is the screenplay and film of Incredibles 2 that are written and directed by Brad Bird. This research analyzes the hero named Helen

Parr (a.k.a Elastigirl), who is one of the main characters in this film. Incredibles 2 was released by Disney Pixar in June 15, 2018 in the United States of America. It is a superhero film, a sequel of its first film The Incredibles (2004), that focuses on the theme of family. The 118-minutes film is directed by Brad Bird and produced by John Walker and Nicole Paradis Grindle, starring Holly Hunter as Helen Parr and Craig T. Nelson as Bob Parr along with Michael Giacchino as the music composer and Stephen Schaffer as editor. According to the statistics website thenumbers.com, Incredibles 2 produced the worldwide box office of $1, 242, 805,359 with domestic box office of $ 608,581,744, with $ 182,687,905 for the opening weekend and also with the budget of $200,000,000. Incredibles 2 became the highest-grossing Pixar film worldwide after surpassing Toy Story 3 by $1.067 billion by August 12, 2018 as calculated by Box Office Mojo . In terms of pre-sale,

Incredibles 2 is also successful as well. Dave McCanary in variety.com wrote that

Incredibles 2 made it as the biggest opening for any movie not rated PG 13 for that weekend, which outnumbered Disney’s very own remake of Beauty and The Beast last year that pulled in $174 billion, as cited by Forbes. The film also won several prizes and nominated for several awards, and among them are the following.

Incredibles 2 was nominated for the category of Best Animated Feature in Academy

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Awards (February 24, 2019). It won the category of Favorite Animated Movie In

Kid’s Choice Awards (March 23, 2019) and also won the category of Favorite

Family Movie in the 44th People’s Choice Awards (November 11, 2018).

Incredibles 2 tells a story of a superhero family who saved the city of

Municiberg from the villain Screenslaver. The film began as the Incredibles fought the Underminer together. Although they managed to save the town, they caused collateral damages and sparked the government’s fury. As a result, the superheroes

(the Incredibles and Frozone) were cut from the financial support of the Superhero

Relocation Program, that left them on their own. However, Frozone offered the

Incredibles to join a rich businessman named Winston Deavor and his sister Evelyn in their project to defeat the villain Screenslaver and also to broadcast the positive image of superheroes to earn society's trust again. Elastigirl was chosen as the ‘face’ of these superheroes to participate in Winston’s project. She was considered more eligible than Mr. Incredibles because she caused less collateral damage.

With her new job, Bob stayed at home and faced challenges in taking care of the children while the now-popular Elastigirl (assumed temporarily) provided for her family and was promoted as the savior of the town when Screenslaver was defeated. Elastigirl too was challenged by Evelyn to have the stage for her own in this ‘man’s world’ as she indirectly suggested the idea that Helen should be free from her husband’s ‘shadow’. However, Elastigirl rejected the idea and made it clear that she still had her own core beliefs.

As things turned out, Screenslaver was Evelyn herself. She wanted to eliminate superheroes from the society due to her childhood hate of the superheroes

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who failed to save her murdered father. She planned to broadcast a negative image of these heroes to the world at the superhero summit that will legalize the superheroes’ status again on the Everjust ship. Evelyn screen-hypnotized all of the newly-discovered superheroes who were invited, such as Voyd and her friends. She even hypnotized Elastigirl herself and Bob who came to save his wife. Eventually, the three of Incredibles kids came to the rescue, freeing all of the superheroes from the screen hypnotize. The superheroes stopped the ship from crashing into the city and got Evelyn arrested before she could escape. In the end, superheroes were made legal and acknowledged by the society. The film finished when the Incredibles were about to go to the movie theatre with Violet’s boyfriend, Tony, and left him waiting as they changed their mind to participate in a criminal chase.

Incredibles 2 explores the values of gender equality through the portrayal of the main character Elastigirl and Helen Parr’s relationship with her husband Bob

Parr.

B. Approach of the Study

To answer the problems formulated in this research, the researcher applies feminist approach. According to Feminisms: A Reader by Humm, feminism is a

“social force”. Humm indicated that feminism also depends on the premise that women can consciously and collectively change their social place. She also added that the word ‘feminism’ can stand for a belief in sexual equality combined with a commitment to eradicate sexist domination to transform society (1992, p.1). The previous statement becomes the focus of all feminist movements around the world, whether it is the first, second or third wave. In this research, feminist approach is

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used to see how Elastigirl reflects the values of feminism concerning her freedom and position through her portrayal in challenging Disney’s gender stereotypes in the screenplay and in the film as well.

Moreover, since this study focuses on women’s individual freedom and in the equality of opportunity that women can receive as men do, this research specifically applies one of feminism’s branch, namely the liberal feminist criticism. According to Susan Wendell in A Qualified (Defense) of Liberal

Feminism, liberal feminism emphasizes the political equality for women (equality of legal rights, political participation, freedom of thought, freedom of expression and freedom of action), equality of opportunity and the liberation from sex discrimination. Rosemary Tong in Feminist Thinking also states that “women should have as much chance to succeed in the public realm as men do” (Tong, 2009, p.2) and to be free from “oppressive gender roles” (p.34) that emphasizes women should be homemakers while men should be breadwinners. Liberal feminism allows women to experience the opportunities that men have experienced by making men as their role model and equals. The main goal of liberal feminism can be successfully achieved when there is cooperation between men and women. Men also should be allowed to explore themselves by not always being the

“breadwinner” but also as an “active participant in the thick web of familial and friendship relationships he and she weaves together” (Tong, 2009, p.30) as a husband and wife and also as friends when both develops their private and personal selves, as Betty Friedan viewed. Both men and women can achieve equal opportunity when they work together in creating “fair redistribution of

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responsibility for childcare and housework” (Wendell, 1987, p.86), especially in the area of employment, by having the consciousness that they both are breadwinners and homemakers. By doing so, none of the two sexes are seen as an inferior nor superior when they realize that they have the power to care, provide and explore themselves at the same time.

In this research, liberal feminism is applied to see how the hero, Helen, was given the chance of experiencing the opportunities and freedom that her husband,

Bob, have experienced previously by challenging Disney’s gender stereotypes through her portrayal. It is also essential to mention that Bob himself was also allowed to experience Helen’s opportunity and freedom in nurturing the children and taking care of the house. Therefore, liberal feminism is suitable to re-examine the meaning of equality in Incredibles 2.

C. Method of the Study

Library research method is used in this research. The primary data source of this research is the 2018 film of Incredibles 2 backed up by the screenplay which are both directed and written by Brad Bird. The secondary data source of this research are books, journals and articles related to character and characterization theory, gender stereotypes theory, liberal feminist criticism and Disney’s gender stereotypes. The secondary data source of this research is also the film of The

Incredibles (2004) backed up by its screenplay, which was directed and written by

Brad Bird as well. This prequel of Incredibles 2 serves as a significant intertextual element of the second film. Some essential sources used in this research are Art of

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Watching Films by Boggs and Petrie, Looking at Movies by Barsam and Monahan,

Encyclopedia of Sex and Gender by Ember & Ember, Gender, Nature and Nurture by Richard A. Lippa, A (Qualified) Defense of Liberal Feminism by Susan Wendell and Feminist Thought by Rosemary Tong.

There are several steps to conduct this research. First, the researcher had watched Incredibles 2 to understand and examine closely Elastigirl’s characterization and her portrayal in the film. This research was also backed up by

Incredibles 2 script written by Brad Bird. The characterization and portrayal of

Elastigirl were analyzed using Boggs and Petrie’s theory of characterization in The

Art of Watching Film. The film-making techniques of Barsam and Monahan’s

Looking at Movies were also applied to analyze the portrayal of Elastigirl. The second step analyzed how Elastigirl challenges Disney’s gender stereotypes through her portrayal by applying Best and Lippa’s theory of gender stereotypes and connecting it with the related studies written by Wiersma, Streif & Dundes and

Brydon. By doing so, the researcher understood the previous Disney gender stereotypes challenged by Elastigirl’s portrayal. The last step saw what ideologies were signified through the portrayal of Elastigirl in challenging Disney’s gender stereotypes in relation to liberal feminist perspective by applying Wendell and

Tong’s theory of liberal feminism.

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CHAPTER IV

ANALYSIS

This chapter presents the analysis of the selected focus. The first discussion is the portrayal of Elastigirl. Next is the way the character challenges Disney’s gender stereotypes through her portrayal. Finally, this chapter questions the ideologies signified through the portrayal of Elastigirl in challenging Disney’s gender stereotypes through her portrayal. All of these discussions are conducted through the liberal feminist perspective.

A. The Portrayal of Elastigirl

The portrayal of Elastigirl is conducted through several steps. In Boggs and

Petrie’s theory of characters and characterization, it is mentioned that there are 8 ways to examine a character, namely through the appearance, dialogue, external actions, internal actions, reaction of other characters, usage of dramatic foils, leitmotif and caricature. However, not all of the 8 ways are applied to examine

Elastigirl due to the insufficiency of data presented in the film. In addition to those strategies, Elastigirl is also portrayed through film-making techniques such as the usage of shots, camera angles, camera movement, lighting, scale and proximity.

After conducting the analysis on the ways Elastigirl is portrayed to all of those strategies, there are some results of the portrayals that Elastigirl is physically and socially elastic, an independent and a competitive individual.

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1. Elastic

Helen Parr with the ‘stage name’ Elastigirl is a woman in her late 30s, married to Bob Parr (who also happens to be a superhero) and a mother of three, named Violet, Dash and Jack-Jack. Since the first sequel of The Incredibles (2004),

Helen had been looking after the family and saving her husband Bob from the villain Syndrome. The Incredibles ended when another villain called the

Underminer showed up to attack the city. Thus, the fight to battle the Underminer became the fresh start of Incredibles 2. As the film progressed, the Parrs and

Frozone managed to save the town. However, they caused collateral damage which cut them off from the financial support of the Superhero Relocation Program, that left them on their own. However, Helen was offered to regain the people’s trust for superheroes by ‘working’ for the Devtech company. Moreover, she was considered more eligible than Bob due to the less collateral damage she caused.

Eventually, Helen accepted the offer. Yet one thing to be considered was working for Devtech did not only mean financial support for the Parrs, but also means to leave her job as a full-time mom for a while.

This ‘job’ offer is a new challenge for Helen since she never got the official solo opportunity to step into the spotlight nor to leave her family for a short span of time. Hence, this section explores how Helen is portrayed as a flexible individual who has the opportunity to choose who she wants to become: to be the same person with the same identity wherever she is.

First, Helen’s physical and social elasticity (or flexibility) is analyzed through her appearance. Helen is a short-haired woman with an average height, but

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might be considered as quite short when compared to her husband Bob. The most noticeable feature of her body is her elastic, wide hips, supported by her super thin legs, that indicates that she is a mother of three, as shown in the scene where she stood in front of the mirror (Figure 1). In addition, the usage of scale in the film- making technique is applied in Figure 1. It exaggerates the size of Elastigirl’s wide hips and put her head out of frame, which suggests that Helen’s body shape is far from the ideal hourglass figure and stresses that she had given birth to three children. Figure 2 is also dolly shot of Elastigirl stopping the sabotaged train, emphasizing her physical elasticity and capability to save the townspeople from disaster, not just saving her family from calamities as she did in the prequel The

Incredibles (2004).

Figure 1 Figure 2

Figure 2’s dolly shot highlights that all parts of her body is stretchable and she herself has turned into various kinds of shapes to suit her need in the battlefield, whether it is a parachute or a random shape. It can be concluded that Elastigirl is not only physically elastic, but given the opportunity to be socially flexible in terms of being a mother with a super job and super family as well.

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Second, her physical and social elasticity is reflected in the leitmotif. In this case, it is the theme song of Elastigirl. Below are the lyrics:

Here comes Elastigirl Stretching her arms Elastigirl No one’s beyond her reach (Giachino, 2018)

The song lyrics “stretching her arms” can be interpreted as physically and socially stretching her arm or able to help anyone. “No one’s beyond her reach” can be interpreted that no one is beyond her help, that everyone is still in her reach including her family members, while working at the same time.

Third, in terms of external action, Elastigirl is physically flexible as seen when she stops the Underminer villain along with Bob and her family and saves the townspeople. In Figure 3, Elastigirl commanded the traffic to stop in order to be saved from danger. Here, a zoom-in of her elastic hand is captured along with the film-making technique of proximity. Her enlarged hand that grew closer to the screen does not only signify her physical flexibility, but also her social flexibility.

Her enlarged hand signifies a power of command over the citizens that was not just exercised over the family dinner-table argument in earlier scenes. Her physical flexibility is also seen when she battled Screenslaver, as her body “splits” into two while riding her elasticycle, stopping the train from crashing, jumping off from the helicopter with the ambassador and saving the falling, sky-diving Evelyn from the aircraft by turning into a parachute. Hence, it is also related to her social flexibility in taking care of her family while working. It is most obvious in the scene when

Helen answered Dash’s phone call in the middle of her tense, train chase on her

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elasticycle (Figure 4). Helen’s voice turned gentle suddenly as she answered Dash’s inquiry about his missing high-tops. Helen replied that she could not talk at the moment and suggested that he should look under his bed. After that, Helen hung up and immediately switched the line to the Deavor brothers’. The tone of her voice went up as she raised her voice and inquired how much time she has left. Moreover, analyzed through the film-making techniques, Elastigirl’s close-up shot in Figure 4 allows the audience to observe the low-key lighting and expression of Helen that portrays her seriousness of working on her mission. However, her seriousness and tense expression was suddenly interrupted by Dash’s call. Her expression grew softer in responding to Dash’s call along with her changing voice tone, and returned to its previous state as Dash hung upp. It can be inferred from this part that Helen’s identity as a mother remains unchanging although she is given the opportunity the

‘work’ as a superhero and explore the external world.

Figure 3 Figure 4

Next, Elasitigirl’s social elasticity is examined through what the other characters think of her. Bob, Helen’s husband, is always aware of Helen’s motherhood even though they are equal partners in mission. In the beginning of the film, Bob told Violet to listen to her mother although they were engaging the

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Underminer in the battlefield. This remark implies that Bob knows Helen’s identity remains the same wherever they are, whether they are at home or at the workplace or at the battlefield.

BOB (to Violet). You heard your mother! (Bird, 2018, p. 2)

Moreover, another character who is aware of Helen’s unchanging identity as a mother working as a superhero is Voyd. In Devtech’s celebration party congratulating Elastigirl’s victory, after the (fake) Screenslaver was caught, Voyd asked the hero how she balances the “superhero stuff” with “the life stuff”.

However, Helen did not have the chance to answer Voyd’s question since Helen picked up an urgent cue of Screenslaver’s fake existence as she talked to Voyd by seeing the footage from her suitcam displayed on Devtech’s meeting hall screen.

VOYD. How do you balance the superhero stuff with the life stuff? (Bird, 2018, p.62)

Lastly, Elastigirl’s social flexibility is analyzed through the dialogues in the film. Helen herself know that she has a choice to value herself as a flexible individual. It is shown through her conversation with Bob as she tried on the new supersuit:

HELEN (to Bob).I’m not all dark and angsty. I’m Elastigirl. I’m, you know, flexible. (Bird, 2018, p. 23)

Furthermore, when Elastigirl was given the opportunity to be the ‘face’ that will restore the superheroes’ legal status, she still hesitated on saying yes and replied that she did not know (Figure 5). Through the film-making technique analysis,

Figure 5 is one of the important moments in Incredibles 2. Her dialogue in Figure

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5 is supported by a slow zoom-in, eye-level medium shot of Elastigirl’s expression.

The zoom-in creates a special effect, as if the slow zoom-in symbolizes the audience’s building expectation that Elastigirl would say yes to the offer. However, the building expectant hope of the audience is abruptly cut off with the hero’s hesitating answer of “I don’t know” along with her drastic expression change.

WINSTON. ...We’re gonna solve all kinds of problems together after the perfect launch with Elastigirl! EVELYN. So, What do you say? HELEN. What do I say? (laughs) I ...don’t know. (Bird, 2018, p.18)

She is aware that if she takes the offer, it means that she would have to leave her family temporarily and take the risk in facing the political dynamics of the superhero world. This shows that Helen has a right to make her own choice: reject the offer and go along with the Parr’s status quo or accept the offer and be a temporary long-distance ‘career’ mother involved in the superhero politics. The same idea is also reflected in Helen’s thoughts as she talked to Bob before they went to sleep, pondering upon her decision (Figure 6):

HELEN. I can't lie to you. It's nice to be wanted. Flattering, you know, but… BOB. But what's the choice? One, do this right, get well paid, we're out of the motel… and things get better for all Supers, including our kids. Or two...I find a job in two weeks or we're homeless. HELEN (to Bob). You know it’s crazy, right? To help my family, I gotta leave it. To fix the law, I gotta break it. BOB. You’ll be great. HELEN. I know I will. But what about you? We have kids. BOB. I’ll watch the kids, no problem. Easy. HELEN. Easy, huh? You’re adorable. Well, if there’s a problem I’ll drop this thing and come right back. (Bird, 2018, p.20)

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The dialogue above in Figure 6 is supported by the film-making technique of proximity and lighting. The two subjects, Helen and Bob, are placed near to each other while they were having their discussion on Helen’s job offer. The proximity and closeness between the two subjects indicates intimacy, opposite to Figure 9 and

Figure 5 Figure 6 whereas the distance of the dinner table separating Bob and Helen suggests hostility. In addition, both subjects are equally portrayed in low-key lighting, that indicates seriousness and foreshadowing of their future agreement. It is the opposite of Figure 9 and 11 where there is a lighting contrast between Helen and Bob at their dinner-table disagreement (this will be elaborated more in later sections). This film-making technique of proximity and lighting supports the portrayal of Helen as a wife to Bob, as the couple pondered about their decision before going to sleep, not only as a superhero. Eventually, Helen chose to accept the offer as her husband suggested her and that he would watch the kids for his wife. Helen agreed to, under one condition: if there is a problem in the household, she would immediately drop her job and come back. Indeed, her words to Bob are in accordance with her theme song which said that “no one’s beyond her reach” (Giacchino, 2018).

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The textual evidence above show that Helen chooses to value herself as a flexible individual: a caring wife and mother with an opportunity to explore the external world. Furthermore, for Helen, being flexible does not mean that she lives in two worlds at one time under two different identities. Instead, being flexible means to be the same person with the same identity wherever she is placed, at home or at work. She is still the same person whom Bob married and the same person whom a son asked the whereabouts of his missing high-tops to.

2. Independent

One of the most noticeable characteristics of Elastigirl is her independence.

For Helen, independence means to stand up for herself, to be confident in her own values and to have her own choice. Elastigirl’s trait of being independent is shown through her external actions and her dialogue with other characters.

Elastigirl’s independence is seen from her external actions in battling and capturing Screenslaver. Since Elastigirl did not have her family by her side in capturing (the fake) Screenslaver, she only had her team from Devtech: Winston, her promotor and Evelyn, her tech genius. She relied on her Devtech team for information and communication to capture the villain. However, she did not rely on them to save her when she was on the brink of death. In Figure 7, Elastigirl is saves the ambassador in the extreme long shot taken from below. As Elastigirl jumped out from the plane, she changed herself into a parachute while safely carrying the ambassador to the ground. In the extreme long shot taken from below,

Elastigirl’s parachute figure stood out clearly, in contrast to the dark sky. The parachute Helen, a regular wife and mother of three, was physically greater

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compared to the powerful and influential figure of the ambassador who was very tiny and helpless under the umbrella of Elastigirl. This communicates the message that a regular citizen like Elastigirl has power to make her own choice in saving an influential figure like the ambassador because Helen is aware of her capability.

Helen also made her choice to save Evelyn, who fell from her aircraft when she tried to escape, in the extreme long shot in Figure 8. The chronology began when the Parr kids saved Helen and the rest of the superheroes who was hypnotized and controlled by Evelyn, the actual Screenslaver. Eventually, Helen came into consciousness, thanks to Jack-Jack who took off her hypnotize glasses. After coming to consciousness, Elastigirl saved Mr. Incredibles and Frozone by taking off their glasses as well. Bob, Violet, Dash and Jack-Jack encouraged her to go after Evelyn on her own and ensured they would be fine without her despite Helen’s hesitation on finishing the mission and worry about her family. Finally, Elastigirl came face to face with Evelyn on the aircraft. Evelyn tried to kick Elastigirl in the face, refusing Elastigirl’s help, when Evelyn was free-falling in the sky. Elastigirl could have let go of Evelyn because Evelyn was the actual villain, but she chose not to. Instead, Helen followed her motherly instincts of compassion to save Evelyn from crashing to the ground. Elastigirl’s sky-chase of Evelyn is clearly shown in

Figure 8. The extreme shot of Elastigirl featured the background of the empty sky, in contrast to the tiny free-falling figures, whereas the hero managed to save Evelyn just in time. Thus, Elastigirl’s act in saving Evelyn is not influenced by the others’ hatred towards Evelyn, but determined by her own belief in imposing her will on

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the status quo (Elastigirl’s core beliefs will be explained in the later section) and identity as a loving mother.

Figure 7 Figure 8

Elastigirl’s independence is also shown in her dialogues. Her confidence in her own values and in her choice is reflected in several scenes. First, she is confident that she will be great, as Bob and Helen talked about her decision in accepting

Winston’s offer before they went to sleep and before Elastigirl set off on her mission with her elasticycle.

BOB. You’ll be great. HELEN. I know I will... (Bird, 2018, p.20)

BOB. You will be great. HELEN. I will be great. And you will, too. BOB. We will both be great. HELEN. Bye, sweetie. (Bird, 2018, p.24)

Next, Helen’s confidence in her own values is reflected in her conversation with

Evelyn when they were debating about being an independent woman.

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EVELYN. Must be nice for you, being out front after all this time.

HELEN. Out front?

EVELYN. Well, it's been a while since your superhero days...and even then, you were kind of in Mr. Incredible's shadow.

HELEN. Nah, I beg to differ.

EVELYN. I'm not... I'm not saying you weren't big. No, you were, and are, a superstar… but you have the stage to yourself now. And people have to pay attention.

HELEN. Oh, you mean, "It's a man's world" and all that? Well, what world do you live in? Your brother runs DEVTECH.

EVELYN. I don't want his job. I invent, he sells. I ask you, which of us has the greater influence? HELEN. Which side of me are you asking? The believer or the cynic?

EVELYN. The cynic…

HELEN. Would say selling is more important because the best sellers have the most buyers. Doesn't matter what you're selling. It only matters what people buy.

EVELYN. This is true. If I discovered the origin of the universe...my brother would find a way to market it as a, uh, foot massager.

(BOTH LAUGHING)

EVELYN. So, what would the believer say?

HELEN. The believer would tell you to make your mark. Don't wait for permission, assert yourself and impose your will on the status quo.

(Bird, 2018, pp.45-46)

Helen’s last statement can be interpreted that there is no such thing as being “under the shadow of men” as Evelyn suggested before. Her core beliefs implies that a woman does not need the permission of a man in order to spread her wings. Helen’s answer to Evelyn is a counter attack to Evelyn’s statement that suggested Helen was previously working “in Mr. Incredible’s shadow” (p.45) and that she had the

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stage to herself now, ever since working at Devtech. Helen also admitted although the world may be a “man’s world”, that should not be an excuse for a woman to not assert herself and impose her will on the status quo. This refers to Helen’s freedom of choice of having the privilege of being a wife, mother and a ‘working woman’ at the same time. The textual evidence above indicates that Helen does not measure herself as a housewife nor as a career woman, but as a human who has a choice.

3. Competitive

The last most noticeable characteristic of Elastigirl is her competitiveness with Mr. Incredibles. Both of them are fully and equally qualified to reach their own finish line, as if they are participating in a fair and healthy race. In the first sequel of this film, Bob already got the shot to be the main star in the ‘workplace’.

Now, it is Helen’s turn as she receives the equal opportunity like Bob had. She has the brain, power and autonomy to spread her wings like Bob do in exploring himself as a ‘househusband’. The air of competition drives both sides to explore themselves and to bring out the best of them, both as homemakers and breadwinner. Elastigirl’s portrayal as an equally qualified competitor is depicted in her external actions, in what other characters think of her and in her dialogues.

Elastigirl’s equal qualification is seen in her external actions. Physical-wise,

Elastigirl is equally qualified as she has the capacity to stop the Underminer in the beginning of the movie and her ability to hunt down Screenslaver, as Bob also has the capacity to battle the Underminer and hunt down Syndrome’s robot as seen in the previous sequel of the film. Social-wise, Elastigirl has the familial power or

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authority over the family as Bob do, as both of them tried to control the dynamics of the dinner table during their argument over the superhero politics (Figure 9 and

10).

Social-wise, Elastigirl has the familial power or authority over the family as

Bob do, as both of them tried to control the dynamics of the dinner table during their argument over the politics of the superhero world as shown in Helen and Bob’s dinner table argument marked by the usage of proximity and lighting. The dinner table which separates Helen and Bob in this eye-level medium shot suggests hostility and disagreement between them. Moreover, Helen’s lighting is much more softer than Bob’s and places the two in a contrasted position. Figure 9 and 10 is the opposite of Figure 6, which has been explained in the previous sections, where the distance between Helen and Bob is eliminated and the lighting is made uniform as the couple came together upon a decision. The film-making technique seen in this scene implies that Helen is also an equal of Bob in terms of familial matters, as shown through their arguments and cooperative decision-making moments throughout the progressing story.

Figure 9 Figure 10 Figure 11

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Moreover, Elastigirl does not also have familial power like Bob do, but also the societal power. She was publicly recognized by the society as her name was broadcasted in television headlines and shouted by her fans when she rode her elasticycle depicted in the dolly shot in Figure 11. This scene is preceded by a series of shots beforehand as Helen left Bob standing in the garage with Jack-Jack as she headed for the airport. Elastigirl is depicted as independent, free and powerful as she accelerated to the main road as her elasticycle ran wild, seen through the aerial and dolly shots leading up to her accidental meeting with her ‘fans’. The citizens recognized the hero, and they were ecstatic to see her. Elasigirl waved back to them before exiting the scene.

Elastigirl’s equal qualification is also reflected by what other characters think of her. Winston and Evelyn considered that Helen is fully qualified to be chosen as the face of the superhero since Elastigirl did lesser casualty than Bob

(based on Evelyn’s cost-benefit analysis). Screech considered her as the “gold standard for superheroes” (Bird, 2018, p.44). Bob himself also excruciatingly acknowledged Elastigirl’s equal qualifications as a competitor who will do a great job like he does too:

BOB. I would do a great job! Regardless of what Deavor's pie charts say or whatever...But they want you. (STRAINED) And you'll do a great...job...too. (Bird, 2018, pp.19-20)

Next, Elastigirl’s portrayal as an equal competitor of Mr. Incredibles is depicted in the dialogues. Before Helen was offered a job by Winston, the Parrs couple were thinking of getting a job, and Helen considered herself capable to turn

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into the private sector while Bob watches the kids. She also said to her husband that they could not count on anyone else, because they were on their own.

HELEN. (to Bob). One of us has gotta get a job...Maybe it’s my turn in the private sector and you take care of the kids...We can’t count on anyone else now, Bob. It’s just us. (Bird, 2018, p.11)

By saying so, Helen indirectly considers herself as qualified to support the family financially. She is aware that her position in the family is not more superior or inferior compared to Bob. Moreover, her words show that Helen has a choice in mind since the beginning to have her turn in the private sector.

It has been shown that Elastigirl is an equally qualified competitor to Mr.

Incredibles. Next, the spirit of competitiveness is sparked between the two as

Elastigirl was given the opportunity to get her shot. From this point, the future dialogues that occured between Elastigirl and Mr. Incredibles mostly hints sparks of jealousy and also healthy competitiveness at the same time. Of course, Bob was surprised that he did not get picked by Winston and Evelyn to be the main star of their project. In the beginning, he could not accept that Elastigirl was equally qualified as he is in the eyes of Winston and Evelyn. He made comments that slightly offended Helen, as Helen’s facial expression and gaze turned sour as she heard the words coming out of his mouth, seen in her close-up shot in Figure 12.

He even implicitly considered her wife “too light” solution to handle “heavyweight problems”:

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BOB. (to Winston). Better than me? I mean, she’s good. Really, a credit to her… you know. You know… Well, it’s not a fair comparison! Heavyweight problems need heavyweight solutions. (Bird, 2018, p.17-18)

However, Bob slowly acknowledged Elastigirl’s credibility in launching the mission, with the reason so the kids and himself can have the legal choice of being a superhero again when superheroes are made official.

BOB (to Helen): You’ve got to (leave). So that I… We can be supers again, so our kids can have that choice. HELEN (scoffs). So you can have that choice. BOB. All right, yes! So I can have that choice. And I would do a great job! Regardless of what Deavor’s pie charts say or whatever… But they want you. And you’ll do a great...job...too. HELEN. Well, that was excruciating to watch. ... BOB. ... I got it (watching the kids), you go do this thing. Do it so… I can do it better. (BOB grunts as HELEN hit Bob’s head playfully with her pillow) (Bird, 2018, p.19-21)

Elastigirl’s conversation with Mr. Incredibles before she left with her elasticycle is also hinted with jealousy from her husband, and responded by Helen’s confidence in herself and in Bob.

BOB (to Helen). You will be great. HELEN. I will be great. And you will, too. BOB. We will both be great. (Bird, 2018, p.24)

Bob’s competitiveness was also triggered by Dash’s remark about Bob’s ability in understanding Dash’s math homework. Dash thought that Helen could do the equations better than Bob according to the requested working way.

DASH. I’ll just wait for Mom to get back. BOB. What? She won’t understand it any better than I do. …

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BOB (to himself). What am I, a substitute parent? (Bird, 2018, p.27, 35)

Furthermore, Helen also stirred some competitive air between her and Bob when she called from her hotel after executing her premiere duty in stopping the crashing train. Both began by updating each other how they were doing with their own

‘missions’ and ended their conversation by supporting each other, although there were still sparks of jealous obviously seen in Bob. Things became a little bit sensitive for Bob when he heard Helen misspoke about her doubt on Bob’s ability to handle the kids and when he heard Helen’s achievements that day.

HELEN. Sounds like I just woke you upp. BOB. No, no. It’s just Jack-Jack. HELEN. He had an accident! I knew it! I’m coming home right now! I never should have… BOB. No accident. Stay here and finish your mission. You never should… What? You don’t think I can do this? HELEN. No, no. Sorry, I misspoke. Do you need me to come back? BOB. No, no. No, I’ve got this. Everything’s great...how about you? HELEN. I saved a runaway train (laughing in delight, jumping off the bed in excitement) …. HELEN. Boom! No casualties! (squeals) (Bird, 2018, pp.33-34)

Here, Bob turns the TV on and off after seeing Helen’s news flooding most of the channels. He was mad at the fact that Helen was doing better than him today. He tried to sound sweet to Helen on the phone, but his facial expression was full of irritation. He even squeezed the phone so tight, even knocking down his own forehead onto the coffee table (Figure 13). Moreover, Bob’s air of tragedy was supported with the film-making technique of low-key or hard lighting which emphasizes Bob’s momentary despair and fear of losing to his wife. Meanwhile, on the other side, Helen was jumping up and down, feeling victorious of the

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achievements she done that day and later thanked Bob for helping her to take care of the kids (Figure 14). Helen, in Figure 14, was given high-key or soft lighting, causing her face to radiate a sense of romance or comicalness. Her comical and ecstatic expression is also highlighted by her close-up look in her full open laugh when she reported to her husband of her brilliant progress that day. Bob was annoyed at himself for not doing better than Helen as he said the following lines with his jaws half clenched:

BOB. That’s so fantastic, honey! And on your first night! I am so proud of you, really. HELEN. I’m so proud of you, honey. I know you want to get out there and you will soon. And you’ll be amazing. I couldn’t have done this if you hadn’t taken over so well. Thanks for handling everything. (Bird, 2018, p.35)

After their phone call, Bob was triggered to do his mission in excellence as well.

He could not sleep that night and decided to work on Dash’s math homework, which he was able to solve and taught it to Dash by the next morning. He knew that in order for Helen and Bob to succeed, they have to support each other, as he said to

Lucius “I’ve got to succeed, so she can succeed, so we can succeed!” (Bird, 2018, p.56). This includes Bob letting go of his superhero car (that was bought by a rich man) to be left unclaimed in order not to distract Helen and to support his wife to finish her mission in capturing Evelyn after the Parrs came to the rescue:

BOB (to DASH). Do you think I want an angry rich guy coming after me right now when I’m trying not to distract your mother? … HELEN. Evelyn, she’s escaping. BOB. Well, go after her. Finish your mission. HELEN. I can’t just go! What about the kids? Jack-Jack, who’s gonna… VIOLET. Mom! Go. We’ve got this. (Bird, 2018, p.54, 84)

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Eventually, Bob managed to finish his job well at the end (after some ups and downs) and earned the kids’ appreciation for working so hard, as he said that he

“just wanna be a good Dad” (Bird, 2018, p.63) . In the eye-level shot of Figure 15,

Bob was feeding his family breakfast with milk and the hot waffle he cooked. From this scene, it can be inferred that the competitiveness in Bob motivated him not only to represent a husband as a protector, but also as a nurturer.

Figure 12 Figure 13 Figure 14

Bob was not the only one who was jealous. Helen felt so as well, although it was not very obvious. However, there is one scene where Helen was angry at Bob because she just knew Jack-Jack has powers as Bob, Helen and Lucius were fighting the other hypnotized superheroes. Helen’s competitiveness sparked when she realized that she missed to ‘score’ one point (Figure 16).

HELEN. What the…? Jack-Jack has powers? BOB. We know. Fight now, talk later. … HELEN. I missed Jack-Jack’s first power? BOB. Actually, you missed the first 17. (ALL LAUGHING) Helen. Oh! (Bird, 2018, p.83, 89)

In addition to Figure 16, there is also one interesting point that can be observed using the scale and proximity in film-making techniques. Bob’s image as the head

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of the family in Figure 16 is presented as bigger compared to the rest of the characters, as if his gesture shows protection over his children, including Helen herself who is seen like a little angry child sticking to Bob. It seems like the message that is delivered to the audience is that the family is at ease.They are placed very close to each other, in contrary to Figure 15 where Bob is separated from his children because of the breakfast table.

From this conversation, it can also be inferred that Elastigirl’s competitiveness also suggests that she still values herself as a mother who cares about her children although she had the chance to be the ‘star’ of the show.

Furthermore, as they accomplished their mission in battling the villains and managed to stop the ship from crashing, Helen preferred to take a break from her

‘work’. Therefore, the same idea of Helen valuing herself as a mother is reflected when she said to Bob and Lucius, “you guys got the next shift. I’m beat” (Bird,

2018, p.89).

Figure 15 Figure 16

From the textual evidence above, it can be concluded that Elastigirl is a competitive portrayal by being the equally qualified competitor of Bob in their healthy competition. Moreover, Elastigirl’s success in capturing the villain was not based on her effort alone, but also based on her mutual partnership with Bob and his cooperation.

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B. The Way Elastigirl Challenges Disney’s Gender Stereotypes through Her

Portrayal

The researcher has watched and read the script of Incredibles 2 several times to understand and examine closely Elastigirl’s characterization and her portrayal in the film. The characterization and portrayal of Elastigirl have also been analyzed using Boggs and Petrie’s theory of characterization in The Art of Watching Film and Barsam and Monahan film-making techniques from the book Looking at

Movies. It has been discovered that Elstigirl is portrayed as physically and socially elastic, independent and an equal competitor of Bob. Now, the second step analyzes how Elastigirl challenges Disney’s gender stereotypes through her portrayal by applying Best and Lippa’s theory of gender stereotypes and connects it with the related studies written by Wiersma, Streif & Dundes and Brydon. By doing so, the researcher understands what are the previous Disney gender stereotypes challenged by Elastigirl’s portrayal.

According to Best, the main idea of gender stereotypes “refer to the psychological traits and behaviors that are believed to occur with differential frequency in the two gender groups” (Ember & Ember, 2003, p.11). Men are generally stereotyped as the provider who are more involved in external activities or travelling far away from home while women are generally stereotyped as the homemaker who are associated with domestic activities (Ember & Ember, 2003, p.11, 17, 19; Lippa, 2005, p.112). Moreover, men are stereotyped as aggressive, competitive, logical, skilled in business, self-confident, strong, adventurous,

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independent, skilled in doing math and travel far away from home (Ember &

Ember, 2003, p.11, 17, 19; Lippa, 2005, p.112). Meanwhile, women are stereotyped as emotional, gentle, aware of feelings of others, weak, soft-hearted, nurturing, more involved in domestic activities and in child-rearing (Ember & Ember, 2003, p.11, 17, 19; Lippa, 2005, p.112). Hence, Best and Lippa’s theory of gender stereotypes are used to identify Disney’s female gender stereotypes that are mentioned in the 2 related studies written by Wiersma and Streif & Dundes.

According to Best and Lippa, women are portrayed as homemakers, it means they are involved in domestic activities such as cooking, cleaning, child- caring and doing external activities. It is the opposite of being a provider, that means to be good at maths and travelling far away from home. In Wiersma’s research, domestic activity means upkeeping the home or yard, including taking care of the children. Wiersma’s research shows that female characters did more chores than male characters (20 females and 5 males), with 39 total number of chores, 28 kinds of in-home labor. Furthermore, the ratio of female to male actions are more than

6:1 (Wiersma, 2000, pp.58-59). The cleaning and cooking activities done by female characters (from sweeping, bathing animals and serving food) are 19 out of 28 kinds. Meanwhile, cleaning and cooking activities done by males (serving food, feeding dog, ironing and cooking) are 4 out of 28 kinds. Nurturing or child-caring activities done by females (babysitting, baby-feeding, putting kids to bed, baby- rocking and pushing babies in strollers) are 5 out of 28 kinds . In contrary, nurturing or child-caring activities done by males are 0 out of 28 kinds. This can be inferred that Disney’s 1937 - 1995 female characters in Wiersma’s study were not given

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sufficient chance to explore non-domestic activities such as doing external activities male characters do.

Best and Lippa also explained that women were stereotyped as weak or dependent, in contrast to men who are generally seen as strong or independent. In

Wiersma’s research, the female Disney characters are seen as weak in terms of familial power and in terms of societal power. Wiersma informed that more male characters exercise familial powers compared to female characters in 6 studied films where familial power is evident in the films (Pinocchio, Lady & The Tramp,

The Aristocats, The Fox and The Hound, Beauty and The Beast and Toy Story)

(Wiersma, 2000, pp.67-69). Societal power means important position, authority or status. Societal power given to women are also considered as an opportunity for women to explore external activities and gain public recognition as they value themselves. In Disney’s 16 animated full-length feature films studied by Wiersma,

“the male characters with title or societal power outnumber the female characters by more than five times” (Wiersma, 2000, p.64). This shows that Disney’s 1937 -

1995 female characters studied in Wiersma’s research were not given great opportunity to explore external activities and gain public recognition as they value themselves Next, in terms of female dependency, the female characters in several studied films are still stereotyped as dependent to the male characters. “Women are traditionally stereotyped as dependent on others to take care of them,” Wiersma quoted (Wiersma, 2000, p.85). However, there are several changes in recent films as the female characters are mentioned: Ariel, Pocahontas, Lady, Duchess, Belle,

Winfred, Cinderella and Nala.

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The heroines in the more recent films do defy traditional stereotypes in that they are portrayed as more independent. These female heroines are portrayed as standing up for themselves to male characters. The problem is that these females are still subjected to the stereotyped belief that females need someone to watch over them, take care of them and provide for them (Wiersma, 2000, p.132).

Next, Best and Lippa also explain that women are generally stereotyped as emotional. To be emotional is also classified as being gentle, soft-hearted or appreciative. It is the opposite of being logical, aggressive and competitive.

Disney’s female gender stereotypes examined by Wiersma’s research depicted female characters to be more emotional than the male characters:

“Instances of crying are noted in 14 of the 16 films analyzed. What is interesting is that while 13 female characters were coded as crying (Snow White, Cinderella, Ariel, Belle, Jasmine, Pocahontas, Nakoma, Lady, Tinkerbell, Perdita, Nanny, Cruella DeVille, Mrs. Tweed), so too were 9 male characters (Pinocchio, Gepetto, Bambi, Captain Hook, Smee, Mowgli, Baloo, Simba, Dwarfs)” (Wiersma, 2000, p.81).

In addition, Disney’s female characters in 2013 (Elsa) and in 2016 (Moana) are portrayed as women with power and independent from men. Moana and Elsa are also given the opportunity to explore themselves as doing non-domestic activities, such as travelling far away from home, not doing any housework or taking care of children. However, they are still seen as individuals who work with ‘heart’ rather than ‘head’ and are potential to turn into social ‘threats’ when they lose emotional control. Both Moana and Elsa have ‘super’ powers, similar to Elastigirl. Moana and

Elsa’s representation are symbolized by the heart of the ocean, TeFiti/TeKa, and

Elsa’s frozen heart. When they lose control of their emotions, they are seen as threatening social figures (Elsa was imprisoned and TeKa turned into a horrendous lava monster).

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As mentioned in the previous paragraphs, there are three points of conclusion that can be drawn about Disney’s gender stereotypes of its female characters ranging from 1937-1995, 2013 and 2016. First, they are mostly portrayed as homemakers with insufficient opportunity to explore themselves by doing non- domestic activities, in contrary of being providers like men are stereotyped. Second, most of them are seen as weak in terms of familial and societal power and dependent on men, which is the opposite of being strong (in terms of familial and societal power) and independent as men are stereotyped according to Best and Lippa. In this context, the female characters’ weak societal power is also interpreted as an insufficient opportunity to explore external activities and gain public recognition as they value themselves. Third, most of the female characters are portrayed as emotional, in contrast with men who are stereotyped to be aggressive, competitive and logical. Although Elsa and Moana are portrayed as strong, independent and have the opportunity to explore external activities, they are still seen as emotional and dangerous.

However, Elastigirl challenged Disney’s gender stereotypes of female characters through her portrayal as follows:

1. A Nurturer Who Has the Opportunity to Explore External Activities.

At the end of the movie, Helen completed her mission to capture

Screenslaver, who turned out to be Evelyn, thanks to her supportive family.

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However, this does not erase her role as a mother. Helen chooses to be flexible, to remain as a caring mother who is an equally qualified competitor and partner of

Bob Parr, although Evelyn challenged her view that Helen could have owned the

‘stage’ all to herself and quit living under the shadow of Mr. Incredible. In other words, she refuses to renounce her healthy competition or collaboration with Bob.

Most importantly, Helen is able to achieve what Bob has previously done in the first sequel and discovered herself, without turning into a ‘social threat’ as experienced by Elsa and Moana and without forgetting her true identity as a nurturer. She also decided to provide for her family financially by travelling far from home, although she preferred to stay at home in the beginning if there was another choice to save the Parrs. In addition, Bob too, achieved what Helen has previously done most of the time as a mother and explored himself as a father who does not only provide but also nurture and protect his children at the same time, as seen in Figure 15 and 16. Helen is portrayed as a homemaker and provider, unlike the stereotyped view of Disney’s female characters, without changing her identity as a wife to Bob and a mother to Violet, Dash and Jack-Jack. As Brydon stated,

“their collaboration to save the family and the world is premised on gender role fluidity: Helen is able to fight the villain and reclaim rights for supers because Bob is at home caring for and nurturing the children” (Brydon, 2018, p.6).

2. A Strong and Independent Person with Choice to Value Who She Is

Elastigirl challenges Disney’s gender stereotypes of female characters by being a strong and independent person who can choose to value who she is. Helen

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is an individual with familial and societal power, as shown through her external action in handling the Parr’s arguments on the dinner table along with Bob and also recognized by the townspeople as a person of big influence. Her independence is not entirely based on her reliance on men to save her from Screenslaver, although she managed to complete several tasks alone. She still went after the villain alone until the end, but it was after she was rescued by her children and received encouragement from her husband to finish her mission. Instead, her independence lies on her freedom to choose to value herself as a nurturing human and on the fact that her actions are not dictated by what others think of Evelyn. As a caring human,

Helen still chooses to save Evelyn from crashing down the aircraft. Brydon concludes that “Helen is empowered mother but not a feminist mother” (Brydon,

2018, p.6).

3. A Logical, Aggressive and Competitive Individual

Elastigirl is still the gentle and soft-hearted wife and mother, yet she is also a logical, aggressive and competitive individual at the same time. She was able to take care of her children and inquire how they are doing in the middle of her ‘work’ life. She is also a logical individual who is able to formulate arguments against

Evelyn who has a negative perception of men. Elastigirl is also an aggressive individual as well since she chose to defend her core beliefs and her self-value against Evelyn’s attacking statements and actions. Moreover, her competitiveness is greatly shown when she was angry at Bob for not telling her about Jack-Jack’s first 17 powers. It can be concluded that Helen is not stereotyped by her gender.

Who she is is purely determined by her choice as a human.

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C. Ideologies Signified through the Portrayal of Elastigirl in Challenging

Disney’s Gender Stereotypes in Relation to Liberal Feminist Perspective

After analyzing the portrayal of Elastigirl and the way the portrayal is represented as a challenge to Disney’s gender stereotypes, the last discussion of this chapter is about the ideologies signified through the portrayal of Elastigirl in challenging Disney’s gender stereotypes in relation to liberal feminist perspective.

The ideologies uncovered in the signification are not only of gender, but also of capital purposes: women’s greater recognition and self-value as individuals, women’s public and private recognition of their freedom and privacy, women’s equality of opportunity to succeed in the public realm as men do and commercial purposes of the film. The details of the findings are presented below.

First, the ideologies signified through the portrayal of Elastigirl in challenging Disney’s stereotypes are related to gender. Elastigirl’s gender stereotype challenges signify the relation to liberal feminism perspective as mentioned earlier by Wendell (1987) and Tong (2009):

1. Women’s Greater Recognition and Self-Value as Individuals

Elastigirl is still recognized as a wife and mother by her family, other characters and by her own choice. Women’s greater recognition as individuals is also reflected in her liberty of taking the opportunity that was offered to her, in order for Elastigirl to experience what Mr. Incredible had experienced in the first sequel, under the special financial circumstances that the Parrs encountered. The opportunity offered to Elastigirl offered by Winston is a proof that a woman is also

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considered capable and is equally qualified like Bob, a man. Furthermore, Elastigirl also values herself as a caring individual by being proud that she is a mother of the

Parrs family. Most importantly, Elastigirl is confident that she will be great.

2. Women’s Public and Private Recognition of Their Freedom and

Privacy

Helen’s freedom of choice and privacy of reasons to take the offer, while she still remains an unchanging wife and mother to Bob and the kids, are publicly recognized. Contextually, the ‘public’ is counted as characters who are placed outside the sphere of the Parrs family, such as Evelyn and Voyd. Evelyn, although she disagrees with Helen’s core beliefs, still publicly recognized Elastigirl’s freedom of choice and privacy while attacking her. Voyd also acknowledged

Elastigirl’s choice and privacy by asking how Helen can handle the “life” and

“superhero stuff”. Helen’s freedom of choice and privacy of reasons are privately recognized by her husband, Bob, and her daughter, Violet. Although Bob was a little jealous of Helen in the beginning, he eventually fully supported her in accomplishing her mission. The same also applied to Violet, who encouraged her mother to finish her mission in capturing Evelyn by ensuring that the family would be alright.

3. Women’s Equality of Opportunity to Succeed in the Public Realm as

Men Do

Elastigirl was given an opportunity to ‘take turn’ in (assumed temporary) providing for her family financially due to their ‘special’ circumstances. The opportunity offered by the Deavors, and later was fully supported by Mr.

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Incredibles and the Parr kids. Her husband supported her decision. He knew that they both can maximize their potentials by succeeding together in their own battlefields, with Elastigirl hunting down Screenslaver and deal with a hero’s political and celebrity world while Mr. Incredible deals with maths, teenage love problems and a super-baby’s limitless energy. Elastigirl was not the only person who got the chance to explore and discover herself, but Bob as well. Mr. Incredibles got the equality of opportunity to succeed in the private realm as (most) women do, by nurturing for his family as a caring human. As Tong stated, “men who realize this also realizes women’s liberation is men’s liberation,” and that Helen was able to “weave a thick web of familial and friendship relationships” with Bob (Tong,

2009, p.30).

4. Ideology of Commercial Purpose

After analyzing the portrayal of Elastigirl and the way the portrayal is represented as a challenge to Disney’s gender stereotypes, the last discovery of the analysis is the ideology of commercial purpose signified behind these gender stereotype challenges. As it is mentioned previously, Disney Pixar’s budget for the making of Incredibles 2 is very small comparered to the outcome or final result of the worldwide box office. According to thenumbers.com, the production budget of

Incredibles 2 costs $200,000,000 and hauled $182,687,905 becoming the highest- grossing Pixar film worldwide after surpassing Toy Story 3 by $1.067 billion by

August 12, 2018 as calculated by Box Office Mojo. Furthermore, the domestic box office reached $608,581,744 and, finally, the world wide box office made a sum of

$1,242,805,359 as a total. Slashfilm.com, citing Forbes, wrote that the income of the

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opening weekend of Incredibles 2 made Disney Pixar the biggest opening for any movie not rated PG-13. It surpassed Beauty and The Beast, Disney’s remake of its cartoon, that pulled in $174 million. The final amount of the box office of

Incredibles 2 does not only come from the factor that the film is encapsuled with high feminist drive implanted in its main storyline, but also from Hollywood’s marketting strategies. It is discovered that the fame of stars in Incredibles 2, such as Samuel L. Jackson, and the director itself, Brad Bird, boosts the revenue of

Incredibles 2, which eventually guides Elastigirl and the Parrs to climb the stairs of

“bestseller” ratings of (the now-trending, female-led) popular films by attracting the (significantly, female) customers into the global market of the so-called

“women empowerment” trend that results a Hollywood business profit teleology.

Despite being a film of “feminist triumph”, as Anna Smith wrote in theguardian.com (Smith, 2018), Mc Canary in variety.com, citing Fandago record for animated movie pre-sales, discovered other various factors, especially the film- star-and-director factor, as the cause of the popularity of this film with survey of

1,000 Incredibles 2 moviegoers as Elastigirl and the Parrs are making history as

Fandago’s top animated pre-seller of all time (McCanary, 2018). 87% are fans of the director and scriptwriter Brad Bird and 85% have seen The Incredibles more than once. 60% have seen it more than 4 times and 75% saw it released on big screen in 2004. Most significantly, 74% of them are also excited to see Samuel L.

Jackson, the Nick Fury of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, returns as Frozone. As explained by Adam Leaver in ‘A Different Take: Hollywood’s Unresolved

Business Model’, there is a shifting of power in Hollywood films today. The growth

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of star power made “studios jettisoned production for cost reasons and then bought in talent to bolster their ‘spectaculars’,” Leaver observed (Leaver, 2010, p.463).

“Stars also help minimise losses on the ‘flops’ because they can drive the lucrative first-week box office receipts, of which studio-distributors take larger percentage claim, before word-of-mouth destroys the film’s reputations,” said Leaver, recalling the comment of Aida Hozic (Leaver, 2010, p.463). Leaver, quoting Hozic, informs that stars and directors also “provide important cue when negotiating pre-sale agreements” as his analysis showed that “throughout the 1980s the average film generated 14 per cent of its eventual domestic revenue in its first weekend; by 2002, first weekend revenue reached a high of 28 per cent of domestic revenue” (p.463).

By 2018, Incredibles 2 generated 30 percent of its opening weekend from the total of its mentioned domestic box office revenue.

Thus, the boost of the popularity of Incredibles 2 allows Elastigirl and the

Parrs to take part among the global, “bestseller” rated films that involve female leads as the “face” of their Hollywood brand. Ritu Prasad in bbc.com presesented her question in the headline ‘Is A Female Lead Now Key to Box Office Success?’ as she observes that female-centric films have “won the box offices” and “gain serious critical acclaim” such as Lady Bird , Shape of Water, Captain Marvel, etc.

(Prasad, 2018). Prasad, citing a study of Time’s Up movement published by

Creative Artist Agency and tech company shift7 entertainment group, stated that women-led films saw bigger success at the box office. “Analysing box office data for films from 2014 to 2017, researchers found that the top grossing blockbusters all starred women in leading role,” Prasad observed. “A BBC analysis earlier this

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year also found that female-led Oscar films were more profitable than their male- led counterparts,” Prasad continued and added that “last year’s top three films, Star

Wars, Wonder Woman and Beauty and the Beast all featured women in starring roles” (Prasad, 2018).

However, the Hollywood agenda is not only about how women are equally represented on big screens as men do, but also how to draw the customers into the so-called “women empowerment” trend in its films in order to achieve a successful show-biz profit as the end result. It is very interesting to note, as it is mentioned previously, that history makes Incredibles 2 as the top animated pre-seller of all time, according to Fandago managing editor Erik Davis (McCanary, 2018). Davis added that “fans have been waiting a long time for the return of one of our favorite screen families, and the latest Pixar offering is primed for heavy repeat business throughout the summer” (McCanary, 2018). Surprisingly, fans of animated genre in the United States as of December 2018 consists of 75 per cent female and 65 per cent male, as presented by Amy Watson in her statistics published in December 3,

2019 in statistica.com. Sashi Kumar, in ‘Hegemony in Contemporary Culture and

Media and the Need for a Counter Initiative’ (2011) stated that “cultural sovereignity is abstracted into homogenised, make-believe, global marketplace, which reduces every individual to a consumer and excludes the real and abiding concerns of vast swathes of humanity” when “technological convergence and digitisation, which held an initial promise of and potential democratisation, collapse into vertical integration and monopolisation” (Kumar, 2011, p.38). Box office and ratings matter more rather than what women empowerment is about, when it comes

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to the Hollywood showbiz. What are classified as “bestsellers” enter first into the audience’s world and slowly isolate the audience from the rest of the non-popular works. In other words, Pierre Bourdieu (1989) explained that “tyranny of the ratings...takes a toll on our intellectual potential because it is so subservient to popular demand. “It circumscribes our intellectual horizons” (Kumar, 2011, p.39).

Ratings do not only determine the allocation of advertising budgets but also the hierarchy of popular cultural products: “the ‘bestseller’ and ‘countdown’ lists in books and music, for instance, determine the universe of our ‘heard melodies’.”

(Kumar, 2011, p.39).

Hence, it can be concluded naturally that one of the ideologies signified through Elastigirl’s challenges of Disney’s gender stereotypes through her portrayal is part of Hollywood’s business-profit agenda, for the Incredibles 2 audience today are living in a world where they are surrounded by commercial “women empowerment” films that had and will haul generous box-office income under the umbrella of feminism. Without the contribution of the aforementioned film star, director, worldwide box-office income strategy, global ratings and the female-lead film trends, the portrayal of Elastigirl would not be as it is today.

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CHAPTER V

CONCLUSION

Elastigirl successfully challenges gender stereotypes in Disney’s Incredibles

2. First, the hero is portrayed as a flexible individual, an independent woman and an equal competitor of her husband. Second, her portrayal challenges Disney’s gender stereotypes as follows: a woman can be a nurturer and provider at the same time based on her choice as a human, a woman can be strong and independent and a woman can also be logical, aggressive and competitive at the same time when a man and woman are equally qualified to enter into a healthy competition. The ideologies signified through Elastigirl’s portrayal in challenging Disney’s gender stereotypes are related to gender and capital purposes of the film. In relation to liberal feminist’s perspective, Elastigirl’s gender stereotype challenges signify women’s greater recognition and self-value as individuals, women’s public and private recognition of their freedom and privacy, and signify women’s equality of opportunity to succeed in the public realm as men do. In relation to commercial purposes of the film, it is discovered that Elastigirl’s portrayal in challenging

Disney’s gender stereotypes is part of the Hollywood trend of female-lead films which recently produces major contribution to its worldwide box office income by involving popular stars and director to boost its capital.

It can be said that Elastigirl’s portrayal in Incredibles 2 in the light of liberal feminist perspective does not only challenge gender stereotypes found in Disney’s previous films, but also challenges today’s various view on how a woman should

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be portrayed as Disney’s dynamics perception towards gender continues to progress. It is also concluded that the commercial purposes of Elastigirl’s portrayal reflects the trend of female-lead films that recently produces major box-office profits.

This study has uncovered the ideologies behind the portrayal and challenges in terms of gender and commercial purposes. However, the researcher would also like to invite other researchers to explore on the class ideology or the ethnic ideology found in the film Incredibles 2 for further enrichment of gender, race and class research studies.

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Smith, A. (2018, June 28) How Incredibles 2 Goes to Work For The Feminist Superhero. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/jun/28/incredibles-2- feminism-animation Streiff, M. & Dundes, L. (2017). From Shapeshifter to Lava Monster: Gender Stereotypes in Disney’s Moana. MDI Journals, 6(91), pp. (unable to be found) doi:10.3390/socsci6030091 Tong, R. (2009).Feminist Thought: A More Comprehensive Introduction. Colorado: Westview Press. Walker, J. (Producer) & Bird, B. (Director).(2004). The Incredibles[Motion Picture]. United States: Buena Vista Pictures Distribution. Walker, J. & Grindle, N. PP. (Producers) & Bird, B. (Director).(2018). Incredibles 2 [Motion Picture]. United States: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. Wendell, S.(1987). A (Qualified) Defense of Liberal Feminism.Hypatia 2(2) ppp. 65-93 Wiersma, B. A. (2000). The Gendered World of Disney: A Content Analysis of Gender Themes in Full-Length Animated Disney Feature Films (Doctoral Dissertation). South Dakota State University, Brookings, South Dakota.

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APPENDICES

Appendix 1: Summary of Brad Bird’s Incredibles 2 (2018)

Incredibles 2 tells a story of a superhero family who saved the city of

(the Incredibles and Frozone) were cut from the financial support of the Superhero

Relocation Program, that left them on their own. However, Frozone offered the

Incredibles to join a rich businessman named Winston Deavor and his sister Evelyn in their project to defeat the villain Screenslaver and also broadcast the positive image of superheroes to earn society's trust again. Elastigirl was chosen as the ‘face’ of these superheroes to participate in Winston’s project. She was considered more eligible than Mr. Incredibles because she caused less collateral damage.

With her new job, Bob stayed at home and faced challenges in taking care of the children while the now-popular Elastigirl provided for her family and was promoted as the savior of the town when Screenslaver was defeated. Elastigirl too was challenged by Evelyn to have the stage for her own in this ‘man’s world’ as she indirectly suggested the idea that Helen should be free from her husband’s

‘shadow’. However, Elastigirl rejected the idea and made it clear that she still had her own core beliefs.

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As things turned out, Screenslaver was Evelyn herself. She wanted to eliminate superheroes from the society due to her childhood hate of the superheroes who failed to save her murdered father. She planned to broadcast a negative image of these heroes to the world at Elastigirl’s superhero summit that celebrated

Screenslaver’s defeat on the cruise shipp. Evelyn screen-hypnotized all of the newly-discovered superheroes who were invited, such as Voyd and her friends. She even hypnotized Elastigirl herself and Bob who came to save his wife. Eventually, the three of Incredibles kids came to the rescue, freeing all of the superheroes from the screen hypnotize. The superheroes stopped the ship from crashing into the city and got Evelyn arrested before she could escape. In the end, superheroes were made legal and acknowledged by the society. The film finished when the Incredibles were about to go to the movie theatre with Violet’s boyfriend, Tony, leaving him waiting as they changed their mind to participate in a criminal chase.

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Appendix 2: Summary of Brad Bird’s The Incredibles (2004)

The Incredibles released in 2004, tells a story of Bob Parr (or also known as

Mr. Incredibles) who accepted a ‘fake’ mission offered by Mirage, a woman who worked for Bob’s enemy Buddy Pine (whom Bob previously rejected as his sidekick) a.k.a Syndrome. Syndrome planned to send a dangerous robot

(Omnidroid) to attack Mettroville by testing it with powers belonging to superheroes such as Bob beforehand. Syndrome planned to ‘put up a show’ as a hero in fighting the Omnidroid and promote his invention that enables everyone to have superpowers. The fake mission was an opportunity for Bob to receive a higher pay and relive his identity as a superhero, because at the moment all the superheroes in Metroville (including his wife, Helen/Elastigirl) was forced into hiding as

‘normal’ people under the Superhero Relocation Program due the collateral damage they caused. As Bob continued to embark in this ‘fake’ mission, he was captured by Syndrome. After discovering what Bob was up to, Helen went to save her husband by flying a jet plane with her stowed-away children, Dash and Violet

(leaving baby Jack-Jack at home with his babysitter). Long story short, Helen,

Violet and Dash were also captured by Syndrome but managed to escape with the help of Mirage. They went to save Metroville as one family with Lucius a.k.a

Frozone, a friend of the Incredibles, saved Jack-Jack from the attempted kidnap by