GIRL POWER MANIFESTATION OR FEMININE VALUES DEGRADATION? : A FEMINIST CRITICISM OF THE MOVIE MEAN GIRLS BY MARK WATERS

THESIS Submitted as partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Sarjana Degree in English Department Faculty of Letters and Fine Arts, Sebelas Maret University

Written by: ROSALINA C 0304046

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT FACULTY OF LETTERS AND FINE ARTS SEBELAS MARET UNIVERSITY SURAKARTA 2010 GIRL POWER MANIFESTATION OR FEMININE VALUES DEGRADATION?: A FEMINIST CRITICISM OF THE MOVIE MEAN GIRLS BY MARK WATERS

By:

ROSALINA

C 0304046

Approved to be examined by the Board of Examiners,

Faculty of Letters and Fine Arts

Sebelas Maret University

Thesis Advisor

Dra. Sri Kusumo Habsari M.Hum.,Ph.D NIP. 196703231995122001

The Head of English Department

Dr. Djatmika, M.A. NIP. 196707261993021001

ii

GIRL POWER MANIFESTATION OR FEMININE VALUES DEGRADATION?: A FEMINIST CRITICISM OF THE MOVIE MEAN GIRLS BY MARK WATERS

By: ROSALINA C 0304046

Approved by the Board of Examiners Faculty of Letters and Fine Arts, Sebelas Maret University On March 2010

The Board of Examiners:

Chairman Yusuf Kurniawan, S.S. M.A. ( ) NIP. 197111301999031001 Secretary M. Taufiq Al Makmun, S.S. ( ) NIP. 197806272005011003 First Examiner Dra. S.K. Habsari, M. Hum., Ph. D ( ) NIP. 196703231995122001 Second Examiner Dra. Susilorini, M.A. ( ) NIP. 196506011992032002

Dean of Faculty of Letters and Fine Arts Sebelas Maret University

Drs. Sudarno, M.A. NIP. 195303141985061001

iii

PRONOUNCEMENT

Name : Rosalina Student Number : C 0304046

I declare that the thesis entitled “Mean Girls: Girl Power Manifestation or Feminine Values Degradation?” is my own work. It is not a result of plagiarism at all. I accept willingly any academic consequences including the withdrawal of the academic title when the declaration is proved incorrect.

Surakarta, March 2010

ROSALINA

iv

MOTTO

Surely Allah is with the patient.

(Al-Qur’an: 2: 153)

The ink of the scholar is more holly than the blood of the martyr.

(Prophet Muhammad S.A.W.)

Act kindly towards woman, for woman is created from a rib, and the

most crooked part of the rib is its top. If you attempt to straighten it, you will break it, and if you leave it, its crookedness will remain there.

So act kindly towards women.

(Muslim: Book 8: Hadith 3468)

I have not failed. I’ve just found 10.000 ways that won’t work

(Thomas Alva Edison)

v

D E D I C A T I O N

The thesis is dedicated to:

My Mama Dahlia and Papa Suhartono,

the best parents in the world

American Studies lovers

Myself

vi

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

First of all, I want to thank Allah SWT, my Guardian and Sustainer. Thank you for always making me survive and showing me the right direction when I do not know where to go. Thank you for blessing me so that I can finish the thesis.

In doing the thesis, I have worked with many people. It is a pleasure to express my gratitude to them all in this acknowledgement.

I want to express my gratitude to Drs. Sudarno, M.A., Dean of Faculty of

Letters and Fine Arts, and Dr. Djatmika, M.A., Head of English Department, for giving permission to write the thesis and all of English Department lecturers for giving me a lot of knowledge and understanding of American Studies.

I am heartily thankful to the thesis advisor, Dra. Sri Kusumo Habsari, M.

Hum., Ph. D., whose encouragement, help and support from the initial to the final level enable me to get a further understanding of the subject. Thank you for being a super-patient advisor. Thank you for all of the knowledge and advices have been given. It is so precious.

I am grateful to the board of examiners of the thesis, Yusuf Kurniawan

S.S., M.A., M. Taufiq Al Makmun, S.S., Dra. Susilorini, M.A., and Dra. Sri

Kusumo Habsari M.Hum., Ph.D, for they share their precious time and give contribution to the thesis.

Endless thanks go to my mama and papa. Thank you for always praying and caring for this stubborn girl. Your support and love make me stronger more than I can be. I would also thank my brothers and sisters, Leo, Kiky, Dian, and

vii

Nina. Thanks for taking care of me. But please see me now, I have grown up. I love you all.

My special thanks go to Reny Fian Abrita. Thank you for being such a great ‘companion in arms’ from the early stage of the making of the thesis. Thank you for the printer and all of the helps. Reny, we did it!

I gratefully thank my great buddies, Dhita, Tyas, Rizqy, Puji, Widy, Dewi,

Rosi, Mamad, and Dhika Cassandra. Thank you for always being there.

I am grateful to my beloved fabulous friends, The Tumpulz: Uswatun,

Yunindar, Fitra, Fikri, Yunus, Itok, Tantra, Thory, and Rudy. All of you motivate me so much. Thank you for coloring my life in the last five years. Keep this togetherness always.

Many thanks go to Rahayu ‘Ayonk’ Widiati. Thanks for sharing the clever ideas and the exhilarating moments. It is gorgeous. Big thanks go to ‘do-it-your- self boy’, Shantika ‘Dhika’ Wijaya, for being so kind and patient in motivating and raising me up. I would also like to thank Rizwan Muharram for waking me up from my long ‘hibernation’.

Thanks to the guys and the girls in American Studies Class of 2004, Afida,

Widya, Tutut, Ulil, Ika, Danang, Dony, etc. It is so fun working together with all of you. Thanks to my friends from the class of 2004 of English Letters, Rina,

Natalia Dani, Pungki, Cindy, Lydia, Nina Tri, Chubby, Tatan, Susi, Dewi, Hilda,

Ria, Fika, Alfanie and the other great friends who I can not mention one by one. It is so nice being a part of all of you.

viii

I am very grateful to my friends from the upper semester, Mas Tyok, Mas

Sanjaya, Mas Sapoet, and Mas Wenny (from the class of 2002). Thanks for being kind brothers who guide me well. Thanks to Mbak Bella (from the class of 2002),

Mbak Betty, Mbak Aleea, Mbak Arum (from the class of 2003) for the help, the books, and the patience. Thanks seniors!

Thanks a lot for my friends from the lower semester, Rizqy Adi, Fauzi,

Sony, Adwin, Hemy, US Dyah, Sari, Lambang, Dini, Astri, Alwi, Dila, Hendra,

Rizqy Arifudin, Ita, Dhea, Mega, Ika and Hanifan. Thank you for the kindness and help.

A lot of thanks go to the big family of Solo Youth Heritage (SYH).

Thanks for sharing knowledge and experience.

Last but not least, I want to say million thanks to everyone who has given contribution to the making of the thesis whose name cannot mention here one by one. The thesis is impossible to accomplish without all of them. Thank you very much.

ix

TABLE OF CONTENTS

B. How The Movie “Mean Girls” Constructs Its Teenage Heroines ...... 53 TITLE ...... 1. Cady Heron, the Girl Who Transforms ...... 56i APPROVAL2. OF Regina THE ADVISORGeorge, the ...... Queen Bee ...... 73ii APPROCHAPTERVAL IV: OF CONCLUSION THE BOARD OFAND EXAMINERS RECOMMENDATION ...... iii PRONOUNCEMENTA. Conclusion ...... 87iv MOTTOB...... Recommendation...... 90v DEDICATIONBIBLIOGRAPHY ...... 91vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ...... vii TABLE OF CONTENTS ...... x ABSTRACT ...... xii CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION A. Research Background ...... 1 B. Scope of Study ...... 4 C. Problem Statements ...... 4 D. Objectives of the Study ...... 5 E. Benefits of the Study ...... 5 F. Research Methodology ...... 6 G. Theoretical Approach ...... 7 H. Thesis Organization ...... 12 CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW A. Postfeminism in America ...... 14

B. Girl Power Movement in America ...... 23

C. The Concept of Heroine in America since the Nineteenth Century until 27 the Present ...... D. Semiotic Film Theory ...... 35 E. The Basic Terminology of Cinematography ...... 39 CHAPTER III: ANALYSIS A. The Signication Of The Title Mean Girls ...... 49

x

ABSTRACT

Rosalina. C0304046. 2010. Girl Power Manifestation or Feminine Values Degradation?: A Feminist Criticism of the Movie Mean Girls by Mark Waters. Thesis. English Department of Faculty of Letters and Fine Arts Sebelas Maret University.

This research is purposed to explain how the movie Mean Girls constructs its primary teenage heroines, whether the heroines are depicted challenging feminine values in society or rather go along with the values. The research is descriptive qualitative research of which the source of data is the movie Mean Girls directed by Mark Waters. The main data of the research are the characters and characterizations, costume, dialogue, body language, visual images, and other cinematographic elements of the movie. The supporting data are taken from the other sources such as the film script, books, and internet articles related to film and the issues of women, specifically the issues of American women, which supports in answering the research question. The research is in the scope of American studies which is an interdisciplinary study. Therefore, the research involves some disciplines which in this case are applied in the form of theory and approach. In answering the research question, the researcher uses feminist theory, semiotic film theory, socio-cultural approach, and feminist approach. After conducting the analysis, it is found that the primary teenage heroines in Mean Girls are constructed challenging the values of femininity embraced by mainstream society, which tends to be traditional, as they are depicted promoting the contemporary values, the values of Girl Power. But instead of being encouraged, Girl Power values in the movie are discouraged as in the last session of the movie the filmmakers lead the heroines to go along with the values held by mainstream society. Girl Power values and ideology promoted by the teenage primary heroines of the movie is seen as negative since the values do not go along with the mainstream society values. As the movie is a mass media product, it is created with the mass society values.

xi

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A. Research Background

Today a new shape of femininity arises in American culture due to Girl

Power movement, a cultural phenomenon emerging in the mid-late 1990s to the early 2000s. This movement has a great role in shaping American culture today, especially American women culture. This issue emerges as a part of post- feminism. Thanks to the media so that Girl Power is widely accepted by many women and girls in the US as what is stated by Susan Hopkins in her book Girl

Heroes: The New Force in Popular Culture, “A new stereotype of ideal femininity is emerging in magazines, music, films, and television” (1993, p. 1). In

2001, the Oxford English Dictionary defines (as cited in “Girl Power”, n.d.) the phrase Girl Power as "a self-reliant attitude among girls and young women manifested in ambition, assertiveness and individualism”. This means that the femininity in Girl Power era no longer means vulnerable and submissive attitude, but it means confident and tough behavior.

One of the media that makes Girl Power movement widely spread all over the country is movie. The emergence of movie heroines who are cute, sexy, independent and powerful is dominant in mainstream movie in the era of 1990s until today. Hopkins has stated:

“The (televised) girl revolution is far from being happy, harmonious summer of love. These new-generation power girls are not necessarily selfless, co-operative pacifist – they

xii

are competitive, combative and as capable of violence as any male character”. (1993, p. 6)

The movie heroines in the era is not the “caring, sharing good girl” but the heroines are “often driven by revenge, anger, or a lust for material gain” (ibid).

Today, the image of vulnerable girl has been shifted by the image of mean girl.

Mean Girls (2004), a movie directed by Mark Waters, can be said as a respond to the emergence of the phenomenon of Girl Power movement popularized by media. Mean Girls is a comedic drama film distributed by

Paramount Pictures of which the screenwriter, Tina Fey, writes the script based on the non-fiction book entitled Queen Bees and Wannabes: Helping Your Daughter

Survive Cliques, Gossip, Boyfriends, and Other Realities of Adolescence written by Rosalind Wiseman (“Tina Fey”, n.d.).

Mark Stephen Waters or is usually just called Mark Waters, the director, began his career in 1996 by filming House of Yes (1997), a dark comedy about incest and obsession. Waters was born in South Bend, Indiana. He grew up in a lower-middle class home. He later attended the University of Pennsylvania as a pre-med, but then drifted into avant-garde theater midway. After graduating in

1986, he went to San Francisco to act and direct theater. He gradually drifted away from acting to focus on directing. He joined off-Broadway productions, then

Super8 films. He later joined the directing program at the American Film Institute.

He graduated with his masters degree in 1994 (“Mark S. Waters Biography”,

1996).

xiii

With Mean Girls, Waters got a hit as it grossed over $85 million (“Mark

Waters”, n.d.). It was nominated for 2004 Broadcast Film Critics Association for

Best Young Actress -Lindsay Lohan- and for 2004 Writers Guild of America for

Best Adapted Screenplay - Tina Fey - (“Girls Just Want to Be Mean”, n.d.) and it won 2005 MTV Movie Award for Best Female Performance and 2005 MTV

Movie Award for Breakthrough Female (“Inside the World of Mean Girls”, n.d.).

Mean Girls tells about an innocent girl named Cady Heron (Lindsay

Lohan) who was shocked by all the rules in her new public high school as she had been home schooled all her life. She met two students, Janis (Lizzy Caplan) and

Damian (Daniel Franzese), who decided to show her around the school and the cliques and hierarchy of the school.

One of the groups was known as "the Plastics", a group of popular girls consists of Karen Smith (Amanda Seyfried), Gretchen Wieners (Lacey Chabert), and the “Queen Bee”, Regina George (Rachel McAdams) who were adored by many people in the school despite their manipulative and mean behaviour. But

Janis hated Regina as Regina spread rumors that she was a dyke. Knowing Cady was invited to sit with “The Plastics” at lunch in the cafeteria, Janis and Damian convinced her to eat lunch with them in order to make her accepted in the group so she could report back to them every horrible thing the Plastics said and did.

Nevertheless, for Cady, Regina was too nice to her and she could not help accepting Regina’s kindness until she found Regina kissed Aaron (Jonathan

Bennett), the man she had a crush on.

xiv

Cady decided to leave the Plastics but Janis stopped her, convincing Cady to keep hanging out with them so that they could get revenge. Since then, the aggressions against the Plastics began until Cady finally could kick Regina out of the Plastics and became the most popular girl in the school. She did not realize that she herself had become such a clone of Regina.

The movie clearly represents the image of American girls in the present day as well as their social and cultural condition. It completely shows the audience both the image of girl which is considered ‘good’ by society and that who is considered evil. What makes the movie interesting and evoke curiosity is that the movie emphasizes more in representing girls who are considered evil by society. This is questionable and that is why it is interesting to analyze.

B. Scope of Study

This research focuses on the primary teenage heroines in Mean Girls

(2004), Cady Heron and Regina George. The minor characters and the social and cultural condition in the movie will also be involved for providing information and justification related to the analysis.

C. Problem Statements

The research is conducted to answer two questions:

1. How does the movie construct the primary teenage heroines?

2. How do the primary teenage heroines in the movie represent the idea

of Girl Power which emerges in American society in 1990s to 2000s?

xv

D. Objectives of the Study

The objectives of the study are:

1. To explain how the movie constructs the primary teenage heroines

2. To explain how the primary teenage heroines in the movie represent

the idea of Girl Power which emerges in American society in 1990s to

2000s

E. Benefits of the Study

The research is aimed to describe the condition of American teenage girls in postmodernist era and reveal the influence of the current women’s movement,

Girl Power, to them as well. Furthermore, the research is hoped to give contribution to American Studies, because instead of giving a shallow description, the research provides a further analysis about how American teenage girls are represented in the movie and how Girl Power values and mainstream society’s values take role in shaping them. Besides, the research expectedly can give benefit to:

1. The students of English Department

To give information about one issue of postfeminist movement, Girl Power,

which is a part of feminist movements in the U.S. Therefore, students can get

further understanding about it.

2. Other researchers

To give contribution for other researchers who want to do a research on the

related field.

xvi

F. Research Methodology

1. The Type of the Research

The research is in the form of descriptive qualitative research.

“Qualitative research is all about exploring issues, understanding phenomena,

and answering questions” (Ereaut, 2007). As the research is qualitative

research, the data collected are in the form of words and pictures, not statistics

or numbers as what are in quantitative research. The research seeks out to

answer the problems of the research by employing the question of ‘how’ of

the topic, not just ‘what’, ‘where’ and ‘when’.

2. Data and Source of Data

Data consist of main data and supporting data. The main data are taken

from the movie entitled Mean Girls (2004) directed by Mark Waters starring

Lindsay Lohan, distributed by Paramount Pictures. The main data consist of

dialogues, characters and characterization, and the cinematographic elements

such as camera angle, camera distance, lighting, etc. The supporting data are

collected from written materials like books, internet articles and journals

related to the study.

3. Technique of Analyzing the Data

Firstly, the data in the movie Mean Girls are selected based on the

problem statement of the research. Then, the selected data are analyzed

through its cinematographic elements and some other elements. The data are

discussed further by applying feminist theories, semiotic film theories, socio-

cultural approach, and feminist approach to build the idea to answer the

xvii

research questions. After the research questions have been answered, finally,

the conclusion is drawn based on the research result.

G. Theoretical Approach

American studies emerged in 1950s as a study of all issues related to the

United States (Spiller, 1973, p. 611). Robert E. Spiller in his article Unity and

Diversity in the Study of American Culture: the American Studies Association in

Perspective has stated:

This was a time when the United States was emerging into the role of a world power and the stirrings of cultural nationalism were beginning to be felt in the universities in practically all of the academic disciplines except perhaps those in pure science; and even there, American technology gave to scientific disciplines something of a nationalistic flavor. (1973, p. 611)

It is quite obvious that the fact that the United States is a superpower nation makes the country, its culture and all issues in it significant to study.

The culture of the country is somehow complex. American culture “has been characteristically heterogeneous rather than homogenous” (Spiller, 1973, p.

613) as its people come from different ethnics, religion, social and cultural background, etc. The culture certainly does not develop in a short time. It builds its identity through out the history of the United States from the past until present.

That is why American culture can be understood as complex culture as it is multifaceted and encompasses a vast range of time.

Because of its complexity of the culture, the study of the country needs more than one discipline and approach. Neil Campbell and Alasdair Kean has

xviii stated in their book entitled American Cultural Studies: an Introduction to

American Culture:

American Sudies from the beginning has been concerned to explore the possibilities of cooperation between practitioners from different disciplines and even to develop an interdisciplinary methodology with its own distinctive working practices (1997, p. 2).

Hence, American Studies “encompasses a vast range of disciplines [which are intermingled and interrelated], all of which, in one way or another, are trying to describe the cultures of United States” (“What is American Studies”, n.d.). The studies involves history, literature, art, economics, cultural studies, ethnic studies, women studies, media studies, film studies, among other fields.

One issue which becomes central to the project of American studies in present days is the study of popular culture. Popular culture has been termed as everything from common culture, to folk culture to mass culture (“Pop Culture”, n.d.). John Storey stresses that popular culture comes from the urbanization of the industrial revolution (“Mass Culture” n.d.). Thus, it can be understood that popular culture comes from low class society.

In the modern era, the social signification of popular culture can be mapped based on how the culture is identified with mass culture. It can be said that mass culture is popular culture which is produced through industrial technique of mass production and marketed to mass consumers to get profits

(Strinati, 2003, p. 2). MacDonald has stated (as cited in Strinati, 2003, p. 11) that mass culture is created by experts who are recruited by capitalists. These experts adopt the dominant culture of society, mold it with certain techniques, then

xix produce it in large quantity and finally bring the new culture to mass consumers.

The new culture is created in such a manner so it can be accepted by high and low class society so it can collapse the gap between high and low culture.

Movie is a product of popular culture which has been processed to be mass culture. John Belton in his book entitled Movies and Mass Culture has stated:

The movies are an integral part of mass culture and are embedded within it. One does not produce the other; rather, each interacts with the other, and they mutually determine one another. If films and filmmaker produce culture, they are also produced by it. Thus, it is impossible to separate films and filmmakers from the society within which they exist. (1996, p. 1)

It is quite obvious that movie is closely related to society. It usually conveys many ideas and meaning and represents what happen in reality as well as beliefs and values embraced by society.

In building and transferring its meaning, movie uses its particular way, in this case using signs and codes which often have deeper meaning than what its audience can figure out. To understand the meaning and idea of the movie completely, these signs and codes have to be analyzed further. Therefore, semiotic film theory is applied in the research.

Monaco has given a further explanation about semiotic film theory in his book How to Read a Film:

Film is not a language, but is like language, and since it is like language, some of the methods that we use to study language might profitably be applied to a study of film. Yet, since film is not a language, narrowly linguistic concepts can be misleading. Ever since the beginning of film history, theorists have been fond of comparing film with verbal language (partly to justify the serious study of film), but it wasn’t until a new, larger category of thought developed in the fifties and early sixties–one that saw written and spoken language as just two among many systems of communication–that the real

xx

study of film as a language could proceed. This inclusive category is known as semiotics, the study of system of signs. (1995, p. 157)

Based on what is explained by Monaco, it can be understood that semiotic film theory is applied in the research to analyze the system of signs in the movie analyzed. In this analysis, what is applied is the theory of the prominent figure in semiotics, Roland Barthes.

Roland Barthes based his theory on semiology of Ferdinand de Saussure who is often claimed as a source thinker of contemporary semiotics beside

Charles Sanders Peirce, as they found this science in around the same time without knowing of the researches of the other. It can be said that Barthes’ theory is the development of Saussure’s theory.

Saussure defined ‘sign’ as the union of the ‘signifier’, a form which signifies, and the ‘signified’, an idea signified (Stam, 1992, p. 18). According to

Saussure, sign, the relation between signifier and signified, is arbitrary (Storey,

1996, p. 55). The relation between the signifier and the signified is not constructed naturally but rather conventionally. A signifier opens many chances for various signified or meaning.

Roland Barthes then developed Saussure’s scheme that signifier + signified = sign and added to it a second level of signification which he called

‘two semiological systems’ (Barthes, 1999, p. 115). In Barthes’ system, there are two stages of signification which are denotation stage and connotation stage. The sign produced in the connotation stage is interpretative and depends upon one’s social and cultural experience (Turner, 1993, p. 46). In Accordance with this, to

xxi interpret the signs in the movie analyzed, socio-cultural approach is needed in the study.

It has been stated that:

Socio-cultural approach is based on the idea that society and culture shape cognition. Social customs, beliefs, values, and language are all part of what shapes a person's identity and reality. According to this approach, what a person thinks is based on his or her socio-cultural background. A socio-cultural approach takes into account more than the individual in attempting to understand cognitive processes. (“Psychology Glossary”, n.d.)

From the explanation, it is clear that the way people behave, think, and interpreting something is influenced by their social and cultural background.

Thus, to understand the meaning of the movie completely, socio-cultural approach is applied. Besides, the movie analyzed deals with social and cultural condition, thoughts and behaviors of American girls in the contemporary society. It means that the movie represents social and cultural phenomenon which exists in reality.

That is why socio-cultural approach is significant in the study.

As the research focuses on the analysis of how the movie constructs its primary characters that are girls, the research certainly has to do with women’s issues. Thus, feminist approach is needed as the framework of the research. In this case, the movie has to be analyzed in the range of feminism.

Feminism has long journey to struggle for equality between men and women. Feminism rejects the idea that women are inferior to men. Feminism claims that patriarchy, the rule of the fathers, is the basic cause of women’s oppression (Murphy, 1995, p. 1). Contemporary feminism struggles for correcting laws and practices that discourage women to achieve equality with men in all

xxii aspects of life, both domestic and public life. The struggle further is meant for preventing attitudes that support such biased practices (ibid, p. 16). Feminism becomes central issues today as it has taken important role in shaping women today.

Feminist approach in the research is applied to view what are represented by the girls in the movie in the range of feminism. Thus, the research also needs feminist theories. Feminist theories and approach is crucial to build a complete idea used to answer the research questions.

H. Thesis Organization

This thesis is divided into four chapters and each chapter is divided into some subchapters. Those chapters are Chapter I Introduction, Chapter II

Literature Review, Chapter III Analysis, and Chapter IV Conclusion and

Recommendation.

The first chapter, Introduction is divided into eight subchapters. These are

Research Background, Scope of Study, Problem Statements, Objectives of the

Study, Benefits of the Study, Research Methodology, Theoretical Approach, and

Thesis Organization.

The next chapter, Literature Review, explains about postfeminism in

America, Girl Power movement in America which is under the umbrella of postfeminism, the concept of heroine in America since the nineteenth century until the present, semiotic film theory, and the basic terminology of cinematography.

xxiii

The third chapter, Analysis, consists of two subchapters. The first subchapter tells about the signification of the title of the movie, Mean Girls, while the second subchapter discusses about how the movie construct the primary teenage heroines. The second subchapter contains two points: Cady Heron, the

Girl Who Transforms; and Regina George, the Queen Bee. The answer of the research questions are provided in this chapter.

The last chapter, Conclusion and Recommendation, provides explanation about the result and recommendation of the research.

xxiv

CHAPTER II

LITERATURE REVIEW

A. Postfeminism in America

American feminism, which is actualized by its movement, has a very long history. American women has a long hard struggle to achieve the equality between men and women. It can be said that the Enlightenment or the age of reason is the foundation of American women’s movement.

One of the important figures in the Enlightenment is John Locke. Locke’s doctrine of Natural Rights claims that “all human beings, in their natural state, were equal and free to pursue life, health, liberty, and possessions; and that these were inalienable rights” (“John Locke”, n.d.). This doctrine also claims that both women and men are born with the same potency of rationality. It means that women and men are equal, and there are no groups which are more inferior to the other. This doctrine however leads to the ideology of individualism (Murphy,

1995, p. 10). This ideology has shaped women’s ways of thinking about themselves and the world. It leads women to think that a woman as a person has independence to seek self-realization, becoming a fully individual, not just as the opposite of male. To be a woman must be as important as to be a man.

The ideology that a woman is an independent entity, not just ‘the other’ or

‘the opposite of male’ leads women to pursuit their personal identities. This leads

American women to hold women’s movements which are historically noted until now containing three waves; first-wave feminism, second-wave feminism, and the

xxv most current movement, postfeminism or generally considered third-wave feminism.

First-wave feminism in the U.S. began in 1848 and lasted until 1960s. It was usually considered beginning with the Seneca Falls Convention of 1848 which was purposed to end discrimination based on sex. The convention was held in response to the prohibition of women's participation in the 1840 World's Anti-

Slavery convention in London (Rynder, 1999).

First-wave feminism insisted that sexual identity was inessential or secondary to our humanity. It claimed that biological characteristics were not the reason for the limitation of women’s participations in society. First-wave feminism mainly concerned about equality, rights, liberation and emancipation

(Colebrook, 2003). The ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United

States Constitution in August 18, 1920 was considered the main victory of the movement as with this each of the states and the federal government was prohibited from denying any citizen the right to vote because of that citizen’s sex.

Second-wave feminism began in the 1960s and continued until the late of

1980s or the beginning of 1990s. The main issues in this movement were sexuality and reproductive rights, and most struggles done in the movement were for passing the Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution of the U.S. guaranteeing social equality regardless of sex. The central focus of the second wave was on gender equality so women must had the same social, political, legal, and economic rights that men had (Head, n.d.).

xxvi

The movement was often claimed dating from the appearance of Betty

Friedan's The Feminine Mystique in 1963, which was very significant for its challenge to the ideology of domesticity. This best-seller book caught readers among middle- and upper-class women as male supremacy required them to be submissive women who were capable in domestic concerns as well as ‘good’ mothers and wives who did not have chance to determine what they wanted to achieve. In the era of this movement, there were also the actions going against the

Miss America pageant in Atlantic City in 1968 and 1969. One of the protests came from the radical feminist New York group calling themselves Redstockings.

They held a counter pageant by parodying the beauty pageant but what was crowned as Miss America was a sheep. This was done in order for women were not considered merely object of male gaze. Redstockings also did the action by throwing feminine artifacts which they considered oppressing women such as bras, girdles, high-heels, makeup and false eyelashes into the trashcan (Rampton, n.d.).

In the era of second-wave feminism, there were other social movements like Black Power and the effort to end the war in Vietnam. Second-wave feminists realized that their voice would be easily marginalized and viewed less important than the other social movements at that time. Second-wave feminists responded this by establishing women organizations (Rampton, n.d.). The most prominent women organizations at this time, the National Organization for Women (NOW), founded in 1966, concerned about discrimination in matters such as property rights, employment, and pay.

xxvii

Second wave feminists also struggled for the rights to seek freedom to define their sexuality and practice it without discrimination. They also concerned about reproductive freedom for women and struggle for the legalization of abortion as they thought that women could have control over their own body.

However, in 1982 the Equal Rights Amendment was defeated because of three states short of ratification (Eisenberg & Ruthsdotter, 1998).

Second wave feminists were dominated by upper middle class white women who claimed that patriarchal and imperial oppressions were universal oppressions experienced by women in the world. Whereas, in reality women did not only consist of upper middle class white women only but they also came from different social classes, races, ethnicity, religions, subculture, sexual community, etc. Certainly, they experienced different social and cultural experiences.

However, second wave feminism over-emphasized the experience of upper middle class white women. In this case, this movement was often claimed excluding women out of the group. Due to the fact, the movement was often called “hegemonic feminism” (Ibrahim, 2004, p. xiv).

As it was claimed that it could not represent American women entirely, many women had become more antifeminist during the 1980s to 1990s. Vaid, as cited by Hall and Rodriguez, has stated:

“Minority women feel their needs and values have been largely ignored by the organized women’s movement, which grew out of white, middle-class women’s discontent, and racial-minority women feel they cannot participate in the feminist movement because of white women’s racism.”(2003, p. 882)

xxviii

The groups claiming themselves antifeminist somehow include young women who never deal with second wave feminism and racial-minority and traditional women who oppose women’s movement in 1970s (ibid).

Negative representations of women in popular media as unattractive, man- hater, unfeminine, even lesbian make many girls and women refuse to claim themselves feminists as this supposedly can distance themselves from men. Even though many girls and women agree with what women’s movement strives for, equity in many aspects of life, they do not want to be called feminist (Hall &

Rodriguez , 2003, pp. 883-84). It is as if ‘feminist’ is a dirty word.

Media is somehow male dominated field. It is closely related to capitalism in which patriarchal values fully applied. Patriarchal values require women to be feminine, passive, and submissive. Women are the object and cannot be the subject. Their duties are child bearing, nurturing, doing household, and their place is at home. Women who oppose this rule are viewed negative and considered threat of male supremacy.

After the era of second wave feminism, negative stereotype toward feminist women increased the number of antifeminists in the U.S. Feminists were often labeled “women’s lib, man hater, bra burner, lesbians and/or sexually deviant, feminazi (ugly, unable to catch a man, dyke), and whining victims” (Hall

& Rodriguez, 2003, p. 880). Women’s movement was as if dead. Many women thought that equality had been achieved, thus women’s movement was not needed anymore.

xxix

Subsequently, America begins to enter postfeminist era. It is the era when the term “feminism” is considered no longer relevant as the goals of feminism has been achieved. Popular media claims that 1990s is the starting point of postfeminist era in the U.S. (Hall & Rodriguez, 2003, p. 878). Nevertheless, popular authors and scholars state that this era starts in 1980s (Ibrahim, 2004, p. xii). However, the term “post-feminism” was firstly used in Susan Bolotin’s article “Voices of the Post-feminist Generation” published in 1982 in New York

Times magazine (Nedeau, 2008). Some opinions claim that this movement arises in the U.S. as a response of the weakness and the failure of second wave feminism. It is said that this movement happens as a continuity of second wave feminism and therefore it is often claimed as third-wave feminism. On the other hand, this movement is also considered a backlash of second-wave feminism; even it is claimed as an antifeminist movement (Ibrahim xiii, 2004).

Media clearly have important role in shaping negative view about postfeminism. The popular assumption about postfeminism propagandized by media that postfeminism is a backlash against second-wave feminism is done to create antagonism toward second-wave feminism (Brooks, 2008, p. 4). Susan

Faludi, in her book entitled Backlash, has claimed that media declare that feminism is the taste of 1970s and that postfeminism is a new story completed with younger generation supposedly taking part in criticizing women’s movement

(Faludi as cited in Brooks, 2008, p. 4). While, Ann Brooks argues that this movement is not an antifeminist movement. It only opposes hegemonic assumption held by second wave feminists who are dominated by upper middle

xxx class white women who claim that patriarchal and imperial oppressions are universal oppressions experienced by women in the world (Brooks, 2008, p. 6). It can be considered that postfeminism is a critique on second wave feminism

[which precedes it]“ (Adriaens, 2009).

Actually, Postfeminism and second wave feminism have different perspectives in some ways. Second-wave feminism provides the idea that feminism and femininity are oppositional so that feminism and femininity cannot go along together. It prompts what is called ‘body politics’ transmitting the rejection of practices that will show differences between male and female bodies such as shaving the legs and underarms, putting on cosmetics and wearing revealing and form-fitting clothing as they are created by patriarchy. Second wave feminism also sees sexuality pessimistically as it concentrates on its negative side such as “sexual transmittable diseases, sexual abuse and sexual objectification of women in media discourse” (Adriaens, 2009). It seems that the values provided by second-wave feminism have been fixed and the women violating the values are considered victims of patriarchy. Postfeminism however offers women and girls the new alternatives. It creates a bridge between femininity and feminism so that girls and women can be both feminine and feminist at the same time, without feeling anxious of being considered a passive victim of patriarchy. Postfeminism considers femininity and women’s body as women’s distinct things which distinguish women from men and see them as women’s source of identity (ibid).

Therefore, postfeminism rejects ‘body politics’ of second-wave feminism (Gill as cited in Adriaens, 2009). Postfeminism also criticizes second-wave feminism’s

xxxi rigid vision on sexuality. It rather promotes women’s right on sexual pleasure, choice and freedom than what women may encounter as the sexual victim

(Adriaens, 2009). Postfeminism sees sexuality of women in different perspective.

It seems that the values of postfeminism create ambivalence. It goes along with patriarchy as it prompts patriarchal things such as revealing and form-fitting clothing and cosmetics (which leads to consumerism which is also patriarchal as well), but refuses to be considered as the victim or the object of patriarchy. If feminists see woman wearing revealing clothes as an object of male gaze, postfeminists rather see her as a woman with personal freedom as she wears the clothes based on her own willingness. At this point, postfeminism changes the idea of sexual objectification into sexual subjectification, a focus on a “powerful male gaze” into a “self-regulating narcissistic individualistic gaze” (Adriaens,

2009). However, what is proposed by postfeminism is actually “a movement beyond feminism, to a more comfortable zone where women are now free to choose for themselves” (Beck as cited in McRobbie, 2004, p. 259).

Postfeminism focuses more on the individual empowerment of women and less on activism. It encourages women to build their identities in the postmodernism era (Gladen, 2007). Women can choose what they want to be; as a housewife, author, athlete, supermodel, singer, astronaut, teacher, etc, and they do not oblige to leave their femininity to reach their goal. Therefore, postfeminism is often considered highly individualistic as it too over-emphasizes values of personal empowerment over activism. Because of this, the movement is often criticized not political enough. Critics argue that postfeminism is ill equipped to

xxxii contribute the progress of feminism, and it is often claimed discouraging women from becoming feminist activists (ibid). Despite criticisms go to it, postfeminism has appeared as a warning that women’s movement is not dead. Women’s movement is still needed as long as women is still considered second class and placed in the background. That is why it is often called third-wave feminism.

The term third-wave feminism itself is coined by a young, Southern,

African-American, Jewish, and bisexual feminist author named Rebecca Walker in 1993 "to describe a new generation of young feminists working to create a more inclusive and comprehensive movement” (Head, n.d.). The era of third-wave feminism is often thought initiated by the Anita Hill – Clarence Thomas hearings in 1991. At the time when President George H.W. Bush nominated Clarence

Thomas to the Supreme Court, during the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings,

Anita Hill, an African-American professor from Oklahoma, reported that she had been sexually harassed by Thomas almost a decade earlier. In response to the

Thomas hearings, Rebecca Walker published an article entitled “Becoming the

Third Wave” in an issue of Ms in 1992 (Darko, n.d.). Thenceforth, the term is often used to label the current women’s movement as another alternative beside the term ‘postfeminism’.

As the current women’s movement, Postfeminism are embraced mostly by them who are part of the Generation X demographic (born roughly between 1966

– 1976) or are from Generation Y (born roughly between 1977-1997). Some postfeminists are the children of Baby Boomers (born roughly between 1940s-

1950s) who have participated in the second-wave feminism beginning in the

xxxiii

1960s. As Generation X and Generation Y live in the postmodern era in which media and technology have been commonly used, it can be understood that postfeminists express themselves through popular culture which is transferred to daily life in the help of media. They look for women figure in popular media who represent their own struggles and can help them in “their personal journeys to search and define identity” (Gladen, 2007).

There are some women’s movements under the umbrella of postfeminism which promote the concept that women are different from men and that is why women do not need to live in male standard if they want to be considered equal with men as acting like men is considered devaluing women’s value. Women are supposed to show their distinct characteristics as their power. The movements promoting the values are such as Girl Power, which takes its great influence through media as well as pop culture, and Riot Grrrl, a women movement which was born from female youth subculture of punk-rock in America borrowing the do-it-yourself ethos of 1970s punk (Hopkins, 1993, p. 30). Girl Power movement will be explained further in the next subchapter as it is closely related to the research.

B. Girl Power Movement in America

Girl Power ideology and movement or usually just called Girl Power arises in America in 1990s until today. This movement is a part of postfeminist movement or third wave feminism. This phenomenon gives a big influence to many girls and women in the U.S. even around the world. It gives a big change

xxxiv for girls and women in the way they behave, think, and do so many things. Girl

Power has taken important role in shaping society today, particularly for girls and women. It appears in society as a challenge to traditional feminine values such as submission, passivity, and vulnerability of women required by patriarchal system.

Women have been trapped in these traditional feminine values for many centuries. They are required to be ‘good girl’ who are tender, submissive, pacify, passive, and weak as if all of these are their original natures. Opposing these values is considered wrong and rude. For unmarried girls, it is thought distancing them from men who will marry them. While for married women, it will lead them to be unwanted wives. Marriage is everything for women with traditional values.

Perfect marriage is their main goal and desire. To actualize this, being ‘good’ is really required.

Girl Power emerges in society and gives new values for girls and women.

Ideal women are no longer passive, submissive, and vulnerable women but those who are confident, tough and have power to achieve success. To be cool women does not need to be pacify, lovely, and tender. Aggressive, manipulative, and even mean women can also be considered cool and adored as long as they have power.

What is meant by power here is not physical strength but rather such achievement as success, status, and fame. It can be said that today marriage no longer becomes every girls and women’s main goal in their life because success, status, and fame have replaced it (Hopkins, 1993, p. 4). It does not mean that they consider marriage unimportant. Girl Power ideology and movement make girls and women

xxxv realize that they need self-actualization and self-determination, and marriage is no longer the one and the only choice they can choose.

Unlike the first and second wave feminism of which the movements are actualized through convention, protest, and other actions that are sounds political,

Girl Power movement is actualized by personal empowerment shown by each individual. Media has a great role in this movement because many girls and women imitate the images of Girl Power which are shown by media. About this,

Susan Hopkins in her book entitled Girl Heroes: the New Force in Popular

Culture has stated:

This is not just a matter of virtual role models replacing real ones, but entails the recycling of media images and illusions into lived realities. Increasingly, reality is folded into media productions and the media is folded into real life (1993, p. 1).

It is clear that what are shown by media really infiltrate into reality. No wonder if the heroes of Girl Power movement are not feminist activists like in the previous waves because whom many women and girls adore in this era are female celebrities. Female celebrities’ fame and success make many girls and women admire them and make them their role models. They embody their desire upon fame and success by imitating the images of Girl Power in media shown by female idols.

Madonna, the queen of pop, is often claimed as the pioneer of Girl Power movement in America. Through media, she has inspired many women and girls to be tougher, more confident, even more aggressive in the way of thinking, behaving, and achieving their goal. The traditional femininity created by

xxxvi patriarchy is considered obsolete and many American women and girls have left it behind.

Since her first appearance in 1983, Madonna had attracted many people.

With her white skin, slim body, blond hair, beautiful voice, good ability to dance, hard works and ambition, Madonna had fulfilled what were needed to be accepted in mainstream media at that time. During her career, she had had transformations, from ‘slut’ to ‘saviour’ and from ‘object’ to ‘subject’, as if she wanted to say that

‘it’s never too late to reinvent oneself’. Madonna is aware of her sexual power, but she does not let herself become merely an object of male gaze. She successfully takes advantage from that sexual exploitation (Hopkins, 1993, pp.

40-6). She uses patriarchy as much as patriarchy uses her. Madonna uses her sexual power as a way to self-determination and self-actualization.

After Madonna era, many Madonna wannabes colors the world. The female groups like Spice Girls, TLC, All Saints, Atomic Kitten, Girl Thing,

Destiny’s Child, etc, reinforces the fact that the era of vulnerable women has ended. Success and popularity have replaced marriage as the destination of many women because success and popularity are proves that they have power.

Spice Girls, a women group from U.K., is often claimed as the most prominent among the other groups. Their slogans, ‘Hold tight, get ready, Girl

Power is coming at you’ and ‘Silence is golden but shouting is fun’ which represent Girl Power inspire many girls and young women around the world that they can do and reach what they want. Spice Girls’ Girl Power is based on the mixture of influences of Madonna’s naked ambition, punk’s irreverence and

xxxvii energy, and the vocabulary of women’s liberation. As a result, Spice Girls create their images as feminine, rebellious, independent, active girls who can do, become, and reach what they want and always want to have fun in the hard process of reaching their goal (Hopkins, 1993, pp. 11-6)

The influence of Girl Power does not only infiltrate into music industry but also TV shows and movies. The traditional archetype of girl in TV shows and films who always becomes victim has been left. Today, girl can also become the savior. TV show like Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003) and movie like

Charlie’s Angels (2000) serve audiences with girl who can fight again her enemy as the main character. They show the main character can kick, punch, and beat down her enemy.

As more and more Girl Power figures emerge in the media, women and girls have many options of role models. They begin to imitate the way the female singers get dressed, the supermodels wear their hair and accessories, the actresses behave in films or in their daily life, etc. This condition however gives profit to many industries like clothes, accessories, make-up industries as many girls and women spend more and more money to fulfill their desire in imitating the role models as an expression of their self-actualization.

C. the Concept of Heroine in America

since the Nineteenth Century until the Present

Janice Hume in her article entitled Defining the Historic American

Heroine: Changing Characteristics of Heroic Women in Nineteenth-Century

xxxviii

Media has written that dictionaries of the nineteenth century define “heroine” as

“a female hero”, and they define hero as “illustrious, brave, courageous, noble, valiant, magnanimous, fearless, and a great warrior”. They also define heroine as

“the chief female character in a work of fiction”. However, the definition of heroine in the dictionaries can result to confusing understanding as what Hume wrote, “What if moral standard for women and men were different?” (1997, p. 1).

In this case, of course we cannot define “heroine” as simply “a female hero”. A woman can be considered a female hero if she can fulfill the moral standard of becoming a hero of the era, in which, in the nineteenth century, a hero must be brave, courageous, noble, valiant, fearless, a great warrior, and many other characteristics which are considered the ideal moral standard of the era.

Whereas, a woman can be considered heroine if she “would have required her own distinct characteristics representing the moral standards of women” (Hume,

1997, p. 1-2) of her era. Here, it can be concluded that “heroine” is different from

“female hero”.

Fishwick has stated, that a hero must “satisfy the emotional and psychological needs of admirers” (as cited in Hume, 1997, p. 2). Wecter also has stated that a hero is “he whom every American should wish to be” (as cited. in

Hume, 1997, p. 3). In the nineteenth century, a hero was supposed to be a man, not a woman, as in the era, a woman who involved herself in public concerns was considered “tainted” (Okker as cited in Hume, 1997, p. 2). In the era, the role and the involvement of women in public concerns were limited by tradition which required that women’s place should be at home and they were supposed to deals

xxxix with domestic concerns only. Women were required to be a “perfect lady”

(Wecter as cited in Hume, 1997, p. 2). That is why during American history, a female hero, a woman who are living by moral standard of male, cannot be called heroine as she is considered “unladylike” (Hume, 1997, p. 2) and as she cannot represent the moral standard of women of the nineteenth century which is different from the moral standard of men in the era.

The concept of heroine of one era is certainly different from another era.

Then, what is the concept of American heroine or woman considered ideal, as she fulfill the moral standard of women, in the nineteenth century? We can trace back to the concept of American heroine in the nineteenth century through the most popular magazine in the era, The Lady’s Book. This magazine contains fiction stories representing the concept of American heroine in the era through their female main character.

According to Hume, “The magazine’s heroine, however, was not static; as the hypotheses for this study predicted, characteristics of heroic women portrayed in the magazine change right along with changing values for women” (Hume,

1997, p. 17). Here, the era examined are the era of ten years before (1837-1838) and ten years after (1857-1858) the Seneca Falls Women’s Rights Convention

(1848), the main historical event of the first-wave feminism, as there is significant shift of heroine’s concept between both these periods in reality which then are followed by media, in this case magazine.

There were seven categories of heroines of 1837-1838. They were: the genius, the victim, the heroine of faith, the self-sacrificial heroine, the sensible

xl heroine, the melancholy heroine, and ’the mothedwife’. In the era, ideal women were supposed to fulfill these seven categories. If one category was missing, the woman perhaps was punished with a “bitter life” or “unhappy marriage” (Smith;

Denhallow as cited in Hume, 1997, p. 4).

In the era, the genius heroine, or the woman who had high intelligence, used her intelligence not for chasing admiration by others or popularity but to make the world or everything around her better and happier instead. In other words, the woman’s genius was not for herself but for others. Moreover, the genius heroine was hoped to not neglect domestic concerns although she had high intelligence. It could be said that the heroine sacrificed herself for others, for her parents, for her siblings, and even for other people outside her kinship. Self- sacrificial heroine was included as one of the categories of heroine in the era.

Beside her intelligence, woman was expected to sacrifice her safety, comfort, and health for others. Woman should get rid of all her selfishness in her mind because by doing it, she would get reward from others. The other category was the victim.

By becoming self-sacrificial heroine, woman so often became victim, the victim of her father, her brother, or their husband as well as the victim of the dangers of nature. Becoming victim, heroine in the era was depicted a weak, powerless being who really needed help from man. The man could be her father, her brother or her husband who was considered stronger than her as man was stereotyped as tough and strong being. In the era, brave woman who was physically strong was always connected to supernatural power and considered not ideal. The weak one was which was favored. Melancholy heroine appeared as one of the categories of

xli heroine in the era. Melancholy heroine was described as a woman who trembled even collapsed when hearing or finding out something miserable or terrifying, having a pale face, and usually wearing modest outfit with few ornaments.

Melancholic expression was always on her face, and it was because she always thought melancholically. Woman who had red cheek, cheerful and wore latest- fashioned outfit was not the heroine of the era. Such woman was claimed to be less generous and selfish and was not considered ideal (Hume, 1997, pp. 4-7).

Being pious was also required for being respected woman in the era.

Woman should be virtuous and becoming a model for her younger siblings. Her piety was not for admiration from other people but for getting reward from family.

Sensible heroine was the other category. Woman was demanded to be wise and good person mainly toward her family. This is closely related to the main role of woman, nurturing. In most of stories in Lady’s Book, women were depicted as young women who were married or became wives during the course of the story as well as became mother. Women were depicted always nurturing others, their children, their siblings, even their parents. Nurturing was considered the role of women as women were called by nature to bear, so it was also considered the nature of women. Being wife and being mother as if considered the best role woman should be (Hume, 1997, pp. 4-7).

However, the characteristics of heroine in 1837-1838 described above changed gradually after the Seneca Falls Women’s Rights Convention in 1848. In the period of 1857-1858, ten years after the convention, the characteristics of heroines in The Lady’s Book which consisted of seven categories showed

xlii significant changes although the changes were not drastic changes. The genius women who devoted their intellect for others were “tempered by practicality and common sense” (Hume, 1997, p. 10). The self-sacrificial heroine occasionally got reward from others, not merely became miserable victim who got nothing. The victim who got adversity all her life depicted overcoming the obstacles due to her bravery. In the era, bravery was no longer considered supernatural and it became a new value of women instead. Because of this, melancholy heroine was no longer favored in the era. Cheerful woman with smile always in her face even in hard moment was the portrait of ideal woman of the era. The woman had more spirit in overcoming adversity but her outfit was still modest, with few ornaments. The men in the era preferred the women who were more cheerful, brave, and had more spirit than the melancholy women with pale face, sad expression, which was fatalist. Pious woman was still well-liked but now the pious was not only as a model but also a person teaching other as well. In the era, practicality was more favored. Sensible heroine was eventually trusted to be money manager of family.

By combining the characteristic of genius and sensible, woman could be a money manager which was competent. Finally, the role of woman to become mother and wife was added by the role of becoming sister and daughter. The role as a sister or daughter was not only nurturing but sometimes carrying hard duties of family

(Hume, 1997, pp. 10-7).

The concept of American heroine in the nineteenth century however did not get any significant change until 1920s when America entered the era of so- called Roaring Twenties, the following era after World War I. In the era, younger

xliii women seemed to turn their back on what had been achieved by the former generation who fought in the first wave feminism. The younger women had bored to politics. The setting arose a new generation of young women which was totally different from the previous generation which was explained by Sarah M. Evans in her book, Born for Liberty, as follows:

Newspaper, magazines, movies, and novels all told Americans that womanhood had changed again. Young, hedonistic, sexual, the flapper soon became a symbol of the age with her bobbed hair, powdered nose, rouged cheeks, and shorter skirts. Lively and energetic, she wanted experience for its own sake. She sought out popular amusements in cabarets, dance hall, and movie theaters that no respectable, middle class woman would have frequented a generation before. She danced, smoked, and flaunted her sexuality to the horror of her elders (1989, p. 175).

The changing lifestyle created a new heroine with a new concept called the

Flapper. Thomas Gladysz stated in her article the Jazz Age: Flapper Culture &

Style, the typical Flapper was a young woman with “short hair and a short skirt, with turned-down hose and powdered knees”, who generally offended the older generation because she resisted conventions of acceptable feminine behavior. The flapper must have seemed to her mother like a rebel because she no longer confined to home and tradition (Gladysz, 2001).

The flapper represented what acceptable feminine value rejected at the time. Tradition feminine value at the time required women's hair long but the flapper’s was short, or bobbed. She wore make-up which even she might apply in public area whereas according to traditional feminine value her attitude might be considered temptress. The dresses she wore were baggy dresses which often exposed her arms and her legs from the knees down. The flappers also often spent

xliv their nights in nightclubs while traditional feminine values required woman stay at home at night. This new generation of the era totally violated the values.

The silent film star Louise Brooks was very much part of the era. Her personality and her role in film represented heroine in the flapper era, the era of the worship of youth. Her social circle included the prominent figures that helped define the era - such as the composer George Gershwin and the writers F. Scott

Fitzgerald (Gladysz, 2001).

In 1930s, everything changed for America evidenced Great Depression which began in 1929 and ended until the mid of 1940s. People became penniless and hedonic lifestyle seemed no longer fit in the era. Despite the fact, values of the Flappers did not die out. The values enlarged the concept of the American heroine instead. This somehow gave influence to the concept of heroine in films in the following era.

In a study of the films from the 1930s and 1970s, historians had categorized four major categories of roles that women played. The first one was the role of woman as the “Pillar of Virtues”. This kind of role featured roles of mothers and mammies such as Hattie McDaniel’s character in Gone with the Wind

(1939). The second category was the “Glamour Girl”. This category featured the sex goddesses like Marilyn Monroe in Bus Stop (1956) and the femme fatales such as Marlene Dietrich in Blonde Venus (1932). The third category, the

“Emotive Woman” featured the roles such as sexually frustrated Rosalind Russell in Picnic (1955) and the seductive Elizabeth Taylor in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

(1958). The last category, the “Independent” woman, featured roles such as the

xlv role of Barbara Streisand in Funny Girl (1968) or Jane Fonda in Klute (1971), the liberated woman (Stupor, n.d.).

However, throughout film history, “women have been depicted as manipulative, sexually repressed, or sexually overt” (Stupor, n.d.). In the 1950s, especially, America entered the era of “reaffirming male dominance and female subservience; movies showed women as breasts and buttocks, again idealizing women who were ‘pretty, amusing, and childish” (Butler as cited. in Stupor, n.d.).

Much of this negative representation somehow has endured and remained in present films, although it may not be as obvious as those in the previous decades.

“Nowadays, we see more sensationalized sexual roles for women as the trend began in the 70s” (Stupor, n.d.). Whatever the trend and the era, until now, women are still taking less leading roles in films as patriarchal values still dominate mainstream society.

D. Semiotic Film Theory

Semiotic film theory is a theory under the umbrella of film theory which is used to analyze film since film contains many signs which have deeper meaning behind delivered by its filmmakers. Semiotic film theory enables spectators of movies to think what has previously been unthinkable.

Before treading on the range of film, the science of contemporary semiology or semiotics broke fresh ground in the scope of language and it was initiated by the Swiss linguist, Ferdinand de Saussure.

xlvi

Saussure has stated that semiology or semiotic is “a science that studies the life of signs within society” (Stam, 1992, p. 4). This science is used to show

“what constitutes sign and what laws govern them” (ibid). Saussure has defined

‘sign’ as the union of the ‘signifier’, a form which signifies, and the ‘signified’, an idea signified (ibid, p. 8). According to Saussure, sign, the relation between signifier and signified, is arbitrary (as cited in Storey, 1996, p. 55). For example, the word ‘clock’ can produce different kind of sign in every person’s mind.

Everyone has her/his own image of clock in her mind because everyone has her/his own mindset about clock. However, what is imagined by the person who hears the word ‘clock’ remains the image of clock, not the image of door, table, chair, or other things. It is because there is a convention in the society of which the people speak English that the word ‘clock’ refers to a device used by people to indicate time, whatever the shape, as long as it is not to be used in wrist as English has the word ‘watch’ to call it.

In his book, Piliang has stated that the relation between the signifier and the signified is not constructed naturally (2003, p. 261). It is constructed based on convention (ibid). Therefore, basically the signifier opens many chances for various signified or meaning (ibid). This is what is meant ‘arbitrary’ by Saussure.

In the development of modern semiotics, Roland Barthes continued the science and he based his theory on Saussure’s semiology. Roland Barthes developed Saussure’s scheme that signifier + signified = sign and added to it a second level of signification. Barthes called it two semiological systems (Barthes,

xlvii

1999, p. 115). In this scheme, there are two stages of signification which are denotation stage and connotation stage.

The first stage, denotation stage, indicates the relation between the signifier and the signified of which the signified is an explicit meaning or the meaning which can be drawn directly from the signifier itself. Therefore, the sign, which is the total entity between image and concept, is also explicit or literal. For example, the picture of table means the table itself. There is not implicit meaning behind it. The structure of the first stage can be represented diagrammatically like this:

1. Signifier 2. Signified SIGN

In this first stage, the signification is just in the level of language or linguistic system. Barthes claims (as cited in Storey, 1996, p. 88) that in this second stage, connotation stage, what he calls ‘myth’ is produced. Barthes defines

‘myth’ here as “ideology understood as a body of ideas and practices which defend and actively promote the values and interests of the dominant groups in society” (ibid). In the second stage, the sign of the first stage becomes the new signifier in this stage. And the new signifier has the new signified and the relation between the new signifier and the new signified produces the new sign. The sign produced in this stage is interpretative and depends upon the user’s cultural experience (Turner, 1993, p. 46). For example, number 13 in western society is a

xlviii sign of bad luck; in China, it is considered a sign of luck. Overall, Barthes’ two semiological systems can be diagrammatically illustrated like this:

1. Signifier 2. Signified Language 3. Sign I SIGNIFIER II SIGNIFIED Myth III SIGN

The development of semiotics continued in 1960s when Christian Metz attributed the science to film. In understanding film, Metz has his own point of view. He has stated:

“We understand a film not because we have a knowledge of its system; rather, we achieve an understanding of its system because we understand the film… it is not because the cinema is language that it can tell such fine stories, but rather it has become language because it has told such fine stories.” (as cited in Monaco, 2000, p. 157)

Film represents something which has meaning which can be understood by its audience. Film does not just consist of language which can be used to tell a story rather it consists of many elements which become unity which then build a

‘language’ that enables audience to understand and get pleasure in watching it.

Metz also argues that film is not a language system “because it lacks the equivalent of the arbitrary linguistic sign” (Stam, 1992, p. 35). The sign in film is interpreted almost the same by each audience because the filmmakers lead them into one interpretation, which is the meaning the filmmakers try to deliver. Film is

xlix not the same as language system. Signs in language systems can be interpreted arbitrarily, signs in film can not be. About this, Monaco has stated:

“We can’t modify the signs of cinema the way we can modify the words of language systems. In cinema, an image of a rose is an image of a rose – nothing more, nothing less. In English, a rose can be a rose, simply, but it can also be modified or confused with similar words: rose, rosy, rosier, rosiest, rise, risen, rows (ruse), arose, roselike, and so forth.” (2000, p. 158)

In language system, the word “rose” can be interpreted differently for each individual and it is based on each individual’s mind in visualizing the image of rose. The sign of rose is different for each individual because each individual has different culture, social background, experience, etc. In film, the image of rose can be a sign created by the filmmakers leading to one interpretation for each audience. To do this, the filmmakers have to set the rose in a certain set which can lead audience to have the same interpretation.

Sign is usually given by filmmakers through cinematographic elements.

To deepen the reader’s understanding about sign in film, as a closing part of this chapter, the basic terminology in cinematography is explained in the next subchapter.

E. The Basic Terminology of Cinematography

The explanation of the terms related to cinematography is really needed to understand a film analysis as the analysis uses many of those terms which are likely uncommonly used. The explanation is as follows:

l a. Basic elements

· Title / Opening Credits

The opening credits sequence is usually used to set the mood of the film. It

sometimes lacks any credits except the film's title which often exists as

static letters on a solid background (“Cinematic Terms: A Film-Making

Glossary”, n.d., p. 14).

· Plot / Story / Narrative

Plot refers to a sequence of dramatic events or actions that build a

narrative in film (“Cinematic Terms: A Film-Making Glossary”, n.d., p.

14).

· Characterization

Characterization is the means filmmakers use to describe or develop a

character for audience (eHow Contributing Writer, n.d.)

· Point of View (POV)

Point of view is the perspective used by the filmmakers from which the

film story is told. It also means a shot that depicts the outlook or position

of a character (“Cinematic Terms: A Film-Making Glossary”, n.d., p. 14). b. Mise–en–scene

Mise-en-scene is a French term for "staging," or "putting into the scene or

shot". In film theory, it refers to “the arrangement of all the visual elements of

a theatrical production within a given playing area – the stage” (Giannetti,

1987, p. 34). Those elements are setting and sets, acting style, costumes, and

lighting.

li

· Setting

Setting is the time and place in which the film's narrative takes place,

including climate and season, people, customs, moral values, and norms of

behavior (“Cinematic Terms: A Film-Making Glossary”, n.d., p. 16).

· Costumes

Costumes are refers to what are worn by actor or actress in a film

(“Cinematic Terms: A Film-Making Glossary”, n.d., p. 6). Costumes

consist of outfits, hairstyle, and all things which support actor or actress’

appearance. Costumes can be contrast between characters and can change

along the film’s narrative.

· Lighting

Lighting refers to “the illumination of a scene and the manipulation of

light and shadows by the cinematographer” (“Cinematic Terms: A Film-

Making Glossary”, n.d., p. 11). The following are some lights usually used

in film.

o Key Light

Key light is the main light of film lighting. It highlights the form,

dimension and surface detail of the subject in film (“The Key Light”,

2009).

o Fill Light

Fill light is a supporting light which soften the shadows and illuminate

the parts of the subject which are not illuminated by the key light

(Monaco, 2000, p. 197). It is used to reduce the contrast of a scene.

lii

o Highlighting

Highlight is used to illuminate selected part of a subject, for example

an actress' eyes (“Cinematic Terms: A Film-Making Glossary”, n.d., p.

10).

o Backlight

Backlight is the light illuminating from behind the subject. It will

cause the edges of the subject to glow (“Cinematic Terms: A Film-

Making Glossary ”, n.d., p. 2). c. Shot Composition

Shot composition involves:

· Tone

Tone is the mood or atmosphere of a film scene which can be serious,

humorous, satiric, amusing, among others. It influences the way the

director directed a film (“Cinematic Terms: A Film-Making Glossary”,

n.d., p. 19).

· Film Speed

Filmmakers have their particular intention in making a scene in fast or

slow motion. Fast motion is produced by a technique which entails a

camera capturing an image at rate slower than normal speed (slower than

24 frames per second). It is generally used for creating comic effect. Slow

motion is produced by employing a process which requires a camera

capturing an image at a rate faster than it will be projected. It is usually

used to completely capture a “moment in time” or to make a dramatic or

liii

romantic effect (“Cinematic Terms: A Film-Making Glossary”, n.d., p. 9;

p. 17).

· Camera Angle

Camera angle is the perspective employed from which to shoot a subject.

The various kinds of camera angle are as follows:

o Eye-level Angle

Eye-level angle is a camera angle used to photograph a subject in eye

level.

o High Angle

High angle is a camera angle employed by filming the subject from

above (“Cinematic Terms: A Film-Making Glossary” 10). High angle

gives an effect of reducing the importance of the subject photographed,

for example, a person seems harmless or insignificant photographed

from above (Giannetti, 1987, p. 12).

o Low Angle

Low angle is a camera angle used by filming the subject from below

(“Cinematic Terms: A Film-Making Glossary ”, n.d., p. 12). Low

angle gives an effect of raising the importance of the subject so that it

will create fear and respect to audience (Giannetti, 1987, p. 13).

· Shot Distance

o Long Shot (LS)

Long shot is a shot taken from “the distance between the audience and

the stage in the live theater” (Giannetti, 1987, p. 8). Full shot is within

liv

this category in which the figure of human body is photographed from

head to toes (ibid). o Extreme Long Shot (ELS / XLS)

Extreme long shot is a shot taken from a great distance. Generally, it is

used to photograph a place or a landscape (Giannetti , 1987, p. 7). o Medium Shot (MS)

Medium shot is a shot used to photograph a figure from the knees or

waist up (Giannetti, 1987, p. 8). o Close-Up (CU)

Close-up is a shot magnifying the size of a filmed subject which is

relatively small, for example, human face. Its use is to elevate the

importance the subject (Gianeti, 1987, p. 8). o Medium Close-Up (MCU)

This shot is within the category of Close-Up but the subject

photographed is not magnified as large as close-up, A medium close-

up emphasizes the principal subject but includes other objects that are

nearby (“Bussiness Definition”, 2000). o Extreme Close-Up (XCU)

It is the other variation of close-up. This shot might show a certain

point of a subject which is rather very small, for example, a person’s

eyes (“Cinematic Terms: A Film-Making Glossary”, n.d., p. 9).

lv

· Frame:

A frame is a single smallest unit of a film. A series of frame constructs a

motion picture. Frame also refers to the rectangular area which we see

within the screen (“Cinematic Terms: A Film-Making Glossary”, n.d., p.

10). d. Montage

Montage is a French word literally meaning "editing", "putting together" or

"assembling shots". It refers to a filming technique, editing style, or form of

movie collage consisting of a series of short shots or images that are rapidly

put together into a coherent sequence to create a composite picture, or to

suggest meaning or a larger idea (“Cinematic Terms: A Film-Making

Glossary”, n.d., p. 13). Montage involves:

· Shot

Shot refers to a single take made by a camera without interruption or

editing (“Cinematic Terms: A Film-Making Glossary”,n.d., p. 17).

· Cut

Cut is a sudden change between shots in film’s structure. It can be a

transition from one scene to another or from one sound to another

(“Cinematic Terms: A Film-Making Glossary”, n.d., p. 7).

· Freeze Frame

Freeze is a technique in film which is generally applied at the end of a film

to give an “iconic lasting image” (“Cinematic Terms: A Film-Making

Glossary”, n.d., p. 10).

lvi

· Scene

Scene refers to a shot or a series of shot which construct(s) a complete

dramatic event or action in a narrative of film. The beginning of the

following scene is indicated by a change in time, location, or action. Fade,

wipe, and lap-dissolve technique are usually employed to connect one

scene to another scene (“Cinematic Terms: A Film-Making Glossary”,

n.d., p. 15).

o Fade

Fade is a transitional technique used by changing the intensity of an

image or sound gradually, from normal bright to darkness (fade out/

fade to black) or from darkness to completely normal bright scene

(fade in) and from silence to sound or from sound to silence. Fade in is

used to indicate the beginning of a scene while fade out is generally

used to indicate the end of a scene (“Cinematic Terms: A Film-

Making Glossary”, n.d., p. 9).

o Wipe

Wipe is a transitional technique in which one shot is replaced by

another shot as if the first shot is pushed off by the second shot. This

technique is often used in 1930s (“Cinematic Terms: A Film-Making

Glossary”, n.d., p. 20).

o Lap-dissolve or Dissolve

Lap dissolve which is a shorthand for ‘overlap dissolve’ is a

transitional technique between two shots in which the first shot is

lvii

replaced by the second shot gradually and both of them seems

blendind for a moment (“Cinematic Terms: A Film-Making Glossary”,

n.d., p. 7).

· Sequences

Sequence is a scene or a series of related scenes that are united and edited

together to build a story in a film’s narrative (“Cinematic Terms: A Film-

Making Glossary”, n.d., p. 16). e. Sound

Sound is the audio portion of a film. It includes the following:

· Dialogues

Dialogues are lines uttered by an actor/actress in a film (“Cinematic

Terms: A Film-Making Glossary”, n.d., p. 7).

· Sound Effects

Sound effects are all sounds created in film but dialogue and music

(“Cinematic Terms: A Film-Making Glossary”, n.d., p. 17).

· Score

Score is the background music in a film that commonly composed for the

film (“Cinematic Terms: A Film-Making Glossary”, n.d., p. 16).

· Sound Bridge

Sound bridge is a sound which can be dialogue, music or sound effect in

one scene that continues until another scene. It is used to connects the two

shots or scenes (“Cinematic Terms: A Film-Making Glossary”, n.d., p. 2).

lviii

· Synchronous (or Simultaneous) Sound

It refers to sound of which the source within the frame (Monaco, 2000, p.

214).

· Non-Synchronous (or Non-Simultaneous) Sound

It is the sound comes from outside the frame (Monaco, 2000, p. 214).

lix

CHAPTER III

ANALYSIS

This chapter contains the analysis of the movie and the point is to solve the research questions stated in the first chapter. Before solving the research questions, the reader is let to understand first the signification or the implication of the title of the movie so that the reader gets a good understanding.

A. THE SIGNIFICATION OF THE TITLE MEAN GIRLS

Figure 1. The title of Mean Girls Mean Girls (U.S.A., 2004), directed by Mark Waters. Paramount Pictures.

The first analysis will be an understanding of the signification of the title of the movie. The title of the movie is Mean Girls. It is an effective title as it can covers the meaning of the movie.

Grammatically, the word ‘mean’ in the title can be both an adjective and a noun. ‘Mean’ as adjective means “a: penurious, stingy b: characterized by petty selfishness or malice c: causing trouble or bother : vexatious” (“Mean”, n.d.).

‘Mean’ as noun means “condition, quality, course of action, etc. that is halfway between two extremes” (Hornby, Cowie & Gimson, 1986, p. 526). The word

lx

‘girls’ following the word ‘mean’ is grammatically a noun. ‘Girl’ means “female child from birth to adulthood”; “daughter”; “a young unmarried woman” (“Girl”,

2009). As the word written in its plural form, it refers to more than one person.

With this consideration, the title Mean Girls does not only contain a single meaning. First, I will analyze the title Mean Girls in which the word ‘mean’ considered adjective, and later I continue to analyze the title in which the word

‘mean’ considered noun.

At the first stage of Barthes’ two semiological systems, the title Mean

Girls has function merely as the title, without implication in it. But at the second stage of Barthes’ two semiological systems, Mean Girls can have a deeper meaning which can be drawn from the signs contained in it. In the beginning of the movie, the audience can see the title Mean Girls (see figure 1) written in black background, using two types of font in which the word ‘Mean’ is written in white with bold large font while ‘Girls’ is written in pink with smaller font. The pink color of the word ‘Girls’ deepens its meaning however. Pink color is a sign of femininity. “In some cultures, such as the US, pink is the color of girls. It represents sugar and spice and everything nice” (Bear, n.d.). And it can be simply understood that the moviemakers make the word ‘Mean’ bold as they want the audience to focus more on the word ‘Mean’. It is as if they want to tell the audience that this word is more emphasized. The question is “why is the word more emphasized?”

As we know, according to traditional values which are created by patriarchy, girls are supposed to be innocent, sweet, obedient, and control anger.

lxi

American society, despite its modernity, however still holds traditional value and this value still become the standard of ideal femininity in the country. But in the title, the word which precedes the word ‘Girls’ is not the word ‘Innocent’,

‘Sweet’, or ‘Obedient’, rather the word ‘Mean’. The meaning of the word ‘Mean’ as adjective does not support ideal femininity value in America. Thus, Mean Girls can be understood as the girls who challenge the traditional norms and ideal femininity values of the society. Thus, it can also be considered the girls who challenge patriarchy. The different fonts can be understood to raise a gap between the word ‘Mean’ and the word ‘Girl’. The word ‘Mean’ and the word ‘Girl’ are purposed as two different words with two different ideas and they stand in stark contrast position. In this case, the moviemakers want to disconnect the two ideas.

Both the words are not commonly paired in case that girl is usually identified with a weak, passive, innocent being.

‘Mean’ as noun can result to a deeper meaning. It has been stated that it means “condition, quality, course of action, etc. that is halfway between two extremes” (Hornby, Cowie, & Gimson, 1986, p. 526). If ‘mean’ here is something between two extremes, the question is ‘what are those two extremes?’ As the word following the word ‘mean’ is the word ‘girls’, it can be defined literally as

‘girls who have position between two extremes’. So, what are two extremes which border on girls?

However, the two extremes can be understood as systems which border and regulate girls as members of society. Until today, the two extreme systems which are dominant in regulating girls in society are patriarchy and feminism.

lxii

Patriarchy considers girls and women inferior than men. On the contrary, feminism requires girls and women equal with men. So, what is between patriarchy and feminism? The answer is postfeminism. In the previous chapter, it has been said that postfeminism seems going along with patriarchal values but it also challenges the system as it rejects the idea that girls and women are merely object and inferior to men. Postfeminism can be considered as “condition, quality, course of action, etc. that is halfway between” patriarchy and feminism. Thus, the meaning of the title Mean Girls here can be interpreted as girls who have condition, quality, and actions representing postfeminism, the movement which provides values between two extreme systems.

However, the word ‘girls’ in the title is actually complicated. Except the meaning which has been stated previously, the word ‘girl’ means “a female servant or other employee: sometimes considered a patronizing term” and “a sweetheart of a boy or man” (“Girl Definition”, 2009). If in dictionaries the word

‘girl’ is interpreted in patriarchal perspective, why does the word ‘girls’ in the title is paired with the word ‘mean’ which has been analyzed before as a characteristic challenging patriarchy? Actually the word ‘grrl’ seems more suitable being paired with the word ‘mean’. The word ‘grrl’ is a respelling of the word ‘girl’.

The word ‘grrl’ connotes “aggression, strength, self-confidence, etc., and rejecting the connotations of weakness, meekness, prissiness, etc.,” usually associated with the word ‘girl’ (“Definition of Grrl”, n.d.). However, this raises question. Does the filmmakers have certain purpose by using the word ‘girl’? Of course the answer can be gained if we watch and analyze the movie further.

lxiii

Anyway, the way the moviemakers write the title is purposed to raise the audience’s curiousity so that the questions like “why are the girls in the movie considered mean?” and “What kind of girls are who are considered mean in the movie?” will emerge in their mind and the questions can be answered if they watch the movie. It can be said that the title Mean Girls is an efficient title.

B. HOW THE MOVIE “MEAN GIRLS” CONSTRUCTS

ITS TEENAGE HEROINES

When we watch the entire run of the movie Mean Girls and pay attention to its teenage female characters, we can see easily that the teenage female characters represent modern girls. Although this movie does not show explicitly its set of time, we are able to conclude the setting of time from the fashion style of the characters or from the topic the characters talk about. For example, in one scene in the movie, Ashton Kutcher, the famous Hollywood actor, is mentioned and claimed as an up-to-date topic at the time. The actor is popular since the end of 1990s. From this, we can conclude that the movie takes set of time in the era between the end of 1990s and 2004 (the year the movie is produced), so that the teenage female characters of the movie also represent teenage girls living in the era.

The setting of time of the movie refers to the era of postfeminism or postfeminist era. It is the era when many women and girls no longer see that they need feminism as it is considered old fashioned. Postfeminism offers new values to women and girls which seem different from both the values of feminism and

lxiv the values of traditional femininity. Its focus is encouraging individual empowerment. We can see clearly that the setting of time of the movie is in postfeminst era through what are represented by the teenage heroines in the movie.

The teenage heroines in the movie classify themselves into some different cliques and the members of each clique certainly have different characteristics.

Nevertheless, in general, these girls’ crowd is represented challenging traditional femininity. Most girls are represented as girls who are not passive and obedient but rather girls who want to actualize their self-obsession and self-expression liberally. Some of them even do not mind breaking the school regulation like skipping class or making out with their boyfriend in the school. Most of them chase for self-existence as well as acceptance and attention from their peers. Thus, they care too much about appearance and need both friendship and love relationship to build their identity.

In socializing with opposite sex peers, they are varied. However, those who are more aggressive in socializing with boys are considered socially competent. The socially competent girls are considered more popular.

Most girls in the movie are also represented as girls who do not mind expressing anger frankly so it can be said that they do not represent traditional values. This is clearly shown in the scene when the junior girl students in the movie fight against each other violently (see figure 2).

lxv

Figure 2. Girl fights against girl violently in Mean Girls. Mean Girls (U.S.A., 2004), directed by Mark Waters. Paramount Pictures.

It is clear that most teenage heroines in the movie show the characteristics of girls in modern era. Most of them represent the current values, Girl Power values, which is a part of postfeminism. Although movie is sometimes an exaggeration of reality, it can be understood that the movie represents the condition of American girls today.

However, although America has encountered many movements which contribute in shaping American life and institution today like what has been contributed by postfeminism to American girls, the traditional values are still maintained in the daily life including the values of traditional femininity which is still embraced by them generally. In the last chapter, it has been explained that the concepts of American heroine in fiction, either literature or film in the nineteenth century and twentieth century, gradually change decade by decade. It has also been said that although the trend in one decade is different from that in another

lxvi decade, women are still taking less leading roles in films as patriarchal values still dominate mainstream society. As patriarchal values still dominate society, until now, most popular American fictions and movies often show the heroines who represent the ideal femininity required by patriarchal system which is the values of traditional women.

The fact that America still holds traditional values of femininity despite its modernity and some women’s movement has emerged like postfeminism somehow raises question. How are the teenage heroines in the movie Mean Girls constructed? Are they constructed going along with Girl Power as they live in postfeminist era or rather still maintaining traditional values instead? A full analysis of all teenage heroines of the movie is beyond the scope of the thesis as the thesis concentrates specifically on two primary teenage heroines who take leading role in the movie, Cady Heron and Regina George.

1. Cady Heron, the Girl Who Transforms

By watching the movie from the beginning until the end, there has been a transformation in the character of Cady Heron, the main character of the movie. In the beginning of the movie she is depicted as an innocent girl who does not know anything about high school world as she has been home schooled all her life. At her first day she goes to high school, she wears modest outfits and simple hairstyle. Her appearance does not show that she is a girl who always wears the latest-fashion clothes (see figure 3).

lxvii

Figure 3. Cady’s appearance in her first day in high school Mean Girls (U.S.A., 2004), directed by Mark Waters. Paramount Pictures.

In the frames, she wears modest T-shirt, jacket, and jeans and her hair style is simple ponytail. It can be said that Cady’s appearance is too ordinary to make her the center of attention when she enters her new school, North Shore High School.

In this case, in North Shore High School, Cady is depicted as ‘powerless’ new comer. What is meant by ‘powerless’ in this term is not physical strength but rather appearance.

Her modest and ordinary appearance somehow influences the way people treat her. When Cady greets and introduces herself to a girl she meets first in her new class, later known Kristen Hadley, the girl says to Cady if Cady talks to her again, she will kick her ass. Cady’s appearance somehow shows that she is an

‘unthreatening object’ so people see her powerless. And indeed, Cady shows her powerlessness as she responds Kristen’s threat by being silent, not protesting.

Cady’s powerlessness is also shown by her pose as well as gesture in the following frames.

lxviii

Figure 4. Cady’s polite gesture when and after talking to somebody she meets first in her new high school Mean Girls (U.S.A., 2004), directed by Mark Waters. Paramount Pictures.

As we can see (see figure 4), Cady links together both her hands in front of her body when and after talking to Kristen Hadley. Medium shot is used to make audience see clearly the pose. The pose is somehow a sign of politeness. But if we analyze it further, the politeness shown by Cady leads to inferiority instead. In the school, she is new student. She does not know anyone there at all and therefore she does not have social power. Thus, when she talks to somebody she meets first she tries to be as polite as she can to avoid antagonism addressed to her. She wants to show that she is nice but sadly it makes her treated unfriendly instead.

Cady’s characters are revealed one by one as the story goes. First, Cady is portrayed as an obedient student. At the scene when Janis and Damian, her first friends in the school, ask her to skip class, we can see from Cady’s facial expression (see figure 5) that she worries about it as she thinks skipping class is not good and should not be done. She also asks Janis and Damian “Won't we get in some sort of trouble for this?”. Cady’s question shows Cady’s anxiety of breaking the school regulation.

lxix

Figure 5. Cady’s anxious face expression when she is asked skipping class Mean Girls (U.S.A., 2004), directed by Mark Waters. Paramount Pictures.

Her facial expression and question somehow show that she is such a person who always obeys regulation. However, finally Cady agrees to skip class as she is in no position to pass up friends for Janis and Damian are the only friends she has at the time.

The next scenes of the movie bring the nature of Cady as a self-sacrificed girl. Janis asks Cady to spy on the Plastics, the most popular clique in the school, as Cady is invited by the queen bee, Regina George, to sit together with them at lunch in cafeteria for a week. Janis wants Cady to report to her all bad things the

Plastics say and do. Actually, at the time, Cady does not find anything wrong with the clique and feels wonder why Janis hates them. However, due to her loyalty to

Janis as her friend, Cady agrees to do Janis’ idea. In this case, she sacrifices herself to do what her friend asks. She does not do it because of her own willingness.

Beside her powerlessness, Cady is depicted as a smart girl. In the scene in

Math class, Cady could not concentrate as she is fascinated by Aaron Samuels, a senior student in the same Math class who sits in front of her. At the moment that she daydreams, suddenly, her teacher, Mrs. Norburry, interrupts by asking Cady

lxx what is the answer of the question written in the blackboard. Cady is indeed confused but somehow she can answer the question because she is smart in Math.

Mrs. Norburry : Cady, what do you say? Cady : He was... So cute. I mean, A-sub-N equals N plus one over four. Mrs. NOrburry : That's right. That's good. Very good.

Her cleverness in math is also shown in the dialogue which happens in cafeteria between Cady and two of the members of the Plastics, Regina and Gretchen, below.

Regina : A hundred and twenty calories and forty-eight calories from fat. What percent is that? Gretchen : Forty-eight into one twenty? Regina : I'm only eating foods with less than thirty percent calories from fat. Cady : It's forty percent. Well, forty eight over one hundred and twenty equals X over one hundred and then you cross- multiply and get the value of X. Regina : Whatever. I'm getting cheese fries.

Despite her cleverness, Cady is so passive in winning the man she has a crush on. In the movie, Cady has a crush on Aaron Samuels who is also the ex- boyfriend of Regina, the queen bee of the Plastics. She always waits Aaron to talk first as she does not dare to talk first. What she does are only looking at him and keeping her feeling upon him. When Regina offers Cady a help to win Aaron,

Cady feels so thankful and glad. However, Regina finally betrays Cady by taking

Aaron back to her arms. Cady’s passivity and powerlessness make her become a victim of the queen bee.

lxxi

By analyzing Cady’s character in the beginning of the movie, we can conclude that Cady is a character representing the concept of ‘good’ girl as she brings the characteristics and values of traditional femininity. She is an obedient, smart, self-sacrificed, and passive girl with modest appearance and often become a victim due to her powerlessness. However, we have to make it clear what is the meaning of ‘good’ girl here. In Western culture, ‘good’ girl has been around a long time. It has been the foundation of the eighteenth-and-nineteenth-century novel. It represents women who fulfill the standard values of femininity in the era.

The girl is typically poor but beautiful. The characteristics somehow different from era to another era but the concept is still the same in which the girl represents the mainstream society’s values in the era. For instance, in her article,

Sandra Tsing Loh has described good girl in nineties as:

… (a) spunky; (b) virginal; (c) busy with purposeful activity. But not obsessively so. Her hormones are in balance. Brave chin up, she works within society’s rules … Good Girls don’t challenge the status quo. (288)

On all accounts, although the standard values of girl or woman required by mainstream society are different from era to another era, it is undeniably always driven by patriarchal system which remains until today. Patriarchal system indeed requires women to be passive and submissive so that being ‘good’ girl is more favored. This also explains why I put single quote in the word GOOD. The term

‘good’ here does not refer to its real meaning rather its culturally constructed meaning as ‘good’ here is determined by the mainstream society driven by patriarchal system.

lxxii

The development of the Cady’s character somehow does not only come to the ‘good’-girl side of her because as the story goes, it develops to be more complicated. As has been stated in the title of this subchapter, ‘Cady Heron, the girl who transforms’, Cady indeed starts transforming right after the turning point of the movie which is in the scene when she witnesses Regina kissing Aaron

Samuels (see figure 6) whereas Regina tells her before that she will help her in winning Aaron. The first frame showing the scene Regina kissing Aaron uses over shoulder shot which shows Cady’s shoulder to make it clear to audience that Cady witnesses it. The movie again shows the scene (the second frame) in medium close-up, now with slow motion, to make it clearer and more dramatic so that the audience can feel what Cady feels. This incident somehow makes Cady decide to take revenge against Regina. Thenceforth, she begins to pull out of the values of traditional heroine she has represented one by one and holds Girl Power values instead.

Figure 6. The scene is the turning point of Cady’s character development. Mean Girls (U.S.A., 2004), directed by Mark Waters. Paramount Pictures.

The first thing Cady does in breaking the concept of traditional heroine is that she agrees to sabotage the Plastics based on her own willingness, not her friend’s. At this point, Cady has her own self-determination and this represents

lxxiii

Girl Power values in which girls or women can do what they want based on her own intention and personal choice. Cady does not want to be the victim and the loser so she decides to fight back. With Janis and Damian, she tries to beat Regina with many ways, even the ways considered mean, including making Regina gain weight to make her fat and making Regina’s loyal friends hate her. In this case,

Cady no longer appears as a powerless victim.

In sabotaging the Plastics, Cady infiltrates the Plastics by pretending to be a ‘plastic’ girl. However, joining the Plastics really makes Cady too proud. She too enjoys her role as the member of the Plastics. She begins to change her modest look into fashionable one, adapting the Plastics’ chic style. She wears fashionable outfits, accessories and hair-style, uses make-up, and behaves like the other member of the Plastics including imitating Regina’s gesture and body language

(see figure 7). She wants to beat Regina but she cannot help longing to be like

Regina.

lxxiv

. Figure 7. Cady tries to imitate Regina Mean Girls (U.S.A., 2004), directed by Mark Waters. Paramount Pictures.

In the first frame, it is shown that Cady wears a necklace showing the initial of her name alike with Regina’s and the necklace however signifies her longing to be like Regina. In the scene, the filmmakers put Cady sitting beside Regina in the purpose the audience can see that Cady and Regina wears the necklace which are alike. The second frame shows Cady imitating Regina’s gesture which is always done before Regina leaves her friend. Janis and Damian are in wonder when they see Cady practices this gesture. In the movie, it is shown that Janis and Damian gaze each other after Cady leaves. Although they do not speak, the audience can see that they begin to realize that Cady has changed. The third frame clearly shows that Cady is putting on make-up in her classroom. The three pictures shows

lxxv

Cady’s efforts to be like Regina and the last one is the most explicit in representing the image of girl with Girl Power values as a girl with traditional values does not put on make-up in public area. Make-up, fashionable clothes and chic hair-style Cady wears are the signs of girls’ self-actualization and self- expression which are the values of Girl Power.

Cady longs to be like Regina as in her view Regina is the queen bee, the trendsetter, the top kick, and the center of attention. Cady admires Regina because of the power Regina has and she wants the power. She is aware that popularity means power. Since then, she wants to beat Regina not only because she wants to take revenge against Regina or because she wants to win Aaron but also because of her obsession to be more popular than Regina. Again, the value of traditional girl, which considers romance is women’s main goal, is left. Cady’s efforts to beat

Regina are not just for winning Aaron but also for gaining Regina’s throne.

Winning Aaron is not enough for her because she also wants power for her own existence, a so called popularity. She considers Regina her role model but she wants to be more than her.

When finally Cady can kick Regina out of the Plastics and get the status of queen bee, she begins to aware of her power. The power she gets somehow makes her more confident. This appears in the way she walks in the following frames

(see figure 8).

lxxvi

Figure 8. The way Cady walks when she has become a queen bee Mean Girls (U.S.A., 2004), directed by Mark Waters. Paramount Pictures.

Long shot is used in both the frames to show the way Cady walks. In the frames, it can be seen that Cady walks confidently followed by her new worker bees,

Karen and Gretchen. She unhesitatingly swings her hands freely. She gazes straight ahead. It is totally in contrast to the way she walks when she has not been popular which is shown in the frames below (see figure 9).

Figure 9. Cady’s gesture and way of walking when she hangs out with the Plastics before she becomes popular Mean Girls (U.S.A., 2004), directed by Mark Waters. Paramount Pictures.

Both the frames above show the scene in which Cady hangs out with the Plastics before she becomes popular. In the first frame, while walking, Cady is bent over and both her hands link together in front of her body. In the second frame, Cady appears talking with the Plastics and her hands keep linking together in front of her body. She does not swing her hands freely when she walks and this somehow shows her modesty. The way she walks and her gesture do not indicate that she is

lxxvii a girl with Girl Power values. Cady’s power due to popularity leads to a change in her body language.

The power of popularity also changes Cady’s fashion. In figure 8, it can be seen that she wears polka-dot mini skirt and pink tank top. Cady who usually wears modest clothes before she becomes popular now wears girly revealing outfits exposing her physical appeal. At this point, Cady cannot be considered a girl with traditional values as she does not wear modest clothes. She cannot also be called a feminist girl as she wears feminine outfits and shows feminine gesture whereas feminist claims that girl or woman cannot be feminist and feminine at the same time as feminist considers these identities are oppositional. Moreover, Cady wears revealing and form-fitting clothes which according to feminists are created by patriarchy as such outfits make girl or woman become object of male gaze or in other words victim of patriarchy. Here, the ambivalence of Girl Power values brought by Cady emerges. Cady seems going along with patriarchy as she wears revealing and form-fitting clothes but she also wants power for her self and does not want to be considered a passive object or victim. In this case, it is very clear that Cady represents Girl Power values as she does not consider herself a victim for she can expresses her personal freedom by wearing revealing and form-fitting clothes based on her personal choice not compulsion from other persons. By wearing the clothes, she also expresses her sexual freedom because she fully realizes that she can be the center of attention and she somehow finds pleasure of being the center of attention because it gives her personal power. What she seeks is actually not male gaze but rather her own “self-regulating narcissistic

lxxviii individualistic gaze” (Adriaens). Therefore, Cady actually positions her self not as an object but rather a subject since she can get benefit from her position as an object as she holds social power due to male admiration which somehow leads to female admiration toward her.

Anyway, the power Cady gets due to her popularity makes her think that she can drive people around her. In the dialogue when Janis asks her to go to her art show, Cady tells her that she cannot come as she has had a plan to go to

Madison with her parents. But when her parents ask her about their plan to go to

Madison, Cady tells them that she has had a plan to go to her friend’s art show.

Cady learns to drive everybody around her, telling lies to her parents and friends as she has had her own plan to hold a gathering with the rest members of the

Plastics, Aaron Samuels, and some persons she thinks cool and popular to maintain her status as a queen bee. Cady’s awareness of her popularity is shown in the dialogue between Cady and Aaron in math class when Cady invites Aaron in the gathering which will be held in her house.

Cady : Hey. I'm having a small get-together at my house tomorrow night. Aaron : Is Regina going? Cady : No. Do you think I'm an idiot? Cady : No, it's just gonna be a few cool people, and you better be one of them, byotch. Aaron : Fine, I'll go.

In the dialogue, Cady tells that only a few cool people who will be invited in the get-together. It means that Cady considers herself a cool person, and she wants

Aaron to be one of them who come. Cady begins to limit her social relatedness as she only associates with people she thinks cool.

lxxix

Thinking that she is popular, Cady as if feels having power in approaching

Aaron. Cady who some time ago has been passive becomes more confident even aggressive. In the scene when Cady and Aaron are in Cady’s room at the night she holds get-together in her house, Cady talks to Aaron in aggressive manner. The scene shows how Cady aggressively gets her face closer to Aaron’s face.

Figure 10. Cady talks with Aaron in aggressive manner Mean Girls (U.S.A., 2004), directed by Mark Waters. Paramount Pictures.

In the first frame, we can see that Cady’s hand hold Aaron’s shoulder. In the second frame, Cady’s face gets closer to Aaron’s face. This is impossible done by

Cady if she does not think she has power. As she thinks she has power, she thinks she can get everything she wants including Aaron. Therefore, she dares to express her feeling aggressively. At this point, again, Cady represents Girl Power values.

She is confident and knows that she has power to get what she wants. A girl with

Girl Power values like Cady does not wait until a man wooing her but rather makes initiative to woo the man she has a crush on first.

At this point, Cady truly violates traditional feminine values which demand girl to be passive and submissive. According to the traditional values, that is man who ought to be aggressive, not girl or woman. That is man who is demanded to take control over woman. A girl who is aggressive in her

lxxx relationship with man considered temptress and claimed to be negative morally and culturally.

With such manner, Cady certainly cannot also be considered a feminist.

Feminists somehow always see girls and women as object in their relationship with men. Therefore, flirting aggressively on men for feminists are the same as providing men chance to make women become object. In this matter, Cady will be considered a victim of patriarchy. However, postfeminsts will rather see

Cady’s sexually aggressive manner as girl’s sexual freedom. Girls are encouraged to have sexual freedom and express themselves in whatever ways they feel comfortable. Therefore, Cady’s sexually aggressive manner is seen as her power and makes her a subject not an object.

However, in the movie it is depicted that the Cady’s power creates boomerang and it is beyond Cady’s expectation. Aaron gets upset when Cady tells him that he is Regina’s property. Aaron thinks that Cady also thinks that he is such a property, so he leaves her. It is shown in the dialogue below that Aaron does not like the new image of Cady.

Cady : I just wanted a reason to talk to you. Aaron : So why didn't you just talk to me? Cady : Well, because I couldn't. Because of Regina. Because you were her property... Aaron : Her property? Cady : No. Shut up. Not her property... Aaron : No, don't tell me to shut up. Cady : I wasn't... Aaron : God, you know what? You are just like a clone of Regina. Cady : Oh, no, no, listen to me. You're not listening to me...

lxxxi

Cady’s popularity does not make her win Aaron’s heart. Aaron considers Cady like a clone of Regina which means that Cady is a girl with negative attitude as

Regina depicted as an evil character in the movie (Regina’s character will be explained at the next section). At this point, the character of Aaron is a sign of patriarchal system as he delivers patriarchal values which require a girl being a

‘good’ girl who is passive and submissive to man. He rejects Cady as Cady does violation to patriarchal values which is in this matter devaluing his man’s pride.

Aaron’s rejection toward Cady somehow is the sign signifying the resistance of patriarchal system toward girl with Girl Power values who takes control over man as such action is claimed to be overstepping the bounds.

Whatever popularity or high status in school brings to Cady, popularity is still a significant factor for Cady’s character. The climax of Cady’s popularity is at the time when she is awarded a Spring Fling Queen in her school and crowned an imitation crown made of plastic. It is astonishing that Cady breaks her crown into pieces. The plastic crown is the sign of Cady’s popularity but Cady breaks it.

However, Cady thinks she has lost everything she has; her friends, her boyfriend, and her parent’s trust, due to her obsession in chasing the status of queen bee.

This is somehow the sign the filmmakers use to convey that popularity is something priceless, fake, and insignificant so girls are not supposed to long or compete for gaining it. The desire to chase popularity or status must be ‘broken’, like the crown broken by Cady. The power of popularity brought here refers to not something positive as it may bring a person become mean. Indirectly, the filmmakers transmit the idea that popularity or high social status, which often

lxxxii becomes the main goal of many postfeminist girls today, is not something good for girls.

The idea the filmmakers convey to challenge Girl Power values gets clearer as in the end of the story Cady is transformed to be a peace loving girl with ordinary style who befriends everyone and no longer chases power for her own existence. Cady becomes a ‘good’ girl again. However, Cady’s ‘good’ girl characteristic in the end of the movie is not the same as that in the beginning of the movie. In the end of the movie, the character of Cady still has been influenced by Girl Power values. She is a peace loving girl who does not chase for popularity but at the same time her outward appearance and gesture remain representing Girl

Power values. In the frame below, Cady’s outfits are likely not too fashionable but they are not out of date. They are also not revealing clothes which can make her an object of male gaze but the clothes somehow still make her look attractive.

Her hair is set fashionably, not simple ponytail, so that it also makes her look fashionable. In the way she walks, Cady is depicted walking confidently and swinging her hands freely like the way she walks when she has been a queen bee.

It can be said that in the end of the movie, Cady combines both the values of traditional heroine and Girl Power values.

lxxxiii

Figure 11. Cady’s appearance and gesture in the end of the movie Mean Girls (U.S.A., 2004), directed by Mark Waters. Paramount Pictures.

2. Regina George, the Queen Bee

Figure 12. Regina George, the queen bee who fulfills American beauty standard Mean Girls (U.S.A., 2004), directed by Mark Waters. Paramount Pictures.

In the movie, Regina George, the queen bee of the Plastics, is depicted as a girl who fulfills the physical standard of ideal American beauty which is tall, slim, blonde, and having white skin and blue eyes. In the film, the figure of Regina, whose name means “queen” in Latin, is introduced to the audience through the scene when Damian introduces the member of the Plastics one by one to Cady. In the frame, Regina is framed by medium shot combined with slow motion. She is

lxxxiv lifted by the boys heading for the school yard. The frame uses medium shot in order for the audience can see her figure clearly. Slow motion is used to dramatize her first appearance, to show her charm, as Damian says that she is the queen bee while the other members of the Plastics are just the worker bees. The next frame shows Regina walking, approaching the other members of the Plastics, Gretchen

Wieners and Karen Smith. In the frame, the side view of Regina is shot in medium shot to show her slim body which is considered ideal for women today.

Her tight sport outfits also support in showing Regina’s slim body.

Beside her almost perfect physical appearance, Regina is also depicted wealthy. In the movie, her wealth is shown with her silver Lexus car and beautiful big house. In one scene, a girl student who adores Regina tells that Regina has

Fendi pursues. Lexus car, beautiful big house, and Fendi pursues is the signs signify Regina’s wealth as all of those things are surely expensive so that only rich person who can own them.

Like the meaning of her name, Regina is adored by many people in North

Shore High School. Boys want to date her and girls want to befriend her. Physical appearance and wealth are however pictured in this movie as key points for popularity in high school. Popularity is one of the ways to have power, so Regina uses her popularity to hold social authority in the school. She manipulates people to be under her feet. Many girls in the school want to be like Regina or at least become her friend. By being friend of Regina, they think they are important so that their social status in the school will be higher. The following are the

lxxxv statements of North Shore High School students in the movie justifying Regina’s status in the school.

“Regina George is flawless.” “She has two Fendi purses and a silver Lexus.” “I hear her hair's insured for $.” “I hear she does car commercials. In Japan.” “Her favorite movie is Varsity blues.” “One time, she met John Stamos on a plane. And he told her she was pretty.” “One time, she punched me in the face. It was awesome.”

In the movie, Regina, despite her high status in her school, is shown as antagonist, an evil character who becomes Cady’s adversary. She is considered evil because she cannot fulfill the values of ‘good’ girl embraced by mainstream society. Regina is depicted challenging traditional values of femininity. She does what a ‘good’ girl is not supposed to do. What are the values of ‘good’ girl challenged by Regina in the movie actually?

There are so many things shown in the movie supporting the judgment that

Regina is depicted breaking the values of ‘good’ girl. First, Regina often uses rude words when she speaks and expresses anger frankly. In the movie, Regina may wear feminine outfits, like skirt or pink jacket, but her manner in speaking does not fulfill the values of traditional femininity. She dares to say swear words.

Everyone knows that it challenges the values of traditional femininity as ‘good’ girl is demanded to be gentle in speaking. According to Lowe and Graham,

“There is little empirical evidence on female/male use of swear words. What there is, is research to show the strong stereotype we have of men swearing more” (as cited in Schollhammer, 2001, p. 25). As we see until today, if rude words are

lxxxvi uttered by man, it may not be liked, but it is still acceptable. But if rude words are uttered by woman, it is unforgiven and considered a shame. In the case of Regina, she often uses swear words or rude words in expressing her anger as she often express her anger frankly. Regina as if wants to prove that girl can also do it. By doing it, she shows her Girl Power values. The traditional femininity requires girls to hide her anger and expressing it frankly is considered rude and impolite. Thus,

Regina does not fulfill the value. In the movie, the violation of the values shown in the scene when Regina cries as Aaron leaves her after he finds out that Regina cheats on him with Shane Oman. Sadly, Regina expresses her anger to Karen as

Karen fails to cheer her up. The dialogue is as follows:

Karen : Did he say why? Regina : Somebody told him about Shane Oman. Gretchen : Who? Regina : He said some guy on the baseball team. Karen : Baseball team? Regina : I gave him everything. I was half a virgin when I met him. Karen : You wanna do something fun? You wanna go to Taco Bell? Regina : I can't go to Taco Bell, I'm on an all-carb diet. God, Karen, you are so stupid!

In the dialogue, Karen asks Regina to go to Taco Bell, a place where certainly people can consume food as Regina rejects Karen’s idea by saying that she is in all-carbohydrate diet. Karen’s effort to cheer up Regina is failed as it makes

Regina get angrier and her anger somehow makes her speak rudely to Karen.

In the other scene, Regina expresses her anger when she finds out that the

Kalteen Bars Cady has given to her are not the chocolate to lose weight but rather to gain weight. Regina expresses her anger by saying swear word ‘motherfucker’

lxxxvii although she just utters part of the word, so that she just say ‘motherf ’, as her saying stops as she throws the chocolate out of her mouth before she screams out loud finally. Below are the frames showing Regina’s angry facial expression in the scene.

Figure 13. Regina’s angry facial expression in the scene when she finds out that she is tricked by Cady Mean Girls (U.S.A., 2004), directed by Mark Waters. Paramount Pictures.

In the frames, the angry Regina is shot in close-up to enable the audience to see her angry facial expression clearly. If we analyze the frames by using Barthes two-semiological system, the black background signifies darkness and the darkness is the sign of hatred, grudge, disappointment and other negative feelings in contrast to happiness or joy which is often signified by brightness. Indeed, generally, darkness is used to suggest fear, evil, the unknown, while light to suggest security, virtue, truth, joy (Giannetti, 1987, p. 16). In this case, the darkness also signifies the dark character of Regina. The white jacket Regina uses is to make Regina’s figure clear as the color is contrast to the background. The lighting used in the shots is low-key lighting so despite her bright colour jacket,

lxxxviii

Regina’s figure looks dark as it is lack of light. Again, the dark image of Regina here signifies her feeling of hatred and grudge which leads to show her dark or evil character.

Regina’s second violation to the values of traditional femininity is that she is hypocrite. Regina can be considered a hypocritical person as she always pays a compliment to other person’s belonging but reproaches it when the person leaves.

This character is shown in the scene when Regina praises a girl’s skirt in the school.

Regina : Oh, my God! I love your skirt. Where did you get it? The girl : It was my mom's in the 80's. Regina : Vintage. So adorable. The girl : Thanks. Regina : That is the ugliest F-ing skirt I've ever seen.

This is done by Regina to create a good image of her in front of everybody to maintain her popularity. She wants everybody in the school give respect to her. In relation to traditional values, hypocrisy is not a part of it. A ‘good’ girl with traditional values tends to be honest and sincere. She does not pretend being good in front of other person while being evil in the back. She is not a devil in disguise.

In other words, what Regina does is opposed to the values.

The third violation is shown by Regina with her manipulative, cunning and slanderous natures. Cady, the main character, somehow becomes the victim of

Regina’s manipulation. Cady is a new student in the school and Regina is totally aware that Cady, despite her unawareness of trend, is beautiful. Regina worries

lxxxix that she can be a threat for her status in the school. To anticipate the worst possibility may happen, Regina makes Cady under her wings, by inviting her joining with the Plastics at lunch, so she can be easier in controlling her.

Knowing Cady has a crush on her ex-boyfriend, Regina feels more threatened and challenged. However, as she is manipulative person, she makes Cady believe that she will help Cady in winning Aaron. The scene in Halloween party shows the manipulative way Regina uses to throw Cady down.

In the party, Regina approaches Aaron and begins to talk to him. In this case, Cady supposes that Regina tries to help her winning Aaron. However, what happen actually is that Regina tries to slander Cady in order for Aaron loses his sympathy to Cady. The dialogue between Regina and Aaron in the scene is as follows:

Regina : I need to talk to you. You know that girl Cady? Aaron : Yeah, she's cool. I invited her tonight. Regina : Well, be careful because she has a huge crush on you. Aaron : Really? How do you know? Regina : Because she told me. She tells everybody. It's kind of cute, actually. She's like a little girl. She, like, writes all over her notebook, "Mrs. Aaron Samuels." And she made this T- shirt that says "I heart Aaron" and she wears it under all her clothes. Aaron : Oh, come on. Regina : Well, who can blame her? I mean, you're gorgeous. And OK, look, I'm not saying she's a stalker, but she saved this Kleenex you used and she said she's gonna do some kind of African voodoo with it to make you like her. Aaron : What?

From the dialogue, it can be seen that Regina is so crafty to throw down a person who may disturb or threat her existence. She also often makes negative

xc justification about people although she does not have anything to prove it and she wants everybody to believe it. She is such a gossiper who enjoys adding color to what she is speaking in order for making it more interesting. In the other dialogue, the dialogue between Regina and Cady, right after Cady has just had a talk with

Janis about how to crack Regina, Regina’s slanderous nature again revealed.

Cady : Hey. Regina : Why were you talking to Janis Ian? Cady : I don't know, I mean, she's so weird. She just, you know, came up to me and started talking to me about crack. Regina : She's so pathetic. Let me tell you something about Janis Ian. We were best friends in middle school. I know, right? It's so embarrassing. I don't even... Whatever. So then in eighth grade, I started going out with my first boyfriend, Kyle, who was totally gorgeous, but then he moved to Indiana. And Janis was, like, weirdly jealous of him. Like, if I would blow her off to hang out with Kyle, she'd be like, "Why didn't you call me back?" And I'd be like, "Why are you so obsessed with me?" So then, for my birthday party, which was an all-girls pool party, I was like, "Janis, I can't invite you, because I think you're a lesbian." I mean, I couldn't have a lesbian at my party. There are gonna be girls there in their bathing suits. I mean, right? She was a lesbian. So then her mom called my mom and started yelling at her. It was so retarded. And then she dropped out of school because no one would talk to her. When she came back in the fall for high school, all of her hair was cut off and she was totally weird, and now I guess she's on crack.

The most manipulative and slanderous action Regina does is likely to be what she is done in the case of Burn Book, a book where the Plastics write mean things about all the girls of junior grade in the school. After she is kicked out of the

Plastics and no longer a queen bee, with her last power, Regina takes revenge by submitting Burn Book to the principal, Mr. Duvall, and cunningly telling, that

xci

Cady, Karen, and Gretchen are the writers of Burn Book. She then spreads the copies of Burn Book and it causes the girls in the school fights against each other wildly because of distrusting each other or accusing each other for spreading their disgrace. To convince the other people that she is not involved, she put her own picture on the book then writes mean words for herself.

Figure 14. Rude words written by Regina in Burn Books Mean Girls (U.S.A., 2004), directed by Mark Waters. Paramount Pictures.

Before Regina gives Burn Book to Mr. Duvall, the audience is likely to suppose that what Regina writes on the book the night before is addressed to Cady, not for her own self, as in the scene when she writes it, she is feeling mad to Cady as

Cady has deceived her in the case of Kalteen Bar. In the scene, it is somehow not shown that Regina put her own picture on the book. But actually, the filmmakers have given a clue that Regina will do something cunning by showing Regina’s cunning facial expression (see Figure 15).

xcii

Figure 15. Regina’s cunning facial expression Mean Girls (U.S.A., 2004), directed by Mark Waters. Paramount Pictures.

In the frame above, Regina is shot in big close-up to make the audience see clearly her facial expression. Regina is shown smile although at the time she is feeling mad. The audience may misinterpret her facial expression to be her expression due to her satisfied feeling after expressing her anger to Cady by writing on the book. Whatever the interpretation, in the frame, the dark side of

Regina is revealed. The low-key lighting used in the shot which makes Regina’s image and the circumstance dark bring the atmosphere of evil, in this case

Regina’s evil nature.

Manipulative, cunning, and slanderous are considered evil nature and not the values of traditional femininity. According to the values, a girl should be virtuous. As has been explained in the last chapter, one of the categories of traditional heroine is the heroine of faith and the heroine of faith is not cunning, manipulative, and slanderous as she is required to be pious and always does good deed.

The fourth violation Regina does to the values of traditional femininity is that Regina is bossy and pushy. Toward everyone around her, mainly her parents and the other members of the Plastics, Regina is too bossy and likes to dominate

xcii i them. She pushes her parents to give their room to her. She likes her worker bees in the Plastics serving her and she will be angry if they do not do what she wants.

For example, in the winter talent show, before the Plastics perform their “Jingle

Bell Rock” dance, Regina pushes Gretchen to switch position with Cady as Cady and Regina were the tallest so they must be in the middle. When Gretchen complains the idea for it can mess the dance, Regina blinks the fact, getting angry to Gretchen so Gretchen cannot help obeying her command. Regina fully realizes that she has her power and she knows that she can drive everyone around her with the power. When traditional heroine becomes a victim, Regina, on the contrary, makes other person as her victim. When traditional heroine sacrifices herself for other persons, Regina makes other persons sacrifice for her. What Regina does is however in contrast to the values of traditional femininity which require girl to be submissive and obedient and discourage girl to rule and push other people.

Regina’s bossy and pushy natures can be in some way a sign of Girl Power values. But instead of depicting Girl Power something positive, the movie portrays them as evil as most people still holds the values that girls should be submissive and do not take any control to her surrounding. Thus, the violation of these values is considered something negative.

The fifth Regina’s violation to traditional femininity is that she is sexually aggressive. In the movie, it is told that Regina has affair both with Aaron Samuels and Shane Oman. In the beginning, it is told that Regina dumped Aaron for Shane

Oman. Feeling threatened as she finds out that Cady has a crush on Aaron, Regina wants Aaron back to her to show her supremacy to Cady. She uses Aaron as a

xciv mean to achieve victory as well as to prohibit Cady spreads her wings to be a popular person in the school. As a result, Regina plays the field, both with Aaron and Shane. Regina’s sexual aggressiveness is shown in the scene when she persuades Aaron in the Halloween party to makes him back to her. She kisses

Aaron and says that he is so hot. This action somehow represents Girl Power values as here Regina shows taking control over Aaron.

Other scene shows Regina has recovered from her sadness after Aaron leaves her as he finds out that Regina cheats on him with Shane Oman. In the scene, it is shown that Regina is making out with Shane Oman aggressively as if she has forgotten Aaron.

Figure 16. Regina takes control over Shane Oman when they make out. Mean Girls (U.S.A., 2004), directed by Mark Waters. Paramount Pictures.

According to the values of traditional femininity, girl should be passive, not aggressive, in her relationship with man. Man is considered the subject, while girl plays a role as the object, and in this case the object of man, the object of male gaze or the object of man’s sexuality. However, Regina does not put herself in the relationship as the object. She takes the role as the subject. She uses Aaron to fulfill her desire to beat Cady, to maintain her popularity, as well as her sexual

xcv desire. It also happens in her relationship with Shane Oman. Shane Oman is a jock and in American high school, a jock is stereotypically considered as a popular person. In Spring Fling, Shane Oman also wins Spring Fling King. So, it is clear that Shane Oman is depicted a popular student in the school. Regina uses Shane

Oman to maintain her status as a queen bee as a queen bee only hangs out with high-status man. Besides, she also uses Shane to fulfill her sexual desire. She makes him the object of pleasure. In the frame above, Regina takes position on the top. Regina’s position signifies that she is the one who takes control over the man.

However, it can be concluded that Regina considers man as an object, a property, a means she uses to fulfill her desire. At this point, Regina reverses what have been culturally and socially embraced by mainstream society by representing Girl

Power action and values.

The filmmakers’ idea in opposing the values Girl Power which are shown by the character of Regina gets clearer in the end of the movie. It is told that

Regina loses her supremacy as the most popular girl in the school by means of

Cady, Janis and Damian’s sabotage. Sadly, a bus strikes her and makes her get spine injury. It is told then from Cady’s monologue that Regina’s physical therapist taught her to channel all her rage into sports so that she joins lacrosse club in her school. Regina’s appearance changes as she no longer wears mini skirt or whatever the member of the Plastics usually wears but wears long-sleeved sweater and trousers instead. She also sets her hair in modest style. She is no longer an ill-tempered girl as it is shown in the movie that she smiles kindly at

Cady and Karen when she passes them by. A glamour Regina changes into a

xcvi modest Regina. An ill-tempered Regina changes into a peaceful Regina. Although she is not depicted becoming a girl with total traditional femininity values like

“good’ girl in classic fiction, the modern values of femininity in Regina’s character which are considered evil are dumped thus finally she tends to be a

‘good’ girl of modern era.

Fig.17. Regina’s appearance after joining sport club Mean Girls (U.S.A., 2004), directed by Mark Waters. Paramount Pictures.

xcvii

CHAPTER IV

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

A. Conclusion

The movie Mean Girls has to do with Girl Power as a part of postfeminist movement. From the analysis in the previous chapter, it can be seen that both the primary characters in the movie, Cady Heron and Regina George, represent Girl power values with their own ways. Cady Heron, who formerly is a ‘good’ girl, pulls out her traditional feminine values and transforms into a popular girl who becomes a queen bee that has social power due to her popularity. Girl Power values embraced by the character of Regina is also not less significant. She is depicted as a girl who has power to control everybody around her. Both the girls are depicted violates the traditional values of femininity embraced by mainstream society as they do what ‘good’ girl is not supposed to do.

However, although Cady Heron and Regina George are shown as the characters that represent Girl Power, their actions representing the values are as if discouraged by the filmmakers. By analyzing Cady’s character, we can come to know the stand the filmmakers take in viewing popularity as the goal of many girls who holds Girl Power values today. First, the filmmakers want to say to the audience that popularity may lead people to change and in this case into negative one as in this movie Cady is shown becoming selfish, telling lies to her parents and friends and betraying her friends which are the attitudes considered negative by mainstream society. The power popularity brings here is portrayed not

xcviii something positive as it may bring a person to become mean. Second, the filmmakers want to tell the audience that popularity does not mean a power warranting a girl to get everything she wants as in the movie Aaron Samuels is depicted rejecting Cady although she has become popular. The discouragement of

Girl Power is also done toward the character of Regina George. Despite her high status in her school and people admiration toward her, Regina George is depicted as evil in the movie. By positioning Regina as the antagonist character of the movie, the filmmakers lead the audience to judge the actions done by Regina in the movie as culturally and morally negative. It gets clearer in the last session of the movie that the filmmakers view Girl Power as something that is not appropriate for girls by depicting both primary characters transformed into peace loving girl representing ‘good’ girls of the era who go along with mainstream society’s values which are dominated by patriarchal system. It is as if the filmmakers want to transmit the idea that if girl holds power in society, her power will goes too far and everything will not work well and she will become a mean girl.

The discouragement of Girl Power in the movie can be the reason why the filmmakers use the word ‘girls’ in the title of the movie instead of the word

‘grrls’. In the last chapter, it has been explained that the word ‘girl’ tends to be interpreted and defined in patriarchal perspective. It can be understood that the filmmakers have given a clue about their standpoint which discourages Girl

Power and supports patriarchy in conveying the idea of the movie by using the word ‘girls’ in the title.

xcix

It has to be point out that the director of the movie, Mark Waters and the producer, Lorne Michaels (“Mean Girls: Movie Credits”), are male. But it is naive to say that the discouragement of Girl Power in the movie is only because that the director and the producer are male although the fact can be a consideration. It also cannot be denied that Tina Fey, the scriptwriter who is female, gives great contribution in shaping Girl Power values in the movie. But as the movie is a mass media product, the filmmakers create the movie going along with the values embraced by mainstream society in this case patriarchal values.

Admittedly, we are often driven by media to label something as positive or negative. As in the case in the movie, we are led to see girl who takes control over everyone around her as negative. But it is important to see Girl Power actions and values shown by Cady Heron and Regina George in different point of view. Many positive things can be drawn from the values. With Girl Power, girls can have self-determination. Girls can use their distinct characteristic as their source of power instead of imitating men’s behavior to prove that they are equal with men.

Girls will not also become miserable helpless victims who desperately wait man’s help. The values teach girls to be independent. The girl holding the values is likely not always becoming a subject in her relationship with man but rather an object.

But when she becomes an object, she uses the position to get benefit from man like power, control or money and that is why in the same time she also becomes a subject. Hopefully, the number of movie promoting Girl Power as positive ideology increases as Girl Power values raise woman’s value as a person. “Hold tight, get ready, Girl Power is coming at you” (Spice Girls).

c

B. Recommendation

The research analyzes a movie entitled Mean Girls promoting Girl Power ideology and movement. The issue is a contemporary issue which is still debatable until today. Some argue that Girl Power raises the value of girls and women as what has become the standpoint of the research result. However some others still claim that Girl Power is a movement devaluing women as it violates traditional femininity in one hand and considered antifeminist movement as it goes along with patriarchy as well on the other hand.

It is recommended that the other researchers who are interested in conducting the research about Girl Power can conduct other research promoting

Girl Power as an ideology and movement which can raise women’s value. Such research can give contribution to American studies generally, and women studies specifically. Hopefully the research may become reference for the next research.

By doing the research with the point of view which is different from mainstream society’s point of view, the research expectedly can give the broader knowledge to the readers who are interested in American studies especially women study.

ci

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Adriaens, F. (2009). Post feminism in popular culture: A potential for critical

resistance?. Politics and Culture. Retrieved January 21, 2010, from

http://www.politicsandculture.org/2009/11/09/post-feminism-in-popular-

culture-a-potential-for-critical-resistance/

Awards. New York Times (n.d.). Retrieved Mar 21, 2008, from

http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/294109/Mean-Girls/awards

Barthes, R. (1999). Mythologies. (A. Lewis, Trans). New York: Hill and Wang.

Bear, J. H. (n.d.). Pink. Retrieved Jan 4, 2010, from

http://desktoppub.about.com/cs/colorselection/p/pink.htm

Belton, J. (1996). Movies and mass culture. London: Athlone Press.

Brooks, A. (2008). Postfeminism and cultural studies: Sebuah pengantar paling

komprehensif. (S. K. A. Wibowo, Trans). Yogyakarta: Jalasutra.

Business definition for: Medium close-up (mcu). (2000). Retrieved January, 17,

2010, from Barrons’s Educational Series, Inc. website:

http://www.allbusiness.com/glossaries/medium-close-up-mcu/4962949-

1.html

Campbell, N., & Kean, A. (1997) American cultural studies: An introduction to

american culture. London: Routledge. Retrieved February 22, 2010, from

http://books.google.co.id/books?id=5p29eMxnu0QC&dq=American+cultu

ral+studies:+an+introduction+to+American+culture&printsec=frontcover

&source=bn&hl=id&ei=FCuCS5HNMYb2sgOe25X9Aw&sa=X&oi=boo

cii

k_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CCYQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=&

f=false

Cinematic Terms: A Film-Making Glossary. (n.d.). Film Terms Glossary

Dictionary. Retrieved July 24, 2009 from

http://www.filmsite.org/filmterms.html

Colebrook, C. (2003). Feminism and history. Retrieved 24 Jan, 2010, from The

University of Edinburgh website: http://www.englit.ed.ac.uk/

archive/undergrad/2003-2004/english_lit_1/Handouts/cc_feminism.htm

Darco, D. (n.d.). Third wave feminism. Retrieved Mar 2, 2009, from

http://donnadarko.wordpress.com/2008/01/18/third-wave-feminism/ eHow Contributing Writers. (n.d.). How to Analyze Short Story Characterization.

Retrieved September 29, 2009, from

http://www.ehow.com/how_2063745_analyze-short-story-

characterization.html

Ereaut, G. (2007). Qualitative Research. Retrieved Desember 31, 2008, from

http://www.qsrinternational.com/what-is-qualitative-research.aspx

Esenberg, B., & Ruthsdotter, M. (1998). History of the movement: Living the

legacy: The women’s rights movement 1848-1998. The National Women’s

History Project. Retrieved January 24, 2010, from

http://www.legacy98.org/move-hist.html

Evans, S.M. (1989). Born for liberty. New York: The Free Press.

Giannetti, L. (1987). Understanding Movies. Fourth Edition. Englewood Cliffs,

New Jersey: Prentice Hall, Inc.

ciii girl. (2009). In Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. Retrieved September 3,

2009, from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/girl

“Girl definition”. (2009). In Webster's New World College Dictionary. Retrieved

Feb 7, 2010, from http://www.yourdictionary.com/girl

Girls just want to be mean. (2002). New York Times. Retrieved Mar 21, 2008,

from http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/294109/Mean-Girls/details

Girl Power. (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved Nov 24, 2007, from

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girl_Power

Gladen, N. R.. (3 May 2007). Third wave feminism: Personal empowerment

dominates this feminist philosophy. Retrieved Maret 2, 2009, from

http://feminism.suite101.com/article.cfm/third_wave_feminism

Gladysz, T. (2001).The jazz age: Flapper culture and style. Retrieved August 13,

2009, from http://www.geocities.com/flapper_culture/

Grrl. (n.d.). Retrieved Feb 7, 2010, from Urban Dictionary website:

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term= Grrl&defid=1404324

Hall, E. J., & Rodriguez, M.S. (Dec 2003). The myth of postfeminism. Gender

and Society, 17(6), 878-902. Retrieved December 21, 2008, from

http://links.jstor.org./sici?sici=0891-2432%28200312%2917%3A6&

3C878%3ATMOP%3E2.0.CO%3B2-3

Head, T. (n.d.). Third-wave feminism. Retrieved March 2, 2009, from About.com

website: http://civilliberty.about.com/od/gendersexuality/p/ third_wave.

htm

civ

Hopkins, S. (1993). Girl Heroes: the New Force in Popular Culture. Australia:

Pluto Press.

Hornby, A.S., Cowie, A.P., & Gimson, A.C. (1986). mean. In Oxford Advanced

Learner’s Dictionary of Current English. (p. 526). Oxford, Great Britain:

Oxford University Press.

Hume, J. (1997). Defining the historic American heroine: Changing

characteristics of heroic women in nineteenth-century media. Journal of

Popular Culture, 31(1), 1-21.

Ibrahim, I.S. (2004). Introduction. In A. Brooks. Postfeminisme & cultural

studies: Sebuah pengantar paling komprehensif. (S. K. A. Wibowo,

Trans). (pp. xi-xvii). Yogyakarta: Jalasutra.

Inside the world of Mean Girls. (n.d.). Retrieved March 21, 2008, from Mooviees!

website: http://www.mooviees.com/7685/1134-production_note

John Locke (1632-1704): The philosopher of freedom. (n.d.). Retrieved April 6,

2009, from Bluepete.com website:

http://www.blupete.com/Literature/Biographies/Philosophy/ Locke. htm

Loh, S.T. (1997). The return of Doris day. In S. Maasik & J. Solomon (Eds), Sign

of Life in the U.S.A.: Readings on Popular Culture for Writers. Second

Edition. (pp. 287-294). Boston: Bedford Books.

Mark S. Waters Biography. (1996). Retrieved March 18, 2008, from Yahoo!

Movies UK&Ireland website: http://uk.movies.yahoo.com/artists/w/Mark-

S-Waters/biography-396721.html

cv

Mark Waters. (n.d.). Retrieved March 18, 2008, from Yahoo! Movies website:

http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/contributor/1807540510/bio

Mass culture. (n.d.). Retrieved February 7, 2010, from

http://www.artandpopularculture.com/Mass_culture

McRobbie, A. (2004). Postfeminism and Popular Culture. Feminist Media

Studies. 4(1), 255-264. Retrieved Jan 14, 2010, from

http://weblearn.ox.ac.uk/site/human/women/students/biblio/historiog/McR

obbie%20-%20postfeminism.pdf mean. (2010). In Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. Retrieved January 6, 2010,

from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mean

Mean Girls Transcript. (n.d.). Retrieved December 24, 2007 from

http://www.script-o-rama.com/movie_scripts/mean-girls-movie-

transcript.html

Michaels, L. (Producer), & Waters, M. (Director). (2004). Mean Girls [Motion

picture]. United States: Paramout Pictures.

Monaco, J. (2000). How to read a film: The world of movies, media, and

multimedia. New York: Oxford University Press.

Murphy, C. F., Jr. (1995). Beyond feminism: Toward a dialogue on difference.

Washington D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press.

Nedeau, J. (4 Oct. 2008). Is Feminism Dead?. Women’s Rights. Retrieved

February 23, 2009, from http://womensrights.change.org

/blog/view/is_feminism_dead_an_ overview_of_post-feminism

cvi

Piliang, Y. A. (2003). Hipersemiotika: Tafsir Cultural Studies atas Matinya

Makna. Yogyakarta: Jalasutra.

Pop Culture. (n.d.). Post World War American Literature and Culture Database.

Retrieved February 17, 2010, from The English Department at the

University of California, Berkeley, USA website:

http://english.berkeley.edu/Postwar/pop.html

Psychology glossary: Socio-cultural approach. (n.d.). Retrieved February 7, 2010,

from Alley.com website:

http://www.alleydog.com/glossary/definition.php?term=Socio-

Cultural%20Approach

Rampton, M. (n.d.). The three waves of feminism. Retrieved Mar 3, 2009, from

Pacific University website:

http://www.pacificu.edu/magazine/2008/fall/echoes/ feminism.cfm

Rynder, C. B. (April, 1999). Seneca falls convention: First women’s rights

convention. American History Magazine. Retrieved January 24, 2010,

from http://www.historynet.com/seneca-falls-convention-first-womens-

rights-convention.htm

Schollhammer, M. (2001). Representations: The construction of gender in

popular culture. Master’s thesis. Edinburgh College of Art, Edinburgh.

Smith, H. N. (1957). Can American studies develop a method?. American

Quarterly, 9, 197-208.

Spiller, R. (December, 1973). Unity and diversity in the study of American

culture: The American studies association in perspective. American

cvii

Quarterly, 25(5), 611-618. Retrieved March 20, 2006, from

http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0003-0678%28197312%2925%3A5%3C611

%3AUADITS%3E2.0.CO%3B2-1

Stam, R., Burgoyne, R., & Lewis, S.F. (1992). New vocabularies in film

semiotics: Structuralism, poststructuralism and beyond. New York:

Routledge.

Storey, J. (1996). Cultural studies and the study of popular culture: Theories and

method. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

Strinati, D. (2003). Popular culture: Pengantar menuju budaya popular. (A.

Mukhid. Trans). Yogyakarta: Bentang Budaya.

Stupor. (n.d.) Woman in film. Retrieved August 14, 2009 from

http://www.geocities.com/albanystudent/wif.html

The Key Light. (1996). Retrieved January 15, 2010 from Cybercollege website:

http://www.cybercollege.com/tvp031.htm

Tina Fey. (n.d.). Retrieved March 22, 2008, from Netglimse website:

http://www.netglimse.com/celebs/pages/tina_fey/index.shtml

Turner, G. (1993). Film as social practice. Second edition. New York: Routledge.

What is American studies?. (n.d.). Encyclopedia of American Studies. Retrieved

December 31, 2008, from The John Hopkins University Press website:

http://eas-ref.press.jhu.edu/

cviii