Countering Gender Stereotypes: The Power of the Main Female Character in Thor: Ragnarok Movie (2017)

Lailatul Fitriyah(1), Sukarno Sukarno(2), Riskia Setiarini(3*), Albert Tallapessy(4),

(1) English Department, Faculty of Humanities, Universitas Jember
(2) Universitas Jember
(3) Universitas Jember
(4) Universitas Jember
(*) Corresponding Author

Abstract


Gender stereotypes constructed by society are detrimental for women. Women were seen as weak and underestimated by society (the PEW Research Center’s survey in 2017). This study aims to discover how a film entitled Thor: Ragnarok (2017) countered gender stereotypes through the portrayal of the main female character, Hela, and to reveal the reason behind such portrayal of Hela. This study is a qualitative study because the data are qualitative data. The data of this study are clauses collected from the movie subtitles, containing Hela’s power to counter gender stereotypes. This study applied Fairclough’s Critical Discourse Analysis (three-dimensional framework), supported by Halliday’s Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), which focused on the transitivity system for the first-dimension analysis. After doing the three-dimensional analysis, it is found that Hela’s character in the movie is portrayed as opposing gender stereotypes. Hela is represented as strong, brave, and feared. These traits are against the stereotype of women described as weak, fearful, and underestimated. The reason behind the portrayal of Hela as a strong woman is to promote the feminism spirit to the people in that women should be empowered, in line with the goal of the United Nations (UN) Women and the UN Foundation that protect women's rights and supports women in achieving gender equality.

Keywords


Critical Discourse Analysis; gender stereotypes; Hela; women

Full Text:

PDF

References


Al-Zubaidi, R. T. A. (2022). Critical discourse analysis: Power exercise and resistance in selected texts. Journal of Language and Linguistic Studies, 18(2), 1023–1033.

Andriaka, R., Sukarno, S., & Setiarini, R. (2023). Gender stereotypes in Rick Riordan’s The Lightning Thief. International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research and Analysis, 06(05). https://doi.org/10.47191/ijmra/v6-i5-55

Azis, N. R., & Sunra, L. (2020). Gender stereotypes in Enola Holmes: A film analysis of the main character. Journal of English Linguistics and Literature Studies, 2(3), 72–84.

Beauvoir, S. de. (1953). The Second Sex (H. M. Parshley, Ed.; Vols. 1–2). Jonathan Cape.

Brannon, L. (2017). Gender: Psychological Perspectives (Seventh Edition). Routledge.

Cavna, M. (2017, November 3). How ‘Thor: Ragnarok’ Brought Two New Female Characters to the Male-dominated Marvel Universe. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/comic-riffs/wp/2017/11/03/how-thor-ragnarok-brought-two-new-female-characters-to-the-male-dominated-marvel-universe/. [March 28, 2024].

Dharmaputri, S., Shoemaker, J., & Williamson, S. (2018). What You Should Know About the Women, Peace, and Security Act of 2017. https://oursecurefuture.org/sites/default/files/Policy%20Brief-WPS-101_digital.pdf. [April 2, 2024].

Eckert, P., & McConnel-Ginet, S. (2003). Language and Gender. Cambridge.

Fairclough, N. (1989). Language and Power (C. N. Candlin, Ed.). Longman Inc.

Fairclough, N. (2010). Critical Discourse Analysis: The Critical Study of Language (Second Edition). Routledge.

Fatmawati, R., Sukarno, S., & Setiawan, I. (2017). Revealing the gender inequality in Patricia MC. Cormick’s Sold: Critical Discourse Analysis. Haluan Sastra Budaya, 1(1), 97–112.

Gerring, J. (2017). Qualitative Methods. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-polisci-092415

Gramlich, J. (2017, December 28). 10 Things We Learned About Gender Issues in the U.S. in 2017. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2017/12/28/10-things-we-learned-about-gender-issues-in-the-u-s-in-2017/. [January 25, 2024].

Halliday, M., & Matthiessen, C. (2004). An Introduction to Functional Grammar (Third Edition). Hodder Arnold.

Heathy, H. B. (2020). Gender stereotypes in advertising: A critical discourse analysis. Language in India, 20(1). www.languageinindia.com

Kahn, J. (2022, May 31). The Multifarious and Multiplexity of Taika Waititi. WIRED. https://www.wired.com/story/multifarious-multiplexity-taika-waititi/. [March 24, 2024].

Killian, K. D. (2023). An analysis of Black Widow (2021): Marvel’s most feminist film features powerful sisters and an attenuated male gaze. Journal of Feminist Family Therapy, 35(1), 106–113. https://doi.org/10.1080/08952833.2022.2139926

Mangesti Rahayu, S., Ramadhanti, W., Sulistyowati Rahayu, D., Indrayanto, A., & Author, C. (2019). Gender Stereotypes in Indonesian Public Companies’ Performance. Universitas Brawijaya Journal of Applied Management (JAM, 17(1). https://doi.org/10.21776/ub.jam.2019.017.01.01

McCardy, A., & Matusitz, J. (2021). Power in Hidden Figures: A critical discourse analysis. International Journal of Media and Cultural Politics, 17(1), 3–17. https://doi.org/10.1386/macp_00035_1

McNamee, G. L. (2024, March 25). Catherine Cortez Masto. Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Catherine-Cortez-Masto. [April 1, 2024].

Murray, C. A. (2020). Human Diversity: The Biology of Gender, Race, and Class (First Edition). Twelve.

Oktaviani, C., & Jauhara, D. (2014). Gender identity of male and female Indonesian EFL college students’ academic essays: A Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). 1131–1136.

Paramita, A. (2022, July 20). Biceps Instead of Boobs and Butts: How Natalie Portman’s Mighty Thor Brings Us a New Physical Reality for Female Superheroes. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/biceps-instead-of-boobs-and-butts-how-natalie-portmans-mighty-thor-brings-us-a-new-physical-reality-for-female-superheroes-186716. [September 4, 2024].

Peterson, S. (2023, March 20). When Did Disney Buy Marvel Studios? TOYNK. https://www.toynk.com/blogs/news/when-did-disney-buy-marvel. [March 28, 2024].

Poynton, C. (1985). Language and Gender: Making the Difference. Oxford University Press.

Ryan, M. (2015, June 29). No, “Terminator: Genisys” Director Alan Taylor Doesn’t Like That Spoilerish Trailer, Either. UPPROXX. https://uproxx.com/movies/terminator-genisys-alan-taylor/. [March 24, 2024].

Schnall, M. (2017, December 15). 2018 Will Be the Year of Women. CNN. https://edition.cnn.com/2017/12/14/opinions/2018-will-be-the-year-of-women-schnall/index.html. [April 1, 2024].

Setiarini, R., Supiastutik, S., Kusumayanti, D. D., Sampurna, H., & Cahyawati, E. (2021). Gender representation in Perpustakaan Intan. PIONEER: Journal of Language and Literature, 13(2), 243. https://doi.org/10.36841/pioneer.v13i2.1286

Tallapessy, A., Wahyuningsih, I., & Anjasari, R. A. (2020). Postcolonial discourse in Coogler’s Black Panther: A multimodal critical discourse analysis. 32(1). https://doi.org/10.22146/jh.v32i1.47234

UN Foundation. (2024). Girls and Women. Unfondation.Org. https://unfoundation.org/what-we-do/issues/girls-and-women/?gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwiuC2BhDSARIsALOVfBJGHsbTVuQUkrdp_vs5MFW9ugjiDH651kutidnkqSKJJ2I98TIfXYMaArFvEALw_wcB. [September 5, 2024].




DOI: https://doi.org/10.24071/joll.v24i2.8866

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Journal of Language and Literature (JOLL) is published by  Prodi Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Sanata Dharma.

JOLL is indexed in:

       


This journal is is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License 

View My Stats