GENDER DISCOURSE: DETERMINING “MALE” AND “FEMALE” OF GAY COUPLE IN THE MOVIE ENTITLED “THE BIRDCAGE”.

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Boswell, J.(1980). Christianity, social tolerance, and homosexuality: Gay people in Western Europe from the beginning of the Christian era to the fourteenth century. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

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Gonsiorek, C. J., Hotvedt, E. M., Paul, W., & Weinrich, D. J.(Eds).(1982). Homosexuality: Social, psychological, and biological issues. California: SAGE Publication, Inc.

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Wray, W., Trott, K., Bloomer, A. (1998). Projects in linguistics.Great Britain: Hodder Headline Group

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CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

This chapter presents background of the research, significance of the study,

research questions, purposes of the research, scope of the research, research

methodology, clarification of terms and organization of the paper.

1.1 Background

Technology is the cause of change. Technology brings positive and negative

effects to our society. The positive effect from this alteration is the progression of

communication technology that thrives in the city and country, such as the existence

of cell phone and internet. Cell phone allows us to communicate with every one

without having to worry about distance whereas internet gives us an access to explore

the world. Technology can bring us to cross the universe without any limitation and

open up people‟s mind then gives them a new idea. However, negative effect emerges

from this technology as well, for instance the increasing of curiosity to the new thing.

Once people get curious of something, they will try to get to know what they are

curious about. After they get to know it, they want to try it, for instance life style.

Life style changes overtime and people always want be an up-to-date person to

lifestyle. However, some of them do not really have a good filter to know the

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what so-called homosexual or gay („gay‟ is a term for male homosexual). It is consistently stated by Papalia (2001), homosexual is a person who is consistently

attracted sexually, romantically and affectively toward the person with the same sex.

The spread of homosexuality is shown by their courage to show up in public.

In Bandung for example, there are so many associations in order to support the

existence of gay that is GAYa Periangan. It is a piece of proof that they have already

been coming-out and begun to show their existence.

Coming-out is a confession of someone to public about his sexual orientation.

It is an important thing to do because they can accept themselves fully. This

coming-out process has advantage and disadvantage. The advantage of this process is that

they will be able to accept themselves fully and there will be a process of

psychological adjustment. After it is achieved, they will get their confidence because

of that acceptance. However, it is such a long and painful process and the

disadvantage will emerge from this process as well. This process is considered as a

painful process because they have to be ready with the disadvantage they have to take

from this coming-out process. It will be the rejection of people or someone you are

close to and they will feel uncomfortable and do not know how to react. As a result,

gay people will have to deal with this after they try to do coming-out process.

Gay is very interesting to investigate because of the sex role that is portrayed

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and the other is “female”. It is as same as normal couple although they both are man

but there is always the “masculine” and the “feminine”, it is called sex-role.

Some studies have been conducted by some researchers in order to know

more about gay, for instance gay language and gesture. Ratna (2008) writes “Slang Language Phenomenon As A Community Language Of Gays In Bandung” investigates how

gay communicate with one another in their community or what is so-called gay

language and Rotee (2008) in her research entitle “Phenomenon of Gay Community:

Verbal and Non Verbal Communication Among Gays in Medan” investigates the gay

language as well. However, in this research, the writer wants to analyse conversation

in movie script between homosexuals or gays by using gender discourse to know the

position of male and female in their relationship. Gender discourse is a discourse that

is used to analyse the discourse between men and women. Also it is said that men and

women are different in the matter of interpretive frames.

The analysis of this research, the gender discourse is based on nine

dimensions of DeborahTannen‟s Theory (1990a), namely intimacy-independence, connection-status, inclusive-exclusive, relationship-information, rapport-report,

community-contest, problems-solutions, novice-expert, and listening-lecturing. In this

research, the researcher applies this gender discourse to the conversation between gay

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1.2 Significance of the Study

Homosexuals are hidden from the public because they are still afraid of the

consequence such as being expelled or even being insulted by people. However, as

time goes by, they try to be open to the public gradually and at last, community and

association of gay appear. In addition to that, the release of gay themed movie is also

the sign of existence and support to the presence of gay.

The presence of gay is raised to the movie in order to show the public that gay

is existed. The movie has various genres such as drama romantic, drama musical,

drama comedy and so forth. In this research, writer attempts to analyse the sex role

through conversation in movie script between gay couple using Gender Discourse.

The writer will attempt to find the characteristics of the sex role in gay relationship,

male and female.

Thus, it is expected that the discussion of the study may help the reader to

know more about gay relationship in terms of discourse if gay couple is the same as

normal couple. In addition, in this research, the researcher also tries to reveal one

aspect of gay life in order to make gay acceptable in society and people can

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1.3 Research Questions

The researcher formulates the problems in the following questions:

1. In what ways are “male” and “female” in gay relationship determined in conversation?

2. From the above question, what patterns can be drawn out?

1.4 Purposes of Research

The study is conducted at the following:

1. To investigate the position of “male” and “female” in gay couple using gender

discourse

2. To discover the pattern of gay conversation

1.6 Scope of the Research

To answer the research question, the researcher provides the limitation of the study,

explanation of drama comedy and the process in doing a research.

This study is limited to “The Birdcage”, a gay movie. The researcher chooses this

movie because it is considered as a potential movie to be investigated and the

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relationship. The genre of this movie is drama comedy. According to ensyclo, drama

comedy is the genre of dramatic literature treating trivial material superficially or

amusingly or showing serious and profound material in a light, familiar, or satirical

manner. So, it means that the drama comedy is always exaggerating, in other words,

what is represented in the movie is not real.

In this study, the researcher focuses on the conversation between gay couple

in movie script. Then, the movie is selected then investigated to discover the position

of “male” and “female” in gay couple and to know the pattern of their conversation

by using gender discourse.

1.7 Research Methodology

There are several steps in collecting and analyzing the data.

1.7.1 Data Collection

The research is carried out by watching a gay movie entitled “The Birdcage”

and then the writer transcribe the movie script to be analyzed. The analysis

will be done by using gender discourse. It will be used to analyze the

conversation between gay couple in the movie script. After it is analyzed, the

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1.7.2. Data Analysis

The data are analysed based on Gender Discourse and the researcher analysed

the conversation of gay couple in “The Birdcage” movie and then categorised

them by the sex-role in “male” and “female” gay relationship. The next step is

conversational interpretation. Lastly, the Gender Discourse is applied to the

conversation and decided the sex-role.

1.8 Clarification of Terms

In order to understand the idea of this paper, there are three terms that have to be

elucidated: Gender Discourse, gay and homosexual.

In this study, Gender Discourse refers to discourse that is used to analyse

the discourse between men and women. Men and women have different

discourse especially interpretative framework. Men tend to be more dominant

then women in conversation because men are more powerful than women. In

accordance to that, in gay relationship, this idea is existed as well; man is more

powerful than woman. Since in gay relationship as it mentioned before, there is

always someone becomes man and women.

Gay According to Psychological Theories (1995)

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opposed to sexual practice. Many writers reserve gay for males, but the word is also used to refer to both sexes; when the intended meaning is not clear in the context, the phrase gay and lesbian may be used. Gay is often considered objectionable when used as a noun to refer to particular individuals.

So that, gay is a term that is usually addressed not only for male but also for

female as well. However, the term gay and lesbian is used to specifically name

male and female who are same-sex lover.

The word homosexual (whether it refers to both men and women –“gay,”

or women only – “lesbian”) has its roots in the Greek language, where “homo” means the same or similar. It indicates the focus of sexual attraction towards

people of the same gender. On the contrary, the opposite of “homosexual” is

“heterosexual,” which also has its roots in the Greek language, where “hetero” indicates “different, distinct”, underlining the fact that sexual attraction is

targeted towards individuals of the opposite gender”.

In conclusion, homosexual refers to a person who is attracted sexually and

emotionally to the same sex, whereas Gay is a term which is used to a person

who likes same sex or a member of the same sex. In addition, there are some

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1.9 Organization of the Paper

The paper of this research will be organized into five chapters. Chapter 1

deals with introduction that covers background of the study, significance of the

study, research questions, aims of the study, limitations of the study,

methodology, clarification of terms, and organization of the paper. Chapter 2

covers the literature review of the research and the theories related to this

research. Chapter 3 deals with the methodological aspect of the research.

Chapter 4 deals with finding and discussion. Chapter 5 provides conclusions and

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CHAPTER III

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This chapter presents the methodological aspects of the present study. It

covers the objectives and procedures of the research as well as the technical analysis

of data.

3.1 Research Procedure

The study is conducted by using qualitative approach because it is more

responsive to every significant aspect. According to Straus and Corbin (1990),

qualitative approach can be used to reveal and comprehend something beyond

phenomenon which has not been disclosed yet. The researcher uses gender discourse

theory since the theory of Deborah Tannen (1990a) is considered useful in exploring

the data.

The researcher found the script of “The Bird Cage” Movie on internet. The

script firstly will be analysed by using conversational analysis to examine the

preference structure. After the preference structure has been revealed, the researcher

will apply the theory of Deborah Tannen (Gender Discourse) to know the sex role,

„male‟ and „female‟ in gay couple. Then, the male‟s category will show a

characteristic or a pattern that is usually used by men in conversation and woman

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3.1.1 Data Source and Collection

This study focuses on the analysis of the gender discourse in the gay

couple. The writer uses a theoretical review (library research) in collecting

the information about gay and gender discourse. In the process of

collecting that information, the writer goes to the library to find a book

related to them and browses to the internet as well.

In fact, there are a lot of gay movie that supports the idea of sex role

in gay couple. However, the choice goes to this movie, “The Birdcage”

(1996). The uniqueness of this movie is that the gay couple has a kid and

they have been taking care of the kid until he is grown up. In addition, the

gay couple acts as a man and woman in growing up that kid. As a result,

they are similar to normal couple who has a kid. The portrayer of man in

this movie is a real man that is straight-acting whereas the portrayer of

woman is depicted by a man as well but he is not straight-acting.

“The Birdcage” movie is chosen because it is potential to be

investigated. The movie supports the idea of “male” and “female” in gay

relationship so that it is easier to examine the sex roles.

Furthermore, the researcher can easily investigate the gay couple

because the characters support the idea of “male and “female” in gay

couple. Consequently, investigation begins from the movie especially the

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3.1.2 Synopsis of Birdcage Movie

It‟s the story about a flamboyant middle-aged gay couple - Armand

(Robin Williams) and Albert (Nathan Lane) – who both run and live in a

night club namely „Birdcage‟. They both have a child, Van (Dan

Futterman). Surprisingly, Val comes to them with news that he is engaged

to marry with Barbara (CalistaFlockhart). Unfortunately Barbara is a

senator‟s daughter who is leading a Coalition of Moral Order and he does

not really like gay people; even he is against the same-sex marriage.

So, Val convinces his dad to help him because barbara‟s family will

come to have dinner at his house. After that he wants to have a proper

mother, a real woman not Albert. Finally Armand and Albert come to a

biological mother of Val and ask her to come to be his couple for dinner.

The problem comes when the real mother of Val come late. Albert

comes to that dinner with dressing up and making up like a woman and the

makeup as well, pretending to be a woman (Val‟s mother). However, his

disguise is not long lasted. Val reveals the identity of his fake mother and

said that his parents are men, gay couple. The senator gets confused and

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3.2 Data Analysis

The research is carried out to examine the sex role in gay couple. Firstly, the

researcher uses conversational analysis to interpret or explain the conversational

meaning. After that, the researcher applies the theory of gender discourse by

Deborah Tannen. The general analytic framework will be described below.

3.3 Framework

The research uses perspective of Deborah Tannen so that the major focus of

this research is on conversation between gay couple. In order to answer the research

question, the researcher will be following the step below.

First, the researcher will read repeatedly and carefully to gain an

understanding about the script. In order to make it clear, the researcher tries to watch

the movie as well and matches the script with the movie.

Second, the researcher jots down the note of textual evidence to emphasize

which part is considered as characteristic of the man and which part is characteristic

of the woman. After it has been done, the researcher will try to analyse them by using

conversational analysis. However, the researcher applies only the orthographic

transcription to know the people‟s intention as it mentioned in chapter II. The

orthographic transcription is used because it is much easier to note the people‟s

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Lastly, the researcher will interpret the preference structures of conversation

and after that the gender discourse will be applied in that conversation. The

preference structure assists the gender discourse in determining the characteristics a

man and a woman in gay couple.

3.3.1 Units of Analysis

The unit of analysis of this research is the event of the movie. This

event will be the emphasis of this research as a mark of the change of the

case in the movie. In addition to that, this event will help the writer to see

the alteration of the characters from one event to another event. This movie

consists of four major events those are in the club, the house decoration,

the visit of val‟s biological mom and the dinner with val‟s fiancée and

family.

3.3.2 Sample analysis

In this research, the writer provides data analysis. The data analysis

will be described as follows

Event : Live Performance at Birdcage

Armand: “A gador where's [Starina]?

Cyril:

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Agador: =”Starina won't go on. She's still in her robe”.

Armand: “Damn!”(.)

Agador: “l don't know what happened.”

Armand: “Go upstairs. [Try to get her ready. l'll be right up. Go!]” (.)

Agador:

[She won't]

Armand: “Merde! Have Carmen get ready to do Starina's number, just in case.”

Agador: “Ho::ne::y, ple::ase. You got to get dressed for me. Ple:::ase!”

Albert: “No, Agador.”(.)

Victoria Page will(.) not dance the Dance of the Red Shoes tonight.”

=Or any other night=

Agador: =”How about just your stockings? Okay?”(.)

Albert: “Victoria Page is dead”(.)

Agador: =”Watch how nice l'm gonna put it for you”

Albert: =[You know how she died?]”=

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Albert: Al::::one...

“l (.2) bought them for Armand, but... (.2) that's all over now.”

Armand: “Albert!”

Albert: “Agador, l'm in such pain

Agador: “l know, honey. lt's gonna pass.”

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Armand: “Are you crazy?

[There is a packed house out there.]

Albert:

[That's all l am to you--a meal ticket.]

“l can't stand this. Forget about my feelings never mind about my suffering,lt's just about yo::ur sho::w. Not even our show.Yo::ur sh::ow. .l want a palimony agreement. NOW(?)

Armand: l don't have one on me now. =ls tomorrow all right?

Albert: =Don't use that tone to me.

Albert: =What tone?

Albert: That sarcastic, contemptuous tone that means (?) yo::u kno::w e:::verything

because you're a ma:::n and l know nothing because l'm a woman=

Armand: =You're not a woman.

Albert: Oh, you bastard!

Key Feature

Shift into especially high pitch

NOW especially loud sounds

:: prolongation of the immediately prior sound

(.) brief interval (it‟s about tenth second) at the end of utterance. And it‟s the

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___ stress

= latching. If the two people latch at the same time

? rising intonation

Falling intonation

[ ] overlapping. Two people talking at the same time

Textual Evidence

In this movie, the sex role is obvious that Armand becomes the “male” and

Albert becomes the “female”,

Albert:

yo::u kno::w e:::verything because you're a ma:::n

and l know nothing =because l'm a woman.

Armand:

=You're not a woman.

Another textual evidence is that the connection – status,

Albert:

“Victoria Page is dead”(.)

Agador:

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Albert:

=[You know how she died?]”=

Agador: =[How]

Al::::one...

weeping [for her lover.]

Agador:

[Oh, No::]

In this case, Albert tries to get a support and connection from Agador. Since she feels

sad and he needs a support and someone who can stand behind him. Compared to

Armand, that can stand alone without having to get a connection like Albert does.

In conclusion, it is a piece of proof if that sex role in gay couple is the same as normal

couple. They have the same characteristic as it‟s described by Deborah Tannen, based

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CHAPTER V

CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS

This research investigates the “male” and “female” role, in the sense of conversation in the movie. Findings and discussions aid the basis in making a conclusion. So that, This chapter presents conclusions and suggestions for the further research in analyzing and comprehending gay in society.

5.1 Conclusions

The aim of the research is to investigate the “male” position and “female” in gay

couple using gender discourse and to discover the pattern of gay relationship in conversation. From the previous sections show that the sex role in gay relationship can be revealed by using gender discourse, especially the nine dimensions that is proposed by Deborah Tannen and the orthographical transcription. Moreover, it also determines the characteristic of “male” role and “female”role in gay relationship and the domination.

Therefore, the research yields conclusion, firstly, there is one difference in the dimensions of “community - contest” in the gay relationship which is influenced by gayness.

This makes an alteration in the dimensions that has proposed by Debirah Tannen, male tends to focus on the “contest” and female focuses to “community”. In contrast, the dimensions in

this research become “male” role focuses on “contest” and “female” role focuses on

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Secondly, the “female” role and “male” have a different pattern in conversation. The

pattern for “male” role are does not talk too much, give solution not same experience,

independent as decision maker and speak at one time. However, “female” role are dominant

in conversation, talk too much, use word stress and adjective more often and seek sympathy and support. Moreover, this yields a pattern strategy in conversation that is “zigzag”. This

pattern occurs when the “male” hold the floor in conversation. The “female” role will try to get his floor back. So that, the “zigzag” pattern emerges when the “female” role wants to take

turn and hold the floor.

Thus, it shows that the difference nine dimensions do not only exist in man and woman but also in gay couple as well. The textual evidences prove that in gay couple, there are “masculine” and “Feminine”. For example, in the movie “The Birdcage”, the masculine

one becomes the male and the feminine becomes female with the characteristic that is almost similar as man and woman.

5.2 Suggestions

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GENDER DISCOURSE: DETERMINING “MALE” AND “FEMALE” OF GAY COUPLE IN THE MOVIE ENTITLED “THE BIRDCAGE”.

REFERENCES

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER III

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

CHAPTER V

CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS

TABLE OF CONTENTS