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REPRESENTATION OF POSTFEMINIST VALUES IN
THREE
AXE
TV COMMERCIALS
Submitted as Partial Fulfillment of Requirements for Sarjana Sastra Degree of English Department
Faculty of Letters and Fine Arts
By:
Astaria Purwaningrum C0306016
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LETTERS AND FINE ARTS SEBELAS MARET UNIVERSITY
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MOTTO
“Always be yourself. Unless you can be someone
smarter, or prettier, or richer, then you should
definitely be them.”
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DEDICATION
For myself,
my family
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First and foremost, Thank God, Allah SWT for His mercy and
health so that I can accomplish writing this thesis. Throughout the journey,
there are many people who contribute directly or indirectly to this thesis.
To them, I can only express my deepest gratitude.
I want to thank Drs. Agus Hari Wibowo, M.A., Ph.D, the Head of
English Department, for giving me permission to conduct a research on this
topic and helping me with my problems in administration. I want to thank
all English Department’s lectures, especially the American Studies’
lecturers for giving me valuable knowledge.
It is with my utmost gratitude that I acknowledge the help and
support of Miss Karunia Purna K., S.S., M.Si, who is my thesis supervisor.
Miss Karunia Purna puts great effort and patience to improving the quality
of this research. It has been a great honor for me to be mentored by her. I
learned so many things when I had discussions with her. Thank you for
sharing your knowledge and for helping me to accomplish this thesis Miss.
I will not finish writing this thesis without the prayers and support
from my family. I want to thank my mother who always called me on the
phone every single day asking “when you are going to graduate?” and to
my dearest father thank you for being the best father for me, you are such a
great inspiration. For my sisters, Arin and Ana, this thesis is also dedicated
to you both. I hope you two will be happy for what I have accomplished. I
also want to thank to my cats, little did they know that they mean a lot to
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I would also like to thank my friends in American Studies class
2006. They shared their time and knowledge with me. It was a great honor
for me to know you all. I want to say my biggest thanks to Kiki for being
such the best friend who always supporting and helping me. Every piece of
his advice about this thesis is so useful that moves the thesis forward. To
Wulan, I hope you can see me from up there that I finally finish it. I want to
thank to Wisnu, Cindi, Lala, Dila, and the other Dila, Vika, Bimo, Vendra,
for the warm friendship, love and supports.
I also had very amazing years as a student of English Department
class 2006 whose names cannot be mentioned one by one, I only want to
say that I am grateful to belong in this family. I also sincerely appreciate
my seniors and juniors in English Department who also support and pray
for me to finish this thesis.
I specially thank Jimmy for the continuous support and for always
virtually accompanying me when writing this thesis late at night. Your
jokes always release stress.
Surakarta, April 23, 2014
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CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW ... 18
A. Postfeminism in America ... 18
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C. Semiotics Theory ... 29
D. The Basic Terminology in Cinematography ... 33
CHAPTER III: DISCUSSION ... 38
A. Postfeminist women: promoting women’s right on sexual pleasure and freedom of self expression in AXE TWIST (2010): “Women get bored easily. New Axe Twist - the fragrance that changes.” ... 38
B. Woman’s freedom to control her body and sexuality in AXE Excite: Even Angels Will Fall (2012) ... 45
C. Individual Empowerment of Women in AXE Black Chill (2013): “ Women have been getting hotter and hotter, which has been causing guys to lose their cool. Keep your cool with the Axe Chill Collection” ... 52
CHAPTER IV: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION ... 61
A. Conclusion ... 61
B. Recommendation ... 64
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ABSTRACT
Astaria Purwaningrum. C0306016. Representation of Postfeminist Values in Three AXE Tv Commercials. Undergraduate Thesis. Faculty of Letters and Fine Arts. Sebelas Maret University.
This research’s objective is to reveal the postfeminism values
embraced by the female models in three AXE Tv commercials which aired in America. It will explain how AXE Tv commercials construct the image of the female models which conveys positive messages and how it represents postfeminism in America.
This research is a descriptive qualitative research that takes three of AXE Tv commercials as its source of data. The primary data consist of characters, visual images, setting, costume and other cinematographic elements. It is supported with secondary data consisted of books, reviews, journal articles and other related references.
This research is conducted in American studies framework. Thus, it incorporates various disciplines in the forms of theory and approach in analyzing the commercials. It incorporates semiotics theory, socio-cultural approach and also postfeminism theory in answering the research question. After conducting the research, it is found that female characters analyzed in the commercials are constructed as postfeminist women. Female characters in these commercials are shown as women that represent Girl Power value as this value is the central strand of postfeminism. This value empowers them to be more independent, sexually expressive and full control of their own body. They challenge the traditional values of femininity in society such as submission, passivity, and vulnerability. These values embraced by the female characters in the commercials represent postfeminism which gives a big influence to many women in America in the way they behave and think nowadays.
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ABSTRAK
Astaria Purwaningrum. C0306016. Representation of Postfeminist Values in Three AXE Tv Commercials. Skripsi. Fakultas Sastra dan Seni Rupa. Universitas Sebelas Maret.
Tujuan dari penelitian ini adalah untuk mengungkap nilai-nilai posfeminisme yang terdapat didalam karakter-karakter perempuan didalam tiga iklan televisi AXE yang tayang di Amerika. Penelitian ini akan menjelaskan bagaimana iklan televisi AXE membangun citra perempuan yang didalamnya terdapat pesan positif dan bagaimana hal ini mewakili posfeminisme di Amerika
Penelitian ini menggunakan metode deskriptif kualitatif dan mengambil tiga iklan televisi AXE sebagai sumber data. Data utama terdiri dari karakter, gambar visual, setting, kostum, dan elemen sinematografi lainnya. Data utama ini didukung oleh data kedua atau data pendukung yang terdiri dari buku-buku, artikel, jurnal, dan berbagai refrensi yang terkait.
Penelitian ini dilaksanakan dibawah lingkup kajian Amerika. Oleh karena itu penelitian ini menggabungkan berbagai macam disiplin ilmu dalam bentuk teori dan pendekatan untuk menganalisa iklan-iklan ini. Penelitian ini menggabungkan teori semiotik, pendekatan sosial-budaya, dan juga teori postfeminsime untuk menjawab rumusan masalah.
Setelah penelitian ini dilakukan, ditemukan bahwa karakter perempuan yang sudah dianalisa didalam iklan televisi AXE ini terkosnstruksi sebagai perempuan postfeminis. Karakter perempuan didalam iklan ini menunjukan mereka mempunyai Girl Power atau kekuatan seorang perempuan yang mana nilai Girl Power ini adalah bagian terpenting dari sebuah postfeminisme. Nilai ini memberikan kekuatan pada mereka untuk menjadi lebih mandiri, lebih ekspresif secara seksual, dan punya control penuh terhadap diri atau tubuh mereka sendiri. Mereka menolak nilai-nilai kewanitaan yg masih tradisional didalam masyarakat seperti pasrah, pasif, dan rentan. Nilai-nilai yang dimiliki karakter-karakter wanita di dalam iklan-iklan ini menunjukan sebuah postfeminisme yang memberikan pengaruh besar kepada banyak wanita di Amerika didalam cara mereka berpikir dan berkelakuan dimasa sekarang.
