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The Analysis of Readers’ Perceptions toward Lesbians in the Movie of Yes or No
Introduction
Watching movies is an attractive way to kill the time. Movies have certain goals why they are made. They must have a message or represent people‟s lives, conflicts and cultures. Generally, movies are made based on the issues that appear in the society. Movies can bring and show many kinds of stereotypes which are good or bad. When people hear about lesbians, many ideas and opinions may come to their mind. Commonly, in Indonesian society, lesbians are stereotyped as something unusual and they are humiliated as suggested by Knauer (167-168) and Barnard (14) who stated that gay and lesbians have been over looked, ignored, and marginalized from society.
This study actually, connects what the movie tells and the participants from stereotypes and religious points of view. So, the aim of this paper is to analyze the participants‟ perceptions
toward lesbians. The movie of Yes or No is used as a tool whether it can influence the participants or not after watching it. So, this study comes up with a research question what are the participants‟ perceptions about lesbians before and after watching the movie of Yes or No?
Moreover, society takes a significant role in determining a stereotype. When lesbians are described as abnormal, it will create a bad mind-set. Because of this bad mind-set, lesbians will be marginalized and ignored. When this mind-set spreads to society, it becomes a stereotype which means that most everybody will use it to see the behavior of lesbian in general.
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lesbians. They live as roommates. In the first scene, Pei does not like Kim because Kim looks like a Tom or a manly lesbian. Kim looks like a boy, who has short hair and how she behaves is similar to males. As the time goes on, Kim falls in love with Pei, and vice versa. However, their love is not going smoothly. Pei‟s mom does not agree that she becomes a lesbian.
Theoretical Foundation
Lesbians in Thailand
Thailand has some well-known places for homosexual communities and nightclub, such as: Bangkok, Pattaya and Phuket. Thailand has no law prohibiting homosexual sex identity and relationship, but same-sex marriage is not accepted. The homosexual couple is also not allowed to adopt any children. Livingthai.org listed four types of lesbians in Thailand. They are dee (the girly girl lesbians), tom (the dyke), les bi (the bisexual), and two way (the original lesbians). Dee is the lesbian who hates man because of any traumas. The examples are being raped and being hurt emotionally or physically. Tom dresses like a man, has short hair, walks and talks like a man. Tom also likes to wear tight clothes to hide her breast. Les Bi is a lesbian who loves both man and woman. Two way lesbian is a lesbian who does not act out, does not dress out, and only enjoys the relationship with woman. Two way usually keeps her virginity for long time.
3 Reader Response Theory
Reader response study is the main theory that supports this analysis. Barthes describes reader response as everything about the work that is centering on the participants‟ or readers‟ opinions or giving a role for readers in determining the scope of the derivation work‟s right (qtd. in Heymann 446-447). As its name says, reader-response criticism focuses on readers‟ responses analysis in any works. According to this theory, there is no right and wrong answer because it interprets the readers‟ responses which no one of them will have exactly the same responses or
answers.
The movie of Yes or No is chosen because it tells a controversial issue about lesbians. Because of the controversial issue, the finding is expected to be interesting and it has various perceptions. Emerson states that the most important thing is the effect of a work on a reader that produces the participants‟ perceptions (132-133). So, it is very important to choose the right
movie because it may affect the readers‟ perceptions. Why Yes or No is chosen? The reason is the society that the movie shows closes to Indonesia. Indonesia has the same scope with Thailand—ASEAN. Moreover, the participants are Indonesian. So, it is right to choose this movie.
Using reader response in this research seems to not match because its name is “reader”. “Reader” is the participant who should read the literary work. However, understanding the movie
deeply also needs an understanding like reading a book. In other words, using the term of “reader” in this study is appropriate. So, the focus on using this theory is to analyze the participants‟ perceptions by understanding about the concept of lesbians in general and in this
4 Lesbians/Gay Criticism
Lesbian/gay criticism is needed to make or create sexual orientation „a fundamental category of analysis and understanding‟ (Barry, 140). Jeffords et al. describe the meaning of “sexual orientation” simply as heterosexuality, homosexuality, or bisexuality (2). So, sexual
orientation is very important to define who he/she is. Through lesbians/gay criticism, people can be identified as male or female or otherwise like transgender and hermaphrodite based on their gender. It means that a man can be male or female and a woman can be male or female.
Lesbians
There are many reasons why somebody becomes a lesbian. Some people believe that the causes come from environment. Some people also say that lesbians were born with that kind of feeling. Haider-Markel and Joslyn restate Weiner‟s theory that the origin of homosexuality can be divided into two; they are controlled (learned, environmental or an individual choice) and uncontrolled (biological or genetic) (291).Briefly, there are three causes or reasons why women become lesbians, they are: (1) sexual orientation, (2) life style, and (3) ideology.
Sexual orientation takes a big part on this study because it identifies someone as male or female. Sexual orientation has two definitions; they are as gender and sex. Charlesworth interpreted the word “gender” as cultural expressions of masculinity and femininity (379). In
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The relation of this study and sexual orientation is that sexual orientation of everyone affects people‟s perspective. People usually use stereotypes to judge someone‟s behaviors. So,
people create their own perspectives to evaluate others. The evaluation identifies people whether he or she is on the right way or not. For example, sex says that lesbians are female, however gender identifies lesbians can be both, male and female. So, the perspective which may be created is that lesbians break the stereotypes.
The root of lesbians happens step by step. At first, lesbians only feel something different until they find themselves that they are less normal. It is like slowly having awareness of themselves as someone who is different and unusual from others, but it seems very natural for them (Martin & Lyon 26). So, most of lesbians believe that they were born that way. Nevertheless, being lesbians can be influenced by environment, culture and where and with whom somebody lives (Martin & Lyon 109) (Prensky 3). Take an example, when the work place has a lesbian worker; another worker who is close to her may become a lesbian too. It is because the job makes them work, interact and even live together. Frayser and Whitby find that what lifestyle lesbians is determined by how much she is inhibited by cultural conditioning, religious persuasion, family ties, and economic dependence on the situation (334).
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patriarchy which believes that it creates independence among men. This situation is claimed makes women decide themselves to be lesbians.
Participants
The participants of this research are four people and all of them are heterosexual. Heterosexual is chosen because if the participants are homosexual, the finding is predictable. Most of homosexual will support the existence of lesbians and gays. So, that is why the participants chosen are heterosexual. Herek describes heterosexual as the sexual relationship between a man and a woman with power being attributed to people remaining obedient to the roles associated with their gender (19). The participants are in the range between 15-30 years old. It is the productive period for getting formal education. This research chooses this period because this age usually has larger communities and experiences outside the family area. It is needed to get various and complex data.
Method
The descriptive qualitative approach is selected because of its capacity in examining the information and to find out the participants‟ perceptions. The chosen data collection
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the data collection, to let the participants know the purpose of the interview is better idea. It will make the participants relax and be able to tell more about the information the data collector needs (Boyce and Heale 3).
Materials and Procedure
Participants will be interviewed twice, once before and once after they watch the movie of Yes or No. The questions will focus on the participants‟ perceptions about lesbians before and
after they watch the movie. The researcher will ask the interview questions to the participants in a relaxed situation while recording the data. After that, the recording is transcribed to be analyzed and then will be drawn the conclusions.
Data Analysis
The purpose of this study is to analyze the four participants‟ perceptions, feelings, opinions, or any ideas about lesbians. Perception may be regarded as a process of communication between the perceived object and the perceiving subject that always takes place in a certain cultural, social, and historical context (Kessler and Puh 1). So, there is an interaction on both sides. Because of the interaction, perception is created. The perception becomes thought which leads people to know how they should behave. This spreading perception leads society to make a stereotype. Beside stereotypes which are used to see people‟s behavior, religious references also take a significant part in determining the behaviors.
8 Stereotype
Perception creates stereotypes and stereotypes guide someone to make perception. They are sometimes connected like a circle. Stereotypes are generally considered to be “beliefs about the characteristics, attributes, and behaviors of members of certain groups” (Hilton and von
Hippel 240). Literally, stereotypes are very influential to see something in society. Because stereotypes are very influential, having standard of morality of stereotypes is needed. This research standardizes the stereotype by its normality. Take an example of lesbians; it is known by some as less common or “bad” behavior. It means that lesbians are stereotyped as abnormal.
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From the chart, she thinks that being a lesbian is not natural. Farah believes that lesbians happen because of traumas of men‟s bad treatments and sexual harassment. She obviously believes that
traumas have an important part in why someone becomes a lesbian. She also says that experiencing trauma make someone becomes depressed. This depression has psychological effects as Prensky affirms that social psychology also provides strong evidence that one‟s thinking patterns change depending on one‟s experiences (2). After getting depressed, Farah
explains it can lead someone to have the psychological disorder. The psychological disorder can lead someone many ways; one of them is being a lesbians.
After she watches the movie, the first impression about the movie is funny and she likes it. There are many silly things which make Farah laughs. Yet, after she finds some parts which show the lesbians‟ behaviors like kissing each other, her perception is different; as she says: “bahkan opini saya tentang lesbians malah cenderung ke arah yang lebih negative lagi.” (Even
more my opinion about lesbians are much more negative). Farah‟s perception becomes negative because of what the lesbians have done in the movie. For her, it doesn‟t look like a common couple. She only cannot imagine them as lovers. She thinks it clearly breaks the normality in society.
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changes her perspective that lesbians are not good. It means Yes or No can be influential. So, she thinks that this movie is not recommended for audiences, especially teenagers.
Farah also says that lesbians will have difficulties to live in society. She says: “Ya itu nanti bakalan susah diterima di kemudian hari.” (It probably will be difficult to be accepted in
the future). There will be pro and cons with their existence. Farah knows that it seems unfair because lesbians are part of society, but lesbians are contrast to the stereotype which says that lesbian is less common. Lesbians are contrast because the stereotype says that lesbians are not natural and less normal. So, rejections of lesbians happen. She can do nothing because she is only a small part in society. So, she just follows the stereotype and rules existent. However, frankly, Farah wants to help lesbians to find the right way like she says by finding psychiatrics or institutes which are concerned with mental issues. It is very interesting because Farah still obeys the rules in her society, but she cares about the lesbians. It seems like 50:50 or playing safe to deal with lesbians. Farah seems to not have real actions or statements about her feelings and perceptions that lesbians are allowed or not. In conclusion, she still uses the social stereotype point of view to guide herself to limit her behaviors and thoughts.
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She believes that the result of being a lesbian is not the lesbian‟s mistakes, but the lesbian here is the victim. Here is the schema that Dian believes why someone becomes lesbian:
In the interview, she says: “Soale kaya gitu gak ada yang bisa disalahin lah. Soalnya itu
naluri banget gitu loh. Natural, gak ada yang dibuat-buat.” (Lesbians should not be blamed. it comes from instinct. It is human nature, it cannot be created). She believes that it is not her friend‟s choice; it is her condition which makes her to be a lesbian. NARTH (National
Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality) strengthen Dian‟s opinion by reporting that 50 percent of lesbian women are caused from a history of sexual abuse (3). By the cause of sexual abuse, for Dian, there will be an exception to accept the lesbians‟ conditions if there are clear and acceptable reasons why someone becomes a lesbian.
Society sees lesbians as something unusual, but Dian believes that lesbians are natural. For her, lesbians were born that way to love the same sex. The fact that environment also affects someone to choose to become a lesbian or not, she still believes that lesbian is human nature. It means that she does not care why someone becomes a lesbian. She only believes that lesbian is human nature. It is different from Farah‟s perspective who tells that trauma takes a big part of
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someone becomes lesbians. She says that it is not only trauma; human nature also infects someone to be lesbians.
From the schema above, Dian shows that lesbians do not have any relationship to any physical or mental disorder. The third cause, nature, only appears in Dian‟s perception. She adds that lesbians shouldn‟t be blamed or underestimated because it is natural. Actually, her perceptions change after she meets a new friend who is a lesbian. At first, she feels disgusted about lesbian, but after she meets her lesbian friend, she understands that lesbian is not always wrong. She also adds that in fact, sometimes there must be reasons why someone chooses to be a lesbian.
Dian states there is no excuse for lesbians who are involved in sexual intercourse. Dian thinks that sexual intercourse between girls is very loathsome. For her, it is fine to be lesbians as long as only engage with “feelings”. Like her friend, Dian believes that her friend only engages with her feeling. So, she feels safe hanging out and getting closer to her friend. In this case, Dian doesn‟t think about the social stereotype to make friendship. She also doesn‟t care about the
negative stereotypes about lesbians.
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The second reason is her environment. She explains that she was a new student in her high school and her first friend was a lesbian. She does not care that her friend is a lesbian because at that time she does not have other friends. Until today, Dian and her friend love to hang out together.
The third participant is a 22 year old guy named Agung. Now, he is finishing his thesis for his first degree of IT in UKSW Salatiga. His definition about lesbians is relationship between girls. In detail, Greenberg (151-152) describes lesbians as having equal biological sex factor and a gender self-identity that conforms to her biology, but she does not fit clichéd norms of how men and women should behave. Agung has already known the term of lesbians since elementary school. He knew it from television and newspaper. It means that the topic of lesbians is old for him, as lesbians/gay criticism said that lesbians have been discussed and marginalized since 1990‟s. Agung feels the relationship between two same sexes is weird because the common
couple is male and female. There is no other deeper explanation and feeling toward lesbians because he only believes that lesbian is unusual like what the stereotype says.
Agung has some experiences about homosexual friends from facebook who randomly added him as a friend. He tells that one of them came to his house. He was afraid of the guy who is a gay. He realized that the guy was from facebook who declared that he was gay. Agung did not welcome his friend or want to know him more, but he directly asked him to go home. It shows that experiences do not always lead someone to see homosexual because Agung was unlike Dian who does not care to the fact that her friend is a lesbian.
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karyawannya cowok kan? jarang banget ketemu cewek.” (Perhaps it‟s because of her family…
She lives with father and all of her father‟s employees are men. It makes her rarely talk to
women). He explains that Kim‟s condition here influences her to be lesbians because she lives with her father and all her father‟s employees are male. So, Agung indicates that those people are
the environment which plays a significant part that makes Kim to be a lesbian.
Agung is a homophobia as he says: “aku gak mau deket sama yang kaya gitu, takut ketularan.” (I don‟t want to be close to lesbians; I‟m afraid of being infected). Homophobia is described as individual antigay attitudes and behaviors (Herek 19) or fear and loathing of homosexuality (Tyson 319). His fear attitude toward gays was shown when he did not let his gay friend visited him. He thinks that the “infection” means it is contagion if there is a connection.
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The schema above shows the environments can be created from social intercourses, friends and internets. It is similar to Agung who knows the lesbian issue for the first time from television and newspaper. So, according to him, environment is influential for someone to be a lesbian.
After watching this movie, his feeling to lesbians is still the same. It is perhaps because it is his habit not to really care about the message of the movie. He explains: “Sama sih sebenarnya. Filmnya gak spesifik ke lesbians sih, itu lebih ke film remaja.” (I still have same opinion. It does not specifically talk about lesbians. It focuses more on a teenage-movie). His feeling toward the movie is not specifically about the lesbians because it does not tell the lesbians‟ life in detail. For him, movies are very important to relax his mind. He does not really care whether the movie is in line with the culture or stereotype in society or not. As a result, he only sees lesbians as an unusual thing and is not affected by the movie. Agung also does not receive the moral value in movies because he believes that movies are fictions. So, from his whole explanation, Yes or No does not have any influence to his perception, especially toward lesbians. It means that clearly, he does not use the movie to reflect on how he should behave toward any phenomenon toward lesbians.
Agung‟s opinion is different from the beginning which says that he feels disgusted about
homosexuals in general. After he watches this movie, especially the part when two lesbians are kissing, he enjoys it, as he says: “Mungkin kalo cowok sama cowok jijik ya, berhubung cewek sama cewek saya malah menikmati.” (I may feel disgusted if I see gays, but because it is lesbian,
I enjoy it). It shows that Agung feels that female-female relationships are as pornography. What Agung feels represents misogynic. Misogynic describes when women are positioned as objects of men‟s desire (Ussher 33). It is like men create women's sexuality through the words and
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object to pleasure himself. In this part, he does not think about stereotype, but he thinks about his desire.
Radit is the last participant; he is 26 years old. This STIBA student has a very short and clear definition on lesbian which is similar to Agung. He says that lesbians have a romantic sexual relationship with girls. Radit‟s statement is different from Farah who says that lesbian is a kind of illness, whereas he says that lesbian is not kind of an illness. As Johnson writes that nowadays all major professional mental health organizations reports that homosexuality cannot be classified as a mental illness or moral depravity (1). Radit explains that lesbians have a sexual inclination. He explains inclination as love or attraction to someone or something. So, sexual inclination means loving someone and it includes sexual intercourse.
Radit tells that lesbians are weird in his society. Like Agung and Farah, he thinks that lesbians are not natural because a normal couple is a relationship between opposite sexes, male and female. He believes lesbians happen because of certain reasons, like traumas and environmental influences. To make it easy to understand, here is the schema:
(Figure 1.2 Radit)
He considers that environment and trauma become the significant reason to be a lesbian. So, there is no natural matter which makes a woman becomes a lesbians.
Environment Trauma
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Yes or No does not change Radit‟s perception toward lesbians. He says: “Kalo ilfil ndak. Kalo open dari awal sudak open. No change lah. No change.” (I am not disgusted or ill to see it. I‟m an open-minded guy. My opinion doesn‟t change. No change).That is what Radit says after
he watches the movie. It indicates that before and after he watches the movie, he has the same perception that the issue of lesbians is common for him. From his explanation, this movie doesn‟t affect the way he feels and thinks about lesbians. He adds lesbians and homosexuals
have become a world culture today. So, how he reflects on this movie and considers lesbians as world culture indicates that Radit does not use stereotypes to see lesbians.
On the other hand, Radit states that women are expected to have a husband. He states: “Dia diharapkan bersuami, terus membina keluarga.” (She is expected to have a husband and
look after her family). What he says actually shows his unstable perception toward lesbians. At first he says that he does not think about what the stereotype says about lesbians. However, he also says that lesbians are a poor person because lesbians cannot marry a man because they love another woman. The lesbians‟ condition who cannot love a man makes them marginalized by the stereotypes of the society. Knowing what Radit feels about this marginalization, he shows that he cares to lesbians. So, he does not a hundred percent not care about lesbians.
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After Radit watches the movie, he has a different opinion about lesbians. It happens when he finds the kissing part in the movie. He says: “Sayangnya kalo cowok liat dua cewek ciuman itu berbeda, gak ..sama sekali gak jijik.” (Unfortunately, if men see lesbians kissing, it is different; I don‟t feel it‟s disgusting). He thinks that it is bad to see males kiss. However, seeing
females kiss has the opposite effect. In this occasion, Radit positions the lesbians (female) as objects to desire or pleasure him. His idea connects to Ussher‟s when Radit states that if it is only a pornographic images or lesbians, it has a goal to serve male pleasure (34). Radit focuses on his pleasure now rather than the stereotype.
Radit also has the same feeling with Agung about this movie. He is not influenced by this movie. For Radit, this movie is only an entertainment tool which contrasts to Farah and Dian, who see the value of this movie that can change the audiences‟ mind-sets and feelings. When he sees the relationship like the one between Kim and Pei, he doesn‟t react by ignoring the lesbians. He will take steps if the one who does it is his relative. In general as part of society, he does not worry about lesbians. From his explanation, it shows that the movie doesn‟t influence him because he thinks that this movie is fiction. From what Radit feels shows that stereotyping does not always guide the way he thinks. He can avoid the lesbians if they mingle with his personal business.
Religious
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participants come from different beliefs. How does their belief work in affecting their perception? Will they use their religious view to support their beliefs about homosexual or not? What does their religion say toward lesbians?
The first participant is Farah who is involved in many religious activities since high school. This is what she says about lesbians: “Satu hal yang saya tahu, ya kalo itu sebenarnya
gak diijinkan di dalam Alkitab”. (One thing that I know is that actually lesbians are not allowed
in The Bible). She knows that lesbians are not allowed in her religious references. She inserts the word “actually” because at first she still believes that lesbians also need justice. In her
understanding, justice for lesbians is confessed in society. She believes that the only important thing for lesbians is that to be legalized and have the same right like other people. Lesbians do not want to be marginalized. However, her religious reference says different from what she feels. She follows her religious perception. So, Farah‟s perception is controlled by religious references
which believe that lesbians are not allowed. She also quotes from the bible:
Then the Lord made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought
her to the man (The Holy Bible, New International Version, Genesis 2:22).
What Farah understands from this biblical word is that God creates a woman to help the man because God sees that it is bad if the man lives alone. God does not create another man to help Adam, but God creates a female, Eve. So, she believes that man should always be with woman like what the God says.
Farah‟s opinion corresponds to what Tygart (2000) says that homosexuality is frequently
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she considers that a couple is always male and female, not the same sexes. She adds: “Sama kali
gak setuju … mereka istilahnya menyalahi kodrat ciptaannya Tuhan.” (I strongly disagree…
they seem like they are disapproving the nature of the God). She says that lesbians seem to be like disapproving the fate or nature. She believes that against nature means against God. What she says infers that religious reference takes an important part in her perception toward lesbians. So, she believes that lesbians are wrong because it is in opposition to her parameter that is her religious reference.
Farah finds the scene which exposes lesbians clearly in Yes or No, she feels that the film does not go with the norm. She confirms: “Seakan-akan kalo film itu disebarkan, itu kaya
mengajarkan orang-orang bahwa lesbians itu acceptable.” (If this movie is overspread, it seems like it is showing to people that being a lesbian is acceptable). She says that the movie seems to be approving of lesbians. She adds that it is shown when Kim and Pei finally live together. Since what the ending tells, Farah worries if the audience will think that Yes or No lets audience becomes lesbians. So, she advises that Yes or No is not recommended.
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On the other hand her perceptions toward lesbians change. After she reflects on her experience having a closed friend who is a lesbian, she has a different perception toward lesbians. Dian is the only participant who seems against the religious reference. She explains: “aku kan gak begitu fanatic banget gitu ya sama agama.” (I am not too fanatic in religious
matter). She does not want to explain more about lesbians and her religious reference. When the interview goes to the point how she sees lesbians from her religious reference, she says that she is not a fanatic. Her saying “not fanatic” indicates an excuse. She does not want to admit that her perception does not flow with her religious reference. It means that she has her own perception which is not influenced by her religious reference.
As she reflects on her best friend‟s story who is a lesbian, she believes that lesbians are
natural. Although as Christian she agrees to Genesis 2:18, she also believes that being a lesbian is not because of lesbians‟ mistakes. As lesbians are natural and it is given, she states that women cannot choose not to have that kind of feeling. It is shown from her statement: “… mereka itu
gak bisa disalahkan juga soale kalaupun dia bisa milih pasti dia juga gak pengen punya
perasaan kaya gitu…” (They (lesbians) cannot be blamed because if they can choose, they don‟t
want to have that kind of feeling). Her perceptions change because of her close friend who is a lesbian. Her close friend is one of the society. Because Dian is close to her friend, indirectly, she influences Dian. So, her close friend takes an important part to change her perception toward lesbians.
From Dian‟s perception, it says that religious reference is only a matter of knowledge.
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sometimes cannot be connected to the religious references or another thing. Her explanation indicates that she does not use religious references as her parameter to control her perception.
Agung is the only participant who is Muslim. He does not say clearly about his opinion about lesbians. He does not say that it is a sin or bad attitude. He only knows that in his religion, lesbians are not allowed, but he does not want to state it clearly. He believes a story taken from Al-Quran which tells about one of a prophet named Lut. Lut lives in an awful place. In that place there are so many bad things happen like free sex and homosexuality. One day, Allah sends an angel to investigate that place. It is true that there are many bad things that happen, so Allah destroys it. By the story, he believes that homosexual is one of the bad things. By his explanation, he has strong and clear religious reference that lesbians are not allowed.
On the other hand, his perception is different from his religious reference. He says: “ya
itu terserah sih. Standar moral setiap orang kan beda ya.” (It‟s up to them. The morality
standard of each person is different). He does not want to claim that lesbian is bad or good. He explains that what is bad for him is not always bad for people; and what is good for him is not always good for people. That is why he tends to say nothing. He does not care to what lesbians do. Except if the lesbians are his close friend or family, he is willing to help them to find the way back into normality called heterosexuality. No matter what his belief says, he has his own opinion about lesbians. Form what Agung has explained, it indicates that he is quite liberal about lesbians. Liberal in this situation means he respects another opinion. So, for him it is fine to be a lesbian, as long as the lesbians do not meddle with his life.
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that short duration cannot change someone‟s perception or belief easily. Moreover, this movie
functions as entertainment for him. So, this movie is one positive way to relax his mind. However, it will have a negative effect for a certain audience. He explains if the audiences are lesbians, they will be motivated and strengthened that lesbians are acceptable like the movie says. So, the effect of this movie will work differently one to the other. It depends on who the audience is.
Religiously or not Agung believes that lesbians are not natural. He states: “Kayanya yang saya tahu belum ada penelitian secara genetic.” (I think there is no research which studies
lesbians genetically). He adds that lesbians occur because of environments. What he understands by the meaning of environments are friends, society, and public media, such as television, book and internet. He believes that someone cannot live without those elements. Finally, he believes that those things affect someone‟s perception toward lesbians. What he has mentioned is something close to everybody. It means that actually, everyone has possibilities to be a lesbian by those influences. The decision depends on two things. First, it depends on the people, whether they want to be a lesbians or not. Second, it depends on how big the influence is.
Radit is the last participant who is a Catholic. He has a different opinion about lesbians from a religious point of view. Radit thinks his belief never talks about lesbians and stuff. He says: “Katolik as far as I know, katolik itu gak pernah membahas ke sana sih ya. Homosexuality itu gak pernah disentuh sebagai sesuatu yang tabu.” (As far as I know, catholic never discuses about lesbians. Homosexuality is never claimed as taboo). According to Oxford Advance Learner‟s Dictionary, “taboo” is described as a culture or religion custom that does not allow
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reference never talks about lesbians which mean that there is nothing wrong with lesbians. So, what his religious reference says is that homosexuality is only a common thing and it is not taboo. This belief influences Radit not to have bad perception toward lesbians. When he states that lesbians are not taboo and feels fine with it, it indicates he follows his religious reference.
He believes that his religion gives freedom or liberty to the Catholics to be a lesbian or a heterosexual. He strengthens his statement by saying: “Kalo dosa aku gak pernah baca di alkitab
yang ngomong seorang lesbians atau homosexual itu dosa.” (I never read in The Bible which
says that lesbians or homosexual is a sin). He explains that his religious reference does not mention that lesbian is a sin. He thinks that lesbians are not forbidden, but it is only not suggested. His perception indicates that he uses stereotype. When he says “forbidden”, it means he knows that lesbians are stereotyped as not good. Although he says he does not want to claim it as bad thing, he follows the lesbians‟ stereotype. It means that stereotype works better that his religious reference.
Radit compares between lesbians and incest. He says: “… kita gak dilarang untuk mencintai sesama jenis. Cuman pada awalnya di Alkitab disebutkan ada Adam dan Hawa,
cowok dan cewek. Kalo itu kita ambil mentah- mentah, itu susah, karna itu gak mungkin seluruh
dunia ini tercipta cuman dua orang manusia. Kalo kita mengatakan seluruh dunia ini berasal
dari dua orang manusia, maka akan menyentuh hal tabu, seperti inses.” (We are not forbidden
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say is that lesbians have deeper definition. It is beyond the concept of sexual intercourse between girls. It is similar to the story of Adam and Eve who fill this world but which began from people who had incest. He believes that lesbians are forms of love to each other which involves deep feeling.
Radit believes lesbians and religious matter has its own scope. It cannot be connected without any strong reasons. He adds that the issue of lesbians, religion and movie of Yes or No stand by itself. His opinion about the lesbians in the movie and in the real life does not have any connection to his religious point of view. So, he does not use the religious view to see the social matter like lesbians. The result of the interview of the last participant, Radit, indicates that he tends to consider to the stereotype existed rather than the religious reference. Moreover, he thinks that his religious reference never talks about lesbians and stuff.
Conclusion
This research analyzes the participants‟ perceptions from the scope of stereotype and
religious point of views. From the discussion presented in the previous chapter, the context of lesbians is connected to stereotype and religious reference. It was noted down that stereotypes created people‟s mind-set about lesbians. In addition, religious reference gave guidance to do the
good things and leave the bad things. The result of this study indicated that not all participants used stereotypes or religious references to influence their idea or judgment about how they thought about lesbians.
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They could not judge lesbians for the choices they made. It was the lesbians‟ business. The lesbians know and are ready with all of the consequences of becoming lesbians.
The effect of the movie of Yes or No also works differently. It did not give a crucial influence toward participants‟ perceptions. The first participant said that the movie was
influential, especially for teenagers. She argued that there was a possibility that the movie would inspire the teenagers to do the same thing. On the other hand, the second participant reflected on the scene after watching it. She could feel what the main character felt and finally said that we could not simply blame the person who chose to become a lesbian. For the second participant, her opinion was also driven by her personal experience of having a lesbian friend. On the other hand, the two male participants said that this movie was only an entertainment for them. Watching the whole scenes in the movie did not give them any influence, especially related to their opinion about lesbians. As a conclusion, two of the participants of this study still have the same perception and two are different toward lesbians before and after watching the movie.
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The recommendation for future research, it may be interesting to do a research only about gay to know whether the participants, especially guys are like that or not. Moreover, in similar field, it is better to specify the religious point of view. The specification can be done by taking the participants from all religions in Indonesia or some religious beliefs. By doing this, the research is expected to have more detail and various results which are interesting and useful. It will be interesting because the topic of lesbian is still quite “taboo” in Indonesia. So, talking about taboo things is attracting people. Another thing this research will be useful for people who do not really understand by the meaning of lesbian. Lesbian is not only about the less common behavior, but the lesbians have certain reasons why they choose that way. By this reason, the people‟s perceptions may be different.
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Acknowledgment
Finishing my thesis in English Department is my greatest work I have ever done. Definitely, I have to express my gratitude to everyone who supports and helps me in finishing this thesis:
My Jesus who makes every single thing has done. Thanks to Mrs. Purwanti Kusumaningtyas, my supervisor for your helpful feedbacks and patience to guide me in finishing my thesis. Thank you so much for Danielle Donelsons-Sims, my second reader for your support and inspiring stories. Perhaps if I did not hang out with you in Solo, I would not be sure to take literature for my thesis. Especially, this degree is dedicated to my mother (Suwarni) and my father (Joko). Thanks for being patience and giving lovely advice. My little sister (Grace) and my aunt (Wiwik), thanks for your support.
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