GENDER STEREOTYPING LANGUAGE FEATURES IN
ENGLISH SEEN IN
THE HANDMAID’S TALE
BY
MARGARET ATWOOD
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra
In English Letters
By
FRANSISKA RAHAYU MYRLINDA
Student Number: 114214068
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAM
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
YOGYAKARTA
i
GENDER STEREOTYPING LANGUAGE FEATURES IN
ENGLISH SEEN IN
THE HANDMAID’S TALE
BY
MARGARET ATWOOD
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra
In English Letters
By
FRANSISKA RAHAYU MYRLINDA
Student Number: 114214068
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAM
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
YOGYAKARTA
vi
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SCHOOL AND LIFE?
In school, you’re t
aught a lesson and then
given a test.
I
n life, you’re given a test that teaches you
a lesson.
vii
I would like to dedicate my thesis to my beloved parents
whose love, encouragement and endless prayers of day and night strengthen me to be able to
viii
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would first like to thank God for giving me strength, love, blessing, and courage to finish this thesis and to make all things possible.
I would like to thank Dr. Francis Borgias Alip M. Pd., M.A. as my thesis advisor for his meaningful guidance and patience in giving references and having discussion to complete the data in my thesis. My gratitude also goes to my co-advisor, J. Harris Hermansyah Setiajid, S.S., M.Hum., for his willingness in reading my thesis and for his advices to make my thesis better. I would like to thank the Dean of English Letters Department and my academic advisor, Dr. F.X. Siswadi M.A., for his precious time and meaningful advices to encourage me. I would also like to thank Sri Mulyani Ph.D. and Adventina Putranti S.S., M. Hum. for giving me references and invaluable suggestions. My thanks also go to all the lecturers and staff in English Letters Department for their help during my study.
I would like to thank my beloved parents, Mr. Johanes Bambang Suryono and Mrs. Ririn Susanti, for their unconditional supports to let their only child get education in the university, precious love and prayers in my whole life so that I can pass my days with ease. This thesis is dedicated to them.
The last but not least, my special gratitude goes to my friends of class 2011, especially my beloved friends in class C: Witta, Melan, Helga, Piwi, Tabita, Tata, Ivan, Panji, Alin, Dita, Tabita, and Ester for their presence and their precious supports to always let me be myself. I am so grateful to have known them all.
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CHAPTER II: REVIEW OF LITERATURE ... 7
A. Review of Related Studies ... 7
B. Review of Related Theories ... 11
1. Gender Stereotyping in English Language ... 11
2. Sociolinguistics: Language and Sex... 16
3. Stylistics: Language and Style ... 19
4. Semantic structure: Reference and Connotation ... 21
C. Theoretical Framework ... 23
CHAPTER IV: ANALYSIS RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS ... 32
A. Gender Stereotyping Seen in The Handmaid’s Tale ... 33
x
ABSTRACT
MYRLINDA, FRANSISKA RAHAYU. Gender Stereotyping Language Features in English Seen in The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood. Yogyakarta: Department of English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma University, 2014.
Language as a means of communication is used as the vehicle for human beings to reveal and express ideas or feelings to each other. Using language, both men and women can communicate freely what they have on their minds. Different genders between men and women will result on different perspectives about the languages they use. Society as the place where this condition usually occurs then plays as the bridge to find out how different genders build different gender stereotyping in language. By analyzing English as the global language, the representation of gender stereotyping can be seen easily. Language features that become the basic elements of the development in using language, especially in producing different languages of different genders imply the most important role of gender stereotyping. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood is one of the literary works that implies gender stereotyping throughout how the stories happened.
There were two problems to answer in this study. The first problem was to analyze the kind of language features implied gender stereotyping in the novel. The second was to find the effects of using gender stereotyping toward the stories in the novel.
xi
ABSTRAK
MYRLINDA, FRANSISKA RAHAYU. Gender Stereotyping Language Features in English Seen in The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood. Yogyakarta: Program Studi Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Sanata Dharma, 2015.
Bahasa sebagai sarana komunikasi digunakan sebagai alat untuk mengungkapkan dan membagikan ide-ide atau perasaan manusia dengan satu sama lain. Melalui bahasa, baik pria maupun wanita dapat secara bebas mengkomunikasikan apa yang ingin mereka katakan. Perbedaan jenis kelamin menghasilkan cara pandang yang berbeda tentang bahasa yang mereka gunakan. Masyarakat sebagai tempat keadaan ini berlangsung berperan sebagai penghubung dalam memaknai bagaimana perbedaan jenis kelamin memberi pengaruh terhadap stereotip jenis kelamin yang berbeda dalam penggunaan bahasa. Dengan menganalisis bahasa Inggris sebagai bahasa global, gambaran dari stereotip jenis kelamin dapat terlihat secara lebih mudah. Fitur-fitur bahasa yang menjadi unsur mendasar dalam pengkembangan penggunaan bahasa, terutama dalam menghasilkan bahasa yang berbeda dari jenis kelamin yang berbeda berperan sebagai sarana utama dari stereotip jenis kelamin. The Handmaid’s Talekarangan Margaret Atwood adalah salah satu contoh karya sastra yang menunjukan stereotip jenis kelamin melalui bagaimana urutan cerita dalam novel berlangsung.
Terdapat dua permasalahan yang dirumuskan dalam studi ini. Rumusan masalah pertama adalah untuk menganalisis jenis fitur-fitur bahasa yang menunjukan stereotip jenis kelamin di dalam novel. Rumusan masalah yang kedua adalah untuk menemukan pengaruh-pengaruh yang dihasilkan dari stereotip jenis kelamin terhadap cerita di dalam novel.
Metode yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah metode analisis pengumpulan data dan studi empiris. Analisis pengumpulan data berguna untuk menganalisa teori, sedangkan penelitian empiris digunakan untuk mendapatkan kesesuain data. Studi populasi digunakan untuk menghasilkan keakuratan data. Analisis yang diterapkan tergantung pada penggunaan bahasa oleh jenis kelamin yang berbeda. Analisis pertama berhubungan dengan fitur bahasa yang merepresentasikan stereotip jenis kelamin yang terdapat dalam novel. Sementara itu, analisis kedua berhubungan dengan pengaruh dari penggunaan bahasa yang berbeda antara pria dan wanita terhadap cerita yang ada di dalam novel. Peneliti menggolongkan penggunaan bahasa yang berbeda tersebut serta pemilihan kata dari data yang tersedia kedalam beberapa kelompok.
1
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
This chapter gives some explanations to introduce the chosen topic. There are four main parts of this chapter: background of the study, problem formulation, objectives of the study, and definition of terms that are discussed further on the subtitle below.
A. Background of the Study
Language as a means of comunication is important to convey information about the speakers. Language is used as the vehicle for human beings to reveal and express ideas or feelings to each other. It is also used for establishing and maintaining relationships with other people. People use language to learn new things about others, to shape their view of society, and more importantly to fit into the norms and social patterns of their environment. Even when the speakers meet for the first time, for example, and they do not know anything about each other yet, language becomes the easiest way to keep the conversation running well. In the conversation, the speakers might conclude about the characteristics of the person they have talked to by indicating their language use. Different people carry different languages.
something we have, but something we do (West and Zimmerman, 1987)– something we perform (Butler, 1990). The word “gender” is usually used by the society to describe people as men and women.
Men and women are the symbols which used to characterize the different status between them. Until the late of 1990s, women have been put in the second place, while men have been put in the first place who could control everything and even could do anything they want to do to women (Davies, 2004:304). As a result, it gives an assumption that men are superior than women. Women always have lower status than men in the society and almost in the all aspects of living. It builds up a stereotype that women are powerless. They cannot live without men. They present as people who need guidances or protections from men. In short, society provides different treatments to people according to their own gender.
According to Dale Spender, the different languages between men and women lay on the way they communicate to one and another. Women prefer to keep on silence and do not say what they need to say. Women have the ability to follow the role in society without any excuses. Society becomes the representation of the different status between women and men has resulted into the different used of language between both of them and seems to conclude the different status itself as natural phenomenon. Spender says that “the talkativeness of women has been gauged in comparision not with men but with silence [so that] any talk in which a
woman engages can be too much” (1980:42).
Men and women . . . are members of cultures in which a large amount of discourse about gender is constantly circulating. They do not only learn, and then mechanically reproduce, ways of speaking ‘appropriate’ to their own sex; they learn a much broader set of gendered meanings that attach in rather complex ways to different ways of speaking, and they produce their own behavior in the light of these meanings. . . .(1997:280-1).
It is apparent that nowadays language changes into the tool to divide people according to their gender as men and women. The used of languange in daily life is changed. As the members of culture, people in different genders then build set of languages to maintain the existences in the society.
The phenomena of gender stereotyping that affect to the different use of language between men and women can be found in the literary works. One of the examples is The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood in 1985. The Handmaid’s Tale is one of the literary works that implies gender stereotyping in English language throughout how the stories happened. This novel is chosen because there are some dialogues that have proved and showed language features imply gender stereotyping in English language can result in the different varieties of the same language between men and women. This topic is worth studying because from this topic we can find how society treats different genders unequally. The different treatments toward people in different genders then conclude as naturally constructed and let the gender stereotyping to gradually develop in the real life.
stories in the novel.. As can be seen in The Handmaid’s Tale, women have lack of power over men. They are no longer allowed to read. All the signs are now in the form of pictures instead of words. Women and men need to get the same treatments as what they actually should get.
B. Problem Formulation
The problems for this research are formulated as:
1.What kinds of language features are used to deliver gender stereotyping in the novel?
2.What are the effects of using gender stereotyping toward the stories in the novel?
C. Objectives of the Study
This research is aimed to find out the different kind of language features that are used throughout the stories in The Handmaid’s Tale and the resulted effects of using gender stereotyping in the novel. The first objective of the reseach analyzes the different kinds of language features that the characters within the stories use to reveal gender stereotyping. By analyzing the attitudes and also the choices of words that are used by men and women characters in the novel, we understand what language features that commonly use by the different genders in the novel.
the women life in the novel. Here, we will see how language as the mean of communication really influences society point of view in seeing different genders as the real different objects. Different genders receives different kind of treatments from the society throughout the novel.
D. Definition of Terms
To avoid misunderstanding and gain better understanding on certain terms used in this research, here are several terms used in the research that need to be explained clearly.
Language
The meaning of language according to Peter Trudgill in Sociolingistics: An Introduction to Language and Society is a social phenomenon. Language is closely related to the social attitudes (2000:79). According to Penelope Eckert and Sally McConnell-Ginet in Language and Gender in 2003, language is simply said as a communicative practice mediated by a linguistic system or systems that preoccupy most of the field of linguistics. Shortly, the meaning of language can be concluded as a tool of communication used by the members in particular society.
Gender
The meaning of gender according to J. Butler in the book Bodies that Matter:
behind the expressions of gender itself. Identity is perceptively constituted by the
very “expressions” that are said to be its results (1993: 25).
According to Penelope Eckert and Sally McConnell-Ginet, gender is the social elaboration of biological sex. In the explanation of her book, Eckert emphasizes the meaning of gender as the force category in society that really makes people impossible to move their life in a non-gendered way and impossible not to behave in a way that brings their gendered behavior in others (2003:50). In short, it can be said that gender is a key component of human identity. Gender represents a set of constructed categorizations that people should be dealt with.
Gender Stereotyping
The meaning of gender stereotyping according to Jane Pilcher and Imelda Whelehan Fifty Key Concepts in Gender Studies in 2004 can be defined as a standardized and often-pejorative idea or image held about an individual based on their gender.
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CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
This chapter elaborates the review of related studies, review of related theories, and theoretical framework. The first part is the review of related studies that discusses about the previous researches done by other researchers on similar topic to find the similarities and the different point of views. The second is the review of related theories that describes the applied theories to answer the problems of this research. The last is the theoretical framework that applies the relevant theories to the research.
A. Review of Related Studies
1. Fredrik Pettersson’s essay Discourse and Oppression in Margaret
Atwood’sThe Handmaid’s Tale (2010)
This essay discusses that the novel The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood presents language, truth, and actions, within the frame of discourse, are used as means of oppressing women in both Gilead and the society “before” the revolution. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood implies the domination of
men over women. The new Christian’s extreme policies throughout the Republic
She is a so-called Handmaid, a kind of breeding tool for the republic.
The aim of Pettersson in writing the essay is to tell about the domination and the act of governing women by men in language, truth, and actions by applying theories of discourse and language together with feminist theory on The
Handmaid’s Tale. The beginning of his essay tells about how power, language,
truth, and actions are used to oppress women using theories of discourse by Michel Foucault in the late 1960s. The rules of Gilead discourse are used to make women to live with it. While Offred is described as a rather weak person and does not have the power to fight and sacrifice herself against Gilead discourse, other women in the novel are active and determined not to live by the rules of the Gilead
discourse. Offred’s fellow Handmaid, Ofglen, for example, is braver than Offred
and she is the one who pushes their relationship beyond what is generally accepted
among Handmaids. She hangs herself instead of being arrested by “The Eyes” (the
secret police in Gilead).
The essay also describes in what ways the Gilead regime control women and how Offred’s flashbacks reveal the underlying values of the society before. The regime is successful in maintaining the rules of their discourse because of the punishments that is given to anyone who criticizes the regime. Some people are
employed as ‘The Eyes’, so one can never know who to entrust. Men are the rulers
and some women have limited (but no actual) power. Most women are controlled and have no power. The representatives of women with limited power in the novel
are usually called as the ‘Aunts’. They help the regime to control other women.
ending of his essay describes the consequences of Gilead discourse toward women life.
This research develops Fredrik Pettersson’s essay. This research uses some
data from Fredrik Pettersson’s essay as secondary data to complete all data
concerning the terms related to the influence of Gilead discourse to make oppression in women. Moreover, this research focusses not only in the domination and in the act of governing women by men, but especially in the use of gender stereotyping in the English language through different and even similar genders that result on the inequalities that have not been explained yet in the Fredrik
Pettersson’s essay. This research elaborates more on the kind of languages used in
producing gender stereotypes and its functions. In addition, this research uses the theories of stylistics language and style, sociolinguistics, and semantic structure in producing different languages style instead of feminist theory.
2. Nneka Umera-Okeke’s journal Linguistic Sexism: An Overview of the
English Language in Everyday (2012)
The focus of this journal is different in several aspects, although it is similar in dealing with how English language employs different stereotypes to the different genders. The differences lie on the applied theories. While Nneka Umera-Okeke elaborates the morphosyntax, syntax, and semantics approaches, this research emphasizes on sociolinguistics, stylistics, and semantics approaches to show how language features imply gender stereotyping in English language. In addition, this research focuses on the data taken from the novel The Handmaid’s Tale and the followed effects of gender stereotyping in the novel not only toward the use of linguistic sexism in everyday discourse.
3. Yennie’s thesis “Gender Stereotyping Shown by Sexist Language in
Phyllida Lloyd’s The Iron Lady” (2013)
This undergraduate thesis discusses sexist expression used by men and women dialogues in documentary movie of Margaret Thatcher by Phyllida Lloyd. This undergraduate thesis focuses in the kind of sexist language and the revealed stereotypes though the use of sexist language itself.
This research is different from Yennie’s in several aspects though it is similar
in dealing with gender stereotyping. The difference lies on the kind of literary work that is being observed. While Yennie discusses the movie, this research elaborates gender stereotyping in the English language based on novel The
Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood. The data of this undergraduate thesis are
also discuss about the use of pronoun usage, occupational labels and personalities, the use of verbs, and familial terms in the choice of words seen in the novel.
B. Review to Related Theories
1. Gender Stereotyping in English Language
According to Laurel Richardson in The Dynamic of Sex and Gender: A Sociological Perspective (1987), there are six general characteristics that can help the readers get better understanding in identifying the various kinds of language features that imply gender stereotyping in the English language. The characteristics of language features to deliver gender stereotyping that result in the different varieties of the same language between women and men are:
a. The generic he
In terms of grammatical and semantic structure, women do not have a fully independent existence. Pronoun or usually called as the word that can take place the position of noun is the easiest way to see the existence of gender stereotyping in English, The generic pronoun he is the most well-known example of gender specific. When it appears in the form of sentence, the generic pronoun he can be used to describe either men or womenin general.
included under the generic man.So, for example, when reading the word man in
“One small step for man”, we should interpret it as applying to both men and
women. It results in the conclusion that women are concluded as part of men. The existence of women in language then does not appear clearly.
b. Occupational labels and personalities
Gender stereotyping in English can be seen in the actual practice of pronoun usage that results in the different names of career and personality. The high-status occupation that is usually called as not women jobs, such as doctor, lawyer, and judge refers as he though it is not impossible for women to occupy those positions. Secretaries, nurses, kindergarten teachers, for example, are usually used as the representation of pronoun she. Even in the given name to nonhuman object, it results in the different way of personalities between males and females. Kitchen and poetry represent the feminine. On the other hand, the thing taken by forceful power refers as masculine, such as Satan and tiger.
c. Formal terms of address
Linguistic practices in organizational titles and public addresses define females as immature and incompetence and males as mature and competent. It happens because the connotation of sexual and human maturity frequently designate the women in question as ladies no matter how old they are, such as
‘Lady is first!’ or ‘Luck to be a lady (woman) tonight’. The stereotypes associated
with ladies are weak and incapable. In contrast, when the word gentleman is used,
it can reflect as the symbol of masculinity (such as strength). In the sentence ‘He
d. The verb
In practice of the sexual experience, women are defined in terms of their sexual object (to men), whereas men are defined in terms of their sexual prowess (to women). Women use passive verb in their relation to sexual experience, such as to be laid or to be taken. The passive verb construction is used in reference to women refers to their desirability to men because it is a common thing for women to be sexually attractive to men. Meanwhile, men prefer to use active verb, such as
lay, have, or take. The active verb construction is used to mainly deliver a direct meaning of a sentence and set aside the possibility of being attractive to women. It results in the different expectations to women and men as sexual objects and performers.
e. Familial terms
In the use of familial terms, women are defined in the relation to men, but men are defined in terms of their relation to the world at large. Even when the woman is no longer having relationship with the man, she needs to carry the given name and is still to be called as Mrs. Man’s Name.
The following table explains the terms that generally show how the same meaning represents different terms between men and women in English according to the familial labels that assign to them.
The list of terms in relation to familial labels
Men Women Meaning
- Mrs. A married woman
Bachelor Spinster An unmarried man or woman Divorced
man/Bachelor
Widower Widow The person whose mate has passed away - Housewife A female who does not work outside of the home - Mistress A woman who has a sexual relationship with a
married man.
As what has been mentioned above, there are terms to call men that are closely different to the calling names assigned to women in relation to the familial terms although the meanings that they want to be delivered are the same. The differences in the calling names between bachelor and spinster, for example, both are the names to call unmarried people, but they both have different connotations in real life. The different connotations depend on to whom those names are being attached. The word bachelor is used to call an elderly never married man. Based on Laurie P. Arliss, from the calling name as a bachelor, it connotes an image of a person who chooses to remain single in his life. It is acceptable for him to decide whether he wants to spend his life alone or not. In the future, he can also marry someone whenever he wants to do it.
In relation to the familial terms, the term divorcée also implies differently to men and women. The calling name as a divorcée refers only to a woman whose marriage has been legally ended. There is no term to refer to her husband. Her ex-husband is usually called as a divorced man or he also can be called as a bachelor. From this fact, it can be concluded then that the English language terms for naming and categorizing people by their family relationships continue to be used greatly only for describing women. Moreover, the familial terms are used far more
often as the symbols of degrading women’s positions.
f. Historical pattern of the attached neutral word meanings
Historical pattern can be seen in the meanings that come to be attached to words that originally were neutral. Girl originally meant ‘a child of either sex’,
then it was specialized to mean ‘a female child’, later it meant ‘a maidservant’,
and eventually it acquired the meanings of ‘a prostitute’, ‘a mistress’, or ‘the
female sex’.
Nowadays, there are several changes to measure gender stereotyping in the English language. According to Laurie P. Arliss in Gender Communication (1991) to make awareness of the impact of the generic man and perspective, the pronoun
In occupational labels, for example, the words Policeman and Mailman that used to represent men jobs even though it can be used to indicate both men and women, nowadays the names have been changed into police officer and letter carriers. Moreover, the use of chairman that usually conveys a negative connotation in referring to a woman because it results on the perception that it is only used for men gradually changes into chairperson without looking at whether the person is man or woman. Those changes often make no differences because people still address those professions are concluded as men jobs.
In addition, Lakoff’s “Language and Woman’s Place” in Language in Society
adopts the position that men are dominant and women lack power, “one way that
women can achieve equality with men is for them to behave like men” (Lakoff,
1973). Shortly, it means that equality of gender between men and women will happen only if women themselves change the way they behave and the language they use as what men usually do. Unless women try to behave like men, inequalities between different type of genders will still exist.
2. Sociolinguistics: Language and Sex
Sociolinguistics is the branch of linguistics that concerns with investigating the relations of language to varied aspects of society, such as social class, ethnic group, sex, geography, and other similar things. Peter Trudgill in his book
aspects of human languages. Human sexes can be seen from the use of pronouns, verb forms, articles and adjectives. In pronoun, for example, different sexes have different sex-marking pronouns. The third-person singular he in English is only used to indicate male while she is the indication for female.
Sociolinguistics emphasizes the relationship between language and society, especially on how language functions in communication. There are many functions of language in communication. However, in this research the writer will only focus on the function of different language used between men and women within the novel that shows language, especially the English language as the standard language, implies men as superiors to women.
Goddard and Patterson, in the book Language and Gender (2000), state that the function of language treats women as properties. Language is used as a form of discrimination against women existences in society. The problem of gender stereotyping in English is built from the way the language itself is structured and from the way people use to describe the ideas about language. Sociolinguistics then aims to prove whether English is a sexist language. The result shows that there are evidences that English is sexist.
The reason why Goddard and Patterson state that English language is a gendered language based on these three facts:
It is clearly shown from the description above that some terms tend to be used more about one sex than the other. The way people think about language is closely related to gender characteristics, the beliefs that people have about the way men and women should behave differently according to their sexes, and furthermore it influences the use of language itself.
James and Drakich in Understanding Gender Differences in Amount of Talk: A Critical Review of Research says:
Women are expected to use and do use talk a greater extent than men to serve
the function of establishing and maintaining relationships… what is
particularly important in female relationships is the sharing of intimate feelings and confidences through talk, whereas in male friendships the sharing of activities is more important (1993: 302-303).
According to Ronald Wardhaugh in An Introduction to Sociolinguistics 5th Edition (2006), the content of conversation between men is related to sports, competitions, and doing things that is closely different with the conversation occurs between women. When women they have conversation with the same sexes, their topics are related to feelings, home and family. Women use more polite forms and more compliments.
It is clear that men and women actually do not speak different languages. They speak different varieties of the same language. The reason why this thing happens just because the speaker itself wants to maintain the conversation between each other especially the same sexes runs well. The conversation between both speakers will keep going smoothly.
solidarity with others. Meanwhile, men tend to focus on sharing the information that is related to the content of conversation. It is the most important thing to be done without adding any personal feelings.
3. Stylistics: Language and Style
The term Stylistics according to Peter Verdonk in Stylistics 2002 means the study of style, the analysis of distinctive expression in language and the description of its purpose and effect. Style itself can be defined as a distinctive way of using language for some purposes to gain some effects in writing a literary text. Shortly it can be said that the different styles in language on producing a literary text can result on different perspective of looking the meaning through the language itself.
Different style in language has function to motivate and even provoke the readers to create an imaginary alternatives world. It provides representation of phenomena.
The essential function of a literary text enables us to satisfy our needs as individuals, to escape, to feel reassured about the disorder and confusion in our minds, and to find a reflection of our conflicting emotions (2002: 12).
It is important to note that the function of different style in language of literary
text refer to the real the readers’ social context. The language itself then has a role
to reveal communicative interaction between writer and reader.
Sara Mills discusses the additional argument about the relation between language and style. In her book Feminist Stylistics, she states her opinion about stylistics theory especially the one that is related to feminist stylistics analysis. Her book concerns with describing sexism in literary works and more importantly it concerns with analyzing the description of women writing in practice and discovering how the authors and readers point of views are related to matters of gender. In her book, it is written that stylistics makes the readers aware of the aspects of the text, such as grammatical choices that can help the readers easier to
interpret the text itself. “The function of stylistics changes from an analysis of the
text in itself to an analysis of the factors determining the meaning of a text in its
social context” (Mills, 1995). The readers deal with different conclusions about
the meaning of the text depending on their social backgrounds and expectations that they bring to the text.
Language shapes the speakers’ perceptions on seeing the world around them.
about the world. The language used can result on a particular view of genders, especially women. By describing the examples of the sex-specific pronoun use, the misuse of generics pronouns, address terms and the negative descriptions of women in the English language, it clearly shows how language affects huge distinction between genders or it can be simply stated that language results in the oppression of women.
Sara Mills in her book Feminist Stylistics adds there are three major effects resulting in the different style of language used between genders, especially in causing the oppression of women:
In conversation, the use of sexist language may cause women to feel not being addressed. It causes women seeing themselves in a negative or stereotyped way that results on the certain expectations women and men have on what women can or cannot do. Lastly, it may confuse listeners, both males and females to use a generic noun or pronoun or a gender-specific one in describing things (1995: 95).
It is important that different styles in language use contribute the different effects on women life.
4. Semantic structure: Reference and Connotation
reference. Lakoff argues by using the term tramp for example, if people call a man a trampwill be simply concluded that he is ‘a drifter’. On the other hand, by
calling a woman a trampwill imply that she is ‘a prostitute’.
Robin Lakoff also adds:
A male pirate is one who breaks the right of others or commits robbery on the high seas, whereas a female pirate is an adult woman who cases other
women’s men (1973: 45-80).
It simply states that a language can reflect different thoughts and attitudes of the people who make it and use it. Language can refer to different meanings.
Francis Borgias Alip in “Language as a Vehicle of Meaning” adopted from Novita Dewi In Search of Meaning: A Selected Articles on Language and Literature (2000) states that language, especially in the form of ‘arbitrary vocal
symbols’, can represent different types of meaning based on its relation to the
whole context. Language stands as a vehicle to produce various kind of symbols. The symbols can be arbitrary, having no relation to the occupied meaning. The symbols itself then used by the speakers in producing certain ideas on sentences to gain communication. The meaning of the sentences itself can be interpreted differently depends on to who(m) the sentences will be referred. The time is also important in producing different meaning of sentences.
Furthermore, the way the speakers draws a range of attitude toward how they express the meaning of the objects is called connotation. Different way in referring the objects results on different connotation.
experiences that individuals or groups bring to interactions, but also depends on who is using the terms. The nouns bachelor and spinster, for example, have greatly different connotation.
While a bachelor is traditionally seen as a man who has chosen not to marry
any woman and who is ‘playing the field’, a spinster is seen as a woman who has failedto find a husband and who has been ‘left on the shelf’ (2000: 28).
Both two nouns bachelor and spinster all designate an unmarried adult. Spinster
marks for females and seems to have acquired the insulting meaning of ‘old maid’
referring to someone who is unable to find a husband, by implication they are too ugly or too fussy. Meanwhile, bachelor marks for males and has the positive connotations of freedom and independence and still having all the choices whether they want to marry or not.
C. Theoretical Framework
25
CHAPTER III
METHODOLOGY
This chapter consists of three parts. The first part is the explanation of the object of the study that being analyzed which is The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood. The second part is the discussion about the approaches applied for this study. The last part is the explanation of the method of the study.
A. Object of the Study
The object of this study analyzes how the language used throughout the stories in the novel The Handmaid’s Tale conveys gender stereotyping. The Handmaid’s
Tale isa novel created by Margaret Atwood. Margaret Eleanor Atwood was born on November 18, 1939 in Ottawa, Ontario, the second child of Carl Edmund Atwood and Margaret Killam Atwood. She began writing plays, poems, stories and comics at age six, but did not consider professional writing until sixteen, when she determined to become a poet.
In 1969, her first work of fiction The Edible Woman was published and followed by The Journals of Susanna Moodie (1970) and Surfacing (1971). In 1985, The Handmaid’s Tale was published to critical acclaim and followed by Cat’s Eye (1988), Wilderness Tips (1991), and Good Bones in 1992. The
Handmaid’s Taleas one of Atwood’s literary work is used because the stories in
The Handmaid’s Tale is a representation of thoughts that women prisoners in
Gilead regime ever experienced before. From the beginning up to the end, the story symbolizes and represents the domination of men throughout the women life and the limitation of women freedom to declare their existence. Women are worthy only because of their reproductive capabilities. Women are no longer allowed to read, hold property, or even have a job.
The Handmaid’s Tale is described through Offred’s perspective in dealing
with gender stereotyping on her life. Offred is the novel’s narrator and the main
character in the novel. Before the Republic of Gilead develops, Offred is described as a working wife and a mother. She is caught while trying to escape from Canada with her husband and daughter. She is trained as a Handmaid, a woman who will act as a reproductive machinism in the home of a highly-placed figure in the new government. She needs to pray for the Commander to make her pregnant because she is only valued as long as her ovaries are viable. The name “Offred” itself is believed as a sign for her position as a possession of a Gileadean
Commander (“Of Fred”).
The Handmaid’s Tale shows women struggles to overcome gender stereotyping. Offred’s struggle to present herself through language is one of the
examples. Though it is not easy to accept the fact that the position of women is always marginalized, the act of revealing their own identity in the society can be one option to be done. Revealing women identity can make the existences of women even become clearer to be seen.
According to Harold Bloom in Bloom’s Guides: The Handmaid’s Tale (2004), Margaret Atwood as the author says that this novel is an imagined account of what happens when extremely uncommon pronouncements about women are taken to their logical conclusions. Margaret Atwood plays the moral majority of the early 1980s to draw the possible influences of society in producing gender stereotyping towards different genders.
B. Approach of the Study
Besides the sociolinguistics theories, this study uses stylistics theories because it is useful to understand how the style of language in literary work can employ the functions of the different languages that are used by the characters and how people in different sexes employ different style of language. In addition, by analyzing the style of language in the novel it results on finding the influences of the messages that want to be delivered by the author. Therefore, stylistics approach is useful to conduct reliable data of this study.
Semantics theories on reference and connotation is also applied in this study to understand how language expresses meanings. This study emphasizes the theory of semantics structure in reference and connotation to get better understanding about the representation of languages with the same meaning can be interpreted having different connotations by the listeners.
C. Method of the Study
This study used both the library research and the empirical research. The library research was necessary to develop the theoretical framework, while the empirical research was necessary to obtain the reliable data. The explanation of library research and the empirical research were presented in data collection and data analysis below.
1. Data Collection
reading the novel The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood was necessary. After the process of reading, the process of collecting and analysing the text were the second steps. These processes had function to organize the data which were directly taken from the text. The process of identifying the different languages that contained the representation of gender stereotyping in the dialogues throughout the stories by the characters of the novel was the third step. The identifying process also involved the description of slang word used by the characters. This step was useful to examine the different use of language to both men and women toward the stories in the novel.
As the additional references and secondary sources in conducting this study, journals and internet references were used. The preferred websites used as the sources were only the qualified data based on reliable author in its field. The data of related theories were conducted through the analysis of the data from literary work and the internet research. The theories found were organized and categorized to make sure that the selected theories were appropriate to answer the problems in this study. Summarizing the relevant data and making the conclusion of the reliable data were the last processes.
2. Data Analysis
The analysis was based on the different languages used through different genders in conveying gender stereotyping within the stories in the novel.
resulted on the specific data collection based on the types of gender stereotyping occurred in English language. Each different language from different genders used by either men or women included in different category.
For the first problem, the following steps of analysis were conducted:
1. The generic he
The analysis was done based on the theory of gender stereotyping in English language by Laurel Richardson, therefore sociolinguistics theories on language and sex especially based on the three facts of English language as a gendered language by Angela Goddard and Lindsey Meȃn Patterson, stylistics theories on language and style, and semantics theories on reference and connotation by Robin Lakoff were applied to answer the problem. The researcher also used Nneka Umera-Okeke’s journal as the additional data. The researcher collected and analysed the narrator perspectives, the dialogues from text, and also the relevant sources to make the organization of the data related to the kind of languages the characters (both men and women) used in the text. Then, the researcher identified the data which releated to the use of pronoun in the novel. In the end, the researcher summarized the data and made a reliable conclusion from the data. The researcher provided the data in the form of tables to differentiate the use of language between men and women characters in the text.
2. Occupational labels and personalities
3. Formal terms of address
Sociolinguistics and Semantics theories were applied to get the valuable data. The data taken from the text were presented in the form of tables as the evidences in answering the first problem of this research.
4. The verb
Sociolinguistics theory was applied here. The analysis was focused on the use of verb between characters in the text. The language use that women made in the conversation were more precisely than the men usually did. Women can differ something correctly.
5. Familial terms
Stylistics and Semantics theories were applied. The data were taken from the dialogues and also from Offred’s statements who was the novel’s narrator and the
main character in the novel.
32
CHAPTER IV
ANALYSIS RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
This chapter is divided into two parts. The first part discusses about the different kind of language features used in the data to imply gender stereotyping in English language. The second part elaborates the effects of using gender stereotyping towards the stories in the novel. This research is conducted based on the theory of gender stereotyping in English language. Therefore, sociolinguistics theories on language and sex, stylistics theories on language and style, and semantic structure on reference and connotation are used to get the reliable data of the problems presented on Chapter 1. This research uses both the library research and the empirical research.
The analysis was conducted based on the different languages used by the characters in different genders. Margaret Atwood used the different language styles to convey gender stereotyping in English within the stories in the novel The Handmaid’s Tale. This research tried to analyze how the use of language
especially in the form of language features conveyed gender stereotyping in English language.
The novel was first published in 1985. The novel represented the life of women in what once was the United States, now called as the Republic of Gilead. The new regime made the rules to control others, especially the one that was directly related to birthrate. Offred, the main character and the narrator of the novel, was the representation of women prisoners in Gilead regime. She was a worker and a mother in the time before the Gilead regime exists. Offred could remember the years before when women still could have a job, money as their own, and access to knowledge, but all of those valuable things are gone now. Women are no longer allowed to read anymore. Instead of words, all signs are now in the form of pictures.
A. Gender Stereotyping Seen in The Handmaid’s Tale
education and apply for a good job? These phenomena are hard to be answered as the fair things happen in women lives. It has driven people to see their own society so that the reliable answer can be easily found. Though there are no specific tools in measuring whether or not different genders affect different treatments in the society, inequalities that result as the representation of gender stereotyping through different genders are completely cannot be avoided.
There are five general characteristics that help the readers to get better understanding in identifying the various kinds of language features occur in human life that imply gender stereotyping in English language.
1. The generic he
The generic pronoun reference provides the representation of gender stereotyping in English language. The pronoun (word that can take place of noun)
he can be used to describe men or women in general. Women are included under the generic man because English does not exactly divide the language into male and female language as many other languages are. The use of he or man approach in a sentence then has a function to ignore women by allowing masculine terms to be used specifically refers to males and generically to refer to human beings in general (Umera-Okeke, 2012:10).
According to Laurel Richardson The Dynamics of Sex and Gender: A Sociological Perspective in 1987, reading the word man in the following phrases:
“One giant step for mankind” or “man in the street”, for example, can be
term that can be used to refer to a human being, human beings as a group or race, or specifically it refers to a male human being (Umera-Okeke, 2012:10). In fact, the use of generic pronoun he itself is far more often as a specific reference to the men, so that the readers or listeners are likely to assume it as the representation only for men. When such terms are used generally, it results in the misinterpretation of the reference only to one gender and women, on the other hand, are not included because it emphasizes mainly to the male. The existence of women in language then does not appear clearly. It indirectly shows that the position of women in the generic pronoun usage is invisible.
Based on Richardson’s theory on the first characteristic of language features
2 Beside the main gateway there are six more bodies hanging, by the necks, their hands tied in front of them, their heads in white bags tipped sideways onto their shoulders,
a woman’s body was also there. There there with greenish-yellow skin, the color needs adjusting. They are stereotyping by the use of language features in English seen in the novel that show women are concluded as part of men.
The first datum above appears when Offred describes the activity that is
usually done by Serena Joy, the Commander’s wife. Sewing or knitting scarves is
of the second datum above, it can be seen that the word men is used to symbolize people in general, to represent both men and women. The word men in this datum do not only describe about one specific gender. It refers to both men and women, the human beings in general. By the use of men, women are concluded as the passive participants.
Based on the explanation that has been written in Chapter 2 about how language features can imply gender stereotyping in English, the first datum here is considered as the first characteristic of gender stereotyping. When the word men
used in the datum above without any specific explanation of the phrases itself, they are likely to be assumed as the male images. In the addition, when the datum above is represented in literal translation, still women are not concluded as the part of the meaning. To make the meaning of the phrases in the first datum above becomes neutral and might not be considered as gender stereotyping, it is better to change the word meninto “people, men and women, or human beings”, so that the readers will assume it as human beings in general, not only refers to one specific gender. By changing the word into more neutral way, there will not be any misinterpretation to whom it refers to.
In the second datum that is taken from The Handmaid’s Tale above, the word
Men’s Salvaging is used to call the ritual of giving a punishment to the bad people
for their criminal acts, such as doing abortion or rape. The victims’ bodies are
hanged to the wall by the necks and their hands tied in front of them. Though both men and women can become the participants of this ritual and it is clear from the
participant, it is still called as the Men's Salvaging. The women are explicitly excluded. Women are the passive participants in the Men’s Salvaging.
The third datum in the sentence “It is the song for men” above, the first characteristic of gender stereotyping in English, appears when Offred for the first time has a chance to watch TV. It is her first chance since it has been so many years for her to be caught by the Gilead Regime and need to stay in the Red Center. While waiting for the Commander, Serena Joy tries to interesting programs in the TV. A male choir is one of them, but then not for too long she changes the channel.
The sentence “It is the songformen” is considered as gender stereotyping because
it shows inequalities between different genders. The use of men in the datum above shows that women are marginalized. They are not considered good to listen to the song. Moreover, even though the participants of the choir itself are not only men, the given name, a male choir, results on the distinction of the perception that only men can be the choir. The existences of women do not appear clearly.
When Offred tries to recall her memories in the time before the Gilead Regime exists with her condition right now, she finds many differences that have never been imagined before. Job is one of the examples. In the time before, women have the opportunity to get a job and earn their own money. After the Gilead Regime exists, there is no more chance for women. Women cannot hold property anymore. Women need to send all their money to their husband’s account. It is the only choice to keep them alive.
The sentence “It’s a jobfor a man” from the representation of the fourth datum
because they are not as good as men do. The positions of women are marginalized. It describes the gender stereotyping for women’s lives results in a bad connotation. The novel presents the fact that there are no more jobs for women anymore. On the other hand, for the men, job is easy to get. Jobs are only for men.
By the use of his to be referred to “everyone” and the generic pronoun he to
represent the word “teacher” are one example of the data taken from The
Handmaid’s Tale that shows language features can imply gender stereotyping in
English. It is shown that the pronoun he and the possessive pronoun his are used when the referent of a pronoun is not specifically male or female although a woman can also become a teacher. The position of women in this datum cannot be seen clearly. When the pronoun he and the possessive pronoun his are used, women are the passive participants.
2. Occupational labels and personalities
In the daily life, human pronoun usage results on the different name of career and personality. The high-status occupational that is usually called as not the
“women’s job”, such as policeman, chairman, salesman, and postman refer as he
power refers as masculine (e.g. Satan and tiger). The language used in religions
also refers as masculine, such as “Our Father in heaven”. Though efforts to
develop the usage of sex-neutral occupational labels have been used, for instance by changing mailmen into the letter carriers, the word policeman into a police officer, the use of suffix –er seems preferably to be used in referring the tendency of a male job (Arliss, 1991:33).
The examples of this characteristic seen in The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwoodare outlined in the following table:
which I never sit, but stand or kneel only.
Table 2.1: Occupational labels and personalities in men languages
Number Men languages The implied meaning
17 Nothing wrong with you, the doctor says, as if to himself. Any pain, honey? He calls me honey (Chapter 11, p.53).
Doctor is man.
The examples above are the seventeen data that clearly show the fact how the different human pronoun usage results on the different name of career and personality.
From the first datum in the second characteristic of gender stereotyping language features in English seen in the novel above is clearly describe that there is a different for the calling name of women and men. The novel presents that the calling name in which each character should be called has the significant relation to the occupational labels and personalities. The occupational labels and personalities described in the first datum are different between one and the others depend on what genders they belong. This datum comes up even in the first
to the reader the condition of the Red Center, the place where the Handmaids are
kept before they are assigned to the Commanders’ houses.
In the Red Center, she and other Handmaids-in-training need to stay in an area that had once been a school gymnasium (Bloom, 2004). Offred attempts to record the detail of her surroundings precisely. Offred explains how the women in the gym are lying in the rows with spaces in between so that they cannot speak to each other.
Offred also explains how the Aunts, armed with cattle prods, patrol the area. The word Aunt in the first datum above does not mean the sister of someone’s father or mother, but it describes the calling names of a woman who has duty to take care and to control over the other women especially the Handmaids in the Red Center. Their names are always preceded by the word Aunt, such as Aunt Sarah and Aunt Elizabeth. The name of each Aunt is important to note because different woman has different name and different position in the Red Center, though all of them need to be called as the Aunt. In short, the use of the word Aunt
in the novel represents the calling name of a woman who has a job as the guard. It is different with the calling name that is given to men. On the other hand, the men who also have the same responsibility to take care of the Handmaids in the Red Center are called as the guards without being followed by their real names. No matter what their names are, they are just called as the guards. Women cannot become the guards. The guards are only the job for men.
From the sentence, “Guns were for the guards” taken from the same datum of
have the ability of controlling the other women especially the Handmaids do not have regulation to use guns. Only men, the guards, can get the permission to handle guns. Only men can hold the guns.
The second datum above describes that in the actual practice even the word choice to the nonhuman objects or usually called as inanimate defines different personalities for men and women. The choices of word in representing color, for example, are also different between the colors that symbolize men and the colors that symbolize women. It clearly shows that gender stereotyping exists in English language especially that is proven by the data taken from the novel.
The different word choice in representing the color can be seen in beginning of the novel. At the beginning of Chapter 2 in the novel, Offred records the detail
room of the Commander’s house where she serves as Handmaid that is closely
different with what she has in the Red Center. She mentions all the ornaments that
are inside the Commander’s house and inside her own room precisely without
implying any specific idea about the color itself. Then, when she wants to go shopping, it is the first time for the reader to know the color of the things inside it.
Offred describes the different colors of the umbrellas that are located at the bottom of the stairs. From her description, it can be noted that the different colors of the umbrellas explicitly refer not only to the different genders, but also to the different social status they have. The black that is assigned to the Commander
novel, the Commander is always a man. Woman cannot become a commander. The blue color that is assigned to the Commander's Wife symbolizes that although she has a power in controlling the things which are related to her family, as a wife she still needs to obey and to respect the Commander as the head of the family. The color of red that is similar to Offred’s name represents her social
status as the lower range than the commander and the commander’s wife. The red
color also defines the color of blood that indirectly defines her function as the
Handmaid in the Commander’s house.
The names of the job that appear in the novel are also described differently according to their own genders and their social status. In the third datum that represents the second characteristic of gender stereotyping, for example, describes about the Martha. Though it has been already described before that the Offred, the
Handmaid in the Commander’s house, has the lower status than the Commander
and his wife, still the Handmaid is in the higher status than the Martha is.
The word Martha as the example of the third datum above is used in the novel when the stories want to describe about the woman servant. Rita and Moira are the examples of the Marthas. The Martha has function to serve everything that the Commander and his family needs, such as making bread.
From the way they dress, it can be considered that the Martha is inferior. They need to dress in green, in the old way. It is stated in the novel that no one will pay attention to the appearance of Martha because of their status as servants. The way they dress is actually almost the same with the Handmaid. The differences are the
The word kitchen in the fourth datum represents gender stereotyping because it collocates with women. It describes women are limited to kitchen works. In the novel, it is written that kitchen is the domain place for the lower-class women, such as Offred, Rita, and Cora. In the novel The Handmaid’s Tale, the word
kitchen represents as the important part where some important things happen especially the things done by women. For example, the kitchen is the only place where Offred can get the tokens, cards to buy egg, bread, chicken, and other daily needs, from Martha. The kitchen also becomes the place where the Marthas do their works such as cooking, baking the bread and making some coffee for the Commander. The Marthas and even Offred herself sometime share their pains, laughs and gossips among them in the kitchen. From these explanations, it can be categorized that women are limited to kitchen works. Based on Laurel Richardson in
The Dynamics of Sex and Gender, he states that kitchen is the character of the small thing that symbolizes the feminine.
In addition, the garden as the fifth datum is also the place where declares the gender stereotyping in the novel. While the kitchen represents as the domain of the lower-class women to do their activities, the garden is described as the domain
of the Commander’s wife. It is the place where only Serena Joy, the Commander’s
wife, can have full authority in her own house.
The garden is the place where indirectly means the position of women should only be; in the back yard. Every woman in the novel, especially the Wives or even Offred in the time before has a garden to take care of.
While the kitchen and the garden comes up as the domain place of women, the
Commander’s office in the sixth datum, on the other hand, presents in the novel as
the domain place of men, especially the Commander. The persons who can arrange that room are only the Commander and the Guardians, Nick, who has the responsibility to clean the room. The Commander’s office is only for men.
Certain place is not accessible for women. Women have no right to come into certain place. In the novel, the Commander’s office is the representation of the certain place where cannot be entered by women. It is stated in the novel that even Serena
Joy who is the Commander’s wife never comes to that room. Offred once comes
to that room but it happens only because the Commander himself asks her to do it though it is actually illegal thing to be done by the Handmaid. It is clearly described that even the place that is concluded as nonhuman object also represents gender stereotyping towards the different characters in the novel.
While the description of Marthas in the novel as stated in the explanation before are the women servants, the words Guardians are usedtocall the men who
work as servants in the Commander’s house; Guardians are the name of menservant.
Guardians’ dress are considered superior than Martha. The way they dress is different
with the Martha. They use the Guardians’ uniforms. They also no need to bake bread, but they need to be ready whenever the Commander ask them. The
important duty of them is keeping the Commander’s expensive car still clean.
