“
PUTIH ABU-ABU
”
THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan
Jessyca Dian Purnama Puteri 112009097
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
SATYA WACANA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY
“
PUTIH ABU-ABU
”
THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan
Jessyca Dian Purnama Puteri 112009097
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
SATYA WACANA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY
“
PUTIH ABU-ABU
”
THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan
Jessyca Dian Purnama Puteri 112009097
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Danielle Donelson-Sims, M.A. Purwanti Kusumaningtyas, M.Hum.
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Women Rivalry: How Women Define Other Women as Enemies Reflected in an Indonesian Telecinema “Putih Abu-abu”
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Made in : Salatiga
Women Rivalry: How Women Define Other Women as Enemies Reflected
in an Indonesian Telecinema “
Putih Abu-abu
”
Jessyca Dian Purnama Puteri
Abstract
Due to the fact that Indonesian telecinema is one of the popular products, so this study was conducted in order to analyze what is actually beyond the episodes of one popular Indonesian telecinema: ―Putih Abu-abu.‖ Conflicts shown in Putih Abu-abu are mostly about how women define other women as their enemies, or women rivalry. Using The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir, and Charlotte Perkins Gilman‘s book, ―Women and Economics‖, this study explores two different motives of women rivalry reflected in this telecinema by analyzing some of the characters‘ conversations and the actions. The findings reveal that the two big motives behind as the base of the women rivalries in this telecinema, are gaining men‘s attention and money matters by protecting their wealth and gaining power from wealth.
Keywords: women rivalry, ideology, motive, telecinema, men, competition, feminism, Marxist Feminist
Introduction
Watching Indonesian telecinema has been a common habit for Indonesian people as almost all TV channels play telecinemas, especially the Indonesian ones, with their complicated and exaggerating conflicts, which successfully provide their audience with escapes that blindfold the spectators‘ eyes from the hidden negative values or ideologies
beneath them.
Due to Indonesian telecinema‘s long existence and its large amounts of audiences, Indonesian telecinema can be mentioned as a popular product. According to Jack Nachbar and Kevin Lause, ―all popular culture instructs and molds audience beliefs to one degree or
what is shown in the popular products may be happening in the society. For instance, the increasing violence in movies reflects an increasingly violent society and may then lead that society to become more accepting of violence—which then leads to more violent movies which then affect the society—and on and on in an endless cycle of reflection and reshaping. Hence, I see the Indonesian telecinema as evidence of what may happen or is happening in the society. Not only as evidence, but the telecinema is also seen as the reflection of how a certain ideology is implemented. As Stuart Hall stated that ideology is used to indicate how some cultural texts and practices present distorted images of reality.
Like watching an aquarium, the water represents the culture, and fish are the humans. Since humans already get used to the water and the aquarium, they feel like there is nothing wrong either with the water or the aquarium. Even they do not even realize the existence of the aquarium, and what ideologies that the water carries on. Therefore, although we may be unable to jump out of the aquarium, the best we can hope for is to notice and see what actually happens in that aquarium, or in other words, to see if the ideology is in place by analyzing, understanding and being aware some theories of the ideology that is carried through culture, in this case through Indonesian telecinema, that we already get used to watch every day.
As a culture product, indonesian telecinemas may carry certain ideology beyond of each conflicts shown in each episodes. Thus, the study is important in order to make my readers more critical by understanding more about the ideology, as revealed in this telecinema. Thus, we, especially women, can be more aware of what really happens in our society, like what Jack Nachbar and Kevin Lause stated, ―we need to understand this culture,
telecinema, can make women not follow or imitate what is shown in this Indonesian telecinema, so the conflicts will not be as often implemented in real life. As quoted from ―Capitalist Patriarchy And The Case For Socialist Feminism‖ book, ―The more we
understand about women's actual conditions, of course, the more we understand the specific ways that women have acted to transform those conditions, and to transform revolutionary movements from within‖ (378).
After watching several Indonesian telecinema, such as Tersanjung, Anugerah, Cinta Fitri, Putri yang Tertukar, Candy, Cahaya, Safa dan Marwah, and Putih Abu-abu, I feel that most of them exaggeratingly put women as the centre of the conflicts. Although focusing on women‘s conflicts, Putih Abu-abu has the most unique story due to the girlband concept in its
story as it has been famous and much discussed since that time. Hence, this study will analyze its women‘s conflict, or women rivalry from this Indonesian telecinema, Putih
Abu-abu.
The main character is Nina, who came from Yogyakarta and moved to Jakarta. In her new high school, she met an evil girl, Angel, the granddaughter of the school‘s foundation
owner. Then, she joined a girlband named Blink, but still got some obstacles such as getting bullied from her schoolmates (girls) and even from her family. Seeing Nina and other women as the centre of the conflicts, I decided to analyze the women‘s conflicts, which is the women
rivalries or how women define other women as enemies as reflected in this Indonesian telecinema, Putih Abu-abu.
conversations and the actions. Hence, my research question is: how does women rivalry, or how women do define other women as enemies, reflected in an Indonesian Telecinema ―Putih
Abu-abu?‖
Analyzing the conversations and actions, the study reveals several forms of women rivalry reflected in Putih Abu-abu. They are all showing how two women; Angel and Monika treat other women, Nina, as their enemies by putting her down. However, the analysis shows that all of the ways of how they do the violence or women rivalry against Nina reveals their big motive in their life, which is to get men‘s attention and to get power in the form of materials or money.
Theoretical discussion
―Art does have a quite particular and specific relationship with ideology.‖ (1480).
Art, whether it is visual, audio, or even audio visual are being used as an expressive media to transfer or to be a reflection of problems that may happen in the society. Like Indonesian telecinema, as a performing arts and a popular product, may reflect the writer/ artist or the audience‘s values and belief, or in other words reflect the ideology. Thus, popular
culture theory believes that ideology is a crucial concept in the study of popular culture, because ideology is used to indicate how some cultural texts, such as television fictions, songs, novel, and practices present distorted images of reality or particular image of the world. Although the cultural texts offer ideological significations of the way the world is, whether we realize it or not, ideology can control and determine people‘s minds, beliefs, and
actions.
money reveals as power I will use Simone de Beauvoir‘s theory of The Second Sex and Charlotte Perkins Gilman‘s Women and Economics.
Some theories believe that external factors like patriarchy, culture, and nature are the ones that make or force women to be emotional, desperate, and defined. In other words, the patriarchy, the culture, and nature, as the agents, victimize women in how they behave or and force them to take certain attitudes. However, Simone de Beauvoir is against this idea.
Quoted from ―Simone de Beauvoir‖, as an Existentialist, Beauvoir claimed that
humans are responsible for creating their lives according to their own values—and not by following the ‗herd‘—by reflecting clearly on their situation and relationships and by acting
authentically (14). By this she means that humans are able to define their own identity, freedom, responsibility, and authenticity, as she believes that humans‘ problems come from combination between both their inner (their awareness and consciousness) and outer life (people or society).
Beauvoir also argued that women‘s problem is male-domination in society. She
believes that women are taught to accept the marginalization that can lead to self-alienation and oppression. Thus, Beauvoir, as a feminist and existentialist argued that instead of women accept the traditional expectation, they should find their own path in life, define their own independence, freedom, happiness, and identity. Humans need to be recognized first to reject the alienation or marginalization as Beauvoir argued that human beings need to recognize each other as similarly conscious beings in the world to be sure that they exist (16).
As Nancy Bauer stated in her book Simone De Beauvoir, Philosophy, and Feminism,
―a central achievement of the second sex, is in the ways it forges connections between the
idea of being a woman and the idea of philosophy, ways that bind the over coming of the problem of being a woman with the over coming of a certain conception of the philosophical‖ (1). In other words, Bauer thinks that one of the ideologies of Second Sex is that simply women are defined by men, as they are allowing themselves to be defined by men and allowing their entire identity is shaped by men. Thus, as mentioned earlier, it is important for the fish, or mainly in this case as women, to recognize and be more aware of how they are actually trapped within the aquarium and see the reality that happens in our society by understanding Beauvoir‘s idea.
Women marginalization by men in the form of women rivalry not only shown in performing arts like telecinema, but also in another literature like folktales, which are also analyzed in an article entitled ―Unmasking Women‘s Rivalry in Cameroonian Folktales: How Better To Reinforce This Position Of Servitude Than Create Rivalry Between Women,‖ by Susan Weinger, et al. ―If women turn against each other with distain, they will tend to dislike
themselves - after all they are a part of the devalued group. An increase in self-depreciation is helpful for adjusting to a position of subservience. Their suspicion and alienation from each other will preclude close communication, intimacy and solidarity. Their trumped up or fueled conflict and mistrust of each other will deter them from targeting their true oppressor, patriarchy‖ (19). In other words, patriarchy can influence how women shape their identity
Although the second sex more focus on women‘s ideology, Gayle Rubin believes that
the ideology does not come from their gender, but through their social life as quoted from ―Thinking Sex: Notes for a Radical Theory of the Politics of Sexuality‖, Michel Foucault
stated in The History of Sexuality (1978) that desires are not pre-existing biological entities, but rather that they are constituted in the course of historically specific social practices (276). By this it can be said that humans are taught not by their gender, but their social practices in real life. Thus, the ideology can be analyzed from how humans interact and define other people through their words and actions.
As quoted from book The Norton Anthology Theory and Criticism, a heart smitten with love thus avoids many disappointments; if the loved one's behavior is capricious, her remarks stupid, then the mystery serves to excuse it all (1409). And even if it is not love, women may want to think or fool themselves into believing it is love. In reaching toward the romantic relationship, women could do anything, even the mean things. One of the forms of those mean things is by defining other women as enemy in the process of getting the men‘s
heart, or love, or even just getting attention or affection. As Beauvoir points out, reaching toward men‘s heart, love, attention, or affection is what becomes a primary reason for women
rivalry.
Women rivalry or female competition is competition between at least two women for reaching some motives, for example, to get a partner. However, the rivalry or the competition can be either visible or hidden. As quoted from a journal titled ―Attractiveness and Rivalry in
compete with other women, often times come from the desire to get the romantic partner. Even more, this quote also tells that women rivalry can even come between friends.
Not only the desire to get the romantic partner, women have another desire also in their life as Charlotte Perkins Gilman, a Marxist Feminist, points out in her book Women and Economics, ―But, beyond these forces, we come under the effect of a third set of conditions peculiar to our human status; namely, social conditions‖ (2). In other words, the motive of
how women behave and shape their identity is not only influenced of men, but also in maintaining their social condition, either status or money and materials.
As women do everything to be acknowledgement by men and to meet men‘s
standards, women rivalry maintained to divide women or avoid them from unity. Thus, they will remain the second in the society. As Sara Carpenter stated in her journal titled ―Centering Marxist-Feminist Theory in Adult Learning‖, Marxist-feminist argument is that
social reality is not a structure or system but is human activity and forms of consciousness, intricate forms of human social relation. From this perspective, the social formations of race, gender, and class are dialectically related social phenomena and cannot be disarticulated from one another but rather continually shape and infiuence how our behavior and consciousness of each develops and changes (21). These theorists believe that not only the economic condition, but also the social condition, such as sexism or gender discrimination as well as race also play a role in marginalization.
According to Charlotte Perkins Gilman also wrote ―The comfort, the luxury, the
powerless or being marginalized. However, when women are being independent, they will seek money as their power and security in order to avoid being as poor and exploited, or double marginalization. As quoted from Feminist Thought: A More Comprehensive Introduction Third Edition by Rosemary Tong, ―in a capitalist system, money is most often power‖ (107).
In this study, I will explore the women rivalry, or in other words, how women do evil things to feel secure and complete in the form of men‘s attention and power in the form of
wealth, as shown in the Indonesian telecinema, Putih Abu-abu. How women do the mean things is a reflection of how they define themselves. And how they treat other women as their enemies also shows how women define other women as well. Overall, the motives behind the women rivalry are explored as well.
Summary
Surely has several conflicts in it, Putih Abu-abu mostly tells about the main character named Nina, an orphan girl who moved to Jakarta to continue her study. Although her mother expected her to stay with Taufik (her parents‘ best friend) and be a successful woman in
Jakarta, Nina could not avoid the great obstacles surrounding her in her way of studying in the metropolitan city.
Not only oppressed at home by Monika, Nina also got the oppression at the school by Angel, the granddaughter of the school owner, and Angel‘s friends (they called themselves as
Lollipop) at school. Angel was really mad at Nina after she knew that Kelvin, her boyfriend, who was also a son of Taufik and Monika, was close to Nina. She really wanted to put Nina down by doing some violence to her, including made Nina as her maid. However, fortunately, Kelvin always tried to protect Nina from Angel‘s bullying and this made Angel frustrated and
it increased her bullying to Nina.
Discussion
WOMEN AS ENEMIES
Beauvoir believes that women have been educated to be good girls and that they need attention and security from men. She critiques how women have come to believe and to accept that they need attention and security from men. Like Beauvoir stated, ―it has been
often asserted that if she resigns herself to such submission, it means that she is inferior to boys materially and morally and is incapable of rivalry with them: abandoning a hopeless contest, she leaves to a member of the superior caste the task of assuring her happiness.‖
(328). Therefore, as women believe that men are the source of their happiness, they will pursue and find ways to get them, like common people try to pursue their dreams.
Like Beauvoir‘s statement, since women believe that they define themselves by men
Episode 6 tells that Nina went out of Taufiq and Monika‘s house until suddenly she fell off one tree and got severe wounds and fainted. Luckily, she was helped by Kelvin and taken to the hospital by Andre too. Knowing that Kelvin was there for Nina, Angel directly headed to the hospital. By Angel directly headed to the hospital after she phoned Kelvin she revealed that the reason why she came to the hospital was Kelvin, instead of Nina. In other words, this reason clearly shows her motive to get Kelvin‘s attention.
Then, while Nina had fainted, Angel prayed:
“Yah, ini saat yang tepat buat gue berdoa, kiranya nyawa Nina dilepaskan dari derita
secepatnya hahahaha dan segera berpulang deh. Amin.”
(Well, this is a perfect time for me to pray, may Nina‟s soul is released from her suffering and
that she will pass away soon. Amen.)
By this statement obviously Angel wanted Nina to disappear because she found out that Kelvin was approaching Nina, and that made her jealous and thought of Nina as her enemy or rival in getting Kelvin. However, praying that their rivals disappear also happened in this same episode, Monika, the older woman, also prayed that Nina could die. When she heard that Nina got in an accident, Monika spoke in her mind:
“Mudah-mudahan dia mati aja sekalian.”
(Hopefully, she will die.)
This first scene shows Angel and Monika‘s basic motive toward Nina which is to
want their rival, which is another woman, down, in order to achieve their motive, by praying for her death.
Planning to drive out the rivals, even want them to die actually shows how strong the ideology is in their life—ideology that they have been taught that women are afraid of losing men‘s attention as Beauvoir‘s belief. The ideology is so strong that, according to these
women rivalries, it is okay to wish other women‘s death, which is extremely evil. Or in other
words, here death of a rival is preferable to losing men‘s attention to another woman.
Later in the episode 13, Angel, supported by the cooperation between her mother and Monika, successfully made Nina work as her maid for one day. That episode showed that Nina was forced to serve Angel like a princess—shown when Angel asked Nina to cut the grass by using a small scissor. Then, Angel was intentionally making her room extremely messed up, then asked Nina to clean it up.
In this episode, making Nina as her maid, and feeling like a princess that could do everything clearly shows another strategies in order to ―win the competition‖ by degrading or doing the oppression to put the rivals or enemies down. This kind of bullying was done by Angel, but another bully was done as well by Monika shown in the episode 2.
After Taufiq bought Nina some beautiful clothes, Monika got angry when they arrived at home. Feeling full of anger, Monika quickly grabbed Nina‘s shopping bags and
took all of the clothes out. What made this worse, all of Nina‘s new clothes were torn down by Monika while saying:
“Bagus banget ya bajunya, tapi ini terlalu mahal buat kamu.”
(What beautiful dresses! But, they are too precious for you.)
“Papi aja nggak pernah belanjain buat mami, Kelvin, sama Viola.”
(Even Papi has never shopped for Mami, Kelvin and Viola (their children)
(This is too beautiful for you.)
It clearly shows that Monika bullied Nina mentally by tearing Nina‘s new clothes and made her cry. When Monika mentioned that she and her children had never been bought any beautiful clothes like her husband did to Nina, also shows that she was envious with her husband‘s kind treatment to Nina. Again, bullying mentally by making someone else cry is
another strategy or form of treatment from one woman to someone that they think is their enemy.
Overall, from those episodes that show praying for Nina‘s death, making Nina as a
maid, and tearing Nina‘s new clothes, or in other words, how Angel and Monika treated Nina
as their enemy, actually comes from jealousy and perhaps feeling threatened. Angel was jealous because Kelvin started to pay attention and even cared about Nina. And Monika was upset because her husband bought some beautiful clothes for Nina instead of her.
The condition where women could be jealous with other women is supported by Simone de Beauvoir stated in her book, ―The Second Sex‖, friends envy and admire the one
who gets the most masculine attention (327). This jealousy feeling brings up what is called as women rivalry. In women rivalry, since women are feeling jealous and envy, they would do anything to reach their motive and win the competition, even do cruel and mean things, such as treat others as the rival, just like Angel and Monika did to Nina. Simply, they do not do the rivalry with the men, but women, because of men.
GAINING MEN‘S ATTENTION
As mentioned earlier, how women are treating other women as enemies, or being violent to other women because of men simply reveals the motive of the first women rivalry that they want to get the man‘s attention and heart. This rivalry consists of two big examples;
women define themselves and that they believe that men can make their life better, happier, and complete.
Episode 7 tells that during the school break, Angel came to Blink (Nina and her clique)‘s table. Angel was famous with her evilness; however in front of Kelvin, she said:
“Tenang-tenang, gue kesini cuman mau ngecek kondisi kakinya Nina kok. Gimana Nin?
Kakinya udah enakan? Kalo masih sakit, biar gue beliin obat kayak tadi malem.”
(Calm down, I am just here to see Nina‟s foot condition. How is it, Nin? Is it getting better? If
it is not, let me buy you the medicine like I did last night.)
Although she was famous with her evilness, but surprisingly Angel gave a caring statement like above in public to her rival, Nina. As the audiences, we know that Angel really hates Nina, so this scene shows that this Angel‘s statement was not genuine. This hypocritical and insincere statement very clearly shows that she wanted to get attention from Kelvin as a good girl, by caring about Nina‘s sickness. Later on, still in the same scene, although Angel‘s
uniform was spoiled by Nina, as she realized that Kelvin was seeing her, Angel did not get angry at Nina, until Kelvin said:
“Angel, kamu bener-bener udah berubah ya. Aku kagum sama kamu.”
(Angel, you have totally changed. I am amazed.)
Hearing how Kelvin admired her attitude, Angel was really happy. Then she answered: “It‟s because I love you, Beib.”
Although Angel said this, not so long after that, she had a conversation in her mind that the audience could hear:
“Kurang ajar! Sabar, Njel. Tunggu saatnya lo ngebales orang-orang kampung itu sepuluh
kali lipat.”
(Dammit! Calm down, Angel. Just wait so you can have another time to take revenge on those
Using Nina‘s sickness, Angel showed good gratitude to Nina in front of Kelvin. However, we can see that Angel‘s caring toward Nina was not genuine because she had
terrible but hidden plan to get rid of Nina in her mind. This action clearly shows that what she actually wanted was only to get Kelvin‘s attention, in order to make him think that she was a
kind girl. This is proven when Kelvin complimented Angel, she spontaneously said her actions were because she loved him, as an evidence that Angel wanted his approval for her love, his love, and attention from men, in this case Kelvin.
As quoted in The Norton Anthology Theory and Criticism, ―Like all the oppressed, woman deliberately dissembles her objective actuality; the slave. the servant, the indigent, all who depend upon the caprices of a master, have learned to turn toward him a changeless smile or an enigmatic impassivity; their real sentiments, their actual behavior, are carefully hidden. And moreover woman is taught from adolescence to lie to men. to scheme, to be wily. In speaking to them she wears an artificial expression on her face; she is cautious. hypocritical, play-acting‖ (1409).
Or in other words, women are taught to act silly or scheming in front of guys. As Angel did, instead of changing into a good girl, she acted as a good actress in performing in front of Kelvin and some girls that she herself hated, only for gaining Kelvin‘s attention.
Another scene shows how Angel wanted to get Kelvin‘s attention is shown in the episode 13. It was told that Kelvin changed his Facebook status into single and Angel got frustrated with that. Without attention from anybody, she messed up her rooms and got wildly angry, by screaming like an insane person while throwing all of her things in her room anywhere. Then, by phone, Angel threatened Kelvin to come at her house or she would kill herself.
fulfilled as her life would be complete by Kelvin, by having a romantic relationship with him, just as same as the idea of Beavouir‘s through her book, The Second Sex. ―But the girl, … has looked to the male for fulfillment and escape.‖ (327). The example that Angel got frustrated
and threatened Kelvin that she would kill herself if he did not come to her house was very clear showing how Angel was insecure without Kelvin and wanted Kelvin to be in her life. MONEY MATTERS
Not only men, money appeared as a big matter and motive in the women rivalry shown in this telecinema as well as shown in between two women rivalries, in the quarrel between Monika and her husband, Taufiq, and in the arisan that Monika joined.
Kelvin‘s mother named Monika, a wife from Taufiq, who was Nina‘s parents‘ best
friend, had been living a glamorous life since her husband was a successful and rich business man. However, Nina‘s existence in their house made Monika feel threatened.
In episode 6, when Nina finally arrived home from the hospital, Monika gave her a hateful expression. Then, she asked her husband to go to their room to have a private conversation.
Monika: “Kenapa Papi terus mempertahankan Nina berada di dalam rumah ini? Jangan ada
bohong, Pi.”
“Why do you keep allowing Nina to stay inside our house. Do not lie, Pi.”
Taufiq : “sekali lagi Papi jelasin ke Mami ya. Nina adalah bagian dari keluarga kita. Titik.”
(“I tell you once again, Mi. Nina is a part of our family. That‟s it.”)
Monika: “Pi, yang memberi modal Papi itu adalah Arman. Dan sekarang Arman sudah mati.
Apa papi yakin papi tidak akan memberikan warisan kepada Nina? Bagaimana cara papi
untuk meyakinkan mami?”
(“Pi, the one who gave you financier is Arman. And now, Arman is already dead. Are you
Taufiq : “Mi, papi bilang sama mami, sekali lagi ya, Mi! urusan bisnis, urusan papi!”
(“Mi, I tell you once again! Business matters are mine.”)
Monika: “Ooh, jadi gitu? Mami diam aja sementara mami tahu kalau warisan buat
anak-anak mami terbagi ke orang lain, begitu?”
(“Oh is that so? Mami has to be quiet while knowing that the heritage for my children will
be divided to someone else. Is that what you mean?”)
Taufiq : (geleng-geleng kepala) “liat sendiri „kan? Selalu aja, ujung-ujungnya bicarain
warisan kalau bicarain bisnis sama mami. Percuma, mi.” (pergi meninggalkan kamar).
((shaking his head) “See? You will discuss heritage when we talk about business. As always.
It is useless, mi.” (left their room))
By this conversation shows that actually Taufiq saw Nina as her family, while Monika saw her as her enemy shown by the line: “sekali lagi Papi jelasin ke Mami ya. Nina adalah bagian dari keluarga kita. Titik.” (“I tell you once again, Mi. Nina is a part of our family.
That‟s it.”).This made Monika angrier and she really wanted to drive Nina away from her.
Another thing shown by this scene is that Taufiq realized that Monika was a lot more focused on money and on protecting wealth (inheritance) than her own husband was, even though she did not work outside the home in the business. And this shows the idea of how women seek money and status to gain power in order to avoid the marginalization.
Not only that, the bold lines of Monika, “Ooh, jadi gitu? Mami diam aja sementara mami tahu kalau warisan buat anak-anak mami terbagi ke orang lain, begitu?” (“Oh is
that so? Mami has to be quiet while knowing that the heritage for my children will be divided to someone else. Is that what you mean?”), clearly show that Monika obviously
treated Nina as her rival, because she was afraid that Nina would get the wealth, not her and her children. She was feeling jealous, not because Nina stole her husband‘s heart, because
money was her happiness in her life as her power. In other words, she felt insecure as well. Here shows that both of Monika and Nina were marginalized. Having no home and money made Nina powerless, and then she got oppressed by Monika. Monika was marginalized because of her desire to get money, but she competed for money to fight against further double marginalization.
According to Feminist Thought: A More Comprehensive Introduction Third Edition, Rosemary Tong stated that in a capitalist system, money is most often power (107). Women, poor people, and black people are the ones who are most usually marginalized. Women have been marginalized as they are women. Thus, the only way to get power is by seeking money in order to be rich, because being poor can mean marginalization as Marxist Feminist‘s idea. In other words, women seek money because they are afraid they lose power in society. Monika here represents an example that she wanted money to be richer, and to feel more secure and powerful, in order to not be marginalized or further marginalized in the society.
The idea of marginalization is explained by Rosemarie Putnam Tong in her book
Feminist Thought: A More Comprehensive Introduction, ―as a result of invidious class distinctions, as well as the highly specialized and highly segmented nature of the work process, human existence loses its unity and wholeness in four basic ways. One of the ways is workers are alienated from other human beings because the structure of the capitalist economy encourages and even forces workers to see each other as competitors for jobs and promotions‖ (101).
between Monika and Nina, Monika feared losing power, because of the possibility of Nina that she would get money.
Tong also stated that Evelyn Reed, the writer of ―Women: Caste, Class, or Oppressed Sex?‖ did not think that all women were equally oppressed by men or that no women were
guilty of oppressing other women. On the contrary, she thought bourgeoisie women were capable of oppressing both proletarian men and women (107). Monika, as the Bourgeoisie women, liked to oppress Nina, the proletarian girl. Monika was the Bourgeoisie woman, because her husband was the one who had much wealth, and she could enjoy that. As Charlotte Perkins Gilman stated in her book ―Women and Economics‖, ―The women whose
splendid extravagance dazzles the world, whose economic goods are the greatest, are often neither houseworkers nor mothers, but simply the women who hold most power over the men who have the most money‖ (21). Nina, as the proletarian girl, did not have as much as Monika had. She was only a poor girl who was left by her parents, but their appearance showed their wealth or economic condition. Monika tended to wear fancy clothes with many shining jewelry, whereas Nina only wore simple and classic clothes. It can be said that being powerful because she had money from her husband, Monika powerfully oppressed Nina.
Another of Monika‘s motives toward money or her power matter shows up in the
episode 8. When Monika had an arisan with her friends, her friends were really interested in her necklace. They bet that that beautiful necklace was really expensive. And suddenly, one of Monika‘s friends, who was the owner of a social magazine, questioned the necklace. At
Based on this example, Monika‘s friends implicitly treated Monika as their rival related to what Monika wears, or Monika‘s wealth. Noticing that Monika‘s necklace was fake
is the form of putting Monika down by revealing that actually Monika lacked wealth. Instead of paying attention to other women‘s skills, women tend to look at other women based on
their appearances. What women are wearing, such as fancy clothes and jewelry, or even how they put make up on their face shows how much money they have.
This example—how Monika‘s friends put her down during the arisan—does reflect both how women seek money as their power, and women rivalry. As Alison Jaggar‘s
statement, as quoted in Rosemarie Putnam Tong‘s book Feminist Thought: A More
Comprehensive Introduction, ―Women may insist that they diet, exercise, and dress only to please themselves, but in reality they most likely shape and adorn their flesh primarily for the pleasure of men (113). Not only for power, but having money can buy fancy clothes, beautiful jewelry, or in other words, and can help increase the appearance of women. So, the better their appearance, the more attention they will attract or gain from men. Women believe that men‘s priorities are usually women with attractive physical or men also are tempted by
power and security of money. Since men are attracted by physical appearance, women would pay attention to other women‘s appearance as they define other women as their rival in order
to get men‘s attention.
Overall, we can see that how these women characters‘ actions and statements in this
telecinema are due to their motives which focus on men. Doing everything, started from putting other women down, acting as kind women to gain men‘s attention, seeking money as
power only for men does reflect how women define themselves by men and want completion, security, and confidence from men. Women will do anything to get men‘s attention, approval, and love, Simone de Beauvoir‘s idea of the second sex.
According to several episodes analyzed from this telecinema, Putih Abu-abu does reflect how women can define and treat other women as their enemies, or as women rivalry. Treating other women as rivals is firstly reflected between Angel and Nina. Angel did such cruel ways to drive Nina down, such as by making Nina as her maid. Secondly, as reflected between Monika and Nina, Monika tore all of Nina‘s new clothes in front of her. Moreover, the most extreme women rivalry happened between Angel, Monika, and Nina was that both of Angel and Monika wished for Nina‘s death.
However, through the actions and the words from some of characters in this telecinema, it was found that there are two big motives beyond those women rivalries: to gain men‘s attention and to get power through money. The first big motive, to gain men‘s
attention is mostly represented between Angel and Nina. To get Kelvin‘s approval, Angel made use of Nina‘s sickness as her media to show her good attitude in front of Kelvin,
although that attitude was not genuine because she had a bad plan in her mind. Even more, Angel threatened Kelvin that she could do suicide.
The next big motive of money as power is represented by two examples. The first is shown from Monika‘s private conversation with her husband, and the second is between
Monika and her friends. Being afraid that Nina would take the inheritance of her husband‘s wealth, Monika stated it directly in front of her husband. The next was Monika‘s friends tried
to put Monika down by making her embarrassed in front of their friends.
Analyzed by The Second Sex and Gilman‘s Women and Economics, it turns out that those two big motives, gaining men‘s attention and seeking money as power actually show
who women seek to complete their lives. The next motive of money as power actually represents how women avoid the double marginalization in society. As Marxist Feminist idea, women have been already marginalized. And if they are poor and have less money, then they will be double marginalized.
Overall, all of Angel, Monika, and Monika‘s friends‘ actions and words, or the women rivalries in this telecinema are actually driven by ideology. The ideology of the second sex and Marxist Feminist are the driving force of the characters to do the actions and end up with the result in the form of the women rivalry. According to popular culture theory, popular product may represent what actually happens in society. However, women may not realize the condition how women treat others as enemies and define themselves as the second sex. Popular product can also give effects in society. Thus, by understanding the ideology beyond all of the episodes can make us, as the audiences of telecinema, especially women be more aware, more critical in seeing what actually happens. This popular product can give some effects on society, especially among the relationships between women.
In order to help audiences, especially women, should be more aware and critical in seeing what actually happens in society; this study can be further researched through not only telecinema, but also through Indonesian novels and movies. On the other hand, researching women rivalry in the real society could be another interesting further study as well, as quoted from ―Capitalist Patriarchy And The Case For Socialist Feminism‖ book, ―The more we
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