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A Raw Portrayal of Mother-Daughter Relationship in ‘Ladybird’

Lady Bird tells a story about a seventeen-year-old teenage girl living in Sacramento and faces a struggle in finding her identity. The real given name of the girl is Christine, but she decides to make everybody in her life calls her Lady Bird. The movie originally released in 2017 and has since received many positive comments on how brilliant the story is. There are several important elements which make up the aesthetic values of the movie and are worth exploring, some of them are its take on the mother-daughter relationship and how it is delivered through its visuals which evokes the audience’s memory of the past. Though the chosen theme might seem cliché, the way Lady Bird chose to deliver it was part of the reason it got nominated in the 90th Academy Award. Thus, this essay aims to first explain about the movie director along with the process of the movie production, then to present its two main aesthetic values: the visual effect of memory together with the portrayal of the mother-daughter relationship, and the last is to discuss the effect it has on most of its audience.     

Greta Gerwig, the first woman to be nominated in the category of Best Director in 2018’s Academy Awards after eight years, has long been involved in many movie productions. Her works range from Frances Ha, Mistress America, 20th Century Women, to her current hit movie adaptation of Little Women, to name a few. Those mentioned movies were what mostly made up the hallmark of her career which at the same time contributed to boosting her confidence to not only involve as an actress or a screenwriter but starting to direct her own movie as well. That desire didn’t just come as a random overnight thought, it had always been a part of her goals in developing her skill. In total, Gerwig has been creating within the movie industry for 10 years long, starting from her mainstream debut of a movie entitled Greenberg. Only in a span of 7 years, she was able to make her directorial debut in the making of Lady Bird, in which the script and the main ideas were originally hers. Although it didn’t take her many years to achieve her dream like most of the experienced directors, Lady Bird has proved to be an impactful coming-of-age story garnering positive criticisms ever since its release.   

Gerwig’s idea of ‘Lady Bird’ started as 350 pages long of movie script which took her years to write and managed to finish at the end of 2015. To fit the core of the story she wanted to tell, she cut out many bits from her original script. The idea of the story itself originally came from her careful observation of how many movies she saw rarely captures how complicated and yet feels strongly important the complicated relationship between a mother and a daughter is. In organizing the whole idea of the story, she drew many experiences from her teenage years living as a confused young girl in Sacramento, California who went to an all-girls Catholic school. The background of Greta’s life as a teenager was picked as a fit for the protagonist she created: Christine (Lady Bird). This is why the movie is deeply rooted in the cultures of Sacramento and the rituals of a Catholic school which both served as vital elements of Lady Bird’s life turbulence as a seventeen-year-old girl. Through the making of the movie, Gerwig faced many challenges such as a limited budget to continue the production, but through the help of friends, she is able to pass through it. The idea of representing the mother-daughter relationship and the way it is delivered through simplistic visual film techniques resulted in worthy aesthetic values to ponder upon.     

The one thing that makes Lady Bird’s visual images different from most of the major motion pictures is its approach in portraying the story through the implementation of “memory concept”, drawing an inner nostalgic nuance of the audience compellingly. As Gerwig said in Vanity Fair , she wanted the movie to look like a memory since it’s set in the early 2000s so she attempted to focus on bringing out essential vintage elements through the visual effects. However, she wanted it to be as unique as possible in a way that she wouldn’t just throw any pre-packaged film grains to aim the goal like most of the films in the industry. To achieve that, she attempted to create her own desired visuals by reproducing a collection of photos taken in the 2000s by a photographer named Lise Sarfati along with adding more inspiration from Gerwig’s high school yearbook photo in the early 2000s. From days of trying to copy the colors from the photos, she managed to discover the exact visual she had in mind, she described the result as resembling 2003. She further emphasized the setting by paying attention to details, adding an in-depth element closely related to the year such as the angsty pop hits of Justin Timberlake’s Cry Me a River, Alanis Morisette, Dave Matthews Band, and the list goes on. The major pop culture references help the adult audience to relate more to the concept of memory the movie tries to deliver. For its representation of memory, the audience is expected to bring their own past experience from their adolescence period similar to that of Lady Bird’s to grasp any meaning from it, or else the story would appear bland and inauthentic. Additionally, the movie includes a lot of quick cuts editing techniques to thrive on the notion that there are some crucial moments in life which end as soon as it starts and enable the readers to evoke their memories through someone else’s past that isn’t theirs. Through Gerwig’s effort of recreating memory, the movie successfully enhanced the audience’s emotions of the story. 

At a glance, the movie might look like an average coming-of-age story of teenagers struggling to seek their identities, but in Lady Bird, a true portrayal of a complex mother and daughter relationship is presented as the gripping theme for the audience. The movie is filled with intense scenes of fights as well as endless arguments between the protagonist and her mother with the use of realistic dialogues amplifying a closeness to reality. As opposed to telling a story of a loving, warmth, understanding, and affectionate relationship on mother-daughter, Gerwig chose to epitomize the relationship as to how a real mother-daughter relationship looks like in most people. The realness of it is also emphasized by the involvement of meaningless arguments from choosing a suitable prom dress for Lady Bird to more complex ones like choosing where the best place to pursue a college education is. Thus, women audiences may feel more drawn to the story and also men whose lives involve a sister and a wife may as well be able to acknowledge the genuine portrayal of it. As Gerwig pointed out in her NPR’s interview that she specifically wanted to tell a story of the relationship with an equal of both love and angst . With its deep-dived exploration in the mother-daughter relationship, it leads to creating a powerful message well-received in the hearts of the audience.

The effect the movie has on the audience’s heart has been a bunch of heartfelt commentaries on how they reflect upon their teenage self in terms of defining what love means after seeing the movie for the first time. The audience is most drawn to the fact of how authentic the dialogues are, especially the conversations between Lady Bird and her mother. The movie manages to show that the love of a mother doesn’t always necessarily come in a form of supportive pieces of advice, constant blunt of affection, or a pat on the back, but it goes way beyond that. The mother’s love which shown in the movie is transferred through her attention to Lady Bird, such as her concern for her daughter to pick the right college to go to. That kind of attention might appear overbearing, burdensome, and judgemental, but that is exactly how the mother unconsciously chooses to express her love to her daughter. This is what deeply carved an impactful outlook on what love means for most of its audiences. It makes them redefine the kind of complex love their mothers expressed which at first they would reluctantly call it as love during their teenage years. Most of the movie’s fans admit calling their mothers immediately as soon as the movie ended just for the sake of apologizing for their angsty unacceptable behavior as a teenager that shows how meaningful the message of the story is.

In general, the movie successfully brings out the aesthetic values through the creation of memory and its theme of the relationship between and mother in a unique way. It manages to encapsulate the details of the early 2000s which makes adult audiences relate to it even more. Furthermore, the simplicity of visual techniques has also turned out to be a part of the element of perfection in the movie. Observing the movie through its making process and aesthetical values makes it feel like one of important coming-of-age movies to watch.

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Redefining The Meaning of Ramadan During an Outbreak of Coronavirus

When President Joko Widodo announced on 24th April that Indonesian Muslims should keep maintaining physical ditancing and staying at home during the month of Ramadhan, it’s clearly going to affect Ramadhan as well as changing how muslims define the holy month. Muslims has been tied to the customs of attending Iftar and communal prayers during the month. But without the social responsibility, it should have been easier for me as a Muslim to enhance and observe the meaning of Ramadhan, especially since I’m able to self-reflect, made the holiest month even more enriching for me.

Ramadan during the pandemic equals to not have the usual communal gathering in mosques, whether to have Iftar with family and friends, pray nightly taraweeh, to celebrating Eid as the mark of the ending for the holy month is too come with restrictions. Ramadan entails fasting daily from food, water, and marital relations from dawn to dusk which takes up approximately 13 hours for 29-30 days. In a country largely populated with Muslims, Indonesia’s cultural traditions have characterized the time as the month of socializing and dinner parties. As opposed to that, the main tenets of Islam emphasizes Ramadan as a month to increase persistence in faith and self-mastery to a level of extreme.

 If there is one good thing the pandemic teaches us is that hygiene matters more than ever. For muslims, hygiene has been a part of practicing the religion on daily basis. As Prophet Muhammad said, “God is pure and loves purity,” which means that cleanliness is really important to maintain and performing “wudu” five times a day that includes washing hands, face, arms and feet, has long become the habit for us.

 A part of the heritage of Islam is persistence when it comes to performing daily prayers. However, throughout generations, the very essence of Ramadan has slowly been fading away. It leaves muslims struggle in seeking for a profound connection to the sense of self and to the creator. Unfortunately, the lifestyle of today has subconsciously make Muslims frequently put aside their own needs, such as mental, physical, and spiritual needs, after the needs of others. During this pandemic, where we’re forced to stay at home and confronted with the same thing over and over again, it might make us try to redefine the struggle. It could simply be a matter of perspective to view this month as a reflective time, paying full attention to the state of being.

Instead of making ourselves busy with preparing food and arrange a so-called fancy and quality iftar with friends and colleagues, the focus of Ramadan should be about self-discipline and improving ourselves. During iftar, people tend to eat a large portion of food because of the abundance of food that’s available which oftentimes caused them to overeat. However, without having to attend the social obligations of hosting or attending iftars, food can be served in a proper portion, emphasizing the principle of Islam to eat sufficiently.

Islam teaches the importance of eating and drinking a little that we are adviced to allocate food to one third of the stomach, one third to water, and the last third for air. The act of wasting food and overeating are highly dissapproved. Moreover, the food that is being consumed must be “tayyib” and “halal”. Tayyib means that the food we’re eating must be clean and good for you. With Ramadan, it seems to fit the time to sort out the food we’re eating by making sure to stuff ourselves with healthy fresh food in smaller proportions.        

The month of Ramadan also identical as the month of the Qur’an since it is the month when the Qur’an was revealed for the first time. For that reason, Muslims maximize their spending on time to reconnect with the Qur’an through doing as many recitations as one possibly can, even better to have finished reading the entire Quran. Going to the mosque for taraweeh prayer can be another way we can reflect by listening to the Imam reciting the entire Quran in the prayers over the month.        

Ramadan during this time of physical distancing will be forcing Muslims to rekindle their spiritual relationship with God as well as Qur’an in a level more intense than usual. As it is also how Prophet Muhammad used to spend his time in Ramadan. He would spent time alone at a cave located in a top of mountain for 10 days only to reflect, introspect, worship and connect with God. It was always done during the last 10 days of Ramadan, the spiritual self-isolation is known to Muslims as “itikaf”. 

The spirit of Ramadan, especially during this time lies on self improvement, self-discovery, self-discipline, and introspection. Even though the sense of community has taken away from us due to the pandemic that it impacts this crucial time so strongly, this in turn can be an ideal time to redefine what Ramadan means for Muslims.

 Instead of regretting the spirit of Ramadan that’s different than usual, you should make the best out of this month by focusing on having a deep connection. Seek for an intimate connection with God through the act of going good deeds, prayer, and reflection. I encourage every Muslims to turn this month into a journey of self-reflection and perfecting one’s faith.

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John Meeter’s Take on ‘Malam Takbiran’ in Indonesia Based on His Poem Entitled “Takbiran”

imagesource: https://megapolitan.kompas.com/read/2020/05/14/15384431/warga-dilarang-malam-takbiran-keliling-saat-psbb

“Takbiran'' by John Meeter is originally published in 2007 in his poetry collection book entitled Elsewhere. Meeter is a South African-born Australian poet who likes to travel and Indonesia was one of the countries he has ever been to. The poem particularly focuses on how the persona within the poem  is experiencing ‘takbiran’ which is part of Islam’s celebration at the night before Eid al-Fitri. The author paints quite a clear picture by giving descriptive details on what’s happening at that night through his perspective and how it all feels very new to him. To give a more thorough understanding of what is being described in the poem, analyzing the stylistic devices is one of the ways to do it. The most prominent stylistic device which is apparent in the poem is semantic deviation through the use of several figurative languages: simile, personification, and imagery. It gives the most contribution in helping readers to imagine the situation of the night of takbiran as experienced by the author. Thus, the purpose of this essay is to analyze how the semantic deviation is used in the context of the poem, specifically through the use of simile, personification, and imagery.

 The first type of semantic deviation found in this poem is simile. The author uses a simile to compare how there are so many loud sounds coming from different places during the night of takbiran. It has become the muslims’s habit to go around with friends and relatives while chanting takbeer on the last night of Ramadan. All the mosques and the radio would be chanting the same thing as well. The author describes the sound by saying, “There is a night when all radios transmit like minarets.” In the line, the author uses simile to compare radios with minarets implying that all the radios at that night are playing the same thing: takbeer. The persona further explains because of how many sounds heard that night, it is hard to distinguish each of them and pinpoint where the sound is exactly coming from. It is seen when the persona says, “with vibrato and reverb is everywhere breeding voices like engineered wheat or a mirage in an Arabian desert.” The use of simile here is by means to compare all the same sounds heard that night to that of finding an engineered wheat or a mirage in an Arabian desert which appears as something unlikely to happen. Mirage is the effect that happens often in the desert where a person 'sees' water in the distance but disappears as he/she approaches it. The purpose of comparing the sounds and mirage is to show that it is hard to figure out where each of the sounds is coming from. This is because of how each of the sounds would echo once it came out, therefore they tend to merge with each other making it harder to differentiate them. The last simile in the poem, the persona uses it to tell how that night all the windows are trembling: “it’s the night when windows tremble like the walls of jericho.” The walls of Jericho mentioned in the line can be found in the Bible which tells a story of walls of Jericho coming tumbling down because of the marches of Isralelites. It is obvious if the sound caused by the fall of the walls creates a deafening noise and it is used to show that the sound is similar to the sounds of muslims celebrating the Eid al-Fitri night the persona hears. The simile used within the poem is the perfect fit to describe how the hustle bustle of muslims’ activities in the last night of Ramadan. As mentioned previously, the similes in the poem are all used to describe how loud the sounds are at the moment and comparing it to things the readers are familiar with, in this case the target audience is western people, thus giving it a much more effective delivery of the intended purpose. As Fromilhague (1995) explains that one of the several functions of similes is that they serve to communicate concisely and efficiently.  

The second type of semantic deviation employed by Meeter is through using personification in several lines. Personification happens when an inanimate object is given a trait which humans only possess. The use of personification in the poem is to show how sacred the last night of Ramadan is to the muslims making them treat the night differently than any other nights of Ramadan. The use of personification is shown when the persona explains the night as put between a fasting day and non-fasting day: “that night is stalked by a fasting moon and its thirsty day.” The moon and the day mentioned are both given a human trait which is the ability to stalk. The one being stalked is the night, meaning that both the “fasting moon” and the “thirsty day” are separated by the night. Additionally, both themselves contained the use of personification. The moon is given the ability to fast like humans in which to tell that it is the last night/day of fasting for the muslims. The same way with the day that is described as being able to feel thirst is merely to show that the day when muslims are able to drink and eat food is nearing very close. The overall message of the line is also to reveal that the night is the marking time between the ending of the fasting month and the beginning of a new Islamic year. Moreover,  personification is used as well to describe the day after the night when muslims are gathered altogether to do Eid prayer in an open space or field. The persona says, “that night is pursued by the single-eyed sun who squints at the field of newspapers where families have knelt.” The sun is said to have one eye which can squint down at people who do the prayer. The line is implying that the people who do the prayer are illuminated by the light of the sun meaning that it’s a very bright day. The use of personification within the poem helps to give life and vividness to  expressions or concepts as readers always look at the world from the perspective of  a  human being, thus it can feel more relatable.

The last semantic deviation employed in the poem is through the use of imagery. Although the term imagery is often mistaken to be similar to that of figurative language because their concepts are seemingly lookalike, there is actually a fine line between both of them. Preminger (1993:530) refers to imagery as images produced in the mind by language, whose words may refer either to experiences which could produce physical perceptions, where the reader actually has those experiences or to the sense impressions themselves. To simplify, imagery is something that appeals to the senses. In Takbiran, imagery specifically used so the readers can also imagine the same atmosphere that the author is trying to describe in the poem. The first imagery found is through the line that says, “the chanting of engines and firecrackers.” The line is trying to portray how the streets are filled with people driving their own vehicles around while shouting takbeer. At the same time, the sounds of firecrackers are heard everywhere making the night feel more lively. This falls under the category of auditory imagery since it appeals to hearing sensory. Another imagery is found when the persona describes that the walls of houses are trembling by saying, “it’s the night when windows tremble.” The trembling walls are caused by the loud sounds of people marching outside celebrating the night. The sounds are so loud that it makes the people who are staying in the house feel like the walls are trembling. This is categorized as tactile imagery since it evokes a mental image in the reader’s mind to be able to feel or touch. The imageries found in the poem basically are aiding the readers to also be able to imagine to be in the exact night as the persona.

The semantic deviation found in the poem is done through utilizing some figurative language which are simile, personification, and imagery. The figurative language in the poem proved to be beneficial to deliver the idea and imagination of the author in an entertaining way. Not only it helps to enrich the meaning but also to give life to the poem. The simile is giving the readers the idea of how boisterous the night of takbiran by giving descriptions of sounds heard in the night. Moreover, the personification is used to describe how vital the night is for the muslims to celebrate since it marks the end of fasting month and the beginning of Islam’s new year. Lastly, the imagery is contributing to the production of mental images in the readers on how the night feels like the way the author experiences it. In conclusion, the figurative languages are certainly giving special effects that enhance the text by making the meanings appear more precise and concrete.

References:

Fromilhague, C. 1995. Les Figures de Style. Paris: Nathan.

Ogunsiji, A. 2000. Introductory Semantics Studies in English Language. Ibadan: Enicrownfit Publisher.

Preminger, Alex & T.V.F. Brogan, eds. 1993. The Princeton Encyclopaedia of Poetry and Lyrics. Oxford Press.

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The Interference of Past Memories in the Lives of Brotherhood inSam Shepard’s ‘True West’

image source: https://www.americantheatre.org/2019/02/20/true-west-sam-shepards-super-smash-brothers/

The prominent element of Sam Shepard’s True West is the conflict between the brothers, Lee and Austin. At the beginning of the play, it’s pretty visible that both of them haven’t been much in each other’s lives, thus the play tells the story of them reuniting in their mother’s house. As the story unfolds, their meeting reveals many things about the past, particularly their memory of it which makes them appear as still strongly tied to it. The past later takes a big influence on how they treat each other and eventually drives each other mad. It is as if what they hold true as a memory of the past becomes an instant impulse to dictate their actions and attitude towards one another. Soon enough, as Bigsby (2000) states that the past turns into a present reality for them, the future looks insignificant compared to it. The purpose of this essay is to further explore how the brothers’ past get in the way of their quarrel as brothers, their childish behavior, and their views towards the absence of parents figure in their lives.

Initially, the brother’s rivalry in the play indicates beyond what seemingly just a mere competition in proving whose life is better than the other. From the beginning of the play, readers are let to know that both of them haven’t seen each other in a long time but all of a sudden meet only to end up being driven over each other’s insanity. The intriguing part of their quarrel over the course of the play is how it is mostly driven by what had happened in the past to which make up how they act towards each other at the present time. Through their recalling of past memories, such as Lee’s several mentions of Austin going to Ivy League, having blondes chasing after him, and the fact that Austin knows their parents better than Lee does, leave the impression that Austin was a well-behaved kid than Lee ever was. The significance of it is simply to show how Lee still cannot get over their past and using it as an excuse to justify his action of putting his brother’s career into jeopardy. To show if he is better from the two, he makes use of their encounter to show dominance, thus owns the higher power over Austin despite whatever life achievements his brother has accomplished. Though they have gone through a lot prior to their meeting and have grown so much ever since, but the play intends to say otherwise by depicting two brothers in the midst of adulthood picking up where they left off. Therefore, what readers come to witness is the leftover of adolescence between the two and how they pick up dynamics from when they were still kids.

Additionally, the fact that the setting of the play is in their mother’s house says more about how they are sheltered in their remaining memories of being children. The endless debate alongside the smashing of things is a clear resemblance of them behaving like a child. With the play ends by the mother coming home to a pile of mess scattered all over is the thing children who left alone at home would typically do. Moreover, their attempt along the play to have power over another, which one of it is symbolized by who gets the car keys, appears to go on an endless route. This is emphasized by Lee’s idea of the story to which when given careful attention turns out to be a close replication of the play itself (Rabillard, 1987). This is evident by Lee’s specific line  when he explains, “the one who is chasin’ doesn’t know where the other one is taking him. And the one who’s being chased doesn’t know where the one is taking him” (Shepard, 1980, 29). The line is pretty illustrative of what’s going on between the brothers who none of them knows exactly of what about to ensue. This is even further stressed by Austin who describes Lee’s story as, “fantasies of a long lost boyhood” (Shepard, 1980, 42) and “grown men acting like little boys” (Shepard, 1980, 37), implying Lee’s touch of immaturity to the nature of the story and also as Lee’s way to compensate of what was lost in his childhood by creating such characters within his story. Another evident also rings true with the mother who still treats her children like little kids in the last scene, specifically when they’re in a combat that looks like an invitation of death to one or both of them but she can only get as far as telling them to have the fight outside implying that she sees it as a harmless fight between two little childen instead of a risky fight of a grown men. Little do they know if the two cowboys in Lee’s story mirror of what is actually happening between the two. Thus, their childhood days are still clung within themselves which is proven by their childish behavior.

Furthermore, the role of parents in this play might at first appear insignificant, however both Austin and Lee are still entangled by the ghost of their parents and inclined to repeat their failures as well. Although their parents are still alive, their existence doesn’t seem in any way  emotionally interferes with theirs. Austin and Lee somehow still take care of them but none of them seem to want to have anything to do with them. By knowing her mother is going on a vacation to Alaska, meanwhile the father is an alcoholic, it is clear enough to get the sense of how emotionally detached they are as a family. Especially Austin who despises his father for the way he’s living the life of constant aimless wandering. Meanwhile, being a student in an Ivy League and a successful screenwriter provide him a freedom to escape the possibility of growing up like his father. However, the arrival of Lee to Austin marks the comeback of his father since the lives of Lee and the father share a lot of similarities. Ironically, Austin eventually ends up to have a desire to also live the kind of life they have by insisting on joining Lee to the desert. This is clearly in contrast with Austin’s contempt towards the father when he says, “I’ve had it with him!” (Shepard, 1980, 42). His contempt particularly correlates with his odd yet specific story of looking for his father’s false teeth at a Chinese restaurant. The reason why the story becomes special to Austin is because it tells the story of his attempt to connect back with him, at least as a way to bond with him. As the false teeth is the thing that metaphorically could mend the image of the father and the family back (Williams, 1997). For  this reason, it could be assumed that Austin already sees his father as a lost cause. Therefore, his retelling of the story to Lee is his way of convincing his brother that there’s no use for both of them to try to get him back.

To conclude, Lee and Austin’s connection with the past is still deeply instilled within each of them in spite of the fact that they haven’t seen each other in a long time. The quarrel happened between them is taken largely by a sizable portion of each other’s achievement in the past which leads Lee to show his superiority over Austin just to show his significance in spite of his lack of achievement compared to Austin’s. Similar to their quarrel, their return to their former house is also indicative of their return to being a child once again simply by acting like one. Furthermore, their past also sharpens their views on the absence of parents figure in their lives which leave them feeling hopeless to long for them. Through their encounter, it  proves that although they have grown into adulthood the way they feel about their past will always be the same since a large part of themselves made out of it. 

References:

Bigsby, Christopher. 2000. Modern American Drama 1945- 1990. Cambridge University Press.

Rabillard, Sheila. 1987. "Sam Shepard: Theatrical Power and American Dreams.". Modern Drama.

Shepard, Sam. 1980. True West. Samuel French, Inc.

Williams, Megan. 1997. “Nowhere Man and the Twentieth-Century Cowboy: Images of Identity and American History in Sam Shepard’s True West.” Modern Drama.

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Double Standards Between Men and Women in Music Industry Reflected in Taylor Swift’s “The Man”: A Feminist Analysis

Taylor Swift has been a major pop singer and gained the label of hollywood star for over a decade. With a total of 23 music awards, it is undeniable of how much recognition she has received from around the world. Her passion for music started early in her teens by simply singing along with her signature music instrumental: acoustic guitar. Since then she has written numerous songs mostly about parts of her life and up until now she still writes her own songs. What makes her music feels special is how they are mostly written based on Swift’s own experiences regarding life. Like many other musicians, her popular hit songs are mostly talking about love which are based on her love life experiences. As a result, everytime she writes a love song, people tend to question the person talked in the song and it is unavoidable for them to not relate it to Swift’s recent significant other at the moment. Therefore, it triggers them in creating assumptions which regularly end up to be rumours spread all over existing media.

Swift’s portrayal of the media frequently narrowed the topic to be about her relationship. They are constantly commenting on her dating habits which they regard as destructive because they judged if the number of people she has dated are not common. As a consequence, people are inclined to misplace the spotlight on her personal life. Given her tremendous fame, it seems impossible for her to separate her personal life and her works. It is unquestionable that this issue disturbs and minimizes the value of her success, she specifically addresses this concern in one of her songs in her recent album entitled “The Man”.

In “The Man”, Swift puts her position as a man and wonders that all of the decisions taken in her life will be taken differently if she were a man. Since she is a musician, she is talking specifically in the scale of music industry. Other than that, it is due to the fact that many artists under the same industry also tried to downgrade her as an artist, making her appear powerless to counteract. The song itself shows that she strongly believes that all the unpleasant treatments she got is because of her gender. The song also implies that there is a significant double standard between men and women in the music industry which is harmful to women’s rights and how it benefits the men. Margaret Eichler, author of The Double Standard: A Feminist Critique of Feminist Social Science, explains that a double standard “implies that two things which are the same are measured by different standards” (Eichler 1980:15). With that being said, here’s an attempt to analyze what are the double standards seen in “The Man”  by Taylor Swift using feminist literary theory.

Feminist Literary Theory

Feminist literary theory is a theory which based on feminist theories. It is widely described as a theory using feminist principles to critique male-dominated literature. The criticism focuses on oppression of women in social, political, economic, and psychological literature. Feminism itself exists in response to women-marginalizing social construction which concerns with women’s efforts to gain gender equality with men (Harjani, 2013:28). Plain and Sellers (2007:2) state that “Feminist literary criticism was keen to uncover its own origins, seeking to establish traditions of women’s writing and early ‘feminist’ thought to counter the unquestioning acceptance of ‘man’ and male genius as the norm”. In other words, feminist criticism seeks to examine male-dominated literary works. Furthermore, feminist criticism also requires detaching the patriarchal notions in literary works. (Selden, Widdowson, and Brooker, 2005:115).

According to Code, nowadays criticism and theory appear simultaneously in feminist anthologies and the feminist literary theory includes both, practical and theoretical, approaches to literature (Code 2000:261). Based on Code’s explanation, the purpose of feminist literature theory is to “analyze the role that literary forms and practices, together with the discources of literary criticism and theory, play in challenging hierarchies of gender, class, race, and secuality.” Based on the explanation, it is approppriate to use feminist literary theory to achieve the research objectives of this research.

 Findings and Discussion

Taylor Swift has been diving in Hollywood music entertainment since around 2006. In 2008, her music career sky-rocketed with a single entitled, “You Belong With Me’”,  a love song that has been well-received by pop music lovers. Her songs are mostly based on her own experiences regarding love, friendship, family, life, and etc, this is why many times they will feel personal to listen to. Since her fame makes her into one of the most looked-up superstar, the media cannot stop invading her personal life, particularly about her love life. Everytime she enters a relationship with someone new, the media would regularly comment something about it. It started early in her career up until recently, she had several ex significant others who were covered by the media. Unfortunately, as the time goes, entertainment medias starting to notoriously view her dating habits as her way to draw inspiration to write love songs. As seen in the first verse of the song, she says:  

“I would be complex, I would be cool They'd say I played the field before I found someone to commit to And that would be okay for me to do”

In the line above, she puts herself as a man and pictures how it would be different if she were a man with the same dating habit as her. As a woman, having a history of multiple exes, makes her being labeled as a “serial dater” by the media. A serial dater is someone who refuses to center on one person in a relationship. Here, Swift implies if she were a man then the dating habit would be deemed by society as something cool and instead turns her into a complex person who rather chooses to be careful in picking someone to date before eventually commiting to one person. In other words, women tend to be stigmatized for having more sexual partners, whereas men would be praised for such behaviour. A 2009 study published in Social Psychology Quarterly found that "greater numbers of sexual partners are positively correlated with boys' peer acceptance, but negatively correlated with girls' peer acceptance" among adolescents (Kreager & Staff, 2009). This proves that as a woman Swift receives a negative stigmatization for having multiple significant others in the course of her life while other male artists under the same industry would be praised for the same attitude. 

The next line she continues to descriptively explain that having multiple significant others as a man would make the person seen as superior. Meanwhile, as a woman, it is considered as unacceptable which often regarded them with labels such as “slut”. Swift herself claimed she was slut-shamed in her early twenties simply by wanting love (Reilley, 2019). She also said  it is what inspires her to make a movement called ‘Me Too’ aiming at observing internalised misogyny still existing in the world.  In “The Man”, she expresses her concern by saying this particular line:

“Every conquest I had made would make me more of a boss to you”

The conquest meant in the line is the number of exes she had throughout the course of her life which then she further convinced if it would have made her appear more of a ‘boss’ if only she were a man. This is due to the fact that the status of men is based on the number of love partners they have had. The higher the number of their exes automatically puts men in a higher status because they are regarded as capable of conquering women’s hearts. On the contrary, this thing works the other way around for women. Eder, Evans, and Parker (1995) found that “boys tend to perceive girls as objects for sexual conquest as they compete with other boys for sexual achievements.”  Thus, making it appropriate for men to fool around with different women. Whilst women are aware of the stereotype surrounding women doing the same thing, therefore they will be prone to be labeled with negative terms if they did the same thing.  Orenstein (1994), Moffat (1989), and Tolman (2002) also suggest that young women’s fears of the “slut” label curbs their sexual expressions, while young men are encouraged to demonstrate their masculinity through sexually permissive behavior. 

Even though Swift’s success as a singer-songwriter has been going on over a decade, there are still plenty of people who are skeptical of her success. It is as if her success was judged differently in the scheme of the music industry. This is mainly because people perceived her fame as a result of her habit in dating multiple men and continuing to write about them in her songs rather than because of her artistic skill and success. In other words, people are likely reducing her successful music career to merely focusing on judging whether she has an issue commiting to a relationship or not. She even went on to say that her success was perceived by many as a trick rather than a skill and a craft (Ali, 2019). She covers this in the song, specifically in this line:

 “They'd say I hustled, put in the work

They wouldn’t shake their heads and question how much of this I deserve”

In this line, she says nobody would take her success, which she has been working hard for, as granted if she were a man. It occasionally happens in the music industry that women are constantly underreprresented, but once a woman takes the position in the top list of musicians, it is inevitable for them to be horribly scrutinized. As a proof, women are less likely to be largely represented in the music industry. In fact, the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism division just released its inaugural report on inclusion in popular music and the results reveal that just like in the film and television industry, there is a strong need for more females in the music industry (Pajer, 2019).  It is very often for a female musician’s accomplishments to be overshadowed by surrounding rumours made about her. Swift can be said to be one of the victims in this case. Thus, she points out in her song that women's success are prone to be questioned in the music industry, meanwhile men do not have to worry about the same thing.

Conclusion

Based on the result of this research, the advantages of the double standard between both genders belong to the males. On the other hand, women are often put in a difficult position because they tend to be harshly criticized by the public with all the decisions they have made. In the song, Taylor Swift effectively expresses her concern as one of the victims of the issue in “The Man”. This research shows that there is a negative stigmatization for women who have more sexual partners, whereas men would be praised for behaving the same way. Women who fool around with men will often be regarded with negative labels, such as ‘slut’,  meanwhile it is an indicator for men’s achievement. Lastly, there is a difference between how the public judge the success of a woman and the success of a man, showing that women’s success are prone to be harshly criticized.

 References:

Ali, R. 2019. 'A Trick Rather Than a Skill': Taylor Swift Says Success Is 

Judged Differently for Women. Retrieved January 5, 2020, from  https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/music/2019/10/30/taylor-swift-her-success-reduced-a-trick-rather-than-skill/4100754002/.

Code, L. ed. 2006. Encyclopedia of Feminist Theories. New York: Routledge.

Delbyck, C. 2016. Taylor Swift Says She Was 'Slaughtered' For Dating Famous Guys. Retrieved January 6, 2020, from https://www.huffpost.com/entry/taylor-swift-vogue-dating-famous-guys_n_570f9baee4b08a2d32b92012.

Eder Donna, Evans Catherine C, Parker Stephen. School Talk: Gender and Adolescent Culture. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press; 1995.

Eichler Margrit. 1980. The Double Standard: A Feminist Critique of Feminist Social Science. New York: St. Martin’s Press.

Harjani, E. T. 2013. The Feminist Voice In Lucille Clifton’S The Thirty Eighth Year, Miss Rosie And Final Note To Clark. Litera, 12(1), 28–28. English Department, LIA Institute of Foreign Languages Yogyakarta.

Kreager, D. A., & Staff, J. 2009. The Sexual Double Standard and Adolescent Peer Acceptance. Social Psychology Quarterly, 72(2), 143–164. doi: 10.1177/019027250907200205

Pajer, N. 2018. New Report Shows Major Lack of Representation by Women in the Music Industry. Retrieved January 5, 2020, from  https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/8096196/new-report-shows-major-lack-representation-women-music-industry.

Plain, Gill, & Susan Sellers. 2007. A History of Feminist Literary Criticism. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press.

Reilly, N. 2019. Taylor Swift Says She Was “Slut-Shamed” in Her Early Twenties. Retrieved January 5, 2020, from https://www.nme.com/news/music/taylor-swift-says-she-was-slut-shamed-in-her-early-twenties-2563524.

Selden, R., Widdowson, P., & Brooker, P. 2005. A Readers Guide to Contemporary Literary Theory. London. Routledge.

Tolman Deborah L. 2002.  Dilemmas of Desire: Teenage Girls Talk About Sexuality. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

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The Effective Operation of Online Motorcycle Taxis

source: https://m.ayobogor.com/read/2020/06/09/7321/ojol-di-bogor-belum-diizinkan-bawa-penumpang-apa-kata-gojek

Public transport has long been fulfilling the needs of many people to be in certain places. Its role has since taken a significant turn now more than ever alongside the ever growing technology. Hesti, a student studying in Yogyakarta, explained that she has been using different kinds of public transportation available in the city, such as Trans Jogja which helps minimize the intensity of traffic with affordable price. Unfortunately, it is to her disappointment that it doesn’t operate effectively given the fact that a number of important areas aren’t yet covered by the bus routes. However, lately she is taking notice of the rapid growing number of online motorcycle taxis or known as Ojek as an alternative transportation in everyday life of many people. She said, “This transportation is actually not new but the way it is represented to be easily accessed provided with different kinds of services is what makes it wholly innovative.” Ojek is not only helping the customers but also gives a major contribution for creating job opportunities. For that matter, she agrees if Ojek should have been legalized as a public transportation.

The distinctive quality of Ojek online is how they treat their customers. The company always tries to put the customers on top of everything. As a consequence, often there is almost no room for the drivers to defend themselves in certain conditions. It frequently becomes a widespread issue where the drivers eventually ended up getting their accounts suspended arbitrarily when some of them fully rely on earning money by being a driver. Hesti explained, “I don’t think the company has given enough warranty for the drivers so that their rights can be completely fulfilled leading to an unfair treatment.” She went on mentioning several cases where the driver is totally taken out of their power doing them a complete disservice. For instance, there are numerous people doing pranks on ojek's driver for the sake of fun which puts the driver totally helpless. As for the price, she thinks that Ojek has done a precise accuracy compared to conventional one in which the price set out without a proper calculation.

Other than its convenience, Ojek frequently gives customers discounts in the form of vouchers. According to Hesti, it’s the most effective way for the company to attract customers and the reason behind its constant high demand among them. While laughing lightly she admits that her dependency on the availability of vouchers is strongly high. “If I checked and there’s not a single voucher that I can make use of, I’d get discouraged and won’t use the app until there’s one available,” she said. But she also explained that the customers shouldn’t always rely on vouchers for the sake of the drive’s well-being. Overall, she praises the effectiveness of Ojek because so far it has been greatly useful since it uses full potential of online maps to quickly track down the position of the customers and they don’t even have to be outside to look for available drivers, the app can do it instantly in a matter of seconds. 

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UNY’s Actions Towards Limiting the Spread of COVID-19 in Indonesia

Following the spread of COVID-19, UNY's Rector, Sutrisna Wibawa, released a circular letter ordering lecturers and students to start the activity of teaching and learning at home. The letter was officially announced on 14 March 2020 via Sutrisna's Instagram post. He hopes all the activities involving a large group of people are postponed starting 16 March to 30 April 2020. This also includes activity from any student organizations of UNY. Sutrisna suggests that the use of an online platform provided such as Be Smart will be a big help during this time. Regarding the announcement, many students are in regret considering the number of social sacrifices they're forced to make.

Before the circular letter announced, the previous circular letter only concerning on what a person should do in terms of maintaining hygiene to anticipate the infection of COVID-19. But now, as BNPB currently announced emergency disaster status for Indonesia, people are told to stay inside and work from home for the time being. The letter says that studies involving practical training locating in a laboratory or workshop, are ordered to replace it with an assignment or to postpone it until June of 2020 with a great deal of attention to precautions against COVID-19. The same thing applies for those who are required to study in a field. Lecturers are instructed to reschedule class meetings.

Online classes are not only for replacement of regular classes, but it’s also for students who are working on their thesis. Since they need a regular consultation regarding their process, the letter demands it to be done via online platforms. The policy also affects the mobility of lecturers and students in the level of national to international. It says that it’s postponed until further notice. Even though teaching and learning activity is replaced by online classes, academic services and general services are still operating as usual under a condition to avoid crowds of people at all costs. The letter is also highly suggesting anyone who is sick to stay at home instead of going to the campus.

The announcement isn’t only affecting the activity of students in class but also university’s events, especially those held in March to April. One of the anticipated events arranged by UNY is a musical concert using GPA score to pass was announced to be held in March a few months ago. Sheila On 7, the guest star is what makes the event highly anticipated by the students. However, due to the critical situation, Sutrisna made a decision not to cancel it but to postpone it. When asked by one of the students about the newly arranged date, he replied by saying that it’s postponed until further notice.