Feminist Analyses of Clara Atawa Short Story

Name: Savira Ramadhani
Class : 6
NIM
: 1410302155
The Feminist Approach Analysis from The Short Story

Clara Attawa Wanita yang Diperkosa
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Title
Author
Theme
Point of view
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Clara Atawa Wanita yang Diperkosa

Seno Gumira Ajidarma
Humanity Tragedy
First person I and third person omniscient
5. There are some cases and problems in Clara Attawa which related to the
idea of feminist theory. Here, I will give some analyses of the problem
that was happened in that short story. There are some feminist terms Ill
use to approach each case in the story, they are :
A. Patriarchy
- A system economic dominated and controlled by men, in which the
father rules the household showed when Clara havent taken care of
her fathers business. Before she took her fathers role in his company,
all of the business was controlled by her father. But after his company
have nearly been bankrupt and Clara ignored her father decision to fire
the workers, her father was angry. So he delegate her to take care and
took the responsibilities of all their business. It shows that at the first
time, father didnt believe that Clara (as a woman) can make a good
decision in the economic system. For the result, he tried to give her
something like punishment by let her facing the risks of her own
decision.
- A system of political and social dominated and controlled by men also
showed when the investigating police reported Claras case to the
commander. Over the phone he
shouted and asked him to hold her there and he didnt let anyone
know, especially the reporters and LSM. In this case he seems to
control Clara particularly and the man generally as his inferior. He
didnt give Clara an opportunity to defense herself and to tell what was
happened to the public. He limited her human right to spoke and give
an evidence to the public about what she felt at that time. He tried to
cover the violence that was did by the local people to the Chinese
people from the public.
B. Oppression
The type of inequitable use of physical force to prevent others from
being free or equal and maintain Mens dominance by oppressing
women showed when the 25 man stopped Clara in the toll road. They
were really happy to find out that she is a Chinese. From Claras
appearance they would know that Clara is an executive women. As we
know that at that time, there was a gap issue between rich (that was
dominated with Chinese) and poor (that was dominated with Chinese)
that was being one of the caused of the riots. The local people
especially the men didnt want that their authority in the economic and
social field were being replaced by the Chinese especially by the
women. So when they met Clara they want to maintain their
dominance by doing some violence to her such as took her money,
burned her car, and raping her cruelly. The suspects is not just one or
two man but here, there were 25 man who did it. It showed that the
oppression didnt do just by an individual but rather in a massive to
express their rejection through the equal of the women. They use their
physical force to show that women are always subordinate to men and
women should not take over their rules in economic or social way.
C. Objectification
Women is being dehumanized by being reduced solely to a sex object
has shown when the 25 man raped Clara. They thought that women
shouldnt get their equal because they just a sex object for man. It also
showed when they asked Clara whether she ever have sex with her
boyfriend. It seems like they have an opinion that every women
especially Chinese woman (who they think have no religion to prohibit
them to do sex) are things that related to sex. They think that woman
who are in a relationship always doing sex with their men.
D. Misogyny
The ideology similar to racism or anti-Semitism, existing to justify and
reproduce the subordination of women by men through oppression and
violence has shown when the local people were raping Clara, her
mother, and her sisters just because they were Chinese. The racism
has shown here since they treated and did the violence against Claras
family because of their race. They will always think that women are
subordinate to the men and did some racist ways such as raping and
killing the Chinese woman.
E. Infantilization
Female figure infantilized in the short story showed when Clara told her
story to the investigating police. Clara told the story with a sorrow. She
was crying and sometimes unconscious. The investigation police
stereotype her to appear child-like and innocent, condescended by

their male counterparts and she reduced to an infantile state or
condition. Thus, empowering him to do what the 25 man have done to
Clara. He unfortunately, attract with Claras body. He feel like raping
her too. When a women look like an innocent, weak, and appear childlike, thus can empowering man to oppress her.
6. Analyses based on Feminist Question about Literature

Here I will talk about some feminist question that related to the Clara
Atawa Wanita yang Diperkosa. I will try to analyses the cases in that
short story based on the questions. Here are the result :
The woman lives portrayed in that short story is represented
by Clara. Of course, the case is just in a small part of the minority
people in this country. At 90th era or before the 20th centuries, the
patriarchy system was still being the based system in almost the
region in Indonesia. Men still entered the public sphere of politics and
business, while women inherited the private sphere of domesticity
and caregiving. But in the contrary, that portrayed in this story is
almost vanish. Clara who was a daughter of a Chinese business men,
described as an executive women and independent women. Shed
been taking care of her father's business which had nearly been
bankrupted. So, in this story Clara was portrayed in the work as a
women who has a high dedication to her work and independent. She
tried to be equal as her father and took the role of her fathers work
with her intelligence.
In this story, Clara seemed to reject the traditional gender
roles that says women are naturally inclined towards housework and
not aggressive or ambitious enough for other pursuits. He tried to get
the equality by taking her fathers role to control the business and fight
with her opinion about not firing the workers when her business have
nearly been bankrupt. It showed that she took a great responsibilities
in her decision which maybe other women cant do it.
Her work challenge the traditional ideas about women
because it need her to go outside the country. Her father has decided
that she would be the one to try to ensure that the profits from joint
ventures in Hong Kong, Beijing, and Macao increased, so that what
trickled down from them would be enough to keep the workers going.
Contrarily, the traditional ideas about women has said that women
inherited in domesticity and caregiving.
The relationship between men and women in this story has
the two contrary things. The first one is the relationship between Clara
and his boyfriend. Even her boyfriend was a Javanese and has the
different race with her, she never cared about it. She only knew that
she loved him. Also, Her boyfriend is so shy even about kissing her on
the lips. Their relationship isnt about the sexual things but the point is
they love each other. Her boyfriend love her and he want to protect
her, not to oppress her. The second one is the relationship between
Clara and the 25 man who raped her. The relationship between men
and women here is totally different. The 25 men think that Clara just
their sexual object. They didnt love Clara actually, they just want to
express their anger and express their sexual libido to Clara with a
physical force and oppression. So the relationship between men and
women have two main different things, they are love and sex.
Female figure infantilized in the short story showed when

Clara told her story to the investigating police. Clara told the story with
a sorrow. She was crying and sometimes unconscious. The
investigation police stereotype her to appear child-like and innocent,
condescended by their male counterparts and she reduced to an
infantile state or condition. Thus, empowering him to do what the 25
man have done to Clara. He unfortunately, attract with Claras body.
He feel like raping her too. When a women look like an innocent, weak,
and appear child-like, thus can empowering man to oppress her. So,
women are figured infantilize when she face a great problem in her life.
Claras job is actually reinforce patriarchal ideology. She
undermine the patriarchal ideology that said as a women, they
shouldnt get a work like a men does. She broke the statement that
women are naturally just inclined towards housework. But in this story,
she can prove that she can manage a business and took her fathers
role in controlling the business.
The characters life option constrained by gender in laws
extent has shown in the story. Clara who was a victim of a sexual
violence didnt get a justice from the police as a heroes figure in a
society. When the commander asked the investigating police to keep
the news about Clara, it showed that sometimes a gender can
constrained the characters life option.
The possibility of a work which offer the mode of resisting
patriarchy by a sisterhood terms havent prove in the story. Clara has
work independently and there is no other women who share a common
experience and support each other who will form bonds with other
women to overcome their oppression.

Feminist Analyses of Clara Atawa Short Story

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Feminist Analyses of Clara Atawa Short Story

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Name: Savira Ramadhani

The Feminist Approach Analysis from The Short Story

Clara Atawa Wanita yang Diperkosa

stereotype her to appear child-like and innocent, condescended by

6. Analyses based on Feminist Question about Literature

Female figure infantilized in the short story showed when

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