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Feminist Analyses of Clara Atawa Short Story
Feminist Analyses of Clara Atawa Short Story
Class : 6
NIM
: 1410302155
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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
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.