Sexist language in the headline news of Kompas

ABSTRACT

Whether we realize it or not, our social structure is dominated by men views. It is usually found in a patriarchal system. In patriarchal system, women are second class citizen. Men have more power than women. The belief that men are superior to women is called sexism. It does not only occur in politics, economy, and educational aspect but it is also reflects in the language which is used by the given society known as sexist language. From these phenomena, the researcher is interested in conducting research about sexist language in media. This study is focused on analyzing sexist words, utterances and expressions used in Headline news of Kompas.

This research is aim at finding out how sexist language is used in Headline news of Kompas, The data are in the form of words, utterances and expressions categorized as sexist language. The source of data is the headline news of Kompas published in Ist April 2005 until 30th April 2005. In this research, the researcher used descriptive qualitative research. It means that the researcher wants to get the description of words categorized as sexist language used in Kompas. In collecting the data, the researcher identifies the words or expressions categorized as sexist language. The researcher analyzed the data by identifying the way how the word used in a certain context, describing morphological process of the words, and describing the context of the words or expressions in the sentences. Then the researcher discusses those findings and concludes the result. Here, the researcher checks the validity of the result to experts. Those experts are Dr. H. Mudjia RahardoMSi, a linguist who writes many literatures about language and culture, Dra.Syafiyah, MA as a person who has writing about sexist language, and Dr. Istiadah, M.A as an expert gender research.

The result of this research shows ,that the headline news of Kompas as the newspaper which has the most readers in Indonesia still uses sexist language. Kompas uses sexist language by using male terms to make a generalization of contexts that involve men and women or unclear subjects. And for specific conditions when the subjects are women only, Kompas clearly uses female term. Those words Oi expressions are morphologically constructed by: (1) Adding a suffix to the base word. For example, by adding the suffix wan to some words for mate Verms sueb as ٦٢relawan. wartawan and bendaharawan; and vbe' sut١؟x wati ؟ ٠٢؟ema\٢,so ١١٦٢ words become relawati, bendaharawati and wartawati.Tbe researcher also found the addition of the suffix ah or ta ’ marhutoh which is adopted form Arabic language to some words like muslim and muktamiriin to construct female terms, as seen in the words muslimah and muktamiroot. However, the male terms, Muslim and muktamiriin are more often used in Indonesian; (2) Changing suffix. For example, suffix a refers to male term, and suffix i refers to female term. The findings are putri, saudari saudara, and mahasiswa. The pairs of these words are putra, saudara, and mahasiswa(3) Using the standard word, that is the words that are specially constructed to differentiate men and ١٧omen. Here the researcher found a pair of words raja and ratu; (4) Adding word. For example, adding word wanita to the word that are generally constructed to male terms. Those words are like polisi, dokter, tentara, panglima and komandan.

Indonesian words which are found in the Headline news of Kompas have different usage for men and women. Basically, those words only differentiate that one is for men and another is for women, not trivialize each other. But in practice, most writers just generalize the fact by represent the reality using male terms, although women have same contribution. However, there are also words or expressions, which trivialize women.

From the result of the research indicate that our culture, including the language, is still managed by patriarchal system. Patriarchal system considered that women are the second class citizens whereas men are the first class citizens in our society. Our life is still dominated by men, not only in economic, political, and social aspects but also in the language.

From this research, the researcher hopes that this thesis could give contribution to the researcher herself especially and to the readers or to the further researcher who conduct the same research. Of course, this topic still needs extra attention. It is suggested for further researchers to conduct such as sexist language in oral text-in formal or informal language, sexist language on cartoon, sexist language on literary work, such novel, drama, or poetry.