Conflict about women’s position in the U.S. Military as reflected in ridley Scott’s G.I. Jane

Oleh :
Dian Ajeng Septipuri - C0300022 - Fak. Sastra dan Seni Rupa

ABSTRACT Conflict about Women’s Position in the U.S. Military as Reflected in Ridley Scott’s G.I. Jane. English Department Faculty of Letters and Fine Arts Sebelas Maret University Surakarta. This research is aimed at explaining the reflection of the conflict about women’s position in the U.S. military, especially in combat, in the film G.I. Jane. It is a descriptive-qualitative research of which source of data is the original film of G.I. Jane directed by Ridley Scott, while the main data are consisted of character and characterization, dialogues, body language, visual images, and original soundtrack of the film. The supporting data are other materials that support the source of main data, such as the film’s script written by David Twohy and Danielle Alexandra, review of the film, some criticisms taken from the Internet, articles, and also other books related to women’s existence in military, especially in combat. Several approaches are employed in order to obtain the aim. They are feminist approach, historical approach, and sociological approach. It also uses semiotic approach, especially semiotic film theory. These approaches are used to reveal the conflict about women’s position in US military, especially in combat as reflected in G.I. Jane. From the analysis of this research, it shows that the conflict happens when O’Neil—the woman main character—joined SEALS training, one of the Special Forces in US military. Most of her companions and the chief felt that she did not deserve to be there. All of them believed that woman could not fight as good as man because woman was too weak and too fragile. Therefore, O’Neil was given hard tests in order to make her quit the training. Furthermore, Senator DeHaven—the person who recommended O’Neil to join the training—did not really want her to join the corps. She only wanted to gain popularity and win the vote, which were useful for the future of her political career. However, there were also a few people who accept O’Neil’s presence. These people believed that defending a country was everyone’s right, whether they were men or women. The conclusion of this research is that the conflict happens when O’Neil joined NAVY Seal training program. This conflict creates pro and contra in the society, especially among the soldiers. The opponents are more than the proponents. This situation leads to discrimination toward O’Neil. The discrimination shows that the society still believes in patriarchy system and they are not ready to accept women in military. In the end of this film, however, the society finally accepts her join combat and admits her ability as a soldier. Through this condition, the film suggests the society to admit women’s existence and ability in military. If women have good qualification and ability as soldiers, the society should give support and allow them to join military. This film also suggests that the society should let women decide what they really want.