The movie ‘On the Basis of Sex’ portrays the reality in the United States during the year 1950s-1970s where the capability of men and women are determined by the strict conservative gender roles stereotype. Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a female Harvard Law School student, challenges those conservative gender roles by becoming a successful lawyer instead of becoming a housewife. Charles E. Moritz is sentenced as a cheater of the constitution after claiming the tax deduction by becoming the main caregiver of his mother. According to the section 214 of the “Internal Revenue Code of 1954” of the United States about Caregiver Tax Deduction, a bachelor cannot claim the caregiver tax deduction. Ruth becomes Moritz’s lawyer and insists that men can also become the victim of sexism caused by the strict gender roles, even in a patriarchal society. At the court, she asks the court to set new precedents for some of the outdated laws that are detrimental to certain gender in order to support gender equality. By this explanation, this research aims to; 1) understand how Indonesian audiences perceive the idea of institutionalized sexism, and 2) to understand how the audiences perceive the application of institutionalized sexism within “Moritz V Commissioner” case. The data have been gathered through observations, Focus Group Discussions (FGD) and interview sessions with selected samples. The results show how; 1) there is an ambivalence within the respondents’ understanding regarding the concept and the application of institutionalized sexism; and 2) the impacts of Americanization in how some of the respondents’ construct their different way of thinking.
