CHARMING SHACKLES: PATRIARCHAL HEGEMONY AND THE ROMANTICIZATION OF WOMAN'S SUFFERING IN THE FILM THE SINKING OF THE VAN DER WIJCK

Abstract

The Indonesian film industry is often caught in a dilemma between visual aesthetics and social criticism, especially when portraying women's stories from the grip of patriarchy with romantic imagery. This study aims to dissect the hegemony of patriarchy and the romanticisation of women's suffering in the phenomenal film The Singking of The Van Der Wijck, which visualises the powerlessness of the character Hayati under the authority of Minangkabau custom. Using a qualitative approach with Roland Barthes' semiotic analysis method, this study examines the denotative, connotative, and mythical meanings in each scene to reveal the reality behind the signs of patriarchal hegemony and the romanticisation of women's sadness. The results of the study found that patriarchal hegemony is also present through the power of the Ninik Mamak in ‘blackening and whitening’ the fate of female relatives through the sanctity of customs. The main finding reveals the phenomenon of ‘Charming shackles’, in which Hayati's suffering due to forced marriage and the stigma of being someone else's widow is packaged through visual beauty in order to romanticise this sadness as fate.