The Representation of Liberal Feminism in The Picture Book Mary Wears What She Wants by Keith Negley

Abstract

This research analyzed the existence of liberal feminism in this picture book, whereby this book set in 19th century and also this picture book inspired by the life of Mary Edwards, a pioneering 19th-century doctor. This research aimed to reveal whether or not male and female are represented in the picture book Mary Wears What She Wants by looking at the visual and verbal data using Hall’s representation theory and also Barthes’ semiotic concept. This research also aimed to reveal the liberal feminism represents in this picture book by looking at the visual and the verbal data using Hall’s representation theory, Barthes’ semiotic concept and also liberal feminism theories. This research was conducted by applying a qualitative method. The data were words, phrases, sentences, pictures, which have been sorted and carefully selected following the research topic. The data were divided into primary and secondary data. The primary data are taken from the Children’s Picture Book Mary Wears What She Wants, written by Keith Negley, which is related to the representation of liberal feminism through the character. Meanwhile, the secondary data are taken from sources such as journals, essays, theses, and other sources which contain information about limited resources and overpopulation. In order to dismantle the meaning and significance of the picture book, this research applied Barthes’ semiotic concept in order to answer two research questions. This research focuses on the verbal and visual data of the picture book that portrays liberal feminism. The theory of representation by Stuart Hall has several methods to analyze the meaning of the discourse about liberal feminism, and a semiotic approach is used in this research in order to know how discourse will produce the meaning. Specifically, this research analyzes the verbal and visual data related to liberal feminism by identifying the text, the expressions, the way they act, and the main character’s characterization. In order to seek out the answer to the first research question, The data are delineated using verbal and visual that represent gender equality in the picture book. This analysis uses the representation theory by Stuart Hall to analyze the verbal data and the semiotic by Roland Barthes to analyze the visual data. This research found that the picture book Mary Wears What She Wants represents the inequality of gender and also gender equality but in a different situation, and it is represented through the characters in this picture book. This picture book mainly portrays inequality of gender rather than equality of gender because, in the Victorian era, women and men were not equal. This research also found that liberal feminism discourses were found in this picture book. Liberal feminism is represented through the main character, Mary, by her struggles to wear what she wants to wear. She thinks that wearing dresses cannot make her do her activities freely, and the dress is too tight for her. Because of that, she wants to wear pants which are boys’ clothes. When she goes to the town with pants, she is poorly treated by her society, including her friends. She is pelted with some eggs by her friends. Besides the treatment she gets from the people in her town, she dares to take risks with what she chooses, and she still wants to wear pants because she thinks that pants are not only for boys; girls can wear pants too. Because of that, she determines to do what she wants without limitation and does not let anyone get in the way of her decisions. This research finds that Mary uses her power of voice to make changes for all women, which is supported by her braveness and stubbornness. Because of Mary, women have the power to do anything.