A chick-lit story which everyone can finish in less than a day. I chose this novela because it tells about a girl's insecurity and her process to overcome her trauma. This is my both Literary Criticism and Popular Literature Post-test Assignment.
Abstract
The Rana Look is a romantic novel that tells about a model attempting to change her identity because of her painful past. The purpose of this essay is to analyze women objectification which happened to Rana Ramsey when she was a model. The writer utilizes Frederickson and Roberts’ theory regarding the women objectification and seeks the material with contextual and close-reading methods. In light of the investigation, the writer found that women objectification experienced by Rana were carried out by male characters previously when Rana was a model. This makes Rana Ramsey shut herself off from the world, so that she encounters mental problems due to the trauma she experienced.
Keywords: identity, patriarchy, women objectification.
I. Introduction
Patriarchy has rooted in our society. Men brand themselves as the superior creature and they could rule women. Most of men degrade women’s value by harass them physically and sexually. One of harassment done by men is women objectification. Men see women as an object to satisfy their sexual needs. This resulting in “beauty standard” that all women should achieve to attract men. The writer found that The Rana Look novel reflects women objectification, particularly in Rana Ramsey. Therefore, the writer thinks that this issue is interesting to be discussed deeper in this paper.
II. Theoretical Frameworks
2.1 Intrinsic Elements
2.1.1 Theme
Theme is the central thought of the story. Theme could be what the author is attempting to pass on to the reader. In this way, in one story, it may contain more than one themes. The theme should be meandered and it should mirror the character’s deed, dealing, and impulse.
2.1.2 Character
A Character is an individual, creature, being, animal, or thing. Character plays out the actions and they also converse dialogues, so that the story will be progressive. Furthermore, characterization is the subtleties of one character so that characterization portrays the plot and also conflict that will be developed soon.
2.1.3 Plot and Conflict
A plot is the sequence of occassion that make up a story. To be more specific, plot exposes how the story is being created, unfurled, and changed in sequences. As per Literary Terms, There are five steps of plot which are exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and denoument. Exposition depicts the characters and setting of the story, rising action builds up the conflict that is experienced by characters, the climax peaks the conflicts, falling action is where the conflict is loosing and delayed down, and denoument is a conclusion of the story. In denouement, the ending of each character will be explained.
As indicated by Schreiner, conflict is a main thrust inside one plot. This motivates the characters to act and it drives the action or occurence of the story. In certain occasions, there will be only one conflict while on the other story, it has more than one conflicts. There are four types of conflict which are character vs character, character vs self, character vs nature, and character vs society.
2.1.4 Viewpoint
Point of view is the perspective about the story, which shows us the suppositions or sentiments of the character in one literary work. The author lets the readers to hear and see what takes place in a story. Viewpoint is divided into three different types, which are the first-person viewpoint, second-person viewpoint, and third-person viewpoints. First-person viewpoint includes pronouns “I” or “we”, while second-person viewpoint utilizes the pronoun “you”, and the third-person viewpoint employs “he”, “she”, “it”, “they”, or name.
2.1.5 Setting
Setting is the time and place of the story. The setting may likewise incorporate the environment where the story happens, which can be comprised of the physical area, climate, atmosphere, or social and cultural surroundings. The setting of a story may change all through the plot.
2.2 Extrinsic Elements
2.2.1 Women Objectification
Since long ago, patriarchy has indeed existed in society. Men consider themselves as unrivaled, superior, and it is also considered that women must obey men because women are inferior. Nowadays, women objectification are refined into prostitution thing such as brothel, sex dolls, women pageant, Miss World, or any other prostitution things that degrade women’s value. On average, women objectification is made up to satisfy men’s sexual needs. According to Fredricksons and Roberts (1997), women objectification is rating women’s beauty or body parts as "an object" to satisfy the desires of men visually or kinesthetically. This subverts women’s degree and denies human rights. Examples of objectification of women such as catcalling, whistling, gazing, harassing, or degrading women's values. A study published in the journal Psychology shows that men tend to exploit women dependent on their appearance, and not based on their worth, value, or inner beauty.
2.2.2 Self-Objectification as the Result of Women Objectification
The effect of women objectification is self-objectification. Women who become the casualties of patriarchal dominance and women objectification will consider themselves to be “objects”, so that in the end, it gives them thoughts about women that must appear charming and perfect. Afterward, "beauty standard" is created for women which demand all women must be tall, skinny, and have fair skin without blemishes. Finally, women will compete to achieve beauty standard, by starting an extreme diet program and improving their appearance by taking plastic surgery just to show up great. This negatively affects women and this causing fatal consequences for her mental health. In severe cases, women will suffer stress and other mental problems such as eating disorders, depression, and sexual dysfunction (Frederickson & Roberts, 1997).
III. Analysis
3.1 Intrinsic Elements
3.1.1 Theme
The theme of this chick-lit novel is passionate love, adventure-seeking identity, and the meaning of friendship and family. This novel focuses on the trauma experienced by Rana due to Susan’s ambitions. This novel also tells about Rana’s struggles to bear with her deep trauma she feels which causes big change to her life. Rana decides to hide herself from social life, completely disappears, and lives on an island named Galveston with the old Ruby as her apartment landlord. Friendship theme can also be found in this novel as depicted in Rana and Barry’s relationship, as well as Trent and Tom’s relationship. These imply that true friends will still beside us if we experience something bad. Rana’s relationship with Morrey is arguably a sincere friendship. Morrey acts like her father, so that Rana feels comfortable to tell about her trauma and feelings to Morrey. Rana is the only one who feels devastated by Morrey’s sudden death. Furthermore, the writer found that the major theme of this novel which the author urges to reveal is the erotic love between Rana Ramsey and Trent Gamblin. It is shown that both of them is frequently having erotic mind and even sexual intercourse, which reflects the typical nature of women novelist; an ordinary woman and one famous man met and they fall in love unconditionally.
3.1.2 Characters
The main character of this novel is Rana Ramsey. She is a thirty years old woman who has an attractive face and body, but horrible taste in fashion. She works as an artist—sometimes she paints or designs clothes. Rana feels insecure with her own body as a result of the trauma caused by her cruel mother who exploits her since Rana was very young. She has been married once to Patrick, but her marriage does not go well and she has to separate. She is always forced to marry older men by her mother to gain wealth. She encounters major depression afterward and she is trying to living her life. It is found that Rana Ramsey also loves to daydream about a perfect life where she will never fulfill one’s expectation. This may injure her inward and mental, so when she meets Trent, she acts denial to him.
Trent Gamblin, nephew of Ruby Bailey, is a playboy. However, he stays loyal with Rana and sees something hidden and different from the beauty that radiated from Rana. (Brown, 2003: 26-27). He is sometimes sexist, but he is able to prove that he sincerely loves Rana. He is able to mend Rana’s trauma because of his charming motivations to Rana. He has a tall and straight posture. According to Rana’ viewpoint, Trent has a sexy body which makes her delirious.
Ruby Bailey, the landlord of Rana’s apartment, is an old woman who still has a young soul as radiated from her fashion sense and her way of thinking (Brown, 2003: 14). Ruby sometimes invite Rana and Trent to go for a walk or to have dinner. Ruby understands Rana’s background, but she adores and supports Rana’s bravery to escape from her toxic mother. In short, Ruby Bailey is like mother to Rana Ramsey.
Susan Ramsey is Rana’s biological mother who is widowed after her husband left her. Susan forces her will to become rich by turning her child into a model and instills ‘Rana Look’ stereotype which tells that Rana’s appearance must always be perfect in front of the camera (Brown, 2003: 74-78). Susan often mocks Rana’s physical appearance just to make Rana bows under Susan’s control. Susan is also having mental illness because she projects her expectation to her beautiful daughter, because Susan has lousy appearance. She may experience traumatic past that shapes her ugly personality. At last, she is irresponsible because she disconnects her biological relation with Rana.
Morey Fletcher, manager of Rana in the modeling agency, is an old man with boring appearance (Brown, 2003: 51-58). Morey lives alone in a small house after separated from her wife. He suffers a heart problem which makes him take his medication routinely. Morey acts like Rana’s father and understands her more than Susan as her biological mother. His death affects to Rana’s downfall because he is one of Rana’s best listener.
Barry Golden, Rana’s best friend, is a man who worked passionately in New York and leaves everything to open a small boutique in Houston. He is a frank person, but he tends to say rude words (Brown, 2003: 83). Barry trusts Rana to design some clothes of his boutique. He also cares about Rana’s feelings and listens to all of her problems.
Tom Tandy, a member of Mustangs football club, is Trent’s closest friend. He has a well-built body posture. He also described as a realistic and loyal friend. He is similar to Trent, a sexist and rude man when it comes to socialize with unattractive women.
3.1.3 Plot and Conflicts
The plot of this story is very simple and follows the plot format of popular romance genre in literary works. The exposition is at the beginning of the story, which tells about Rana and her life. The rising action is when Rana and Trent become friends after they are involved in some fights, and Morey’s opportunity to bring Rana back to the modeling career. The climax of this story is the sudden death of Morey and the comeback of Susan to Rana’s life. The falling action happens when Rana becomes Trent’s lover and she starts to change her appearance because she gains her confidence back, and her mother leaves her forever. The resolution is a happy ending for Rana.
In this story, the problem that occurs is the inner conflict experienced by the main character, Rana Ramsey. She fights against her painful trauma because of some events in the past. The trauma prevents her to socialize with society including Trent. She finds it hard to communicate with men because of her past. Rana is also described as having conflicts with her biological mother, Susan Ramsey, because she always being rude to Rana when she was young. Another conflict is also illustrated by Trent’s relationship with Tom. Tom is seen as condescending to Rana, angered Trent, and feels insulted. There are also some minor conflicts between Rana and Trent at the beginning of their relationship. Both Rana and Trent are denial of their feelings.
3.1.4 Viewpoint
The point of view involves all-knowing third-person viewpoint due to the narrator’s ability to narrate the feeling and appearance of this novel’s characters in detail.
3.1.5 Setting
The setting depicted in this novel is in a modern era circa 1980-1990s. The atmosphere in this novel builds a sensual and romantic atmosphere. However, it is still contains warm and intimate relationship of friendship and family. Sometimes, the mood of this novel shifts rapidly when Rana flashes back to her hurtful past. Also, the author tries to engage the reader to hate Susan Ramsey as the antagonistic character in this novel. Brown seems not to put humorous tone in this novel, in contrary, she applies serious and romantic tone. Meanwhile, the main setting of place is Ruby’s apartment in an island named Galveston. Rana and Trent stay in the second floor while Ruby stays in the first floor near the kitchen. Ruby’s property is depicted as a nice and cozy house and it costs inexpensive to Rana. Rana’s crib is a large-sized room without bathroom and it has lot of canvas to support Rana’s job as an artist and designer. The setting also takes place in Barron’s boutique, the shopping department where Rana and Trent argue, and Mustang’s house party which are located in Houston, a small city that takes only hours away from Galveston, and Susan’s house in New York. Morey’s burial process takes place in New York, in the unknown private cemetery.
3.2 Extrinsic Elements
3.2.1 Women Objectification in The Rana Look Novel
In this novel, it is told that Rana Ramsey struggles in her modeling career since she was very young, which requires her to keep up her appearance. Her career is not based on Rana’s will, but based on Susan’s ambition. Susan is obsessed to make her only daughter a model to gain some profits. Susan, who may have been traumatized in the past by being left suddenly by her husband without any inheritance or wealth, then projects the anxiety she experiences as a feeling of insatience and ambition that she instilled in Rana since she was very young.
When Rana flashes back to the time when she has just started her career, she recalls that she is holding her hunger, but her mother keeps forcing her to walk in a far distance to the model agency. Instead, she gets terrible compliment from the agency that says she has not reached the beauty standard for a model. He also says, “She’s just too ... too exotic-looking, Mrs. Ramsey. She’s lovely, but ... foreign. Yes, that’s it. She’s not all-American enough” (Brown, 2003:18).
Rana finally meets a modeling agency where Morrey works there as the manager. Rana soon becomes a famous model because of her alluring face and exotic body shape. She even experiences sexual harassment when she tries to work professionally for an ad, “The ad-agency rep had been ecstasic over the effect. His client had asked for sex without lewdness. His assistant joked that the hand model was taking secret gropes of Rana’s breast while no one was looking” (Brown, 2003: 30). Rana is also forced not to eat for hours at the photo session. It fosters a sense of trauma towards the patriarchal culture which occurs around her workplace.
As an attractive model, Rana is often approached by men of all ages and occupations, as depicted in, “She had been courted by numerous politicians, rock stars, and businessmen...” (Brown, 2003: 47). Most are older and well-established men. Susan has intercession to this issue, because Susan’s ambition may lead her to extreme behavior which will harm Rana to gain such profits. Those men want to take advantage of Rana’s body and popularity. This causing to a major trauma to Rana in dealing with men, except Barry and Morrey.
Trent, Rana’s lover, often imagines and fantasizes about what is underneath Rana’s clothes. This is also one of sexual objectification, although it remains unspoken. Trent once tells Rana to take off her clothes because the temperature is hot outside, and tries to tease her afterward. Trent also often imagines himself having sexual intercourse with Rana, as in the following quote,
“And he thought about slipping his hands beneath the top of her gray sweat suit and discovering the shape of her breasts”
....
“And he thought about rolling her to her back and covering her with his hard, powerful body, entwining his legs between hers”
(Brown, 2003: 55).
Tom Tandy, a friend of Trent, is also a patriarchal character. He sees Ana Ramsey’s appearance as a dull woman which is dreadful and horrible for a person like Trent. Tom even thinks, “If Trent’s Ana been beautiful and sophisticated, he would have no trouble bantering with her. But this woman in the baggy trousers and vest left him tongue-tied” (Brown, 2003: 123). However, when he finally sees Rana’s appearance that night in the party, Tom regrets his first impression towards Rana and tries to treat Rana well. This shows that there are behavior differences to the good-looking women and unattractive women.
Of all men characters who are objectifying Rana based on her physical appearance, Susan as Rana’s mother always makes Rana feel insecure and guilty by saying some rude words. On several occasions where Susan and Rana accidentally meet, Susan always insults Rana’s appearance such as her crooked teeth, her skin that is getting darker, and that she is gaining some weight. In fact, nothing has changed from Rana. Her mother is only taking advantages of Rana’s guilt by saying Susan’s life has become financially troubled because of Rana.
4.2.2 The Effects of Women Objectification to Rana Ramsey in The Rana Look Novel
As the result of beauty standard implanted by Susan Ramsey to Rana Ramsey, she becomes traumatized by her appearance and decides to start ignoring her appearance after she runs away to Ruby’s apartment in Galveston. Sometimes. Rana still has thought of she is an imperfect woman because she is still gaining weight and her teeth are starting to crooked again.
“Her teeth were going crooked again. Her mother would fly into a tizzy if she could see them. How much money had Susan Ramsey spent straightening Rana’s teeth? Yet without the retainer Rana had been advised to sleep in every night of her life, her four front teeth were stubornly overlapping again” (Brown, 2003: 18).
Rana often blames herself for no reason. For example, when Rana is offered to date Mr. Alexander who is older than her, Rana rejects it and soon, she blames herself for her selfishness which causing loss to Susan and Morrey (Brown, 2003: 59). These are the effects of women objectification Rana experiences. She suffers some psychological matters such as trauma, anxiety, and personality disorders.
IV. Conclusion
The Rana Look is a novel which tells about Rana’s attempt to cope with her painful trauma. Starting her new anonymous life, she moves to Galveston and leaves her glam life. Rana’s mindset is changed when she meets Trent, a football athlete who loves Rana. Furthermore, Trent successfully convinces Rana that she is beautiful in the inside and outside. However, it is implicitly depicted that Rana experiences sexual objectification by being a model surrounded by sexist characters in the past. This is the triggers of her mental problems at a later time. It is concluded that all men characters in this novel are tend to be patriarchal and sexist. The result of oppresion Rana experiences are hurtful trauma and self-denial which shut Rana from the society.
Below is my personal thoughts on this novela written in Bahasa Indonesia:
Novel ini menunjukkan kedua sisi; hampir semua tokoh lelakinya sangat patriarkis namun tokoh perempuannya digambarkan memiliki kekuatan. Meskipun pada awalnya Rana merasakan hal-hal tidak menyenangkan oleh para lelaki yang mengobjektifikasi dirinya, namun Rana mampu merubah dirinya menjadi kembali percaya diri dengan ‘gelar’ yang ia miliki. Tentu saja, ada peran lelaki, yaitu Trent, yang menyebabkan Rana berubah drastis. Hal ini menunjukkan bahwa tokoh perempuan di novel ini tetap tidak bisa luput dari ‘bantuan’ lelaki, meskipun tokoh perempuannya selalu memiliki peran yang kuat dan independen.
Satu hal yang menarik dari novel ini adalah budaya patriarkis yang diangkat mirip dengan yang terjadi di dunia nyata, terutama terjadi pada model-model yang selama ini selalu dituntut untuk memenuhi standarisasi kecantikan untuk memuaskan nafsu lelaki. Secara keseluruhan, novel ini condong pada budaya patriarkis terutama menyoroti objektifikasi tokoh utamanya.
References
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