Honor Culture and Body Politics in Mimpi Gadis Pasir: An Existentialist Feminist Reading
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24256/ideas.v14i1.9986Keywords:
Body Politics; Existentialist Feminism; Honor Culture; Gender Injustice; Madurese WomenAbstract
This study examines gender injustice in the short story collection Mimpi Gadis Pasir through Simone de Beauvoir’s existentialist feminist perspective, especially the concept of the Other. Using a qualitative approach and textual analysis, this study explores how honor culture (bhâghus) shapes the representation of women in the text. The findings show that gender injustice is constructed through four interconnected dimensions: body politics, moral stigmatization, structural subordination, and violence. These dimensions work together in positioning women as the Other, whose identities are defined by social norms and male authority. Among these dimensions, control over women’s bodies, especially in relation to reproduction and morality, emerges as the main mechanism sustaining patriarchal dominance. Unlike previous studies that mainly view honor culture as a form of social control, this study argues that, in literary representation, honor culture also functions as a symbolic structure that shapes women’s existential condition. These findings indicate that Mimpi Gadis Pasir not only portrays gender injustice, but also offers a critical reflection on patriarchal cultural structures.
References
Abu-Lughod, L. (2011). Seductions of the “honor crime.” Differences: A Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies, 22(1), 17–63.
Ahmed, L. (1992). Women and gender in Islam. Yale University Press.
Ahmed, S. (2017). Living a feminist life. Duke University Press.
Ataca, B., & Uskul, A. K. (2023). Honor culture and gender norms: A psychological perspective. Current Opinion in Psychology, 49, 101–115.
Beauvoir, S. de. (2011). The second sex (C. Borde & S. Malovany-Chevallier, Trans.). Vintage. (Original work published 1949)
Butler, J. (1990). Gender trouble: Feminism and the subversion of identity. Routledge.
Creswell, J. W., & Poth, C. N. (2018). Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five approaches (4th ed.). Sage.
Endraswara, S. (2014). Metodologi penelitian sastra [Literary research methodology]. CAPS.
Fakih, M. (2013). Analisis gender dan transformasi sosial [Gender analysis and social transformation]. Pustaka Pelajar.
Fraser, N. (2013). Fortunes of feminism: From state-managed capitalism to neoliberal crisis. Verso.
Grip, L., & Dynevall, M. (2023). Honor-based violence and social control. Nordic Journal of Criminology, 25(1), 1–17.
hooks, b. (2000). Feminism is for everybody: Passionate politics. South End Press.
Ismayanti, D., Said, Y. R., Usman, N., & Nur, M. I. (2024). The Students Ability in Translating Newspaper Headlines into English A Case Study. IDEAS: Journal on English Language Teaching and Learning, Linguistics and Literature, 12(1), 108-131.
Komnas Perempuan. (2024). Annual report on violence against women 2024. Komnas Perempuan.
Krippendorff, K. (2018). Content analysis: An introduction to its methodology (4th ed.). Sage.
Lianawati, E. (2021). Beauvoir across the centuries. Buku Mojok Group.
Lomazzi, V. (2023). Cultural roots of violence against women. Social Sciences, 12(3), 117.
Masruddin, M., & Nasriandi, N. (2022). Lexical and Syntactical Errors Performed by Junior High School Student in Writing Descriptive Text. IDEAS: Journal on English Language Teaching and Learning, Linguistics and Literature, 10(1), 1094-1100.
Miles, M. B., Huberman, A. M., & Saldaña, J. (2014). Qualitative data analysis: A methods sourcebook (3rd ed.). Sage.
Mohanty, C. T. (2003). Feminism without borders: Decolonizing theory, practicing solidarity. Duke University Press.
Nussbaum, M. (2000). Women and human development: The capabilities approach. Cambridge University Press.
Pratiwi, A. D. (2024). Mimpi Gadis Pasir [The dream of the sand girl]. Kobuku.
Rozaki, A. (2004). Menabur karisma, menuai kuasa: Kiprah kiai dan blater sebagai rezim kembar di Madura [Sowing charisma, reaping power: The role of kiai and blater as a twin regime in Madura]. Pustaka Marwa.
Said, E. W. (1978). Orientalism. Pantheon Books.
Saptari, R., & Holzner, B. (2016). Women and work: A political economy perspective. Obor Indonesia Foundation.
Scott, J. W. (1986). Gender: A useful category of historical analysis. American Historical Review, 91(5), 1053–1075.
Spivak, G. C. (1988). Can the subaltern speak? In C. Nelson & L. Grossberg (Eds.), Marxism and the interpretation of culture (pp. 271–313). University of Illinois Press.
Tong, R. (2014). Feminist thought: A more comprehensive introduction (4th ed.). Westview Press.
Uskul, A. K., Cross, S. E., Sunbay, Z., et al. (2024). Honor and well-being: Psychological implications of honor culture. British Journal of Social Psychology. Advance online publication.
Vignoles, V. L., Owe, E., Becker, M., et al. (2024). Cultures of honor and social regulation. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. Advance online publication.
Walby, S. (1990). Theorizing patriarchy. Basil Blackwell.
Wiyata, A. L. (2006). Madurese society: Local wisdom and social change. LKiS.
Yuval-Davis, N. (2011). The politics of belonging: Intersectional contestations. Sage.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
Citation Check
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Rina Khuzaimah Basri Basri, Mahmudah, Hajrah
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under an Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0) that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See the Effect of Open Access)
