2024 ICIMAC (Extended Abstract)

This research focuses on the representation of masculinity in each female character in The Big 4. In Indonesian television shows, women are often shown with unfavorable representations, often portrayed as a weak group compared to men. The highlighting of masculinity through female characters is very important, because it can shape people's perceptions and provide evidence that there is resistance to the stereotypes commonly attached to women. The purpose of this study is to understand how the representation of female masculinity is explained in the film The Big 4. This research uses a qualitative descriptive approach and analyzes it using semiotic analysis, specifically Charles Sanders Pierce's semiotic model through the representament, object, and interpretant. The results showed that each female character in The Big 4 movie has masculine characteristics of courage, heroism, power, and leadership. Based on the analysis, it can be concluded that the ideology used in this movie is the ideology of masculinity. This finding reinforces the concept that masculinity and femininity are interchangeable gender categories, and as such, performances of asculinity can also be portrayed by women.