REPRESENTASI PEREMPUAN DAN REALITAS SOSIAL DALAM FILM ON YOUR LAP (PANGKU): ANALISIS TEORI REPRESENTASI STUART HALL

Abstract

Film, as a mass communication medium, plays an important role in shaping public perspectives on social issues, including gender. The representation of women in film is not neutral but is shaped by ideology, power relations, and socio-cultural construction. This study aims to analyze the representation of women and the meaning of social reality portrayed in the film On Your Lap (Pangku). A descriptive qualitative method was employed, with the film as the research object and the female protagonist, Sartika, as the research subject. Data consisting of narrative and visual elements from 15 key scenes were collected through film observation, documentation, and literature study, then analyzed through data reduction, thematic categorization, narrative analysis, and interpretation using Stuart Hall's constructionist representation theory. The findings show that the film represents women through five major themes: women as mothers and family providers, victims of economic pressure, objects within patriarchal relations, agentic subjects, and symbols of social struggle. The film also constructs the meaning of lower-class women's social reality through issues of poverty, limited employment opportunities, social stigma, and gendered power inequality, while simultaneously depicting forms of resistance and solidarity among women. This study concludes that Pangku functions as a cultural text that not only represents but also critiques gender inequality and the social structures that constrain marginalized women's agency in Indonesia.