Representation of Beauty in Ayu Utami’s Novels: Wolfian’s Beauty Myth Perspective

Abstract

This paper aimed to uncover the myths of beauty that are portrayed by female writers in her works. The novel that was used as the object of this research is Ayu Utami's Maya and Lalita. The method applied to analyze these novels is descriptive-qualitative method. The qualitative data used in this study came from the novel Lalita and Maya by Ayu Utami. Texts containing the issue of beauty myths are exposed using the view of beauty myths developed by Naomi Wolf. The results obtained from this study include: First, the beauty standards represented in the novel Lalita and Maya are the standards of beauty for women in Indonesia such as slim body, dark hair and soft, and olive skin color typical of Indonesian women. In addition, there is a contestation between the physical beauty and behavior of the female characters in each novel. Second, there are two factors that construct the myth of female beauty in Lalita and Maya novels namely, capitalist industry and patriarchal institutions. In the two novels analyzed, it shows the influence of capitalist industry and patriarchal institutions in shaping the myth of female beauty.