AN ANALYSIS OF GENDER REPRESENTATION IN FOLKLORES FROM CENTRAL KALIMANTAN

Folklore is frequently used as teaching media and entertainment tools for children. However, folklore is suspected to contain gender stereotype. This study aims to examine how men and women are represented as well as the gender stereotypes attached to them.
The method used in the present study is the descriptive qualitative method. The source of data is the text from 28 stories in Central Kalimantan’s folklores collection published by the Ministry of Education and Culture in 1982 and 1995. Gender representation is analyzed through the roles and behavior of the characters in the story. As for investigating gender stereotypes attached to the characters in folklore, the researcher used 4 categories of gender stereotypes by Zuhro (2018) which are (1) personality traits, (2) domestic behaviors, (3) occupations, and (4) physical appearances.
The result of the study shows there is an imbalanced representation of men and women in Central Kalimantan folklores. From the total of 106 characters, men’s representation is 60.37% and women’s representation is 39.42%. Men are often being the main characters in the story. They possess superior roles such as king, warrior, and man with magical power. On the contrary, most characters represented by women possess inferior roles and barely contribute to the storyline. It is also found that there are 62 cases of gender stereotypes promoted by 58 characters in the stories. The gender representation and stereotypes that attached to men and women found in the stories indicate that folklore from Central Kalimantan is heavily influenced by the patriarchal ideology. A critical view is needed in selecting folklore as educational tools for children.