THE DEPICTION OF WOMAN BENDER’S MASCULINITY IN MICHAEL TEITELBAUM’S THE TALE OF SOKKA

Abstract

This study has focuses to analyze the masculine women in the novel The
Tale of Sokka as the characters Katara and Toph represent the nature of
men: masculine; strong, tough, and intelligence. For male gender,
masculinity becomes dominant in their nature as it is being defined in this
study that masculinity stands for the nature of man as they are strong and
assumed born to lead. Thereforth, it is interesting to discuss that on how
having the character of masculinity in women shape the women differently
as different than any women in general. Masculinity theory was used to
analyze the character of women benders in the novel: Katara and Toph,
including their attitude, characters; the way they interact with the men
benders in the battle. In essence, this study is under descriptive qualitative
research where the primary data were taken from the novel entitled The
Tale of Sokka, along with a few resources related to the theory of
masculinity, taken from literary journal and thesis which became the
secondary data used in this study. The theory of masculinity was also used
as the core to find out the impact of being masculine for a woman in the
society, in this context, being masculine for women benders are important
for them to raise their status among the patriarchal society. The results of
this study are divided into two: first, by being masculine, women actually
can be more confidence to actualize themselves. Second, by being masculine,
Katara and Toph can achieve and got the admission from men benders that
women can be equal with men in the battle.
Keywords: Masculinity, Impact of masculinity, woman benders,