Women’s Hair as Beauty Myths in Hair-Quake Metropop

Abstract

The object of this research is the discourse about women's hair in the metro pop novel Hair-quake (2014) by Mariskova. This study aims to show how beauty myths construct women's hair. The method used in this research is descriptive qualitative, with a feminist literary criticism approach. Through closed reading, documentary techniques collected data in words, phrases, and sentences. The data are then interpreted and analyzed with the relevant theoretical basis. In this study, the theory of Synnott, Manning, and Wolf is an appropriate idea. The result of the study is an understanding that hair is a female identity symbol, both physical and private, as well as public. Its existence continues to be defined by trends constructed and disseminated by the media and dominant parties. The beauty myth in the novel Hairquake operates in work, culture, and female sexuality. The protagonist, as an adult woman, single, intelligent, and independent, still interprets her body through negotiations with the values offered by other parties. The value of this study is the knowledge that hair styling is not just a fashion but has a series of meanings.