INTRODUCTION

Folktale is one of children literature. It can be told to the children from very young
ages. Through folktales, people get their cultural identities which can influence their behavior
and attitude (Ragan, 2009; Mantra, 2017). Folktales also can be used as the medium for
teaching English. It was proved that integrating folktales in language class offers some great
advantages (Nyoman & Gana, 2018). Indonesia has many folktales from different regions as
the cultural heritage. However, there are some critical examinations for some Indonesian
folktales. One of notable perspectives of folktales criticism is feminist. Few feminist studies
discovered subtle complexities that lie beneath the Indonesian folktales (Nurhayati, 2019;
Zahro, 2020). The studies show that Indonesian folktales portray female roles in the ideology
of patriarchy which female should accept a subordinate social role.

Gender stereotype is one kind of discriminations. It is a belief that people have about
the characteristics of males and females. The form of stereotypes varies over time and over
different cultures. The expectations for each gender are often related to the roles that the
sexes fulfill in the culture (Martin & Dinella, 2001). This issue has been an important global
concern. One of UNESCO’s two priorities is gender equality. According to UNESCO, all
forms of discriminations which are based on gender are considered as human rights
violations. This is a significant obstacle to achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable
Development. Women and men must enjoy the same access as equal citizens. According to
UNESCO, eliminating gender disparities is a precondition to building a sustainable future for
all.

One way where people learn gender stereotype is through folktales. There are many
English teachers in Indonesia who use Indonesian folktales in language learning for young
learners. People use gender stereotypes to make judgments about others at a young age.
When making judgments to other people, people will apply their gender expectations to
them. Even more than adults, children will rely on a person's sex to make judgments and they
are less likely to consider other relevant information that a person has than adults are (Ruble
& Martin, 1998). Therefore, considering the previous researches which discover gender
stereotype in Indonesian folktales, it is important to conduct a deep analysis to folktales to
unveil the values that lie beneath them because they will contribute to the development of
children’s behavior and attitude.
 One approach to analyze text is appraisal. Appraisal developed by Martin and White
is Halliday’s interpersonal meaning’s domain in the Systemic Functional Linguistics. The
evaluative meanings which are described by the appraisal framework provide several
mechanisms by which the interpersonal metafunction operates, in which they present the
speaker or the writer as expressing their feelings and opinions with greater or lesser degrees
of directness, as interpreting propositions as more or as less controversial or justifiable, and
thus aligning or disaligning with value positions in play in the current context (White, 2015).
One of appraisal’s domains is attitude. Attitude is concerned with our feelings, including
emotions, judgments of behavior, and appreciations or evaluations of things (Martin &
White, 2005). A number of studies examined text using attitude (Pasaribu et al., 2017;
Putriyantina & Said, 2018; and Nuraisiah et al., 2018). By using attitude, they evaluated
things, people’s character, and his/her feelings.

The first study is the study by Pasaribu et al. (2017). In the study, attitude analysis is
used to find out the semantic choice of the newspapers to describe the image of the
Indonesian Presidential Candidates of 2014, Prabowo Subianto and Joko Widodo. The
second study is the study by Putriyantina & Said (2018). The purpose of the study is to find
out the realization of attitude analysis on male and female second-year students’ narrative
texts. The third study is the study by Nuraisiah et al. (2018). The study deals with attitudes
toward sexism. The purpose of the study is to know the translation technique and quality in
terms of accuracy and acceptability. According to the study, sexism and attitudes relate each
other because they are socially constructed. Sexism treats gender unequally in terms of
evaluation, treatment, thought, feeling, and intention. Meanwhile attitude evaluates things,
people, and feeling.

The three previous studies that utilize attitude have different purposes. However, this
research is intended to investigate inequality over women and men in Indonesian folktales
using a domain under appraisal theory, attitude. As Nuraisiah et al. (2018) relate sexism and
attitudes based on how they are constructed, this research also relates gender stereotypes and
attitudes because both also are socially constructed.

Van Dijk (1993) argued that if women continue to be exploited and limited to men
dominance, violence or sexual harassment, it is important to do evaluation from their point of
view. Such thing will be called sexist if women say so. Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA)
can be utilized to evaluate such event. According to Wodak & Meyer (2001), CDA aims to
produce enlightment and emancipation. It aims to create social awareness on how society
normalizes inequality. Several researches have utilized CDA to unveil the value and ideology
in the text that lie beneath (Rasman, 2014; Iqbal et al., 2014; Zulaikha & Diana, 2017;
Ahmad & Shah, 2019; and Susanti, 2019). The five works used Fairclogh’s three-
dimensional framework of CDA which consists of text, discursive practice, and social
practice.

Rasman (2014) and Ahmad & Shah (2019) both examined English language
textbooks. Rasman, (2014) analyzed the gender stereotypes in textbook by employing
Halliday’s transitivity theory in the text or description stage. Then it passed the next two
stages according to Fairclough’s framework. Ahmad & Shah (2019) utilized eight-factor
procedure which is adapted from Amerian and Esmaili to examine gender representations in
textbooks. The interpretation employed Fairclough’s framework. Iqbal et al. (2014) and
Susanti (2019) investigated the strategies used by advertisements to persuade people. Susanti
(2019) analyzed Pantene and Garnier advertisements. Iqbal et al. (2014) used Fairclough’s
framework to explain the language and strategies used by Fair & Lovely advertisement to
influence and exploite women. And finally, Zulaikha & Diana (2017) discussed bias and
power in the four news articles in Jakarta Post.

Considering the previous works, in the discussion part the author will discuss the
finding by adopting Fairclough’s second and third stages of CDA framework. The folktales
which are analyzed in this research are obtained from children books published by Bintang
Indonesia, Jakarta. There are five Indonesian folktales that are investigated. The author
hopes that this research can people becomes more careful with gender stereotypes issue in
learning materials, especially English teachers and parents so they can provide learning
materials or literature that are free from gender stereotypes

There are some questions that will be investigated in this research. The questions are as
follows:

1. What are the attitudes of the society towards women?

2. What are the attitudes of the society towards men?
3. Do the attitudes of the society portray gender stereotypes?

The paper is structured as follows. The researcher first gives brief overview of this paper
in the abstract. Then the first section of the paper is introduction, where the topic background
and the motivation of the research are discussed. It will then go on with literature review that
provides basic knowledge from literature on folktale, gender stereotype, and appraisal. The
researcher gives information about how the research is conducted on the method section.
Then the result is presented and discussed in findings and discussion. In the conclusion
section, the researcher restates the key points of the paper, provides the implication of the
paper, and gives recommendation for the future research.

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