ISSN: 2222-6990
Open access
Since the term ‘janda’, Malay for previously married women, is typically seen to carry a negative connotation, this study set out to investigate society’s perceptions towards media portrayal of the word ‘janda’ in Malaysia. It also aimed to examine the significant difference between gender on the perceptions towards the media portrayal. The quantitative approach was employed in this research and data for this study were questionnaire responses collected from 381 respondents of different backgrounds. The results showed that in general, the media in Malaysia portrays janda negatively. However, there are still positive portrayals of janda in the media as independent individuals especially when it relates to their children. Other than that, it was also discovered that there was a significant difference in the perception of media portrayals of janda in Malaysia between genders and it seemed that women felt that the media portrayed jandas more negatively compared to men. Future research could use qualitative methods to have an in-depth analysis and a further understanding of the reasons for negative media portrayal of janda and how it influences society, both directly and indirectly.
Adamu, Y. M., & Ibrahim, R. A. (2018). Spheres and Spaces and Divorcees in Zawarawa (A Hausa Movie): Towards a New Paradigm of Examining Divorcees in Hausa Society. In Bhadmous, M.O. (Ed.) The Nigerian Cinema: Gender, Politics and Sexuality in Nigerian Motion Pictures (1-16). Department of Theatre Arts, Bayero University, Kano.
Affan, H. (2020). Hari Perempuan Internasional: 'Stop seksualisasi janda!' Melawan stigma negatif janda melalui podcast. BBC News Indonesia.
https://www.bbc.com/indonesia/majalah-51442049
Asri, S. (2022). Tiga Janda Melawan Dunia! Sarat dengan komedi. Harian Metro. https://www.hmetro.com.my/rap/2022/05/842714/tiga-janda-melawan-dunia-sarat-dengan-komedi
Chua, C. N., & Yunus, M. M. (2020). RollRoll dice: An effective method to improve writing skills
among year 3 pupils in constructing SVOA sentences. Universal Journal of Educational Research, 8(6), 2368-2382. https://doi.org/10.13189/ujer.2020.080621
Creese, H. (2016). The legal status of widows and divorcees (janda) in colonial Bali. Indonesia and the Malay World, 44(128), 84–103. https://doi.org/10.1080/13639811.2015.1100862
Fong, Y. L., & Nyathi, S. E. C. (2019). Gender representation and framing of Malaysian women: A study of feature articles in female magazine. Journal of Content, Community and Communication, 10(9), 29-38. https://amity.edu/gwalior/jccc/pdf/jccc-12-19-04.pdf
Hakim, A. M. (2017). Fahami cabaran, kesukaran ibu tunggal. Berita Harian. https://www.bharian.com.my/rencana/muka10/2017/10/332201/fahami-cabaran-kesukaran-ibu-tunggal
Karupiah, P. (2020). Stigma and widow remarriage: experiences of Malaysian Tamil women. Journal of Family Studies, 1-17. https://doi.org/10.1080/13229400.2020.1819378
Khan, T. A., & Hamid, W. (2021). Lived experiences of divorced women in Kashmir: a
phenomenological study. Journal of Gender Studies, 30(4), 379-394. https://doi.org/10.1080/09589236.2020.1826295
Liao, S., & Ling, Q. (2022). The “Little Third”: Changing Images of Women Characters Involved in Extramarital Affairs on Chinese TV. Communication, Culture and Critique, 15(3), 355-371. https://doi.org/10.1093/ccc/tcac002
Mahy, P., Winarnita, M. S., & Herriman, N. (2016). Presumptions of promiscuity: reflections on being a widow or divorcee from three Indonesian communities. Indonesia and the Malay World, 44(128), 47-67. https://doi.org/10.1080/13639811.2015.1100872
Manuoglu, E., Sakalli, N., & Koskos-Gurel, D. (2021). Attitudes toward Divorced Women Scale and Its Associations with Ambivalent Sexism and Demographic Variables. Journal of Divorce & Remarriage, 62(7), 494-510.
https://doi.org/10.1080/10502556.2021.1925855
Mazumdar, S. (2019). Free market media, democracy, and partisanship: a case study of Kolkata’s newspapers’ coverage of anti-industrialization protests. International Journal of Communication, 13, 22.
https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/8805/2585
Morris, C., & Munt, S. R. (2019). Classed formations of shame in white, British single mothers. Feminism & psychology, 29(2), 231-249. https://doi.org/10.1177/0959353518787847
Nadeau, K. (2020). Dancing around the Cauldron with Rangda, the Balinese widow-witch: Exploring gender relations and attitudes toward women and children in Southeast Asia. Masyarakat, Kebudayaan dan Politik, 33(4), 364-370.
https://doi.org/10.20473/mkp.V33I42020.364-370
Parker, L. (2016). The theory and context of the stigmatisation of widows and divorcees (janda) in Indonesia. Indonesia and the Malay World, 44(128), 7–26. https://doi.org/10.1080/13639811.2015.1100863.
Pusavat, G. S. (2007). Gender Perception Differences for Relationships Portrayed on Television [Undergraduate’s Honors Thesis, Cornell University]. Cornell University Library https://hdl.handle.net/1813/7822
Saraswati, R. (2020). Shame and Indonesian women victims of domestic violence in making the decision to divorce. Identities, 27(5), 557-573.
https://doi.org/10.1080/1070289X.2019.1600313
Sendratari, L. P., Malihah, E., & Margi, K. (2022). The divorcee memes in the virtual field: Body discourse positioning as the object and enhancement of sexual image. Kasetsart Journal of Social Sciences, 43(2), 481-486.
https://doi.org/10.34044/j.kjss.2022.43.2.28
Setiawan, Y. B., Sarwono, B. K., Asteria, D., & Sunarto, S. (2022). Perpetuation of Stigmatization of Minority Groups through Convergence of Content on Streaming and Social Media. Jurnal The Messenger, 14(1), 17-35.
http://dx.doi.org/10.26623/themessenger.v14i1.4158
Singh, P., Ghani, P. A., & Hoon, T. S. (2009). Quantitative data analysis for novice researchers. Malaysia: Primera Publishing.
Suharnomo, S., & Hashim, F. (2019). Differences in organization citizenship behavior between “serumpun” countries (Indonesia–Malaysia). Journal of Asia Business Studies, 13(3) 349-361. https://doi.org/10.1108/JABS-12-2016-0178
Waseem, J., Muneer, R., Hoor-Ul-Ain, S., Tariq, R., & Minhas, A. (2020). Psychosocial determinants of divorce and their effects on women in Pakistan: a national review. International Journal of Human Rights in Healthcare, 13(4), 299–315.
https://doi.org/10.1108/ijhrh-09-2018-0059
Yusuf, I. A. (2020). Perpetuating Stigma: Representation of Widows and Divorcees (Janda) in Indonesian Popular Media. I-Pop: International Journal of Indonesian Popular Culture and Communication, 1(1), 1-12. http://doi.org/10.36782/i-pop.v1i1.34
Zhang, H. (2022). Re-defining stigmatization: intersectional stigma of single mothers in Thailand. Journal of Family Studies, 1-27.
https://doi.org/10.1080/13229400.2022.2035797
In-Text Citation: (Sabri et al., 2022)
To Cite this Article: Sabri, S., Khairuddin, Z., Satimin, O., Johan, S. J. A., & Yusof, F. H. M. (2022). Perception towards Media Portrayals of Janda in Malaysia. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 12(12), 992 – 1003.
Copyright: © 2022 The Author(s)
Published by Human Resource Management Academic Research Society (www.hrmars.com)
This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) license. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non0-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this license may be seen at: http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode