Woman Representative in Song “Tutur Batin” and “Sumpah Mati”: Exiestensialist Feminist Studies of Simone de Beauvoir

Abstract

This article examined the representation of women in the lyrics of two songs, “Tutur Batin” and “Sumpah Mati,”, using Simone de Beauvoir's existentialist feminist framework as formulated in The Second Sex (1949), especially in concept of immanence, transcendence, and the position of women as the Other (Liyan). Close Reading was used in this study to explore how “I´ within each set of lyrics, the position established in a power relation with "you"—as well as how that position shifts or remains static throughout the lyrics. The analysis revealed that the two songs exhibit significantly different patterns of existential movement. “Tutur Batin” presented a linear-dialectical narrative structure: moving from a state of immanence (woman as an object subject to judgment and restriction), through a phase of rejecting external definitions, toward full transcendence (woman as an autonomous subject charting her own life path). Conversely, 'Sumpah Mati' presented a circular narrative structure: the awareness of the need to be free repeatedly emerges, yet it never materialized into concrete action. Consequently, the 'I' in these lyrics remained trapped in the position of the other, despite verbally expressing a desire to break free from it. A comparison of these two songs reveals that transcendence, within the Beauvoirian framework, was not a state achieved through mere intention, but rather through concrete actions that break the cycle of dependence on external validation.

Keywords: Existentialist feminism, Immanence, Representation of women, Simone de Beauvoir, Transcendence