Gender, Signs, and Existence: A Semiotic Interpretation of A Normal Woman Through Simone de Beauvoir’s Existentialist Feminism

Abstract

This study critically examines the representation of gender values and women’s existential positioning in A Normal Woman (2025), directed by Lucky Kuswandi. Drawing on Roland Barthes’ semiotic framework and Simone de Beauvoir’s existentialist feminism, this research analyzes how visual signs, dialogue, symbols, and narrative structures construct meanings about femininity within a modern patriarchal culture. Using a qualitative descriptive method through media text analysis, the study interprets filmic signs at the levels of denotation, connotation, and myth. The findings reveal that A Normal Woman does not merely depict women as positioned as the Other, but critically exposes how patriarchal ideology disciplines women’s bodies, emotions, and identities through stereotypes, subordination, and objectification. These mechanisms operate as an interconnected system that confines the female protagonist, Milla, within a state of immanence. However, the film also articulates a trajectory of resistance, illustrating Milla’s gradual movement toward transcendence as she asserts bodily autonomy, self-awareness, and existential agency. This study argues that A Normal Woman functions as a form of cultural critique that challenges dominant constructions of normal femininity by revealing gender as a socially produced and ideologically regulated condition rather than a natural destiny. By integrating Barthes’ semiotics with Beauvoir’s existentialist feminism, this research contributes to feminist film and communication studies by demonstrating how contemporary Indonesian cinema can serve as a site of ideological contestation and existential redefinition of womanhood.