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Geovani Borja

Professor Batty

English 102

13 October 2017

False Masculinity

In the different parts of the worlds the culture is very different from each other. In some

parts masculinity plays a big part. Western countries like France, United States, and England

men are more masculine compared to eastern countries like China, Japan, and Korea. David

Henry Hwang's M. Butterfly is based on a play called Madame Butterfly which is a story about

an oriental Japanese woman who falls in love with U.S. soldier, and she ends up killing herself.

In the play M. Butterfly Gallimard tries to follow this stereotype that western men are the

dominant with eastern women. He treats Song with disrespect by ignoring her and acts very

rough with her but in reality Gallimard is the one who is being dominated by Song. M. Butterfly

subverts the oppositional binaries by switching the roles of the easterners and westerners culture.

It gives us another view on how it would look if western culture would be dominated by the

eastern culture.

Western dominance began to be known as a stereotype when European countries

started to become more modern while eastern countries stayed true to their roots. Eastern

countries began to act more freely. They could act however they wanted to in comparison to

eastern countries where if you would act a certain way you would be look as shameful. In M.

Butterfly when Gallimard shows up to Songs House it makes Song look bad. In Gallimard eyes

it seems normal since in western countries it would seem normal to be in a womans house alone.

In eastern countries like China it makes Liling look like shes a tramp since shes having a man
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over with the sole reason of just wanting to be with her. Since China is more traditional they are

more strict when it comes to relationships. Parents are usually involved in choosing the spouse

and relationships arent based of solely on emotion. Theyre based on stable the financial

standing of the partner chosen. Gallimard believe that its fine to take initiative since he is the

man the relationship. He believes that since he is the man he can take control.

Gallimard begins believing that he is in control of his relationship with Liling. That was

the very beginning of Gallimards destruction. In reality Gallimard was never in charge. He had

set himself up by having the mindset that he was the stereotypical eastern man who had a

beautiful eastern woman eating out of his hand, but he was the one being played. Song wasnt

truly submissive for him like he had thought she was. He gives off the impression that he is

dominant in their relationship. Gallimard begins by trying to be the dominant one in their

relationship.

Gallimard believes by mistreating Liling she will begin to be submissive to him but in

reality he isnt really dominant. He thinks by treating Liling wrong, she will fall for him. He acts

this way to hide the fact that hes not a dominant man. From the twenty years that Gallimard

lived with Song he never saw him naked. This shows us that he isnt that type of guy, but he

doesnt want to accept that, so he acts the way he does. He thinks that since hes western man

and Song is an eastern women he is more dominant in their relationship.

In M. Butterfly Song shows the colonial ramifications when he asks Gallimard that if the

roles were switched in Madame Butterfly would it still be beautiful. If the woman was a white

blonde women and if it were a Japanese man. If it would still be beautiful if the blonde woman

would kill herself for the Japanese man. It shows the impact on how western dominates eastern

masculinity. This is significant because it shows how the colonizer (Western Countries) is
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ignorant and insulting to the colonized (Eastern Countries). When Song explained this it really

opened my eyes when he explains the way that western countries think and how disrespectful it

is to eastern countries. Western countries portray eastern countries as weaker countries but in

reality theyre not.

In an article by Samira Sasani she explains how in M. Butterfly the colonial relationship

between Song and Gallimard isnt a normal one. She talks about how the colonizer doesnt have

the absolute power on the colonized. When the relationship between self and other seems to be

one of domination, the fact that there is a relationship at all suggests that domination is not total

(p. 46). Thus trespassing the colonial rule, Song terminates the relationship between himself and

Gallimard or generally speaking the colonizer-colonized relationship. When Song reveals to

Gallimard that he is a man the relationship ends. The relationship between the colonizer and

colonized ends because now Gallimard isnt the one who was the dominant. He was being

dominated by Song by believing that he was a woman. He revealed everything about him to

Song and Song just took that and betrayed Gallimard. Song strips him from being the Colonizer

to being the colonized.

Gallimard had embedded an illusion in his mind that he was the wearing the pants in the

relationship by creating a persona who was a lady killer but in reality he is timid, and cowardly.

He was acting this way because he thought he had Song dominated. Gallimard uses Song to

make him feel better about his masculinity. He knew song wouldnt test his masculinity, so he

did everything a western man could not do to a western woman. He treated her badly in order to

make him feel better about himself. Gallimard never saw Song undressed because he never

forced her to do it. In an article by Emile Cheng Hsien-Lin she states that if Gallimard wouldve

saw Liling undressed it wouldve been destructive. It wouldve awakened Gallimard from the
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illusion he was living in. That is to say, the undressed body does not merely strip all the

inscription from the body but also unclothes the Orientalist fantasy of Gallimard, bringing issues

regarding deception, reversal of power dynamics and sexual orientation to the foreground. It is a

reversed discourse, overthrowing the truth Gallimard lives and believes in by the undressing of

bodily inscription. What Hsien-Lin proves is that If Liling wouldve stripped herself it would

have made Gallimard awaken from the illusion that he was the dominant male in their

relationship. What I mean by this is that since Liling true identity is a man it wouldve shattered

the little confidence that he has in masculinity. Since he doesnt question why Liling doesnt get

nude in front of him Liling sees this as a weakness in Gallimard and exploits it very well.

Liling sees through Gallimard and realizes how weak his masculinity is. Liling takes

advantage of this opportunity and allows Gallimard to take charge of their relationship. She

makes him feel empowered by the things she says. When Gallimard first goes to Lilings house

she pretends to be nervous and shy about doing stuff with Gallimard. In an article by Kritik

Sastra she explains how well immersed he is in his illusion. Gallimard thinks hes getting the

Butterfly. In fact, he becomes so immersed in his own fantasy that he begins to develop the

feeling of superiority toward the image of the feminine ideal, the Eastern woman, Song Liling.

What Sastra is trying to state is that Gallimard becomes engulfed in his own masculinity that he

begins to act different towards Liling. He thinks that hes better than Liling by treating her

differently.

You may ask yourself why does it matter if Hwang is subverting hierarchical binaries

between West/East? I feel like this is an important decision that Hwang decided to change in his

play. He made the stereotypical western man a victim to an eastern woman. Which is important
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because eastern women are known to be more fragile since they are very oriental. Gallimard is

the fragile one in this story and Liling is more dominant in this play.

When the roles reverse Gallimard becomes the Butterfly and Song becomes the U.S.

sailor. Song makes Gallimard goes crazy for her while she doesnt care about him. In Madame

Butterfly Cio Cio San kills herself for the U.S. sailor. In this case Song drives Gallimard to his

death. He performs as Cio Cio San from Madame Butterfly, and he stabs himself with a blade. It

is a Japanese suicide ritual called Seppuku. It is an old suicide ritual where you stab yourself

with using a blade. Song just watches Gallimard as he dies while smoking a cigarette and doesnt

do anything to help him.

In Conclusion, with Gallimard stuck in the illusion that he was the dominant in the

relationship he cause his own downfall. He set himself up for his own destruction by letting

himself think that he was a typical western man when he was truly a fragile man. David Henry

Hwangs play M Butterfly opened up minds of the readers by subverting hierarchical binaries

between West/East. Gallimard's weakness was that he couldnt accept the fact that he wasnt one

of those guys who are good with woman. Him believing that he was dominant made him become

the victim. He became Lilings butterfly when all along he thought Liling was his butterfly.

Works Cited

Sasani, Samira. "The colonized (the other) and the colonizer's response to the colonial

desire of 'becoming almost the same but not quite the same' in M. Butterfly." Journal of
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Language Teaching and Research, vol. 6, no. 2, 2015, p. 435+. Academic OneFile,

library.lavc.edu:2077/ps/i.do?p=AONE&sw=w&u=lavc_main&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%

7CA461852199&sid=ebsco&asid=2f0009b49d2c727a76cd4343156748df. Accessed 16

Oct. 2017.

Lin, Emile Cheng-Hsien. "The fashioned victims: Addressing the un/dressed body in

Hwang's M. Butterfly." Clothing Cultures, vol. 2, no. 3, 2015, p. 297+. Academic OneFile,

library.lavc.edu:2077/ps/i.do?p=AONE&sw=w&u=lavc_main&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CA48

3829845&sid=ebsco&asid=eba829e07c20317304feca824fae96cf. Accessed 18 Oct. 2017.

Group X Kritik. Orientalism in M. Butterfly. M Butterfly, 1 Jan. 1970,

group10krisas.blogspot.com/2012/05/m-gallimard-and-orientalism.html?m=1.