M Butterfly - the Price of a Woman

The Price of a Woman

The relationship between a man and a woman has been a constant struggle of inferiority since the beginning of time. The role of a woman has evolved from being someone not allowed to have an opinion, to the owner of a multi-million dollar company. Over the years women have developed the passion and skills in order to fight for what they believe in. However, in some countries women are still placed at the bottom of the societal list, and their constant battle of how their culture looks and feels about women in modern day society is hard to win. David Henry Hwang describes the hardships of a woman in Chinese society in his drama M. Butterfly.

M. Butterfly’s theme of sexuality, culture, and ethnicity has made it one of the most controversial plays of all time. The relationship that Gallimard and Song form causes a division of how a relationship between a man and a woman is viewed. Since Gallimard does not know that Song is actually a spy, it becomes increasingly harder for someone to understand how a husband could not know that his wife was a man after twenty years of marriage. It becomes apparent that Gallimard’s love for Song is extremely strong and unconditional, and even after the trial proves that Song is a man Gallimard seems to still be somewhat in love with Song.

The Chinese culture believes that a woman who does not speak, think, act, or feel

is the perfect woman. In the United States views of women have begun to change as their positions in the world are steadily being fought for. However, when M. Butterfly was written, things had not begun to change for woman in communist China, and the respect they deserved was non existent. In China a woman’s purpose is to please her husband at anytime or place, and their feelings do not count for anything.

Although it has been many years since the play M. Butterfly was written, many stereotypes of women in China still hold true to this day. In act 1 scene 3, Gallimard has just purchased Butterfly, as her friends call her, and he is boasting about how wonderful it is to finally find a woman who knows her place in society, and to please her husband in every way possible (Hwang 709). This stereotypical image of Chinese women has made it almost impossible for them to gain any form of respect and place in society. Today women of China are not struggling for the same rights that women of other cultures have, and it is very obvious that the public still wants to portray Chinese women as helpless individuals looking for their dominating husband. Although, Chinese women have been trying to elevate themselves from their inferior status, it sometimes seems like a lost cause when today in the United States Chinese girls are seen on television as, “call girls from the exotic east, where men are king; obedient girls, trained in the art of pleasure” (Afterward 1). In these television ads there is an appealing side that captures men of the west because the women of the west have become so independent and strong. To men women who appear to be weaker, and desire a relationship with someone who will be in control of their every move are ideal in every way. Gallimard knows that Song will do anything he asks of her, and by her giving into his wishes only reinforces the power that

he feels over her.

To many readers the story of M. Butterfly seems almost inevitable, and most wonder what how someone could go so for many years without knowing that his lover was a man. In Chinese culture men have always been the dominant figure

in a relationship; however, Gallimard, or any man from the west, would not understand the Chinese customs. Gallimard was taken for a fool since he did not know that Asian women are just as comfortable around their partners as a women of the Western culture would be (Afterward 1). Since Song tells Gallimard that she will not take off her clothes because it is against the ways of her culture, and he believes her because he does not know any different it adds a new understanding to why he was so blinded by her mysterious ways (Afterward 1).

Chinese men take great pride in knowing that their women are beneath them, and they use their authority to make women feel unimportant, brainless, and very dependent on their husbands.

When reading M. Butterfly one of the most powerful scenes that portrays the way women are looked down upon in China is in Act 1 Scene 6. In this scene Gallimard is trying to compliment Song for her performance in the opera, but she takes his kindness for sarcasm, and tells him that she believes the only reason that he thinks the story is sad is because it reveals the way Chinese women are really treated by men (Hwang 714-716). Song knows that women are looked down upon, and when Gallimard expresses the way he