Asian woman.

Essential Passage 3: Act 3, Scene 1

SONG: Rule Two: As soon as a Western man comes into contact with the East—he’s already confused. The West has sort of an international rape mentality towards the East. Do you know rape mentality?

JUDGE: Give us your definition, please.

SONG: Basically, “her mouth says no, but her eyes say yes.” The West thinks of itself as masculine—big guns, big industry, big money—so the East is feminine—weak, delicate, poor…but good at art, and full of inscrutable wisdom—the feminine mystique. Her mouth says no, but her eyes say yes. The West believes the East, deep down, wants to be dominated—because a woman can’t think for herself.

JUDGE: What does this have to do with my question?

SONG: You expect Oriental countries to submit to your guns, and you expect Oriental women to be submissive to your men. That’s why you say they make the best wives.

Summary Song is in Paris, on trial for espionage. Likewise, Gallimard is accused of treason in conjunction with Song. The details of their relationship have become well-known and the talk of the town. During the trial, the judge is curious as to how Song kept his gender a secret from the man with whom he was having an affair. Song relates that the deception could not have been possible except for the stereotypes that have built upon between East and West concerning each other. He states that, first of all, a man will always believe what he wants to hear. It was thus easy for Song to convince Gallimard that he, Song as a woman, was modest, even over a twenty year period. Secondly, the stereotypes that a Westerner has concerning the East allows for some confusion to begin with, thus it was easy for Song to confuse Gallimard even further. Song’s description of the stereotypical Westerner, as a male bent on conquest of the East, mirrors the West’s view of the Eastern woman. For this reason, the stereotype of the submissive Asian woman was the key to manipulating Gallimard to obtain information from him.

Analysis of Essential PassagesThe plot, as wells as the characters’ perceptions leading to their actions, of M. Butterfly is founded on the acceptance of stereotypes. The idea of the Westerner as opposed to the Easterner, as well as man versus woman, drives the story along leading to its ultimate and tragic conclusion. Not only does Rene Gallimard approach Song with the attitude of her being a “typical” Asian (therefore, submissive) woman, but Song herself infiltrates Gallimard’s life, for purposes of intelligence-gathering, utilizing that stereotype. She bases her actions on her own view of a stereotypical Western male. The eventual reversal of roles leads to an ironic ending to this tale of deception and deliberate misunderstanding.

The surface stereotype exploited through the plot of M. Butterfly is that of the cultural and societal differences between the Western societies and those of the Eastern nations. First is presented the typical Western male: egotistical, power-hungry, domineering, dominating, sex-oriented, and conquest-seeking. Though Rene Gallimard is none of these, it is on this basis that Song treats him, both initially and throughout their long relationship. Gallimard is in fact weak, shy, subjective, and inexperienced. Yet Song assumes, for her own purposes, that as a Western male, he has come to the East to dominate Asian women. In order to achieve her ulterior motive of spying for the Communist Chinese government, Song treats him according to the stereotype. Eventually Gallimard does indeed rise up to fulfill the expectation, which leads to his ultimate downfall.

Song herself counts on the stereotype of the weak, submissive Asian woman in order to trap Gallimard and keep him in deception for over twenty years. Her plea to the court that Gallimard never discovered her true gender leads to the revelation that she pretended to by the stereotypical modest Chinese woman, uncomfortable with her sexuality and thus never appearing nude in front of Gallimard. Nor does she seem to have encouraged much of an “adventurous” relationship with Gallimard, since he never “accidentally” found out her true identity as a man.

In this case, however, the plot goes against the stereotype of the Westerner acting on a racial prejudice. It is in fact Song, an Easterner, who assumes the stereotype. Forcing the false racial identity, he manipulates the Westerner, instead of the Westerner manipulating the Easterner. By this juxtaposition of ironic presentation, the nature of stereotypes is even more clearly presented.

The stereotypes extend beyond race to the issue of gender. Both Song and Gallimard are males, yet both at some point assume a female identity. In Act II Scene 7, Song states "only a man knows how a woman is supposed to act.” By this he meant that a man, standing on the outside, has enough powers of observation to see, both how a woman acts, but also how a man views a woman. It is by both of these viewpoints that Song is so successfully to fill the female stereotype and thus deceive Gallimard. By assuming “female weakness,” he in fact carries out his plan through “male manipulation.” When he is weak, then he is strong. This in fact is also a facet of the stereotypical female, who uses her weakness to gain control over a man. It is in fact exactly this way that Song controlled Gallimard, who as a weak man also goes against the male stereotype.

Hwang presents the issues surrounding stereotype not as justified or as true, but an account of how such stereotypes can be used as weapons against another. The danger in stereotype lies not in how it diminishes one’s view of oneself, but in how it makes him vulnerable to the manipulation of others.