Geovani Borja

Professor Batty

English 102

13 October 2017

Dominance

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

parts masculinity plays a big part. In 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 a

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.

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

the very beginning of his fall. In reality Gallimard was never in charge. He had set a mindset that

he was the stereotypical eastern man who had a beautiful woman eating out of his hand but he

was the one being dominated. Song wasnt truly submissive for him like he had thought she was.

In M. Butterfly Gallimard starts coming off as dominant man by ignoring Song and

acting rough with her. He thinks by doing that Song 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 ask 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

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.

Western dominance began to be a thing 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 he

wouldnt be judged like that back in Paris.

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 an illusion 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 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. He never saw Song undressed because he never forced her to do it. In an article by

Emile Cheng Hsien-Lin she goes into detail on how seeing song undressed wouldve been

destructive . It wouldve awakened Gallimard from the 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 un/dressing of bodily inscription. This is significant

because like I was saying that Gallimard and never forced Song to get naked in for him. He was

just stuck in the mindset that he was a dominant man who had an easterner dominated.

Song makes the illusion of her being the one being dominated by Gallimard so well. She

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

she acts all 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.

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 a 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 cause his downfall. He set himself up for his own destruction. David Henry Hwang

play M Butterfly opened up minds Im not tot believe into stereotypes. Gallimard's weakness was

that he couldnt accept the fact that he wasnt me of those guys who are good with woman. Him

believing that the dominant made him become the dominated. He became Songs butterfly. This

play really gives us an outlook on how it would look like if eastern culture would dominate

western culture.

Works Cited

1. 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 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=2f0009b49d2c727a76cd4343156748d

f. Accessed 16 Oct. 2017.

2. 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%7CA483829845&sid=ebsco&asid=eba829e07c20317304feca824fae96cf.

Accessed 18 Oct. 2017.

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

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