Extreme Roles :: essays research papers

Extreme Roles In every country, city, town and neighborhood in the world, there are stereotypes. We all live in a classified area where you can be regarded as rich, poor or middle class. Within those three types there becomes sub-categories, where ethnicity , gender and sexuality also become a part of the environment. The list goes on and on. In David H. Hwang’s M. Butterfly, the roles of men and women in the Eastern and Western society are extremely limited in that men and women are both expected to act there part. Being a women in Eastern society, means basically, to do whatever possible to please your man. Song, although we come to find is actually a man, played the part of the perfect women. " Gallimard: I have a vision. Of, the Orient. That, deep within its almond eyes, there are still women. Women willing to sacrifice themselves for the love of a man. Even a man whose love is completely without worth."(Act three, scene three, pg.92). Song knew from experience t hat men of the Western world loved submissive women who would do anything to please the man they were with. Femininity is displayed as weak and passive. In order to find a man, a women had to do anything, even accept the fact that there husbands would find a mistress on the side. It was socially acceptable to be intentionally blind to what your husband was doing. The same also seemed to take place in the Western world as well, although not at such extreme cases.. Helga assumed that Gallimard took up a mistress while living in the Orient. Masculinity in this novel seems to be, the more women you have in your lifetime, the more you are considered a man. "Gallimard: (To us): Toulon knows! And he approves! I was learning the benefits of being a man. We form our own clubs, sit behind thick doors, smoke-and celebrate the fact that we’re still boys†¦."(Act two, scene 4, pg. 46). The men in this novel seemed enchanted with the idea of women and the fame they got with f riends when it was found out that they were having extra marital affairs. In the Orient and the Western world as well, masculinity wasn’t defined by hard work and a having and striving toward a perfect marriage and family life, it was defined by sex. Sex with other women than your wife.