The Role of the Woman within M. Butterfly, Miss Saigon and Memoirs of a Geisha - Book Report/Review Example

Ramakrishna Surampudi 9 May Woman in M Butterfly, Miss Saigon and Memoirs of a Geisha “[Women’s roles are played by men in the Peking opera] because only a man knows how a woman is supposed to act.” – Song in M Butterfly These words can be generalized and applied to the characterization of women in the themes of M Butterfly, Miss Saigon and Memoirs of a Geisha. They are oversimplified women from a man’s perspective, more precisely a Western perspective. They are products of men’s fantasies of Oriental sweethearts, without any control over themselves, faithfully adhering to and acting in line with the prescriptions and expectations of those around them. The characters seem to have read the books on Orientalism. They are humble Eastern girls glad to be dominated by macho Westerners all along (everything2.com). They are merely stereotypes created, promoted and perpetuated by literature and mass media. In all the three, the Asian woman’s identity is one of being an object of desire. It is all along macho Westerners dominating the humble Eastern female. M Butterfly was a Chinese woman (?) hired by the government to spy by way of a relationship with a French diplomat. Miss Saigon was a young, innocent Vietnamese bargirl sold for a night to an American Marine. Chiyo was sold into the Okia by her poor Japanese parents. They are prostitutes, tasty Asian delicacies. They can be given away as prizes in a raffle. They beg for love, have sleepless nights waiting for their men, for weeks, for years. They are even willing to go to the extent of supreme sacrifice, killing themselves only prove how intense their love is. (Didn’t Madame Butterfly disembowel herself in the end? It doesn’t matter who actually died. Madame Butterfly’s existence may be unreal but her death is real. The Perfect Woman existed only in Gallimard’s fantasy world and she died when that world crashed down.) They are passive, submissive and servile. They can be conditioned easily. A man can do anything with them. He does not have to hesitate to make impetuous advances in the first meeting. Still, men are women’s saviors who change their lives for the better and are generous enough to accept their children. When they seduce a woman, they are actually doing a favor to them. In the plot of Miss Saigon, all the woman characters that the reader comes across are prostitutes. But there is a beautiful, innocent virgin with a heart of gold, who had never been kissed. The summary briefly is about a White man saving an Asian woman from an Asian man and the Asian woman dying for the White man (Shimizu, 2007, 36). Kim chooses love as her road to liberation. Such dependent attitude, a mistaken perception of enslavement to be empowerment, is frustrating. It later proves to be her thwarted American Dream (or her idealized version of it), her aspirations for herself and for her son. It was a foiled attempt of escape from poverty, fear and loneliness. She does not grow through the story. She keeps the conviction ‘I still believe’ (like that of Butterfly in Un Bel Di) and waits desperately for her lover’s return and her rescue and her son’s reunion with his father. She decides to let her dream wane for her son’s sake and commits suicide. If there is way to take a positive view of the stereotype, it is that Kim is a ‘good’ woman; she is very loyal to her love, she takes care of her child very well, she does not want to be a trouble to anyone. The portrayal of Kim’s character in Miss Saigon suggests that Asian women are good but not intelligent or practical. All the themes in M Butterfly are centered on sexual politics. Sexual politics is nothing new; it existed from the times of Cleopatra. But M Butterfly remains enigmatic for it gives an unconventional picture of masculinity and femininity. The fundamental definition of the term ‘woman’ gets changed. The play exposes the fallacious nature of the notions about the inherent traits that characterize gender. It is a subtle struggle between Gallimard and Song for control over each other. The struggle is sexual as well as intellectual. Gallimard is explicit about his chauvinistic desire to dominate Song, but the latter is strategic and silent about it. Marc echoes a view similar to that of Gallimard when he remarks ‘Doesn’t matter whose ass is between whose legs’ in the fourth scene of the first act. Who enslaves whom becomes obvious as the story unfolds. Song’s character is in stark contrast to that of Kim in Miss Saigon. She is not the sacrificing kind. The plot of M Butterfly has the woman winning in the end over the man. (Or, is it a man’s victory? That is where the confusion lies.) Song’s womanhood is a theoretical truth, even if it were masquerading. Gallimard was in love with the perfect woman of his dreams, who, in his fancy, is Song. (It is indeed intriguing how he could continue a relationship for twenty years fooling himself all the way.) It is possible to attribute his tragic end to his irrational imagination, but again, the imagination was about a woman. Thus, the victor was a woman, be it real or imaginary. It was David Henry Hwang’s conspicuous way of presenting the women’s case. In the second scene of the first act, there is a comment that Gallimard’s trial ‘makes a compelling case for sex education in the schools’. Of the three that make the comment, two are men and the other is a woman. The significance of this composition is the implication that even in the Western society, it is men’s voice that dominates. There is another remark by the woman that “the French are ladies’ men”, which suggests women’s vulnerability and men’s capability to seduce them. The typical Western woman, however, is bold and aggressive as may be perceived from the character of the imaginary pin-up girl who declares that she leaves her blinds open every night before she goes to bed in the fifth scene of the first act. Song, in her first meeting with Gallimard, is defiant. Later she becomes the submissive Oriental woman exactly as he fantasizes because she understands that the man’s ego must be satisfied if he is to be controlled. The understanding comes easily because Song is a man too and only a man knows how a woman is supposed to act (with the implication that most women do not understand this aspect). The difference between the two stereotypes is made obvious in the sixth scene in the quote “Oriental women – when they’re good, they’re good – but when they’re bad, they’re Christians.” The desire exhibited by Gallimard for domination and control is only indicative; it applies to all men just as well. Gallimard’s first name differs only by one letter from that of Renee with whom he has an affair. It may be the writer’s intention to establish that the differences between gender are so minor. Memoirs of a Geisha is the portrayal of a Japanese woman by an American man. (Ironically, the official consultant for the film Memoirs of a Geisha also is a non-Asian – Liz Dalby, a non – Asian geisha. No wonder then, archetypes are predictable in a film for Asians made by non – Asians.) The theme, as in Miss Saigon, takes us through the Asian slums, where poverty forces parents to sell their children, girls especially, and of glorified prostitutes. It also gives the impression that geishas are girls forced into that profession and it does not happen by choice, the truth of which is debatable. Going by the literal meaning of the word, geisha is supposed to a woman who lives by her artistic talent. The bitter reality, as is evident from The Memoirs of Geisha is light years away from the literal meaning. Rather than by art, she lives by her wit (like Tom Sawyer). She is more like the character of Angelina Jolie in the movie Original Sin, of course, with the difference that she loved the Chairman and only him. Sayuri’s character grows and evolves through the story. As a child she is ignorant, quarrelsome and scared. At one point of the story, her prospects of becoming a geisha are apparently exhausted, but after her encounter with the Chairman she strongly resolves that she is going to be a geisha at any rate. The disgusting rituals endured by Sayuri notwithstanding, she is a carefree, yet engaging, character which gives the impression that she is a fallen woman. Like the typical Asian woman of the Kim’s kind, and the Song’s kind, the source of her power is hypersexual behaviour, but she has a heart of gold. She is a picaresque heroin unlike the pious Cinderella. Her belief system too is akin to that of Kim. Her survival, happiness, success, honor are all the function of her relationship with a man. A male-controlled world is taken for granted. That is the highest point in her need hierarchy and there is no such thing as self-actualization. They just do not come under the purview of Maslow’s theory. Be it the bar girls in Saigon or the women in Nitta Okiya, they make no effort to create an identity of their own for them; instead, they compete for men, and in that process, go to the extent of destroying each other. Miss Saigon or M Butterfly or Memoirs, they present Asian woman the way Westerners want her to be – peculiar, interesting and compliant. But that is hardly surprising. What surprises is that the Asian women seem to feel flattered about these portrayals (wanderlusting.org). References Shimizu, Celine Perreñas (2007) The Hypersexuality of Race. China: Duke University Press M Butterfly Memoirs of a Geisha. Heather Fife. 18 August 2006. < http://wanderlusting.org/blog/heatherfife/memoirs-of-a-geisha> Read More