June22012

Gender Roles

Have you guys seen this? Recently, Dr. Pepper launched this new type of drink called “Dr. Pepper 10” and it’s apparently “not for women.” This actually made me pretty angry. The soda is packaged with a wrapping with pictures of bullets instead of the usual bubbles. They emphasize that it’s made with real sugar and not the stuff in the diet drink. All the while Diet Dr. Pepper marketing is “women-friendly.” I just thought that this was related to M. Butterfly because of the gender roles that are applied. The men are supposed to be strong and mighty and able to intake all the real sugar and other ingredients. While the women can’t do that because they have to stay small and dainty and drink diet sodas. In M. Butterfly, the gender role of having a man be the powerful one also exists. What do you guys think of this ad? I suggest also watching the commercial, which can be seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iuG1OpnHP8

~Gabby

dr pepper gender roles m butterfly 

May232012

Twist and Shout - The Beatles

Haaa alright so this song doesn’t really relate to what I’m going to talk about…. but hey..it’s the last blog post (I think) so what the hay

The reason I thought it *somewhat* related was because everything is getting ‘twisted’…

Anyways, there are many huge contradictions and role reversals we see in M. Butterfly. One being the stereotype of East and West. Towards the end of the play, the idea of “rape mentality” and East being feminine (desiring to be dominated, “want to be treated bad” 1.4, p 6) and the West being masculine (3.1, p 83).  Along with the basis of Madame Butterfly and other references to the West’s superiority, the conclusion of the play proves otherwise. In the end, the ‘superior’ Westerner falls apart at the hands of Song, an Easterner. This also brings up the reversal of gender roles.  Through Song’s actions, we learn a lot about what men think men want (and what men - like Gallimard - expect/want in a woman).  But the words “just a man” in act three, scene two (pg 88) and just the fact that Song has been pretending to be a woman for twenty years brings the roles into question.  We see reversals in power; we see twisted ideas of reality and fantasy - but the last switch I want to discuss is who is Butterfly and who is Pinkerton (who are the parallels between Gallimard and Song).  Throughout the whole story, you are lead to believe that Song is Butterfly, and Gallimard even begins to call her that.  Therefore, you would assume Gallimard is Pinkerton (even though he explicitly said he wasn’t in the beginning of the play). But, in the end we see that Song was the real Pinkerton and it is Gallimard who has been Butterfly.

This play takes many twists and turns and flops over everyone’s idea’s of right and wrong.

-Annsley

M. Butterfly madame butterfly the beatles twist and shout role reversal gender roles gallimard song liling east and west 

May222012

Right before killing himself on page 92 and 93 Act 3, Scene 3, Gallimard says, “Death with honor is better than life… life with dishonor. (He sets himself center stages, in a seppuku position) The love of a Butterfly can withstand many things–unfaithfulness, loss, even abandonment. But how can it face the one sin that implies all others? The devastating knowledge that, underneath it all, the object of her love was nothing more, nothing less than…a man.”

While this quote does most directly depict Gallimard’s transformation into Butterfly but killing himself due to, for simplicity’s sake, abandonment just as Butterfly in Madame Butterfly ends up doing, I think more than that he kills himself out of complete humiliation and loss. Rather than being so noble and living out his fantasy by killing himself, I feel like the shock of realizing his fantasy was nothing more than a fantasy instead of the reality he thought it was also drives him to kill himself. I also think we see a lot of shame from him when he says that death with honor is better than life with dishonor. He sees Song as having made a fool of out him. Today in class we discussed a lot about the idea of this moment being one of power for Gallimard because he gets to live out his fantasy and escape reality but I want to also consider the idea of this scene being one of Gallimard’s weakness. Throughout the book the woman is portrayed as being weak and submissive and in this scene I think Gallimard can be interpreted as submitting to his loss and humiliation through death as an escape. Do you guys think Gallimard’s speech before his suicide represents his strength or weakness?

Ashley

M. Butterfly Hwang david henry hwang gallimard suicide weakness gender roles 

February162012
I loved the fact that The Tempest movie, Helen Mirren was Prosperpa. I feel that having a woman play Prospero really changes the power dynamic with all of the characters. For instance, when Miranda is talking with Prospero in the book it seems she is very submissive and worshipful of her father and his power. But in the movie, when she is speaking with Prospera, their relationship seems very similar to a mother and daughter relationship that we would see in our day to day life, not worshipful or submissive. Although I understand that some of this dynamic could be the interpretation of the director of this film, there is no denying the drastic difference in dynamic between Prospera and Miranda. Do you guys see any other places in the movie where there are differences because Prospero is a woman? How do you think people in Shakespearean times would react to this interpretation? -Courtney

I loved the fact that The Tempest movie, Helen Mirren was Prosperpa. I feel that having a woman play Prospero really changes the power dynamic with all of the characters. For instance, when Miranda is talking with Prospero in the book it seems she is very submissive and worshipful of her father and his power. But in the movie, when she is speaking with Prospera, their relationship seems very similar to a mother and daughter relationship that we would see in our day to day life, not worshipful or submissive. Although I understand that some of this dynamic could be the interpretation of the director of this film, there is no denying the drastic difference in dynamic between Prospera and Miranda. Do you guys see any other places in the movie where there are differences because Prospero is a woman? How do you think people in Shakespearean times would react to this interpretation?

-Courtney

helen mirren felicity jones Shakespeare gender roles gender switch 

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