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Jailyn Alvarado

Professor Batty

English 102

2 November 2018

The Significance of life

In life, we believe in the traditional boy/girl aspect of relationships. The first question we

ask the doctor when a newborn arrives is “boy or girl”. If it’s a boy, you buy boy stereotypical

items such as toys affiliated with “boy” things such as monster trucks, blue clothing, blue bib,

blue room, blue blankets, etc. If it’s a girl it is affiliated with “girl” things such as barbies, pink

room, pink blanket, unicorns, princesses, pink bib etc. It is so normalized that most people don’t

think about this concept twice until we are questioned as to why we must think this way. The

best way to understand this concept is seeing it in different perspectives.

In the play M. Butterfly by David Henry Huang shows the significance of a male

portraying a part of a woman. This play shows symbols and metaphors that naturally forms the

relationship between the two as a couple. The male (seemingly heterosexual) falls in love with

the woman (man disguised as female) and is later surprised at the fact that he has fallen in love

with the man. Although Gallimard was very unknowing of Song being a man, is he still seen as a

gay man or is he a victim in this game of love? In M. Butterfly Gallimards affection for Song as

a woman is no surprise throughout the whole play, “Then make me crazy. Marry me.” (Hwang

64) This is what Gallimard said to Song as they were talking about him divorcing his wife for

her. In Gallimards defense he had no idea about Song being transgender. In Songs defense he

just wanted to find love although it was all an act of being a woman but how is this scenario seen
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in the eye of society? My argument focuses on the homosexual identities of Gallimard and Song

as individuals and the essential gender roles they play in a generally homosexual world.

In addition, the book Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin is vastly a created world

where men may change their genders accordingly during kemmer. What does this say about the

stereotypes we have as typical homosexual beings? The significance of this book is that there are

no gender roles. There are no stereotypes because everyone is seemingly asexual (nonsexual)

human beings. This leaves no space for true judgement on each gender specifically due to the

equality shared between both. In Left Hand of Darkness it states, “I tried to, but my efforts took

the form of self- consciously seeing a Gethenian first as a man, then as a woman, forcing him

into those categories so irrelevant to his nature and so essential to my own.” (Le Guin 12). In this

part of the book I believed that this person was stating the power of masculinity in a sense of

being able to control a woman which is typical when guys are seen as strong and women are

usually portrayed as weak (although this is not true). In this book men can be feminine and

nobody questions it. In our world, men are seen as homosexual for having sexual desires for

another man and vice versa for women. Why is this so? One word: society. Society has taken

over the normalization of being gender specific. Even some colors aren’t seen as gender neutral

such as pink or blue.

In addition, when entering “Masculine” in Google search words like aggressive,

independent, dominant, tough, logical, and decisive may pop up on your screen. When entering

“feminine” in google search you may find the words emotional, verbal, kind, nurturing,

indecisive, and dependent may fill up the screen. This is not new to us woman though. This form

of defining each femininity and masculinity has its history. It all started when men had to go to

wars and the woman would often stay home to take care of their child on her own. In addition to
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this idea the woman often raised the child herself. She was better known as a home body rather

than a human. Gender stereotypes are often demeaning towards woman. It shows an obvious lack

of masculinity which is often not very true. According to uwire.com, “In just the past century,

women have altered the stereotype that they cannot do a man's work. We can think of the

obvious and suggest that women are not built with the same strength, nor stamina, nor capacity

to have free thoughts and ideas as a man would. But through the years, this has been proved

otherwise.” (Gonzalez) I believe it is highly disrespectful towards woman that others think we

are unable to do a job simply because our gender it is as if a man is unable to do “feminine”

things such as crying, which is untrue. We are highly capable of doing what the other gender

may do, vice versa. In fact, women have changed history in their actions they have taken on

through the Woman’s rights movement. According to nwhp.org, “The staggering changes for

women that have come about over those seven generations in family life, in religion, in

government, in employment, in education – these changes did not just happen spontaneously.

Women themselves made these changes happen, very deliberately. Women have not been the

passive recipients of miraculous changes in laws and human nature. Seven generations of women

have come together to affect these changes in the most democratic ways: through meetings,

petition drives, lobbying, public speaking, and nonviolent resistance. They have worked very

deliberately to create a better world, and they have succeeded hugely.” Woman in history have

made changes in the lives of woman who live in current time. For that we could never say thank

you enough. To expand of this idea women were unable to do important things such as vote. This

is something I think about often simply because I believe voting is something that everyone

should be able to do and through time women have proven this fact.
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Furthermore, the topic of heterosexual and homosexual has been such a controversial

topic that it even has a flag for this acronym, LGBTQ. This allows us all to be specified as a

certain gender. It is no longer male or female. It is more diverse nowadays, which is great.

LGBTQ standing for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer. We can now all have a more

gender specific role in the world. It is more socially accepted in the day and age we are currently

living in. That does not mean they have it easier than others though. Although it is more

accepted now in our time doesn’t mean everyone is on the same boat. Some who are part of the

LGBTQ community are some are at times treated unfairly. According to World Journal of

Education, “LGBTQ children are overrepresented in the foster care system in the United States.

These children are also at higher risk for homelessness and suicide.” (Nourie, Harris) There are

children who are treated unfairly easily because of their sexual interests. This should be a

personal choice rather than a world discussion. I don’t blame Song for hiding her masculinity for

so long. I believe she did not want to be shamed for her sexual desires. She did not want to be

judged for the person she is on the inside although it meant hurting the love of her life.

You may say that it is unfair of Song to do this to Gallimard, I don’t disagree. How can

one make false remarks of their sexual well-being? The action that Song did to Gallimard would

have someone in big trouble. In this case, it did. Since Song as a spy had reported Gallimard it

only made Gallimard look like the “bad guy”. In the eyes of those who part with Song would

state that Gallimard should have known after all those years but love is blind. He was once so

sure of the love he had towards the character Song has made for herself. In M. Butterfly

Gallimard states, “And so, I was embarked on my first extramarital affair. Renee was a picture

perfect. With a body like those girls in the magazines. If I put a tissue paper over my eyes, I

wouldn’t have been able to tell the difference. And it was exciting to be with someone who
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wasn’t afraid to be seen completely naked. But it is possible for a woman to be too uninhibited,

too willing, so as to seem almost too …masculine?” (Hwang 54) I believe that Gallimard had a

feeling about the masculinity Song had as a woman which goes back to the definition of

masculinity and femininity. I also suppose he looked over things like this and fell in love with

the idea of her. Brushing aside the imperfections he found in her which I presume is defined by

love.

In left hand of Darkness Ai is described as a masculine being, how one would imagine a

man to be from physical and emotional traits. Ai soon has an understanding of the gethenian way

such as the process of kemmer and somer. He is born a man with XY chromosomes. He is a

strong believer of men having all power of the world, it’s a man’s world, I suppose. According

to W. G. Postcolonialism/s, gender/s, sexuality/ies and the legacy of The Left Hand of Darkness:

Gwyneth Jones’s Aleutians talk back, he states, “…At that point,Genly admits to Estraven that he

cant tell [him] what women are like […]. In a sense, women are more alien than you are.” The

character Estraven is the most unique of all. He is neither man or woman. Ai and Estraven do not

get along in the beginning may I add that they are practically opposites according to their

personality so I saw it coming. As the story goes on Ai and Estraven start to develop feelings for

each other. Does this make them gay? Estraven then enters kemmer as a female. Although they

do not physically engage in sexual activity, Ai is very understanding of Estraven and they have a

deep emotional connection. In the eyes of society today it would be questioned in the eye of the

people strictly due to the fact that they are both men.

The topic of queer theory is a very controversial topic that is mandatory for people to

discuss. Especially now more than ever as the laws are changing. Reading about queer theory

through books is a great way to understand the topic a little better. As I read M. Butterfly and
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The Left Hand of Darkness I now have a clear image of the concept of this theory and will use

the knowledge for positive outcomes.

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Work Cited

1. "Traditional gender stereotypes should be broken." UWIRE Text, 13 Oct. 2016, p. 1.

Academic OneFile,
http://library.lavc.edu:2102/apps/doc/A466486369/AONE?u=lavc_main&sid=AONE
&xid=2de530f5
2. NOURIE, A. E.; HARRIS, V. W. An Intersectional Feminist Perspective on LGBTQ
Youth in Foster Care: Implications for Service Providers. World Journal of
Education, 1 jan. 2018. v. 8, n. 4, p. 177–187. Disponível em:
<https://library.lavc.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true
&db=eric&AN=EJ1189520&site=eds-live>.
3. 2014. Nwhp.org (National Women’s History Alliance)
4. Pearson, Wendy Gay. “Postcolonialism/s, Gender/s, Sexuality/Ies and the
Legacy of The Left Hand of Darkness: Gwyneth Jones’s Aleutians Talk Back.” Yearbook
of English Studies, no. 2, 2007, p. 182. EBSCOhost,
library.lavc.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edsgl
r&AN=edsgcl.167030913&site=eds-live.
5. Hwang, David Henry. M. Butterfly. New York, N.Y. (440 Park Ave. South, New
York 10016) : Dramatists Play Service, 1988. Print.
6. Le Guin, Ursula K.. The Left Hand Of Darkness. New York : Ace Books, 2010.
Print.