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The West's representation of the East, Gender, The Perception of the…
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Gender
M Butterfly
Song says that because she is Oriental, she could never be a man (pg.83) What does this mean? Is this because the East as a whole is feminized? Is it because gender is determined by power — the man holds more power. If thats the case then shouldn't Song be the more masculine in the relationship? Since it seems like she was the one who held more power.
She was playing into a role, Lotus Blossom, so that the man is manipulated to believe he has all the power. But she exists only to further the male plot point
"make sure its a boy" (pg.62) is this Song's view or is she feeding into what she thinks Gallimard's view on gender is? Unclear if its a part of her act or if its what she believes
(pg.50) Does Song not believe in gender equality? She ridicules Gallimard for agreeing to take a fertility test. She holds the idea that a women is the only one to blame if a couple cannot bare children. OR is it an attempt to feed into her act of being a women and bearing a child for Gallimard?
Gallimard then agrees to not get tested and says, "What man would?". His sense of manhood is malleable
He defines the woman he sleeps with, Renee, as "masculine" but also as picture perfect (pg.54). He sleeps with 'woman' who posses some masculine features.
Marc is the devil on his shoulder, toxic masculinity. Moreover, Gallimard is incredibly insecure.
West = "masculine" East = "feminine" A woman cannot think for herself so the man does what he thinks the woman wants and/or needs
Critically Queer: "if drag is performative, that does not mean that all performativity is to be understood as drag." (230) I'm not sure exactly how this links to M Butterfly but the idea of performativity and drag is interesting because that is essentially what Song does. Is the difference between gender performativity and drag dependent then upon the intention? If that is the case, then Song is performing a gender?
"Heterosexuality can augment its hegemony through its denaturalization, as when we see denaturalizing parodies that reidealize heterosexual norms without calling them into question." (231)
"On other ocassions, though, the transferability of gender ideal or gender norm calls into question the abjecting power that it sustains. " (231)
Performativity is almost like a heterosexual fantasy. The very idea stems from the heterosexual representation of who a "man" and "woman" are in purely performance.
The Perverse Implantation: This is another text I have a tough time understanding and connecting to our work but the idea of power and sexuality being linked is interesting. It seems as if Focuault has a more complicated definition of "sexuality" that is broad. However, he seems to suggest that sexuality determines, to a certain extent, power structure and hierarchy.
Galimard's insistence on maintaining a traditional heterosexual relationship by performance of "heterosexuality" created a power play between the two.
"The implantation of perversions is an instrument-effect: it is through the isolation, intensification, and consolidation of peripheral sexualities that the relations of power to sex and pleasure branched out and multiplied, measured the body, and penetrated modes of conduct."
The Unparalleled Invasion: Japan and China are gendered where the latter is referred to as "she". This is because Japan is viewed by the West as more receptive to Western ideologies and is thus categorized as "male"
This reduces the country to an object but is also spoken of in the context of being an 'object' that is in need of protection and should be protected.
China is called a machine and it is gendered as female. This introduces the idea that women are viewed as reproductive machines which is both a reduction of their being and insult.
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The Cheat: There is a significant contrast between the Asian man and the White man. Hishuru Tori is presented as manipulative, sneaky, and as a sexual predator. Richard, Edith's husband is presented as hardworking, noble and loving.
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The Oppositional Gaze: The vilifying of the Asian man is similar to how black men were characterized especially in relation to white women. They were viewed as predators.
Racial Castration
Feminization of the Asian American Male: Asian men are emasculated. This reinforces white supremacy and a Western view of patriarchy. At the same time, this promotes anti-feminine sentiments by demeaning characteristics associated as being 'feminine'
Chinatown being considered a bachelor community is a moment of intersection between race and Asian male sexuality because these spaces discouraged the existence of a nuclear family.
Therefore, is it a queer space? It is an immediate emasculation of Asian men in the heterosexual definition of 'masculinity'.
An Asian man, according to racial castration, cannot be truly viewed as a man. This enables Gallimard to enter a relationship with Song because while he is male, he cannot be because he is Asian. This allows him to justify his relationship with Song, the feminization of Asian men.
Eng suggests that racism and sexuality are not exclusive of each other. He uses Freud's theory of "fetishism" to justify this.
Fetishism: “a psychic process whereby the man attempts to obviate the trauma of sexual difference by seeing at the site of the female body a penis that is not there to see” (2)
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Daughter of The Dragon: "My flower daughter, the knife would wither your petal fingers, if thou had only granted me another son"
She states that she will be his son. It is only if she assumes a masculine role can she be the torch bearer to extract revenge in the name of her family.
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Carnal Orient: The man who spoke to the woman did not get food. She is his meal. She is reduced to an object of desire and a medium through which they satisfy their sexual needs. Linked to Fetishization of Asians.
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Sparking Joy: "Being the 'breadwinner' is a common euphemism for patriarchal masculine roles, where making "dough" signifies national belonging through economic success and gender identity" (1384)
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Ornamentalism: "Encrusted by representations, abstracted and reified, the yellow woman is persistently sexualized yet barred from sexuality, simultaneously made and unmade by the aesthetic project." (4-5)
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Is there a hierarchy of Gender and Race by which racism is enforced and sustained by the West? If so, what would it be? White Male trump all. However, if it is a patriarchal and racist structure would white women be placed above Asian men? This is an area of confusion for me. What is clear is that in the ladder of the gender/race hierarchy, white men dominate and Asian women rank the lowest.
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Asian/American Identity
Tidying Up: There is an Erasure of the Asian identity from Asian American. The only asian historical or cultural reference brought up is the americanized or whitewashed version of it. Only digestible, surface level information is conveyed so as to protect the image of the US or to disregard the historical event as tragic and nothing more. Suppresses the voices of people of color.
The story of the Akiyama's shows how important conversations that need to be had — the fact that he works for the US military and still owns stamps from Pearl Harbour — shows how Americanized history is and how these important conversations are repressed in order to safeguard the image Asian Americans need to maintain.
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From the Mental Leaves of a Eurasian: She is forced to identify with one part of her identity. Her father is English and her mother is Chinese but she is under a constant pressure to choose one culture to belong to
But she is also excluded from both communities for not fully belonging to them. She is only half Chinese and thus may not be "worthy" of a Chinamen
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They are referred to as animals, as the other.
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Asian/American: "Asian-American": The use of the hyphen highlights the violence of grammar. It creates an us and them and serves as a reminder of the existence of two separate identities.
This implies that the identities are independent of each other and incompatible, that they cannot co-exist.
Does "Asian/American" change things? Yes because it equates Asian to American. It gives each culture its own importance
The Gendered Racialization of Asian Women: the othering of Asian Americans by Donald Trump during the pandemic stripped Asian Americans of their American identity and subjected them to hate crimes.
Ordinary Women: "people running/ to make a dime in the factories and restaurants/ trying to beat time/ making some American Dream/ come true:"
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Animacies
POC Disney characters are always represented as animals. They never remain in their human body for the entire duration of the film.
Is it less about the fact that they turn into an animal and more about what kind of animal they become? Related to hierarchy of animacy: what races and sexualities are animals being compared to? Eg: Bunnies are associated with whiteness and purity. This creates a hierarchy based on desirability.
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There exists a hierarchy like that of race within the different species of animals that are preferred in the act of role-playing as a 'furry'
These are often based on "cuteness" Animals that present themselves as more domestic, cute, and harmless are preferred to vicious and scary ones. This is similar to the perception of an Asian American women. They are fetishized precisely because of their categorization as soft.
Ordinary Women: "and do the women in your fantasies walk in golden dresses and have soft silken hands. do they speak of cerebral matters with mouths perpetually smiling and mouth intelligent brows, and are they mysterious?" (24)
An Oreintal fantasy based on the fetishizing of women based on how docile they are. Compared to domestic animals.
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The Tiger Flu
It's interesting how easily the opposite clan is villanized. This reminds me of how the East and the West talk about each other at times. The generations carry over resentment for what was done by a previous generation.
The "salty" i'm assuming is a person from the Saltwater area that Kora is from. Kiri calls the salty "it" instead of acknowledging the humanity behind them. Especially in (46) when Salty begs Kiri to consider the plight of those in the Saltwater area. The "salty" was dehumanized to such an extent that I didn't recognize they "it" was possibly a human until they started talking.
Kiri is incredibly against the people of the Saltwater area, presumably at this point, because of the stories she heard from her ancestors. Even when "Salty" attempts to defend themselves and draw on some commonality — hate towards the militia — Kiri is blinded by rage, disgust, and pure hatred for their kind.
Brings to light the idea of an "us" vs. "them" and a refusal to acknowledge the "other" as a general "we".
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