West VS East. Racial And Gender Stereotypes And Power Relationships - Research Paper Example

?The West-East relationships are not a conundrum anymore. The thing is that bigotries incorporated in the dis between two cultures cannot be reduced until present days. It is a century-long theme showing an alleged supremacy of one country/nation over another. Thus, this flow seems unstoppable on the example of Europeans and Asians. David Henry Hwang’s M. Butterfly is an applicable example of those fallacies white supremacist promoted about underdeveloped Asians. Turning up to this topic, the world knows many examples when cultural misconception brought a host of social, political, and economical conflicts based on the racial and ethnical difference. This popular trend in the East-West debate was broken down by means of Hwang’s M. Butterfly. Thus, Western influences on Asian culture refer to the imperial dominance, while Eastern identity cannot be trite even after the period of colonization. First and foremost, representatives from Asian countries and with Asian descent were always an object for Western mockery and humiliation. This trend is historically grounded. The question is that Asian people are quite different in their sets of virtues and values they carry on in terms of religion, society, money-making, and the like. Once, it became annoying for the white supremacists that colonized much of the South-East Asian countries. The pressure started growing since that time. Hence, it overgrew into inequality and prejudices. Asian men and women were not considered equal with European men and women due to the higher, so to speak, status and position of the latter descent. Taking a look at the Hwang’s work, Rene Gallimard is an unhappy white man to be trapped into his own fallacy on Asian women. He fell in love with blindness in his eyes regarding the gender of an Asian woman he loved. The idea is that Asian men as well as Asian women were not considered sexually attractive for white people. Their asexual identity was another reason why they were mistrusted and discriminated by the white majority. Oriental sexuality bore a mark of impossibility. This bias embraced the cultural vision of Caucasian people worldwide. Hence, a host of different stereotypes is the reason why East-West discourse fell short of further clarifications. Misogyny referred to Asian men along with feminization referred to Asian women in a wider look at the Western imaginary are the main drives to declare inability of Asians to be attractive to white people. This is why Asians seem to be cast adrift far from where whites gathered. On the other hand, Asian women were considered incapable of their female potential so as to impress Europeans. Thus, East-West racial and gender stereotypes were well grounded on extrapolation of power relations with a century-long continuation. When Gallimard says: “I’m a man who loved a woman created by a man” – it is a justification of narrow-mindedness he possessed before which was imposed by the rest of his own society in Paris (Hwang ii). It is a remarkable episode depicting the way Rene Gallimard erred during his visit of China. On the other hand, framing Asian men as dangerous for women at large was another stereotype by the Western theorists. One can see it through the way Gallimard behaved in the first days of his trip to China. Frankly speaking, it is all about the way two cultures differ in their understanding of social equilibrium and harmony. Sorrentino points out in his study the following idea: “Most relevant in this case is the way the West has been described as having an individualistic culture with relatively “loose” social norms whereas the East has been described as having a collectivistic culture with “tight” social norms that emphasize social harmony” (51). This is the sticking point highlighting the point of misunderstanding between two cultures. Drawing the images of Asian people in strict accordance to the prejudices and stereotypes illustrating the Western supremacy over the rest of the world, asexual Asian men and hypersexual Asian women seem to prioritize the gender inequality. It is especially illuminated on the example of Gallimard and Song Liling. He was amazed by the Asian female beauty despite of the fact it was a man. So, it amplifies an idea that sexuality is obscured in a long-lasting discourse on people’s identities. Racial and gender discrimination occur once the cultural viewpoints have been treated in a wrong way. In this respect Sponsler and Chen identify culture in its changeability and tendency toward “fluidity rather than stasis” (108). Cultural aspects have many to do with sound interpretation of what makes people different and similar at once. Taking a glimpse at the Western masculine thoughts on the fragile though very eroticized Asian woman, there is plenty to talk about the allusion in M. Butterfly. It is all about the notion of a “Perfect woman” relevant to Gallimard’s understanding and pertaining to the general representations on the part of the Westerners. It also touches upon the concept of imperialism imposed by the US since the end of World War II. By reinventing the scope of issues regarding race and gender identities, one runs into a bunch of impediments. That is to say, imperialist influences are the main cause of disgrace and condemnation of white people toward Asians. The war conflict in Vietnam was also a part of the Western imperial expansion on the Eastern way of life. Putting all political objectives aside, Asian identity became enemy for the Western supremacy. It was a case when power relations between two regions of the world reached dead-end in the cultural discourse. Thus, race and gender are the main drives for nurturing stereotypes regarding Asian men and women on the part of the Western ideals of humanity itself. To say more, as an Asian girl, I feel the irrelevance in justifying my position within the white society coming from white persons. It makes me think of myself nothing but an object of obscenity and sexual exploitation. In fact, it is a ubiquitous phenomenon dealing with male supremacy over female requirements. It is a social gap which is a holistic hindrance triggered by current development of relationships between two cultures. Thereupon, within-culture variations and cross-cultural similarities are huge in terms of East-West discourse (Sorrentino 50). I feel the same when facing discrimination and humiliation on the part of the overall “Western supremacy,” so to speak. Turning back to M. Butterfly, contemporary attitudes of European, American, and Australian men toward Asian women are all about sexual trend. The thing is that these women are considered to be convenient for men in their faithfulness, sexual prowess, and sincerity. This is why it makes another hallmark for complex race-gender discrimination. The work by David Henry Hwang is a striking exemplification of how white men can be caught by means of sexual tricks. They are blind and have no other idea of an Asian woman than to have sex and exploit her in close relation to his sexual fantasies. To conclude West versus East racial and gender stereotypes and power relationships is a century-long issue. It touches upon the historical development of western and eastern countries. David Henry Hwang could underline the theme of Oriental exotic beauty consistent with Asian women and proposed for European men so as to show the problem from inside out. Thus, Western influences on Asian culture refer to the imperial dominance, while Eastern identity cannot be trite even after the period of colonization. Along with my personal observation on the issue of race and gender discrimination evident between Asian and Western cultures, there is plenty to talk about possible ways of improvements in this field. Works Cited Hwang, David Henry. M. Butterfly. New York, NY: Dramatist's Play Service, 1998. Sorrentino, Richard M. Culture and social behavior. New York, NY: Routledge, 2005. Sponsler, Claire and Xiaomei Chen. East of West: cross-cultural performance and the staging of difference. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2000. Read More