Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Saul Fernandez
Prof. Batty
After reading “M. Butterfly”, by David Henry Hwang, and “The Left Hand of Darkness”,
by Ursula K. Le Guin, through the lens of the Queer Theory, you will notice that the two stories
have a lot of similarities and differences with each other and cover the same main themes,
conflicts, and ideas of gender, sexualities, and race in different ways. In gender, both authors
give us characters who can be identified as either a man or a woman. In sexualities, both stories
describe characters who have both feminine and masculine traits, and the author leaves us with
determining how we should identify these characters based off those traits or stereotypes. The
theme of race is brought up a few times in both stories. It is stereotypical in one story but not
much in the other. Both authors had the same ideas about these themes but treated them
differently with their story’s protagonists, Renee Gallimard and Genly Ai. They deal with
political situations that involve these issues and explore the notion of "civilized behavior" in the
societies where they visit. The conflict of both stories ends up being both characters having to
The first similarities and differences of both “M. Butterfly” and “The Left Hand of
Darkness” is their theme of gender, more specifically gender identification, how it can affect
them, and how it is portrayed in both stories. The Queer Theory explains that ‘gender’, our
assignment to social roles in ways that can related to our biological sex, is connected intimately
and differently to our experience of sexuality, and how that experience bears on our own and
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other’s identity. In “M. Butterfly”, the issue of gender identification came when Song, a
government spy, revealed to Gallimard, a French diplomat, that she was in fact a “he” and that he
was actually playing a woman character to spy on Gallimard for over twenty years and get
information for the government. Following his real biological sex reveal to Gallimard, Song’s
regardless of his biological sex. In “The Left Hand of Darkness”, gender identification became
an issue when Genly Ai, an alien who traveled to Gethen on a mission to get Gethenian people to
join the Ekumen, learned that the aliens on Gethen were androgynous. Ai had trouble identifying
his new Gethenian friend Estraven, who can turn into both male or female during his mating
cycle called kemmer and decided to call him “he” due to his more dominant masculine attitude
and low feminine presence. Ai then tells Estraven that gender identification is big on his planet
and it greatly affects his people’s social interactions and construct. He says, “I suppose the most
important thing, the heaviest single factor in one’s life, is whether one’s born male or female. It
Vocabulary. Semiotic usages. Clothing. Even food. (Ai, 253). Estraven is surprised that Ai lived
in a world like this. The idea that one’s gender and physical presentation can determine how you
will be judged and treated in your society. Both stories make the reader question how the identity
based off of a character’s gender can be and make us think how their lives are affected by it.
Michelle Balaev, who wrote “Performing Gender and Fictions of the Nation” for the forum of
World Literature Studies, stated that, “Gallimard was deceived into believing that Song was a
woman not because Song wore great make-up, but because the qualifications of gender are
fictive and contingent. That anybody can perform gender, just as nations can be imagined
regardless of geographic boundaries.” This idea of gender identification is the same in both
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stories. That it is performative and can change how a person views you. Only in both stories it is
portrayed differently. Both Song and Estraven were able to play both gender roles. They were
able to be both male and female people and left the protagonists in turmoil in deciding what
gender they fit into and how to accept them. The only difference between these stories and idea
of identification was that Song had one actual biological sex, while Estraven had two. Some
would say Song would should considered a man because of his biological sex, but socially,
others would say that he should be considered whatever gender he prefers to play or can play
better. A writer named John Pennington who wrote, “Exorcising Gender: Resisting Readers” for
the Literature Resource Center, supports both gender identification ideas of the authors by saying
that, “if biological gender differences are insecure, then sociological distinctions separating the
The second similarity and difference of both stories is their theme of sexualities, and how
they are portrayed in the characters. The Queer Theory investigates the relations between
different sexualities such as pansexual, heterosexual, and homosexual, and the authors provide
ways to view the sexualities through the characters in the stories and how it affects them or their
judgements. At the end of the story “M. Butterfly”, the character Gallimard is left with the
thoughts as to whether he was actually heterosexual or homosexual due to falling in love with a
woman who turned out to be a man after twenty years of living together. Song was questioning
whether Gallimard still had feelings for him because he was still technically the “Butterfly” he
fell in love with. It was also questioned as to whether Song was actually homosexual or still a
began to have feelings towards his friend Estraven after they’ve spent days out in their ice
journey together. He began to feel strange due to the fact that he couldn’t really see his friend
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Estraven as a woman or a man due to him being androgynous. Wendy Gay, who wrote
“Postcolonialism/s, gender/s, sexuality/ies and the legacy of “The Left Hand of Darkness” for
Modern Humanities Research Association, said, “When Estraven admits to Genly that s/he is in
kemmer, Genly says “it seemed to me, and I think to him, that it was from that sexual tension
between us, admitted now and understood, but not assuaged, that the great and sudden assurance
of friendship between us rose: a friendship so much needed by both of us in our exile [...] that it
might as well be called, now as later, love. But it was from the difference between us, not from
the affinities and likenesses, but from the difference, that that love came: and it was the bridge,
the only bridge, across what divided us.” It seems Ai later comes to terms, after they’ve finished
their journey and Estraven dies, that love was the reason he accepted Estraven no matter what
gender he is and what sexuality he fits in. That love was the thing that kept their relationship in
an awkward and still position, not their gender. It looks like both characters fit more as
bisexuals. In the play Gallimard says, “I’m a man who loved a woman created by a man.
Everything else…simply falls short” (Gallimard, 90). Gallimard believed to still be on the
heterosexual side due to still loving “Butterfly” and not Song himself, but he does realize that he
technically did fall in love with a man and rather enjoyed the relationship even when he did not
know the truth. He doesn’t officially experience any sexual fluidity, but it does seem that he can
also be a bisexual character like Ai and Estraven. Similarly, both protagonists had to think about
what their sexualities were and how they would accept them. The difference being that one was
more acceptant towards their realization of their sexuality while the other was more distant from
it.
The last similarity and difference of “M. Butterfly” and “The Left Hand of Darkness” is
each story’s issue on race. The Queer Theory questions the role that queer sexualities play in the
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understanding of race, the role that race plays in understanding different sexualities, and the
limits of race as much as it can reflect on sexualities and their stereotypes. In “M. Butterfly”,
they focus on the stereotypical and racial ideas that the males, particularly western males, hold
on concerning Asian women like Song. The stereotypic compliance of Asian women to the
males from the west, the knowledge in holding, viewing, and treating the female body, and their
desires in masculine qualities or features. The play first reveals the shortsightedness of
stereotypes made by Gallimard, when the submissive Asian woman (Song) is awaiting a
masculine and dominant white male (Gallimard). At one point in the play, Song asks Gallimard,
“it’s one of your favorite fantasies, isn’t it? The submissive oriental woman and the cruel white
man” (Song, 17). Gallimard gets a bit frustrated and opposing towards Song’s words after
hearing her stereotypes on men. Despite his own knowledge of the stereotypes that Asian women
have of his country, he does not want Song to see him as having the same stereotypical mindset
that the men in his country (the westerners) have. He wants to let her know that he’s different
from them. Gallimard also later assumed that he thought the reason why Song wouldn’t have any
sexual contact with him or take off her clothes in front of him was because of old traditional
modest Asian women culture. Song says, “No…let me… keep my clothes. Please…it all
frightens me. I’m a modest Chinese girl.” (Song, 40). Gallimard assumed that that’s exactly what
she was, a typical modest Asian woman. “Gender and race are shown to be as much the product
of imaginary constructions and concrete social practices as they are the result of biological or
genetic determinants”, says Angela Pao, a writer from the Modern Language Association of
America. In “The Left Hand of Darkness”, race was brought up a few times. There is one
moment where a character named “Shusgis” spoke with Ai and said, “I expected a monster.
Nothing of the kind. Only you’re darker than most of us” (Shusgis, 124), Ai responded with
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saying that he was “earth colored” (Ai, 124). Although Ai looks like a simply darker human, to
those like the Gethenians, he is depicted as an un-trustable foreigner, and an unknown alien for
looking differently. Which is why he is called monstrous. This is understandable. It’s difficult to
comprehend and condole with an unknown alien or a monstrous human than a person from your
own home planet. Gethenians, who don’t have things like gender inequality or different
sexualities, they still have a bit of race discrimination to those who are different colored. Most
likely because they see those who are different colored as unknown aliens, and probably one that
cannot be trusted. It seems that in both stories, sexualities and gender don’t have much to do with
race. The difference is one story uses race to try to understand their lover’s life with stereotypical
judgements while the other uses race to determine whether the alien (Ai) is trustworthy or not.
In the end, Le Guin and Henry Hwang were able to treat the studies of the Queer Theory
very similarly but with different situations and stories. They both present the different ways that
gender identification can affect people’s judgements about others and themselves. The ways
people’s sexualities can be questioned or changed and how race still plays a part in a world with
and without genders or sexualities. Both Le Guin and Henry Hwang were able to get the reader
to think about how important these themes are and how they can change the way people live and
Works Cited
Balaev, Michelle. "Performing gender and fictions of the nation in David Hwang's “M.
Butterfly." Forum for World Literature Studies, vol. 6, no. 4, 2014, p. 608+. Academic
OneFile,http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A398253065/AONE?u=lavc_main&sid=AO
NE&xid=09279d57
Pennington, John. "Exorcising Gender: Resisting Readers in Ursula K. Le Guin's Left Hand of
Darkness." Extrapolation, vol. 41, no. 4, 2000, p. 351. Literature Resource Center,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A68704463/LitRC?u=lavc_main&sid=LitRC
&xid=5428f95b
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,
vol. 37, no. 2, 2007, p. 182+. Literature Resource Center,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A167030913/LitRC?u=lavc_main&sid
=LitRC &xid=e07f72d8
Pao, Angela. "M. Butterfly." Contemporary Literary Criticism, edited by Jeffrey W. Hunter, vol.
196, Gale, 2005. Literature Resource Center,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/H1100061266/GLS?u=lavc_main&sid=GLS&xid=7e
493070. Originally published in A Resource Guide to Asian American Literature,
edited by Sau-ling Cynthia Wong and Stephen H. Sumida, Modern
Language Association of America, 2001, pp. 200-208.
Le Guin, U. (2010). The Left Hand of Darkness. New York: Ace Books, p.124.