2. Extra Credit Opportunity: 10 points extra credit to those who
stay for the whole presentation.
 Wednesday, March 14, 2012
 6:00pm until 8:00pm at De Anza College Conference Room A
or B
 This event is to raise awareness about Transgender identified
persons and the problems they have to face everyday. It will
be a part of a series of PRIDE events hosted by De Anza
College through out the month of March, sponsored by
ICS96, LGBT Studies, with Prof. Julie Lewis. Here's the
Facebook event link
 http://www.facebook.com/#!/events/360943843930071/

3. Daily Agenda
 Terms list 4: The final exam will be on the last day of
the quarter, during finals week. It will include a
comprehensive terms test, which will emphasize the
new terms. The second part of the final will be an in-
class essay exam—topics to be discussed later
 Lecture: Henry David Hwang
 Discussion: M. Butterfly:
 In-class Writing: Evaluating the Trickster Character

4. Terms for Exam 4: A Comprehensive Test
 Gender Identity: The sense of “being” male or “being” female. For some people,
gender identity is in accord with physical anatomy. For transgender people, gender
identity may differ from physical anatomy or expected social roles. It is important to
note that gender identity, biological sex, and sexual orientation are not necessarily
linked.
 Heterosexism: The concept that heterosexuality is natural, normal, superior and
required. A system of beliefs about the superiority of heterosexuals or heterosexuality
evidenced in the exclusion, by omission or design, of gay, lesbian and bisexual persons
in assumptions, communication, policies, procedures, events, or activities.
 Heterosexual: A person who is primarily and/or exclusively attracted to members of a
gender or sex that is seen to be “opposite” or other than the one with which they
identify or are identified.
 Homosexual: A person who is primarily and /or exclusively attracted to members of
what they identify as their own sex or gender. Because the term possesses
connotations of disease and abnormality, some people do not like to identify as
homosexual. Still others do not feel that it accurately defines their chosen identity.
 Lesbian: One who identifies as a woman who is primarily or exclusively attracted to
others who identify as women.

5. • Sex Reassignment (SRS): A surgical procedure that modifies one’s primary and/or
secondary sex characteristics. This process was formerly called a “sex change
operation,” a phrase now considered offensive.
• Sexual Orientation: A person’s emotional, physical and sexual attraction and the
expression of that attraction with other individuals. Some of the better-known labels
or categories include “bisexual,” “multisexual,” “pansexual,” “omnisexual,”
“lesbian,” “gay” (“homosexual” is a more clinical term), or “heterosexual.”
• Trans: Abbreviation for transgender, transsexual, or some other form of trans identity.
“Trans” can invoke notions of transcending beyond, existing between, or crossing
over borders.
• Transgender: An umbrella term used to describe people who do not fit into traditional
gender categories, including transsexuals, transvestites or cross-dressers, intersexuals
or hermaphrodites, and sometimes, even people who identify as butch or femme. Can
invoke notions of transcending beyond, existing between or crossing over borders.
• Transition: The period when one is changing from living as one sex or gender to a
different conception of sex or gender. Transitioning is complicated, multi-step process
that may include surgically and/or hormonally altering one’s body.

6. Henry David Hwang
 David Henry Hwang was born on August 11, 1957 in Los
Angeles, California.
 His parents immigrated from China
 He went to Stanford University
 As an undergraduate, he wrote his first play FOB, which explores
the contrast in attitudes between recently arrived Chinese
immigrants and two Chinese-American students who have long
since assimilated.
 He went to graduate school at Yale, where he continued to write
successful plays.

7. M Butterfly
• Hwang returned to the stage with M. Butterfly, one of the most
celebrated of recent American plays, and the first by an Asian-
American to win universal acclaim.
• It was first produced in 1988 and won numerous awards, including
the Tony Award for Best Play of the Year, the New York Drama
Desk Award, the Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Broadway
play, and the John Gassner Award for the season's outstanding new
playwright.
• M. Butterfly enjoyed a popular run on Broadway and when it
moved to London's Shaftsbury Theatre in 1989 it broke all box
office records in the first week.

8. Based on a true story
The play is based on a bizarre but true story of a
French diplomat who carried on a twenty-year
affair with a Chinese actor and opera singer, not
realizing that his partner was in fact a man
masquerading as a woman. The diplomat
apparently became aware of the deception only
in 1986, when he was charged by the French
government with treason—it transpired that his
companion had been an agent for the Chinese
government, and had passed on sensitive
political information that he had acquired from
the diplomat.

9. This almost unbelievable story stimulated
Hwang's imagination, and from it he created a
drama that plays with ideas on a grand scale and
manages at the same time to be witty and
entertaining.
Weaving into the play many parallels with, and
ultimately ironic reversals of, Puccini's opera,
Madame Butterfly, Hwang explores the
stereotypes that underlie and distort relations
between Eastern and Western culture, and
between men and women.

10. Madame Butterfly Summary
Lieutenant B.F. Pinkerton is on shore-leave in Japan. He and his buddy
Lieutenant Barton, out for a night on the town, stop in at a local establishment
to check out the food, drink and girls, 'uh, and girls' to quote Lt. Barton.
Pinkerton spies Cho-Cho San and immediately falls in lust. Barton counsels
Pinkerton that he can 'marry' this beautiful Japanese girl, enjoy himself with
cultural approval, then sail happily on back to America unshackled, since
abandonment equates divorce in Japan. Barton assures Pinkerton that once
abandoned, Cho-Cho will be free to marry whomever she chooses from
amongst the Japanese people. When Pinkerton's ship sails out of port,
Butterfly waits patiently for her husband to come home. Three years pass.
Ever with her eye toward the harbor, Butterfly holds a secret delight that she
eagerly wishes to surprise her husband with: their son. Pinkerton arrives in
Japan with his American bride by his side. He goes to Butterfly to make his
apologies and to finally end what Butterfly for three years has cherished in her
heart.

11. 1. Do you think it is possible for a man to love a
woman for over twenty years without realizing that
“she” is really a man? Think up a scenario where
this is possible. Remember, the play is based on real
events, no matter how far-fetched they may seem.

12. Act I, Scenes 7-13 1. By Western standards, how
does Song conform to the ideal stereotype of
the Oriental woman? Give examples to back up
your assertions.
2. In act 1, scene 11, the event where Gallimard
loses his virginity is described. Is the setting
“romantic”? How might this experience have
affected (scarred) Gallimard? What points was
Hwang trying to convey in including this scene?

13. Act II, scenes 1-7
1. Compare and contrast Song with Renee, the other woman
with whom Gallimard has an affair. How are the two polar
opposites of one another?
2. How does Gallimard “face reality”? Discuss Gallimard’s
refusal to see a doctor and the ease with which he can be
talked out of seeing his mistress naked to back up your points.
Do you think Gallimard is intentionally blind?

14. Song as the Trickster?
Does Song help us “better understand ourselves, and the perhaps
subconscious aspects of ourselves that respond to the trickster’s
unsettling and transformative behavior”? How? Consider these possible
traits of a trickster (or others if you think they will better serve you).
 Physically, intellectually, or socially weak creature: The
trickster is often portrayed as a much weaker character
than his prey, and yet through cleverness and trickery, he
is able to overcome all obstacles and prevail. In some
cases the trickster may appear to be weaker physically in
order to confuse his prey (false frailty).
 Shape Shifter: The trickster may change forms, sex, and
so forth as an element of surprise to his victim. The
change may also be psychological instead of (or in
addition to) a visual change.
 Self-Serving: The trickster often feels that he or she has
been wronged and is therefore justified in taking action
to bring about change and/or to defeat “the enemy.”

15. Homework
 Do research for essay #4.
 Define the traditional “trickster”
 Define the “trickster” of the 20th Century as you plan to use the word in
reference to your thesis
 Feel free to use the websites listed in the prompt
 Find at least one source on your own
 Writing: Post your intro, thesis, and outline.
 Reading: Moraga "La Guera" and Far “Leaves from the Mental
Portfolio of an Eurasian”
 Writing: Blog Prompt: Song as the Trickster?
How does Song help us “better understand ourselves, and the
perhaps subconscious aspects of ourselves that respond to the
trickster’s unsettling and transformative behavior”? Use one or two of
the traits of a trickster listed on prompt #4 to launch your discussion.
 Studying: Terms from list 4