Are You My Butterfly?

The film, "M. Butterfly" deals significantly with the themes of the issues of gender, ethnicity, politics, and the history of arts. All of these themes are quite relevant in the story as a whole they are pieces that fit together perfectly to create this one masterpiece.

The gender roles portrayed in this film show the differentiation between men and women. It depicts that men are the breadwinners who go for the things they want. In this film, Rene was the man who held a steady job and went after what he wanted, such as Butterfly. Although this action was morally wrong, and that Rene was as married man, it did not stop him from finding true love. Song Liling, on the other hand who played the role of the woman known as Butterfly, was trying to stay pure in the beginning and keeping "her clothes on" and not showing any parts of "her" body. She had to be fully covered and that was how women were supposed to be.

Ethnicity is quite controversial and can be depicted in the film where in society, the white race is seen as more supreme over all else. It is more dominant and seen to be the one holding down all other forces and it is the one race to have all the power. In a way, this evidently relates to the political aspect of this film.

Politically, this deals with the fact that the whites are stronger and that they have a more powerful force. It has been this way for the longest time. Thus, society accepted the fact that they are the more dominant race. The film shows that in Beijing, the French has taken control over some areas and are using its forces to control all else. The most political part in this film would be all the times that the French diplomat, Rene, gave important pieces of information to the Chinese espionage know as Jeanette (Butterfly). Rene unconsciously convicts treason and goes to prison.

The history of art in this film is the opera "Madame Butterfly" that tells a story about a Japanese woman falling for the white man who later abandons her. This causes her to kill herself from all the pain and despair that he had caused. The twist was that at the end of the film, Rene dresses himself like a Japanese woman and commits suicide with a dagger. He was the Madam Butterfly in this round and decided to die because he has lost his lover.