Misogyny and Madame Butterfly... But, Really, Who's Surprised?
I should start by saying that I no slightly more than nothing about opera. I'm not actually particularly fond on opera, though I did see one I liked at the Met in NYC. Thus, I'm not sure if I should have been surprised to note the blatant misogyny of Puccini's Madame Butterfly. I wasn't surprised only because I'm generally not surprised by the objectification of women. (Someday, I hope it's rare enough that I can be surprised by it.)
So, here's the thing. This opera is HUGE. I think I hear people mention it almost every time opera is discussed. It's supposedly such a beautiful, tragic love story. Only the tragic part is right. The antagonist is an American soldier, B.F. Pinkerton, in Japan who arrives at the beginning to rent an apartment for 999 years, announcing that he knows he can break the contract on a whim. And the woman he's about to "marry"? Yup, he has the same attitude about the marriage as he does about the apartment. He can break either contract at a whim and intends to before long. And just as he does not find it sad for the apartment if he does not hold his end of the deal, he never considers the impact it will have on his wife (or his "toy" as he calls her) when he leaves without intending to return.
Classic story, right? Man finds woman, man possesses woman, man leaves woman, man never returns, and woman spends her life pining. In the end, she kills herself rather than live with the shame of knowing her husband has chosen another woman, rather than live knowing that her dream was a sham. And we consider this a great love story? The man broke her. He broke her like a young boy breaks a toy that he no longer intends to use. A toy that has served its purpose. A toy that cannot feel.
That is how women are treated all over the world. Whether it is by forcing them to live under countless yards of cloth until they forget what the sun looks like, cutting off a young girl's clitoris to keep her chaste (female genital mutilation), making them eat scraps after men have eaten, or raping and invading their bodies, this is what happens all over the world. Sure, in Madame Butterfly, Pinkerton doesn't seem overtly violent on the surface. Maybe he's just a little uncaring. A little selfish. But as I mentioned in the entry about Happy Feet, it is the devaluation that leads to violence. By that notion, the devaluation itself is violence. He had promised to return to her, to be her husband, but he treated her like property and then discarded of her and returned to take her child. It isn't until the end, when she kills herself, that he even considers that she has feelings. This attitude opens the door to so much violence. And we call it entertainment and pay hundreds of dollars to watch it. And we laugh and we clap and we cry.
And now I'm getting on a ranting soapbox, but that's why one has a blog. Besides, I'm pissed off. I'm allowed to be pissed off. I'm tired of people not being pissed off AND of those people who are pissed off not taking the next step to make some changes. Or holding it all in.
So, here's the thing. This opera is HUGE. I think I hear people mention it almost every time opera is discussed. It's supposedly such a beautiful, tragic love story. Only the tragic part is right. The antagonist is an American soldier, B.F. Pinkerton, in Japan who arrives at the beginning to rent an apartment for 999 years, announcing that he knows he can break the contract on a whim. And the woman he's about to "marry"? Yup, he has the same attitude about the marriage as he does about the apartment. He can break either contract at a whim and intends to before long. And just as he does not find it sad for the apartment if he does not hold his end of the deal, he never considers the impact it will have on his wife (or his "toy" as he calls her) when he leaves without intending to return.
Classic story, right? Man finds woman, man possesses woman, man leaves woman, man never returns, and woman spends her life pining. In the end, she kills herself rather than live with the shame of knowing her husband has chosen another woman, rather than live knowing that her dream was a sham. And we consider this a great love story? The man broke her. He broke her like a young boy breaks a toy that he no longer intends to use. A toy that has served its purpose. A toy that cannot feel.
That is how women are treated all over the world. Whether it is by forcing them to live under countless yards of cloth until they forget what the sun looks like, cutting off a young girl's clitoris to keep her chaste (female genital mutilation), making them eat scraps after men have eaten, or raping and invading their bodies, this is what happens all over the world. Sure, in Madame Butterfly, Pinkerton doesn't seem overtly violent on the surface. Maybe he's just a little uncaring. A little selfish. But as I mentioned in the entry about Happy Feet, it is the devaluation that leads to violence. By that notion, the devaluation itself is violence. He had promised to return to her, to be her husband, but he treated her like property and then discarded of her and returned to take her child. It isn't until the end, when she kills herself, that he even considers that she has feelings. This attitude opens the door to so much violence. And we call it entertainment and pay hundreds of dollars to watch it. And we laugh and we clap and we cry.
And now I'm getting on a ranting soapbox, but that's why one has a blog. Besides, I'm pissed off. I'm allowed to be pissed off. I'm tired of people not being pissed off AND of those people who are pissed off not taking the next step to make some changes. Or holding it all in.
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posted by Tiger on a Leash at 4:27 PM
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