After reading M. Butterfly I found myself questioning the concept of gender coding and their prospective roles in society. There seems to be this apparent unwritten agreement that masculine traits apply to men specifically and feminine to women. Yet throughout the latter half of the twentieth century more and more people become open about their “alternative” identities, opening the door to these taboo sexualities. A perfect example is transvestism, a sexuality that embodies both maleness and femaleness with the obvious discarding of one for the other. While these persons have found themselves a strong community within the numerous LGBT groups nationwide, such activities are unheard of in more strict cultures, such as the one we read about in the aforementioned play. I want to explore the strict suppression of anti-heterosexuality in Oriental countries, and how this has an affect on those who are being oppressed.

This topic interests me not only because I empathize with those who are incapable of expressing themselves freely, but also because I identify myself as a bisexual woman. As such, I am bombarded with scrutiny from both the gay community and that of the straight; both stating that such a sexuality doesn’t exist. Although this treatment pales in comparison to what many others go through, I still want to be a part of stopping the stigma.

After taking a gay and lesbian literature course last quarter, I’ve obtained a lot of gay literature that I feel will help me with my argument. One such example is Yukio Mishima’s novel Confessions of a Mask that explores the innermost thoughts of a young Japanese homosexual male who must hide his sexuality. Aside from this there are numerous piece of literature dealing with this topic at the library that I plan to investigate.

Through this research I plan to get a better understanding of sexuality not only in terms of our western viewpoint, but also from that of different cultures.