Stereotypes In M Butterfly And Los Vendidos

In David Henry Hwang’s M Butterfly, and Luis Valdez’s Los Vendidos are plays that shine a light on how stereotypes play a role in how human beings see and treat each other in our society. Hwang and Valdez show many different ways stereotypes play a part in how many different events can play out when we see them. I personally believe that Los Vendidos is the one play out of the two that really dives deep into the way racial stereotypes play a part in how Mexicans were treated, and what people thought about them. M Butterfly on the other hand focuses on many different things, but Hwang shows us that stereotyping can be used as a weapon, by playing on a person 's ignorance. Both of these plays show different ways that people stereotype individuals or a group of people, but …show more content…
In M Butterfly the stereotype is focused on the women in asian culture. It is believed that women from the east prefer to be submissive to men from the west. This plays a huge part in the play because that is how the asian spy manipulates the main character. In Los Vendidos even though the reader on reads about the different men that are being stereotype, an assumption can be made that Miss Jimenez and Honest Sancho, are talking about all mexicans as a whole, because throughout the play there is no distinction made to specify where they were talking about Mexican men or women. Also another difference that can be made in these two plays, how the use of stereotyping leads to racism. In M Butterfly the stereotype that asian women are submissive doesn’t seem to come across as a glaring races judgement, while in Los Vendidos the stereotypes that are assumed by Miss Jimenez are clearly races, and show the reader the a harshness and the reality of how some people still think in a country that claims everyone is