SOURCE: Haedicke, Janet V. “David Henry Hwang's M. Butterfly: The Eye on the Wing.” Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism 7, no. 2 (fall 1992): 27-44.

In the following essay, Haedicke claims that M. Butterfly has changed many of her feminist ideas and opened her eyes to subjugation in roles that are not necessarily male/female, yet still carry the taint of oppressor/oppressed.

Safely ensconced in a feminist identity, like a dog-tag of otherness on the battlelines of sexual difference, I attended in 1988 the New York production of David Henry Hwang's M. Butterfly. Expecting an indictment of male exploitation, I anticipated pleasure in viewing not only this vehicle of validation but also the discomfort of my male companions before it; such self-confirming pleasure, however, gave way to a still-haunting response. Since reviews and the text itself should have excised any shock value from the climactic transformation of the Butterfly figure...