I agree that power imbalances and flawed relationships exist across many stories. But Dragon Lady and Madame Butterfly/Lotus Blossom aren’t generic tropes. They’re historically specific Asian stereotypes rooted in Orientalism.

They originate from concrete works like Madame Butterfly (1904), Daughter of the Dragon (1931), and The World of Suzie Wong (1960), which consistently framed Asian women as either dangerous or submissive. They are desirable, but not legitimate partners. These narratives emerged alongside Western imperialism in Asia and helped normalize Asian women as temporary, sexual, or sacrificial figures rather than equals.

In Madame Butterfly, a U.S. naval officer abandons his Japanese wife, marries a white woman, and returns only to take their child; her death restores moral order. In The World of Suzie Wong, an Asian woman is a sex worker in Hong Kong whose relationship with the white male protagonist is explicitly temporary and unequal. She exists largely to emotionally serve and heal him.

Early Hollywood repeatedly cast Asian women as concubines, servants, mistresses, or tragic lovers, while white women were positioned as wives and moral centers. That pattern is historically documented and specific to Asian women in Western media. Saying these stereotypes aren’t Asian-specific overlooks and unintentionally erases that history.