Re: "Opera coming to PSU continues stereotypes," Jan. 22 letter. With all due respect to Mr. Yu's diligence in safeguarding the Asian/Pacific American community against stereotyping, Madame Butterfly was perhaps as atypical as she could be to her contemporaries. She courageously cut her cultural and religious ties to the family for what she had held dear, refusing to submit to the taboos of a male-dominated society. Still, throughout the opera, we see no moments in which she did not carry herself with dignity and honor, bound by the traditional sense of honor from which, ultimately, she could not escape: "With honor dies he who cannot live honorably." Even so, she did not flinch. Mr. Yu has interpreted this fine act of indictment on the inhumanity of tradition imposed on Asia's women as the obvious outcome of a disgraceful deviation on Madame Butterfly's part; I cannot disagree more. The biggest stereotype of the opera is the U.S. Navy Lt. Pinkerton, whose amorous dalliance and liability to betrayal when opportunity arises has been a historical caricature, a "man of the World."