Mulan: gender roles & cultural references

Mulan: gender roles & cultural references

Mulan is one of the most popular Disney movies. In the movie, Mulan, a Chinese young woman, educated to be a woman becomes a soldier and saves China. 

The movie presents a“Damsel in distress". As we have said before, Mulan is a woman who saves China. She is presented as an intelligent person. In the movie, the songs are really interesting in order to present the characteristics of this protagonist:

“With work and consistency

we can do whatever we want,

it does not matter your gender”

Here you have the complete lyrics: Honor to Us All

You will find all Mulan's songs here: Mulan's songs 

In the movie, Mulan encourages the individual empowerment of women. She escapes stereotypical gender roles (Only men can fight, for example). To develop her ideas, she dresses up as a man. Women are depicted as: “quiet and demure, graceful and polite, delicate, refined, poised- punctual… something a ‘proper’ young woman should possess” (Davis, 2011: 195)

Lisa says that Mulan: “coexist harmoniously, without sacrificing one aspect to the other… Mulan is neither one thing nor the other, but everything at once. Mulan manages to construct a tale which succeeds not only in inverting but also in escaping altogether the scripted gender reality” (Brocklebank, 2000: 277).

Rubén

Reference list:

• Brocklebank, Lisa. “Disney’s ‘Mulan’—the ‘True’ Deconstructed Heroine?”. Marvels & Tales 14.2 (2000): 268–283. Web. 09 May 2017.
• Davis, M. Amy. “Disney Films 1989—2005: The ‘Eisner” Era’.Good Girls and Wicked Witches: Changing Representations of Women in Disney’s Feature Animation, 1937-2001. Indiana University Press, 2011. 169–220. Web. 09 May 2017.
• "Home." Feminist and Queer Analysis of Disney's Mulan. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 May 2017.
• Hough, Soren. "How Disney's "Mulan" Brazenly Challenges Gender and Sexuality | Balder and Dash | Roger Ebert." RogerEbert.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 May 2017.
• "Mulan and Gender Roles." Rhetoric and Pop Culture. N.p., 03 Feb. 2013. Web. 10 May 2017.