Exploring The Role Of Feminism In The Disney Film 'Mulan'

Young children watching the Mulan movie may be inspired to construct their gender identity with bravery and personal ambition rather than social norms. Mulan is a wonderful role model for young girls and for one’s own female gender identity.

Men, Women, or transgender we are all human. Each human can act in whichever way they please. However, does this break a traditional gender norm? A traditional gender norm is the types of behaviors which generally considered acceptable, appropriate or desirable for people based on their actual perceived sex or sexuality. Gender norms can be seen in various television shows, movies, and music. However, how do we know if these gender norms are okay to be seen in these forms of entertainment? In the movie Mulan directed by Tony Bancroft and Barry Cook they illustrate how traditional gender norms can be broken by showing that Women can prove themselves as worthy as men, and there is nothing wrong with that.

The idea of feminism has not always been common. The term “feminism” wasn’t introduced until the 1970s. This shows how society didn’t allow anything that had to due with everyone being equal because of the standards that society constructed. In all the versions of Mulan, I think that Disney’s Mulan was the most strict on her having Ancient China’s role of being a woman. This would be having kids, helping clean around the house and not working for money, but working for her husband and kids. In Disney’s Mulan, her family is more hard on her to be a lady and for her to be the proper role of a women. This is because they went to a “matchmaker” to find her husband, and after saving everyone several times, she was still looked down upon because she was a woman.

For young children it is easy to be carefree about your future. It is not until you are an adolescent that you begin to see what is important and what is expected of you. In the Walt Disney motion picture Mulan the title character is being tested by what her traditions and society expects of her. The film touches on numerous concepts on childhood and what society expects of children in China. She has to exist in a community where her gender has expectations set for young females. She has strict traditional expectations set by her family for her age, in which she is to be prepared to seek out a husband. War begins to threaten the community and her father who is aging and ill is expected to go and serve. Her instinct to protect her aging father leads her to make a decision and to begin the journey to find out who she is on inside. Mulan embarks in a self quest to find out who she really is and goes against all the social construction that society has set out for her.

Overall, the connection between girls liking Disney princesses for their looks was a little bit higher than all the other columns. While looks were usually focused in the earlier Disney movies, girls liked the looks of Rapunzel the most. Despite this, younger girls did not just favor looks like predicted. Personality and actions were favored highly as well. A love story was not mentioned nor favored, evident that nobody chose their favorite princess based off of prince charming or for romance.

From the minute one is born the division between genders is placed. The phrases “act like a lady” or “be a man” become everyday practices and lifelong slogans. Fairy tales are always focused on women who play the beautiful damsel in distress persona and on men who play the handsome knight coming in to save them. Whether you are female or male, it is important to remember that these fixed characteristics placed on genders are never to be reinforced. In a world full of gender stereotypes, the Disney movie Mulan challenges the societal construct of masculinity and femininity by proving that gender roles are not fixed traits, but socially constructed views that can be changed.

For today´s presentation, I´m going to present an animated film that some of you are probably familiar with. This film is called Mulan as you can see from the pictures set up.

In Mulan, the stereotype of an obedient women, good housewife, and beautiful women who are married off is presented. When I see the heroine of the movie she conforms to the Asian race appearance, she has the common sexual identity of heterosexual, she is able-bodied and young. Mulan goes against her Asian culture of how women are supposed to be, a terrible housewife, clumsy, and has a hard time being obedient. She tries to fit into the stereotype in order to appease her parents. When her father is drafted into the military, however, Mulan confronts the gender box. She cuts her hair short, joins the military, becomes a strong woman who is capable of fighting, develops a sense of independence, and learns how to follow her own beliefs as opposed

Once upon a time, the princess doesn’t get saved, the villain isn’t an older woman and prince charming just wants to be left alone. It’s not usual to see a connection between feminism and fairy tales, but there’s a reason they both start with ‘F’. I grew up in a time where my baby pink bedroom walls were filled with VHS tapes of classic fairytale stories like Beauty and The Beast, Cinderella and The Little Mermaid. Yet even though I was born in the late 1990’s it wasn’t until December 11th, 2009 that I was able to see a representation of myself and my skin tone. In the release of The Princess and the Frog, Disney revealed their very first African-American princess allowing me to become even more aware of the inequality facing me, my race and my gender through media at the young age of twelve. From damsels in distress, to oversexualized drawings, to displayed over-masculinity in princes; there’s no part of fairytales that does not have a lasting effect on our youth, society and morality. In a world filled with inequality, the experiences I have had and the fairytale culture I have grown up watching and reading is why I chose to be an intersectional feminist. As an intersectional feminist, I believe in advocating and fighting for equality of the sexes while taking into account “how women's overlapping identities — including race, class, ethnicity, religion and sexual orientation — impact the way they experience oppression and discrimination” (Crenshaw). And with my

Disney’s Mulan and Brave are both forced into gender roles. Mulan wants to comply with her gender role within the Chinese society, while Merida makes her points clear about standing against her gender role within the Medieval Scottish society. Moreover, the 2 animations both show the strong characteristics they acquire that differ from the stereotypical Disney Princesses. Merida and Mulan both express extremely brave personalities as they undertake risks with acknowledging the challenges that were ahead of them. Furthermore, both of the Princesses break the stereotypes of women.

Mulan was an actual person not just a character in the Disney film. Her last name was Hua. She was born in a small rural village in northern China, and she lived from 581 to 618 AD during the Sui Dynasty. Mulan’s father was a soldier and raised Mulan like a boy. She not only learned weaving and embroidery from her mother, but also practiced martial arts, equitation, archery, and fencing with her father. In her spare time, she liked to read her father’s manuals on military strategy. Mulan took her fathers place in the war as her father was to old. Mulan went to war for 12 years, but she went as a man not a woman. She was not discovered as a woman until after the war.

Throughout the movie Mulan, there are many Confucian beliefs, religion, and ideas that can be defined. Although Mulan follows Chinese and Confucian beliefs, there are some pieces of information that are historically incorrect such as the things used in battle, the Forbidden building, and who truly was emperor during the times of Mulan.

In the old day and in many cultures, women have been seen as submissive to men and also voiceless and helpless. Their life had to depend on men, so they have been treated unequally in the society. Some cultures such as the ancient Greek saw women as the possession of men. When they were young or unmarried, they were the possession of her father. Additionally, when they were married, they would be considered as the possession of her husband. Therefore, they had no rights or voice, and they could not make any decision or path for their own life. As well as, in India, there are many stories or epics which taught women that an ideal woman or a good woman is the woman who treats her husband nicely. In other words, a woman would not be purely considered as a good woman by their behavior, but they would be considered as a good woman by the way they treat their husband. Because of these conditions of the society, there is a group of women who call themselves “Feminist”, and require the society to see women as equal as men. Nowadays the idea of feminism is spread worldwide, and there are many concepts or theories about feminism conducted and developed since 1870s. For this film, X-Men: The Last Stand, can be criticized with feminism theory as this film seems to convey the idea about women that “women with the great power, especially the women who

Mulan is a story about a brave girl who goes into the war acting like her father's oldest daughter. What the wars fail to realize is that she is a woman and not a male. The story of Mulan was told in two different ways, the original story, The Ballad of Mulan, and then there’s Disney's version of it. Disney’s version of Mulan is told as a love story, as the original one is told how she just wants to take her father's place in the war so he doesn't have to go with it. Both of the stories start out the same. China gets attacked and they need one man from each family to fight in the war. Mulan doesn't want her father to go with it because he is older, and he is already injured from a previous war. In the original story, she has 2 siblings a little brother and a little sister. In Disney's version, she is the only child. Since in both stories she's the oldest siblings, she decides to act like the oldest son in the family so she can go to war instead of her father. In the original story, she has to go out and buy all the supplies she needs in the war, while in Disney's version she takes everything she needs from her father. In both stories, she leaves her parents without turning back. She travels a long distance to get here. In Disney’s version, she has a little dragon named Mushu, who helps her stay safe.

Mulan is a Disney animated film that takes place in ancient China during Han Dynasty War. Mulan is a young girl in China, the only child of her honored family who struggles to find her identity and meaning in society. While Mulan is a lovable, spirited girl who doesn’t fit in with Chinese tradition because she speaks her mind and follow her heart. Being a girl who experience culture, gender role, and self-image demonstrated what a non- tradition person will do to bring honor to her love one’s and the family.