Gender Analysis Of The Disney Film Mulan

Gender roles have been a hotly debated topic in the most recent years, especially the role of women in society. Women have had set expectations that they are believed to conform to, which is shown in many pieces of film and literature. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald describes the life of a man in the upper class in the 1920’s, as well as women in the 1920’s. The movie The Princess Bride, written by William Goldman, visually explains the treatment and expectations of women, and especially focuses on the “damsel in distress” stereotype.. Roxane Gay’s “Bad Feminist” explains the stereotypes against women and ways women can come together and fight these constraints. Based on these sources, societal expectations take away from each individual’s identity, forcing women to conform to society's standards. In order to fight against these expectations, women have banded together and formed movements against these standards.

When Mulan returns home, she returns to the normal expectations of a woman which puzzles her comrades. “Traveling together for twelve years, they didn’t know Mulan was a girl. ‘The he-hare’s feet go hop and skip, the she-hare’s eyes are muddled and fuddled. Two hares running side by side close to the ground. How can they tell if I am he or she?’” (Frankel). Mulan relays the difference between men and women but also states that when both are faced with an obstacle like war, there really is no difference between them. Therefore, Mulan becomes a master of both the worlds of men and

The website is titled “Growing Up With Disney” and covers eight Disney movies produced in 1989 to 2016. Each movie gets its own webpage that focuses on the female lead character and each webpage includes a summary of the movie and a reflection of my thoughts on the character. The reflections focus on the formations of gender roles and how Disney has changed in the span of these eight movies. The audience targeted is those who share the same love for Disney movies and grew up watching them.

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.

To complete this sociological journey I used the concepts from chapters 3,4,5, and 8 of the textbook Sociology: A Brief Introduction, 11th ed. by Richard T. Schaefer. Mulan is a Disney movie character that has to face many sociological problems that threaten her physically and sociologically. Her social role is to become an obedient wife to her future husband, but Mulan just could not conform to the gender role that was expected of her, thus creating a role conflict. And as the movie progresses Mulan refuses to give into the norms of China and instead trusts in her values and takes on the duty of protecting her significant others from the war against the Huns. In the process of training. She isn’t given many life chances because of her being apart of the group known as women and men don’t respect or understand this group. Mulan meets Li Shang, who has the achieved status of captain, but some soldiers believe that the title of captain is an ascribed status because of the status of his father. This causes conflict and insubordination between the captain and the soldiers. Mulan takes on the personality of Ping to hide her identity and this action eventually has severe consequences due to the impersonation of a soldier being a very serious crime that could’ve brought on a fatal punishment, but she was spared due to her heroics later on. This is her journey from a girl to a soldier.

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.

Maxine Kingston in “The Women Warrior” presents a traditional Chinese society that anticipates women not to decide what is best for them all by themselves. Kingston creates a woman who goes beyond this ritual culture constraint and who take up

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 theme of “voiceless woman” throughout the book “the woman warrior” is of great importance. Maxine Kingston narrates several stories in which gives clear examples on how woman in her family are diminished and silenced by Chinese culture. The author not only provides a voice for herself but also for other women in her family and in her community that did not had the opportunity to speak out and tell their stories.

According to A Dictionary of Journalism, the media is defined as journalism as part of a much broader field of public communication organizations, including newspapers, magazines, radio stations, TV channels, the film industry, the music industry, websites, advertising, and public relations. For young children, media plays a predominant role in developing schemas of one’s identity, including body image, and gender roles. Young children spend the majority of their time viewing media, therefore the process of generating one’s identity based on his or her observation of media is inevitable. Disney’s princess movies have brought significant effects to children’s development of their identities. There are three main stages of Disney movies. The first stage is the “princess” stage, where the movie depicts the most stereotypes (i.e. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs). The second stage is the “rebellious” stage, where the princesses are illustrated as curious and adventurous, yet still show the aspect of female stereotypes (i.e. Jasmine in Aladdin). The third stage is the “hero” stage, where the princesses are shown to fight the female stereotypes (i.e. Mulan). Although Disney has portrayed more complex, yet evolving gender roles as time went on, Disney’s princess movies had significant effects on young audiences by planting changing gender stereotypes.

Maxine Hong Kingston’s novel The Woman Warrior is a series of narrations, vividly recalling stories she has heard throughout her life. These stories clearly depict the oppression of woman in Chinese society. Even though women in Chinese Society traditionally might be considered subservient to men, Kingston viewed them in a different light. She sees women as being equivalent to men, both strong and courageous.

As Mulan’s father is enlisted to fight in the war, Mulan rebels against her gender role and speaks out on the drafting of her injured father who would unquestionably die to protect his country. Noticeably having crossed a line, she is shamed for her outburst and is now determined more than ever to bring her family honor. Mulan sets off to fight under her family’s name portraying the male role of a man named Ping. Under this role, Mulan begins to find her true identity, which is not necessarily that of a man, but of a single individual who is strong-minded and brave. As she prepares for war, Mulan leaves behind a flower pin from her hair and this flower reoccurs throughout the film. The flower represents her leaving behind this societal view of femininity as she

In the movie, “Mulan” the gender stereotyping is different than in the movie, “The Lion King.” Although she is portrayed as a strong female she still needs a man in her life. Giroux states, “Mulan may be an independent, strong-willed young woman, but the ultimate payoff for her bravery comes in the form of catching the handsome son of a general” (Greene 582). This teaches that young girls should strive to be beautiful so they can find a handsome man that will want to be with them. Men, on the

We need to understand that the filial piety presented in the movie with the one in the original legend is different, because in the movie Disney portrayed back the filial piety based on American people’s understanding and stereotypes on Confucianism. In this way Mulan described as a free individual who does not want to be bounded by the strict rules of Confucianism. Although, most of the time Mulan expresses her refusal to Confucianism, she still represents the value of filial piety to her father by disguising herself as a man warrior and taking her father’s duty in a war. In this sense, Disney tried to show Mulan’s dutiful character by bringing out Mulan’s “manly” and rebellious personality. However, in order to strengthen Mulan’s head-strong personality, Disney deliberately lessened the value of obedience and replaced it with Mulan’s pursuit of identity. In this sense, Mulan is described as being confused of her real identity. She is given two difficult choices between fulfilling her role as a potential wife or listening to her own calling (She wants to find her own love without the interference of other people, including her parents). Moreover, the Ballad never explicitly tell the relationship between Mulan and her parents; but everyone can assume that Mulan does not have “a close relationship” with her parents unlike the one depicted in the Disney’s version. Because in filial

Another way to analyze gender in Mulan is to examine society 's expectations of female versus male roles. In Mulan, it is apparent that society has different expectations for each gender and the roles they should play. Before she meets with the matchmaker, Mulan recites the characteristics the Chinese society believes makes a perfect woman, "quiet and demure, graceful, polite, delicate, refined, poised"(Mulan). Mulan is accused of bringing dishonor to her