Stereotypes In Mulan

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

In Confucianism, it was expected that a woman should always be correct in manner and upright in character, and that by following these traits, she could bring honor to her family. One of the first scenes in the beginning of the film has Mulan preparing to impress the matchmaker. During this process, the servants sing of the right traits a proper woman should possess, such as “calm” and “obedient”. For followers of Confucianism, woman must always speak appropriately and with respect, especially towards elders and men. In the movie, Mulan’s father walks outside of his home and is commanded by the emperor’s soldiers to join the war effort against the Huns. Concerned for the wellbeing of her father, Mulan talks back to the presumably older male soldiers, begging them to allow her father not to fight. Although Mulan does the exact opposite of what a Confucian follower should do, Chi-fu’s scolding towards Mulan’s father, as well as the latter’s disappointed reaction provides the movie with historical accuracy concerning the expectation of womanly behavior. A final example of the expectation of womanly behavior is the scene in the alps, when it is revealed to the soldiers that “Ping” has secretly been a woman all along. The reaction from the men is one of disgust and anger, which is a fit reaction because, according to Confucian values, women are supposed to work at

In “The Lion King”, Disney uses animals to tell a coming of age story. In this film, characters are used to symbolize racism. From the beginning of Simba’s life, his father forbids him to go to the Elephant Graveyard. Upon further investigation, the viewer learns that the graveyard is resemblant of the ghetto. Even the inhabitants of the graveyard are voiced by minorities and participate in illegal activities one would imagine happening in the ghetto: i. e. stealing food, kidnapping the king’s son. Gail Robertson’s essay, “Snow Whitey?”, states that the “embedded messages [ in “The Lion King”] can only be described as despicable” (43). This essay also on points out the “ghettoization of Blacks and Hispanics” (43). In the film, the integration

In the movie Mulan by Tony Bancroft and Barry Cook the directors show a women named Mulan who pretends to be a man to fight in the chinese war. The war emerges when the Huns invade China. The storyline of the movie takes place in China during the Hans dynasty. Mulan pretends to be a man so she can take her father’s place since he is too old to fight. Mulan takes her father’s armor and sword and escapes to the camp. Mulan signs up for war and she goes to a training camp. Being a man was difficult for Mulan. However she did obtain help from her two sidekicks Mushu a small dragon, and Cricket a lucky cricket. Mulan does experience some obstacles during her training. Some obstacles Mulan comes across to are reaching an arrow at the top of a pole and running up

Mulan is an animated film that was released in 1998 from Disney during third wave feminism, which features an Asian woman protagonist. She is a Disney princess, but at first glance you wouldn’t think so. Mulan is introduced as a clumsy tomboy who did not think she would ever bring honor to her family. In order to accomplish said honor, she would have to by being the perfect bride, in accordance with the matchmaker. The film has a great amount of feminist ideals, however, it doesn’t leave out stereotypical gender roles and several examples of overdetermined ideologies. Patriarchy is very prevalent in this film, from the woman characters positions, down to the songs they sing throughout the film, patriarchy is a theme that cannot be missed. This paper will discuss how feminine and masculine stereotypes are conveyed in the film, how gender stereotypes are portrayed, and of the patriarchal themes included in the film.

Another way to fight against racism is rejecting any kind of stereotypes and educates ourselves. Due to computer games, internet and television, everybody is exposed to stereotype and this can have an effect on how we view others. For example, a mother points out her concerns about how the classic movie The Lion King. She emphasizes how the hyenas that were the bad characters in the movie had voices that make them sound as black people and Spanish speaking people. She explains the effects that this made in her son who randomly relates black people with bad guy. She says “Once, while we were driving through the city not from where we live, my son saw a young black man running down the street. He said to me “Why is that kid running? I said, I

The character of Kong, according to the race reading, independently acts as a semiotic representation of the white man’s perception of black men. The film’s narrative takes us to Africa, asks the audience to embark on an adventure to a land so lost to the modern world that its inhabitants exist side by side with dinosaurs, which Brian McKay argues to be the most “obvious symbol for the perceived primitive nature of Africa and Blacks” (McKay, 2005) The gorilla that they bring back from that island may now be an icon of popular culture in himself, but before King Kong was released there was another image of popular social consciousness that he was associated with, which were the disturbingly dehumanizing cartoons of black people as monkeys popularized

In Mulan, there are a number of times where there is a constant enforcement of male and female stereotypes. The first song, “Honor To Us All” reads “A girl can bring her family great honor in one way...and serve her emperor, by striking a good match” (6:09-9:06), and when Mulan’s true gender is revealed in front of the other soldiers and general, she is told that “there was something wrong with her, [because] she is a woman!” (1:00:26). In fact, when she arrives at the Imperial City to warn her friends of the enemy’s arrival, her own sidekick Mushu reminds her that nobody is going to listen to her because she is “a girl again” (1:08:28). Throughout the film, there is a hidden message that regardless of what Mulan has achieved, women are going

Thanks to actors like Chloë Grace Moretz, Shailene Woodley, & Ansel Elgort, the young adult teen genre is alive and well on the big screen. However, this is not a cinematic category that’s without its criticisms - as films of this nature tend to cater heavily to a young female demographic.

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

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

According to the Merriam Webster Dictionary stereotype is a, “a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing”. Society puts out a certain set of standards and roles of men and women and the way in which they should act, known as gender roles. According to these behaviour stereotypes, the ideal man is intelligent, physically strong, heroic, in charge and is ultimately there to provide for his family. In comparison, the typical women is portrayed as beautiful, delicate, inferior to men and are viewed as the housekeeper; taking care of the children and putting food on the table while the men goes to work. These gender roles start to be enforced at a very young age as a result of society and the media. A prime example of this is Disney and the movies they create for young children. Almost all Disney movies are based

Mulan, in fact, has more in common with male Disney leads than the female Disney leads. Mulan is a thinker. She 's resourceful, like Aladdin. She is quick to act, like Eric (from The little Mermaid.) And she sacrifices herself for the sake of others, like Hercules. She also speaks her mind, even in a culture that does not allow such a thing. She doesn 't waste time pining about "will I ever

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

In the movie there was a character named Mulan that went to fight in the war in place for her father. In Ancient China, women weren’t allowed to be in the war, making her ineligible for the task. In real life there may have been a person named Mulan, but she probably wasn’t that important, and didn't participate in the war.