Many of us are familiar with the story of Mulan. In this popular Disney classic we follow Mulans quest to help save her father and her country by going off and fighting in the fight against the Huns. The movie opens with Mulan following the typical stereotypical role of a woman: helping out with the morning chores along with getting the men ready for their day (i.e bringing them their morning tea). She is also told that she is getting older and she must start thinking about getting married so she can start a family which is giving the impression of that a womens’ place is in the home and not in the work force.
On her way to see the Matchmaker, where she shall be arranged with a husband, we see two male children sword fighting in which in the process they take a little girls doll who cannot get the doll back by herself. This is another attack towards women and showing that they are weaker than men and showing they need help in defending themselves and their possessions.
Next we find out about the Huns invasion and every family must send one member to fight in which Mulan volunteers for her family in which she is deigned. When she starts to question why she cannot fight the Emperor's consul yells to her father “Teach your daughter to hold her tongue in a mans presence." This goes to further the oppression of women in this story. Mulan hatches a plan to change her appearance so she can take her fathers place in the war and try and bring honor to her family because it is almost impossible for women to bring honor to their family. Once she joins the army and they are on their quest to fight against the Huns she must suppress her feminity to be with the men. In a later scene we see one of the Hun’s eagles bring the leader the doll we saw at the beginning which tells the Hun’s their location of their village. I thought this was a very interesting fact that they found a doll which the little girls almost make it out to be her fault for playing with a doll. They could have easily used a little boys toy car to give the exact same details that the doll gave.
Another very interesting part was the part where Mulan decides to bathe. It reminded me very much of the bath seen in A Rose For Emily because she was taking a very calm and relaxing bath until three men decided to bathe as well. During this scene the men where rough housing in which one of the men jumps up onto a rock and proclaims “I am the king of this rock and there is nothing you girls can do about it” which we know is a man proclaiming his superiority over women because women are not able to fight back.
My next piece of evidence was a song they sang on their way to help hold off the Hun’s which was called “A Girl Worth Fighting For.” During this song all of the men sing about what a perfect woman would be like: beautiful, caring, and a great good cook. This is reinforcing the idea that women should be mostly homemakers and nothing else. When it comes to Mulan to say what women should be like she says “A girl who speaks her mind?” in which the chorus of men reply “Naw.”
Soon after a battle with the Hun’s she manages to save her commanding officers life even though she was wounded in battle. They get her help and fixed but her secret is found out in which the entire camp turns on her. Emperor's consul calls her many degrading names and one including calling her a “snake” which even though she saved the entire army she is still seen as a second class citizen by everyone in the army.
For my final piece of analysis I wanted to look at the ending after Mulan saved the entire city from the Hun’s. She is offered a job by the Emperor as the Emperor's consul in which she refuses so she can return home and be with her family. This was the most shocking moment because she had the chance to be empowered beyond many men and yet she decided to return home. This gave me the speculation of her in the end playing into the stereotype of what women should be like: homemakers.
On her way to see the Matchmaker, where she shall be arranged with a husband, we see two male children sword fighting in which in the process they take a little girls doll who cannot get the doll back by herself. This is another attack towards women and showing that they are weaker than men and showing they need help in defending themselves and their possessions.
Next we find out about the Huns invasion and every family must send one member to fight in which Mulan volunteers for her family in which she is deigned. When she starts to question why she cannot fight the Emperor's consul yells to her father “Teach your daughter to hold her tongue in a mans presence." This goes to further the oppression of women in this story. Mulan hatches a plan to change her appearance so she can take her fathers place in the war and try and bring honor to her family because it is almost impossible for women to bring honor to their family. Once she joins the army and they are on their quest to fight against the Huns she must suppress her feminity to be with the men. In a later scene we see one of the Hun’s eagles bring the leader the doll we saw at the beginning which tells the Hun’s their location of their village. I thought this was a very interesting fact that they found a doll which the little girls almost make it out to be her fault for playing with a doll. They could have easily used a little boys toy car to give the exact same details that the doll gave.
Another very interesting part was the part where Mulan decides to bathe. It reminded me very much of the bath seen in A Rose For Emily because she was taking a very calm and relaxing bath until three men decided to bathe as well. During this scene the men where rough housing in which one of the men jumps up onto a rock and proclaims “I am the king of this rock and there is nothing you girls can do about it” which we know is a man proclaiming his superiority over women because women are not able to fight back.
My next piece of evidence was a song they sang on their way to help hold off the Hun’s which was called “A Girl Worth Fighting For.” During this song all of the men sing about what a perfect woman would be like: beautiful, caring, and a great good cook. This is reinforcing the idea that women should be mostly homemakers and nothing else. When it comes to Mulan to say what women should be like she says “A girl who speaks her mind?” in which the chorus of men reply “Naw.”
Soon after a battle with the Hun’s she manages to save her commanding officers life even though she was wounded in battle. They get her help and fixed but her secret is found out in which the entire camp turns on her. Emperor's consul calls her many degrading names and one including calling her a “snake” which even though she saved the entire army she is still seen as a second class citizen by everyone in the army.
For my final piece of analysis I wanted to look at the ending after Mulan saved the entire city from the Hun’s. She is offered a job by the Emperor as the Emperor's consul in which she refuses so she can return home and be with her family. This was the most shocking moment because she had the chance to be empowered beyond many men and yet she decided to return home. This gave me the speculation of her in the end playing into the stereotype of what women should be like: homemakers.
4 comments:
I just loove the way you noticed all the little trivia showing the sexist traditional society and completely missed the giant neon sign saying "this is wrong, don't blindly accept it." Just a brilliant job.
"They could have easily used a little boys toy car to give the exact same details that the doll gave."
Sure, because toy cars existed in ancient China.
I'm sorry, but you really needed to put more thought into this.
If you look at the seen where she takes the doll away from the boys, the lyrics that go with the scene are "we all must serve our emperor who guards us from the huns, a man by bearing arms, the girl my bearing sons." I thought it was a very clever way of putting into how a woman must protect the doll (child/the people) from the boys (war) and Mulan (the woman) is the emperor. At a point in the movie, it comes true. She saves the people from war from killing the Huns. Power is and can be gender neutral.
And I also believe that her going home does not take anything away from it being a feminist movie. A feminist does not mean that a female must go out and get a job and do male things. Women are just making themselves into men if they believe that. She originally left her home to protect to her family. Of course she's going to want to go back home. She is the only child of two elderly parents and a grandmother. They had not heard from her and she truly loved them. And then she went back home she was not expected to be a bride and came home and gave her family "honor." Something that she was only supposed to give if she got married.
I'm actually working on my own analysis of Mulan. I think it is the most feminist child's movie out there. If you look at it superficially, there are many flaws with it, obviously, like the song "Honor to Us All" however, as your watching the movie with the song, the viewer realizes the stupidity of the lyrics because Mulan is obviously worth more than her looks. The entire movie goes against the "convention" of being a woman. Everything a "good" woman is, Mulan is not. But in the end, she is considered the best and most unique.
Many people consider feminism movement as something negative but there is nothing wrong in female desire to achieve the same success and powers as men are, here you can find out more about the aim of all feminists page
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