Blog Post #11 Mulan: I’ll Make a Man Out of You!
April 12, 2010
I feel like in class hyper-criticizing Disney films is really easy to do (I am totally guilty too). The screening of Pocahontas and the discussions finding the “good” aspects in the movie made me wonder if the subsequent Disney movie did anything to justify negative factors such as the portrayal of the main protagonist Pocahontas being dull, passive and essentially a disgraceful standard for heroic feminism.
Therefore, I think that Mulan, which follows Pocahontas in 1998, makes up in female character development that Pocahontas lacks. Mulan is in my opinion is Disney’s most successful film that advocates for feminism. I disagree with feminist critics such as Kathleen Karlyn that “In order to even imagine female heroism, we’re placing it in the realm of fantasy”.
Karlyn should look at the Disney work as a whole and realize that until this point every female character is distinctively female, beautiful and passively kind and naive. Also before Mulan, every female protagonist’s plot line is intertwined with the objectives of that of the male/lover character. Mulan breaks with Disney plot-line traditions by crossing over to the realm of the “man’s world” to save her people, not a love interest. She is not passive; she takes immense physical action and proves to be stronger than other men around her. For Disney to take this leap in changing the structure of its heroin demonstrates that Disney is potentially aware of how it stereotypes women as the “angel of the household” in the past!
I commented on Corey’s and Ian’s blog
April 13, 2010 at 2:14 am
Great point and post! True, Pocahontas, Cinderella, Snow White, Jasmine, Belle and others were all very submissive to males in their films and always seemed to be quite interested in love.
The film really shows what women are actually capable of. They are not just good for cooking, cleaning, singing, child bearing, etc… They can shoot, go undercover, and take on an army. Even though she disobeyed her family, she did it to save them.
I think I’ll have to go and watch Mulan again soon; it’s been too long!
April 13, 2010 at 2:42 am
I am officially your biggest fan. No really, I love the stand you took on Mulan and agree wholeheartedly about how it gives back power to women that the princess movies (and I include Pocahontas as a damsel-in-distress princess) takes away. To add to your commentary against the quote provided, Mulan takes place in a historical context instead of a completely made up fairy tale universe and that the idea was taken from a Chinese tale makes things even better. Great blog post.
April 13, 2010 at 2:43 am
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April 14, 2010 at 5:22 pm
I totally agree with you. I think that’s one of the reasons that this is my favorite Disney movie. It’s not a story about a gorgeous Princess whose sole purpose in life is to find Prince Charming. Mulan actually goes against her society’s expectations and shows a woman who dared to change the way her society viewed women. Mulan saves the guy soldiers butts many times through her ideas, and ultimately saves the Emperor himself. Yet when Shang tells the Emperor’s assistant that Mulan is a hero, the assistant replies, “she’s a women, she’ll never be worth anything,” a statement which the Emperor himself contradicts.
April 14, 2010 at 5:45 pm
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April 15, 2010 at 10:17 pm
Mulan is strong and independent and it is the “Prince charming” type figure that find her in the end. I love your take on it and I’m so glad you brought this to light for alot of people. She is considered a “disney Princess” but she doesnt have the title or the personality of the stereotypical helpless female.
April 20, 2010 at 5:01 am
I agree with what you say here, most of Disney’s Princesses fall under the stereotype of dress-wearing, pink-obsessed, needing-to-be-saved, housewives-to-be. Mulan really averted this, (which is why it’s still one of my favorite Disney films) and definitely helped prove that female characters can be just as capable heroes as male ones. I also feel that Kida, from Atlantis, shared some of these traits with Mulan to a lesser extent. It’s good to see that Disney can level the playing field every now and then, which is also a good start in helping gender equality in western animation. However, what is quite a shame is how the films Mulan, Atlantis, and to an extent, Pocahontas, are causally pushed to the sidelines in the Disney universe, which in turn sort of reverses the messages of these movies. Nevertheless, having a strong female character, whether Main, or Supporting, is always wonderful to see.
April 20, 2010 at 5:17 am
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