Shreya Bommireddi
SOCY-2015
Professor McDonic
10 February 2017
Preparing Blind Oppression: Fake Feminism in Mulan
Mulan is a retelling of an old Chinese folktale where a young Chinese woman learns that
her old, weakened father is called into an army in order to fight the invading Huns.
Knowing that he would not survive, she decides to disguise herself as a man and take his
place. At first glance, Mulan seems to be a feminist film encouraging the individual
empowerment of women. Despite positive feminist images, the film is not free from
traditional gender stereotypes. While the film may be considered progressive by departing
from the usual “damsel in distress” storyline, upon further analysis we see that it is not as
empowering as it appears. Disney’s Mulan reiterates a binary understanding of gender
stereotypes that privilege men over women. A stereotype is a, “misleading and simplified
representation of a particular social group” (Ott and Mack 180). Mulan demonstrates how
hard it is to scape stereotypical gender roles by reinforcing a masculine construction of
gender and stereotypical feminine qualities.
Mulan emphasizes the cliché idea of masculinity in the scene where the captain, Shang,
sings the song, I’ll Make a Man Out of You, shown in the appendix (Mulan
1998). Masculinity is characterized by strength, power, and activity (Ott and Mack 182).
The verse, “Lets get down to business, to defeat the Huns. Did they send me daughters,
when I asked for sons?” depicts the stereotypical image of men because it defends the idea
that men are the only gender who are worthy for combat. The intention of Captain Shang
in this song is to, “make a man,” out of the new recruits. This entire song is extremely
sexist because it is discriminatory and prejudice towards women, arguing that being
“womanly” is not respectable in war. Alternatively, the “girly” recruits have to be
transformed into men. This scene in Mulan complies that one should strive towards being a
“man”, and strongly oppresses feminine traits. When the Shang sings, “(Be a man) With all
the force of a great typhoon (Be a man) With all the strength of a raging fire,” it highlights
the stereotypical notion that men are tough while women are not. Furthermore, this songs
focal point is the stereotypical masculine traits are superior to feminine ones, thereby
repressing feminine behavior.
On the contrary, Mulan characterizes womanhood as the exact opposite of masculinity.
While men are seen as brave, strong, powerful and intelligent, women are depicted as
