Don’t get me wrong. I happen to love Disney Movies, but they aren’t very feminist. I bring up Mulan in particular because I am watching it right now.
It does raise questions about gender roles. Or maybe not questions, it points them out. How odd that the gender roles of ancient China mirror those of today, with a few exceptions (I hope?). But generally Women are still expected to have children and men are still expected to the protectors.
Yes I know that generally this is just historical fact but for me there is not enough questioning of these “facts” to make it seem like it is anything more than just “this is the way it has always been but maybe you can break away from it”.
The first song is all about how the women are hoping to bring honour to their families by marrying a good husband. The songs in the army are about being a man. There are two extremely strict genders in this movie. Men are not women, or girls, they are brave, they fight, and women who are weak stay at home. There is no space for someone like Mulan who doesn’t fit. She cannot please the matchmaker and so tries to become a man. Once it is discovered as a woman she dishonoured and left in the mountains. She fits neither into the role of male or female.
But wait! you say. Mulan runs away from home, poses as a man and saves China. There must be something feminist in that. At least showing girls that they can do anything. Well… yes and no.
Yes in that she over comes many obstacles and is finally triumphant.
No in that she does what she does only out of duty to her father. Selflessness is generally regarded as a female trait. She is not allowed to just be herself in the army. Instead of having to get all dressed up and go to the matchmaker now she must perform to the standards of the Chinese army and be sufficiently “man enough”.
Still she does redeem herself. But when does this redemption happen? Only after she has returned to her role as woman. Once again the reward she receives is honour for her family which she promptly gives to her father. More selflessness rhetoric.
I believe that her return to womanhood is important, as well as her love interest in the Captain Li. It shows that deep down, despite everything she is just a girl and eventually she will learn her lesson and return to “normal”. I believe that this is amazingly illustrated in the Grandmother’s final question of “Will you stay forever?”. As if it doesn’t matter that Mulan obviously exhibits military skill she will get married and raise a family just like every other girl.
Grandmother’s last statement also shows that though Mulan may have challenged society its values have not changed. Mulan is a national hero but yet it is still not accepted that a woman will do anything but marry. She is an anomaly. Nothing more.
To me this movie seems to have less of a rhetoric of “Look girls you can do anything” and more so “Yes girls can do anything but eventually they will recognize their true womanhood and conform”.
This is a sad sad rhetoric for our time. What we need is someone to challenge and change societal values. Someone who is more than an anomaly but part of a larger movement which critically looks at gender roles and revises them, perhaps even making them more fluid.
