The breakthrough princess, she breaks through the stereotypical domestic princess. Mulan, the story of a girl who doesn’t fit into the stereotypical chinese tradition. Instead she shows that she can bring honour into the family. This is showing the society merging the two genders together during the 90s, as unlike the 50s, modern society does not have strict gender roles. Girls were wearing trousers, showing skin and doing sports just like men. Mulan proves that woman are just as good as men, if not better, such as the scene where she beats all men to the top of the pole. This film explores many different gender aspects, that the 1950s films wouldn’t ever do.
Mulan is known as a tomboy princess, she tries to become masculin to fit into the chinese army. The fearless, brave and independant princess is the bravest yet. Disney really challenge the stereotypical princess traits here, the unrecognisable princess adds a whole new story line.
Lyrics from the chorus of the song “Make A Man Out Of You” show just how masculine Mulan will be.
Shang and Chorus:
(To Be a man)
We must be swift as the coursing river
(To Be a man)
With all the force of a great typhoon
(To Be a man)
With all the strength of a raging fire
Mysterious as the dark side of the moon
Mulan is the only one to overtly challenge the gender roles of her society. Mulan rescues men and women, mainly men. She isn’t the sweet damsel in distress in fact Mulan takes control of her own life, putting everything at risk for her father. She is a complete contrast to the pre 1960s princesses. She sings a song about how she isnt meant to be a princess because she is this independent, with the lyrics being “look at me, I will never pass for a perfect bride, or a perfect daughter, can it be, im not meant to play this part.”
She is classed as a tomboy as she doesn’t fit the stereotypical feminine traits. During society at the time of Mulan in china women are not often valued as much as they should be. She is not passive and is more so aggressive. Mulan rebels against her family and follows her dream and fights in the war, not something you would see dear little Snow White doing any time soon. The males look at her and laugh to say “How can I make a man out of you” However, Mulan clearly demonstrates that she can out do many of the men in that war, in ever martial arts task. She gains respect off of hundreds of men, showing that women are as equal as men and sometimes better. This gives a message that women aren’t so dumb and naive and we can fight just as good if we need to. In contrast, men have another bad portrayal in this movie.. the song they sing “A Girl Worth Fighting For” is about finding a beautiful girl who can cook and is worth fighting for. It has no mention of intelligence or personalities, just good looks. Really? Is that all that men look for, they are portrayed in this negative way. This is reinforcing the idea that women should be domestic and cook and clean for men within the household, whist the men go out to fight. Its the scene where woman would roll their eyes and say “Typical men ay”. However eventually Mulan saves the whole of china, as herself, as a women, expressing that you can be successful by being yourself.
Although, just like most Disney princesses, Mulan some how forgets all her dominance and bravery to fall for a man although she does deserve it, and he was chasing Mulan not the other way around. Also in Mulan, romance isn’t the highlighting storyline during the movie, Which differs from the other princess movies where romance is expressed front and centre.
I think Mulan is a great role model for children watching, she saves her country by being who she wants to be, she takes independence to save her father and make him proud, and she is happy in the end with the man of her dreams, although she would have been happy without him anyway.
Gender representations 