Serious Thoughts: Mulan is Not a Man

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So, last night my roommate and I were watching Mulan (finals, cough, cough, finals) and, I don't know if I've been indoctrinated with too much feminist film theory in English 200, but I have some thoughts about it that I never had before.

For, example in the song "I'll Make a Man Out of You"; it's pretty ironic that Mulan, who is a women, is in fact the manliest person in the whole army. Which, may or may not be impressive because the other guys in Mulan's army are kind of wimpy (except for Shang who is the most chiseled cartoon character you will even meet), I mean, Chien-Po can't even swim! I would just like to point out that I've been swimming since I was five. But seriously, why is it necessary for Mulan to be so manly? She isn't a man. Why is it so desirable for women to act like men in this movie, I ask you?


Like a Man!
This is ironic because the whole film is supposedly about the importance of being yourself and, to 'be herself', Mulan needs to disguise herself as someone else. Now, I'm not going to interpret that for you because I'm done with classes (except for that bio final that I will eventually have to study for) but isn't that just messed up. The last thing a person who is having an identity crisis (see the song "Refection") is to dress up as some one else.I don't think she was talking about soldier Mulan when she was singing about how her reflection was somebody she doesn't know. Now, I know that Mulan is supposedly 'feeling better' about herself by the end of the film, but she's not feeling better about herself, she's feeling better about Ping (or whatever man Mulan's name was).

So, let's take a moment to think about that. It's like, in order for a women to be considered powerful/important in society, she has to act like a man (third-wave-feminism going on in here). Which is really, really ironic, because Mulan saves the emperor by teaching the army how to cross dress. Just one of many reasons that Disney movies are a whole lot more interesting to watch now then they were when I was a kid.

Just sayin'

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