Mulan and America's Love-Affair with Masculinity (Part One)

And can I just take a moment to gush about how much I love this movie's artwork?

Do you enjoy Disney movies? Are you a feminist? If the answer to both questions is yes, then this blog post is for you! My favorite Disney movie of all time is Mulan, and today I'm here to talk about why it's only almost-feminist and why this makes it very American (Part One).

Ready to follow my Grad-school brain down that particular rabbit hole? Let's go!

First off, you can't talk feminism without acknowledging the existence of the patriarchy, and the movie neatly does this by opening with two scenes featuring only male characters: Men invading, men defending, men planning, men ruling the country, and as the Emperor points out, "One man could mean the difference between victory and defeat." (Dramatic irony alert: It won't be a man.)

I'm so manly I'm on FIRE.

The patriarchal context is then further established by the first musical number, "Honor to Us All." We are introduced to the character of Mulan through a cheery explication of her society's expectations of her as a woman and an illustration of her complete inability to conform to these expectations. "A girl can bring her family great honor in one way -- by striking a good match, and this could be the day!" (Dramatic irony alert: There might be more than one way.)

Good with chopstick, not so good at girl

Having failed to meet her society's standards of femininity, Mulan returns home in disgrace and reflects on her Reflection. In case we hadn't gotten the message yet, Mulan is not traditionally feminine. "Somehow I cannot hide who I am, though I've tried. When will my reflection show who I am inside?" (Foreshadowing alert: Could it be that her reflection will show who she is inside when she stops trying to hide?)

Now that we've established our patriarchal context, Mulan is faced with her first crisis, one that hinges on these strict definitions of gender roles. Her father, as the only man in the Fa family, is expected to fight for his country despite being old and infirm. A young neighbor of the Fa family acts as a foil for Mulan by volunteering to take his father's place. This option is denied to the female Mulan, whose willingness to speak up and defend her father only shames him. The movie takes a moment here to demonstrate that patriarchy can be dehumanizing. Mulan's father, who up to this point has been the only one cutting her any slack, suddenly turns on her with the harsh, "I know my place. It is time you learned yours."

Now Mulan is faced with a choice: Uphold society's definitions of masculine and feminine roles at the expense of her father's life or reject those definitions at the expense of her family's honor and possibly her own life. We are not surprised when she chooses the latter, considering how ill-suited she is to those definitions in the first place. However, the movie wants us to understand that this is not an easy choice. After all, it involves great personal risk. "She could be killed," her mother says. Her father replies, "If I reveal her, she will be." This is a rigid society, one that enforces its norms with the death penalty. After all, social deviancy is a slippery slope! As one of Mulan's ancestors says, "Traditional values will go down!" (Feminism alert: Maybe that's not such a bad thing...)

Still working on this "man" thing...

So Mulan takes on a masculine identity, cutting her hair and putting on man-clothes, but as soon as she arrives in the war camp, it becomes apparent that this change is merely superficial. Confronted with the alienness of the new role she is trying to fill, Mulan reverts to a more traditionally feminine self that finds the men around her "disgusting."

"I'm such a fail. Q_Q"

During this segment, the "naturalness" of the gender roles is initially reinforced by Mulan's inability to fulfill the requirements of the masculine role. This reinforcement is false, though, and serves merely to highlight the drama when Mulan finally shatters the divide between gender roles. Not only is she ultimately able to fulfill the requirements of the masculine role, but she even surpasses the men in her abilities. "Did they send me daughters when I asked for sons?" Yes, Li Shang, they did, and a good thing too. (Dramatic irony alert: He won't make a man out of her.)

WINNING.

 

At this point, the narrative's feminist message is on solid enough ground that it can withstand some playful exploration of the identity shifts Mulan is undergoing. Mulan slips off for a "girly" bath but is almost discovered when some of her comrades decide to join in. This scene cuts straight to the heart of the matter by revealing Mulan's discomfort with the physical differences between her female body and the male bodies of her companions. While her (culturally determined) gender may be fluid and alterable, her physical body is not. She may be masculine, but she can't be male.

"I don't really wanna take him anywhere."

But this is where things start to get problematic. Up until now, the character of Qi Fu, the Emperor's Consul, has served as a sort of minor villain, constantly threatening to send bad reports about Li Shang to the Emperor. The bathing scene is the first of many where Qi Fu's non-traditional masculinity becomes the butt of a joke. He attempts to join the men in their bath, but wearing a dainty towel, shower cap and slippers. We see the aftermath of this as he huffs off, repeating some of the insults the men have thrown at him. However, instead of inviting our sympathy for a character being bullied for non-conformity to gender roles, the movie wants us to laugh at him.

Qi Fu, I found your bathing ensemble stunning!

The movie, while championing a "masculine" female, still feels it acceptable to shame and ridicule a "feminine" male. In the world of Mulan, male characters are allowed to possess the full scope of the "masculine" personality (governed by their stomachs and sexual drives, slovenly, aggressive, etc...) but they are not allowed to infringe upon the "feminine" (concerned with clothing and personal appearance, picky about personal hygiene, feminine forms of speech, dislike of physical labor, etc...).

This tendency of the film is jarringly anti-feminist. After all, feminism aims to oppose patriarchy in all its guises, and it is patriarchy which has dictated these strict gender roles for both males and females. The movie's treatment of Qi Fu reveals its troubled relationship with the feminist principles it set out to champion. In the final analysis, we can't forget that Mulan is an American movie, created by Americans for an American audience, and its inability to fully embrace feminism is a symptom of this. The movie struggles with the parts of feminism that U.S. culture struggles with -- We are so in love with masculinity that we think EVERYONE should be masculine, men and women alike. When women aren't masculine (assertive, outgoing, independent, outspoken), we can accept it, even approve of it, but when a man dares not to be masculine we feel the need to shame him back into his proper role.

Spoiler alert: Qi Fu does scream [in the manner traditionally associated with a female].

But enough about our cultural failings. We have a movie to analyze here! Part 2 coming soon, wherein I discuss the benefits of non-surgical gender reassignment...