FEMINISM IN THE MOVIE MULAN

Magdaline

The story of Mulan, a young Chinese woman who disguises herself as a man and joins

the army to save her father's life, has been told repeatedly for the past 1,500 years at

least. It's both beloved and iconic, and Mulan, who is as virtuous as she is strong and brave, is

an essential heroine. Mulan is a Walt Disney animated film released in 1998. Mulan broke

gender roles because she wanted to be in the army to save her father's life, and she wanted to

prove that women also can fight in the army.

This movie is a way Mulan's character is well-illustrated as a woman, who has power

and a strong mind. It proves that she is a feminist who does not want to take for granted what

women are supposed to be in her society. Mulan is the representation of most women who

take serious action in fighting for women's equality. Also, the movie discusses feminism. My

research questions are how does the Mulan story represent the journey to gain equal rights

for women? How did Mulan demonstrate her power? I will use both qualitative and

quantitative methods. For my qualitative methods, I will use ‘’What is feminism?’’ by the

International Women Development Agency. I am also going to use “The Real Story of

Mulan” by Lily. The quantitative article method I use ‘’Mulan is One of The Many Women

That Has Proven That Women Should Not Conform to Gender Roles” by John Beatres.

The second article I am going to use is “Hua Mulan” by Lydia from Newmarket. All these articles help me learn and understand the link between Mulan and Feminism. For my

quantitative data, I will use Mulan is One of The Many Women That Has Proven That

Women Should Not Conform to Gender Roles by John Batres.

What Is the Culture Behind Mulan?

Mulan is based on a Chinese folk story originating from the Ballad of Mulan, which was

created during the Northern Wei Dynasty (386–534). The real story of Mulan was similar to

the Disney version, telling of a brave daughter who replaced her aging father to fight in the

army and served valiantly for her country. It is a household legend that has affected many

generations. Even now, Mulan is a byword for heroines and a great figure to inspire girls to

be brave or “to make a man out of you” as the saying goes.

Was Mulan’s War Real in History?

Mulan’s war in the Disney movie reflects the conflicts that had occurred for a long time

between Central China and Hun invaders along the northern border. In history, the central

Han state, which enjoyed a farming culture, had many wars with the Hun people who lived a

nomadic life in the north, mainly located in what is now modern-day Mongolia. These two

contexts are very important to my research because they lead to the research question,

containing details about Mulan in the army, and how it happened.

FEMINISM

Feminism is “about all genders having equal rights and opportunities. It's about

respecting diverse women's experiences, identities, knowledge, and strengths, and striving to

empower all women to realize their full rights’’ (“What is feminism?”). Mulan’s actions are

related to feminism because she shows that all women can do whatever men can, no matter

how difficult the situation and that women need to be strong. However, Mulan shows how

she tries to be equal to men.

Literature review

My first source is “about all genders having equal rights and opportunities. It's about

respecting diverse women's experiences, identities, knowledge, and strengths, and striving to

empower all women to realize their full rights’’ (“What is feminism?”) by the International

Women Development Agency, I use this source because they have a lot of information about

feminism and they also give a good example for the readers, and also I am discovering what

feminism really is, and with the help of this article I realized that feminism really is in the

Mulan movie. Based on the description that this article shares, helped me to notice a moment

where there was feminism against Mulan, which was that He practically demonstrated to her

entire country that women, like men, can be heroes.

My second source is “What Is the Culture Behind Mulan? Was Mulan’s War Real in

History?” by Lily. This source I find is the best for my paper because it helped me collect a lot

of information that I couldn't capture in the movie, for example ''When he came back and

attended the court after the army's victory, he didn't want any official reward, he just asked to

meet his family'', it also helped me to have more ideas of what he was going to write to me,

he took out several doubts that he had when he finished seeing the movie

The next resource I am going to use is “Mulan is One of The Many Women That Has

Proven That Women Should Not Conform to Gender Roles” by John Beatres. This is a great

point which answers one of my research questions, which is How did Mulan demonstrate her

power? I say this is a good example since it talks about the great fact that Mulan did in going

to the army for the love of her loved ones.

My last resource is that “Hua Mulan was a hero because of her courage. She was so brave that she could do something dangerous and difficult. It would damage her reputation, and it

was bad for a woman, but she didn't care about this thing because she knew it was necessary’’

(Hua Mulan)” by Lydia from Newmarket. I use this source because it is through these

examples of virtue and loyalty that Mulan demonstrates a virtue that Mulan demonstrated.

This will help me a lot in my role because it focuses a lot on talking about Mulan's powers

and what she did in the army.

For this research, I conducted a survey. To collect my data, I asked some of the people I

know if they had seen the Mulan movie. Among all the people that I asked, only three said yes.

I sent every person a survey with some questions that I consider important about the Mulan

movie.

The first question was, ''Is Mulan a feminist story?'' 100% of the participants said yes.

Mulan shows great power that any man can show. “Mulan broke gender roles because she

proved that women can be tough and endure the pain and sacrifice men did when going to

war. Mulan not only fought for her father, but she also fought for herself because she wanted

to prove that she was more than just a housewife’’ (Batres, 2017). This quote is very

important because it shows a large part of the movie, which wants to say that not only men

have great power to fight in a war and that men should not look at women as if they do not

have the power to be able to confront a group of people. People in the army confuse Mulan

with a man because usually women do not belong to the army. Therefore, Mulan starts

thinking of herself as a man. However, in the end, people realize that she is a woman.

The second question was “What lessons did Mulan learn?” 33.3% of participants responded that no matter how difficult the situation is, never give up. Therefore Mulan showed courage in the story, continuing to fight no matter the challenges breaking stereotypes about women joining the army.

The next question was “How do you describe Mulan?” 33.3% of people who participated

said she was strong. We really know that Mulan is a very strong woman because when

Mulan pretended to be a man, it was an act of bravery which was an example that was not

ours so we do not realize how strong a woman really is. She obviously loves her family

and would do anything to save her life.

The next question I asked the participants was “What are the virtues of Mulan?”, 66.7 % said loyalty. Mulan is aware that if her crippled father is recruited into the army, he will perish in the army. She takes his place and leaves the house in the middle of the night with the sword.

The next question is: Complete the lyric: “Did they send me daughters”, 33.7% said

“When I asked for sons.” This refers specifically to the fact that Mulan is actually a daughter

disguised as a man. It was the only obsession she had to save her father's life. The other

question challenge in the survey is “Mulan is a hero in what way?”33.3% of the

participants said Hua Mulan was a hero because of her bravery. “Hua Mulan was a hero

because of her courage. She was so brave that she could do something dangerous and

difficult. It would damage her reputation, and it was bad for a woman, but she didn't care

about this thing because she knew it was necessary” (by Lydia from Newmarke). This quote

is important because Mulan disguised herself as a male and participated in the war solely for

her father's protection and safety. She never gave up and did everything she could to ensure

her father's safety. "Keep my father upright.” Mulan was always there for her father and never

let him down.

The other different question I asked is “How do you describe Mulan”, 100% of

participating said, queens. Mulan is a queen warrior because after the emperor orders each

family to send a man to the army, Mulan disguises herself as a man to protect her father from

being drafted into war. And also, Mulan, on the other hand, only joined the army to keep her

handicapped father alive in combat. She triggered the avalanche to stop Shan Yu's troops

from slaughtering Shang's division, thereby saving not only her own life but also the lives of

her companions. The fact that she was simultaneously killing an army bent on forcefully and

savagely seizing her nation was probably low on her priority list at the time.

The last question that I asked was “you think Mulan has a dark history?’’, 100% of

participants say yes. One moment sad is when a commander of the emperor went to each

house recruiting soldiers, he said that by order of the emperor, one member of each family had

to go to the camp to prepare for war, this news devastated Mulan a lot because she knew that

her father was very sick and could not fight in the war.

Conclusion

Mulan is a part of the movie that may be empowering to a lot of women who do not see

themselves as brave enough to join the army. That's why Mulan is one of the movies that

focus on building on the power of women and equality. Mulan has been one of the most

successful movies people have made, due to their support of the genre. All the used articles

here are relevant for many readers, especially women, because they are an example of what is

happening today about gender preference. For that reason, the Mulan movie is very important

as it shows a great point of view that makes it very clear that this must change and see the

person with different power for the reason that they are of a different gender.

References

Batres, John, “Mulan is one of the many women that has proven that women that has proven that women should not conform to gender roles.” Medium. 2017 https://medium.com/@jbatr001/mulan-is-one-of-the-many-women-that-has-proven-that-women-should-not-conform-to-gender-roles-503fc587661c

Lilly. “The Real Story of Mulan.” 2002. “China Highlights.com” https://www.chinahighlights.com/travelguide/article-movie-real-story-of-mulan.htm

Lydia. “Huan Mulan” 2015. My Hero Stories. https://myhero.com/H_Mulan_mulock_CA_2011