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Jessie Frank

Mr. Phillips

Cultural Media Literacy Honors

13 May 2018

How “Mulan” Defies Gender Stereotypes and Roles

The film Mulan released in 1998 which is directed by Tony Bancroft and Barry Cook is

a classic and widely viewed Disney Princess Movie. However, this Disney Princess Movie is

unlike any other and really teaches young girls everywhere about true beauty and learning to

love themselves for who they are. Mulan celebrates the strength of women by defying

stereotypes as well showing how adversity is a gift, not a curse.

In the movie, Mulan, the divisions and stereotypes amongst the different genders from

the beginning all the way up until the end. At the start of the movie, Mulan is preparing to meet

the Matchmaker by being groomed to look and act as a bride while being sung the song “Honor

to Us All” (Cook). The misogynistic, stereotypical song talks about how when women are

dressed up, “boys will gladly go to war for you” (Cook) and that this is their job, “we all must

serve the emperor, who guards us from the Huns. A man by bearing arms, a girl by bearing

sons” (Cook). “Honor to Us All” also talks about how “men want girls with good taste, calm,

obedient, who work fast-paced, with good breeding and a tiny waist” (Cook) and how the only

way women can bring honor to their family is by being a bride (Cook). We see the gender

divide present in China all throughout the movie such as in the song, “A Girl Worth Fighting

For”. The men were listing off their dream girl they were fighting for, the characteristics

included women who could cook and women who would be awestruck by their man (Cook).
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But, when Ping (Mulan) said she wanted a “girl who’s got a brain, a girl who speaks her mind”

(Cook), all the other soldiers quickly dismissed this as unfathomable and not an important trait.

Lastly, one of the most constant reminders of the gender differences present in the society is the

emperor’s council member, Chi Fu, who always comments derogatory insults towards Mulan

after he finds out she is a woman (Cook). For example, Chi Fu tries to have Mulan killed after

he finds out that she was impersonating a boy all while calling her a “dishonor” and a committer

of treason (Cook). Even at the end when Mulan saved China, Chi Fu orders Mulan’s death again

by stating that she was a creature who tried to kill him and that she was not a hero, she was a

woman who will never be worth anything (Cook). The film, “Mulan”, sets up and displays a

gender divide in China.

Despite the divide and the evident stereotypes at play, the directors create the character,

Mulan, in order to defy the typical women stereotypes of not possessing intelligence. We see

her quick wit and developed problem solving skills multiple times throughout the movie. In the

beginning of the movie when Mulan is running late, she ties a bone and a feeding bag onto the

dog in order for the chores to go by faster (Cook). This shows that she is able to think outside of

the box in time pressing situations, which according to stereotypes, women do not possess the

ability to think like this. Another situation that demonstrates Mulan’s high level of intelligence

is on the mountain when the Chinese army was fighting the Hun army. The Chinese army was

severely outnumbered and only had one cannon left. Mulan took the last cannon and aimed it at

the edge of a snow covered mountain triggering an avalanche that covered all the Hun soldiers

therefore killing them (Cook). None of the other men soldiers had the idea that Mulan had

which showed us that a woman is just as smart as a man and that they to have good ideas. The
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last example of Mulan’s quick wit is at the end of the movie when the Hun army kidnapped the

emperor. While the Chinese soldiers were trying to break down the door with a statue, Mulan

had time to think up a brilliant idea in order to save the emperor and China. Mulan accessed her

feminine side by dressing herself and her friends to look like concubines in order to break into

the palace. By using their sashes, they were able to climb up the poles into the palace and go

through the palace while being identified not a threat, that is until they knocked the guards

unconscious. After doing this, Mulan engages in the final showdown against the head of the

Hun empire, Shan Yu (Cook). “First, she disarms him using her fan. This is significant; this is

the very same object she used in her meeting with the matchmaker—a heretofore intrinsically

feminine symbol in the film’s visual language. Yet on the roof, Mulan uses it to trick the

physically imposing Shan-Yu into losing his sword. From there, she uses a foot swipe she

learned in her hand-to-hand training with Shang to trip Shan-Yu, setting him up for a firework

finish from Mushu. She finally bests her archetypal male foe with a clever fusion of the

masculine and the feminine, demonizing neither in the process” (Hough). Mulan possesses

quick wit, cleverness, and high intelligence which all go against the the typical stereotype that is

put in place for women. Mulan is able to challenge this and prove that this stereotype is not true

and that women are just as smart and intelligent as men are.

The character, Mulan, also defies the stereotype against women that they are weak and

incapable of doing the same actions as men. This is a recurring theme throughout the whole

movie. At the start of the movie, when Chi Fu was passing out enlistment papers, he was only

handing them out to men because women were thought to be not physically capable or strong

enough to fight for their country (Cook). However, Mulan defied this idea by stealing her
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father’s armor and enlistment papers to go to the army training camp, therefore proving that she

is mentally tough enough and physically strong enough to take on this difficult task (Cook). The

next time we are able to see Mulan’s strength is during the song “Make a Man Out of You”

which was performed at the army training camp. This song sells into the stereotypes through the

lyrics such as “dare they send me daughters when I asked for sons” (Cook), this coupled with

the montage of scenes of Mulan struggling buys into the idea that men are stronger than women.

However, this stereotype is then broken at the end of the song when Mulan was the only one

who was able to retrieve the arrow and how she soon was bested everyone else during the

obstacles while the song was still saying “we are men” (Cook), which creates a sense of irony

and defies the stereotype since Mulan is the best, strongest soldier, and she in fact, is not a man

(Cook). The last instance where this is shown is in the end of the movie when Mulan is fighting

Shan Yu in the final showdown. Here, Mulan bests Shan Yu by having the strength to snatch

Shan Yu’s sword by using nothing but a fan, and then afterwards she is then able to knock the

large man off of his feet and pin him down while Mushu sets off the rocket. This proves that she

has just as much strength as Shan Yu who is a man, and that even though she is a woman, she is

not weak. Mulan challenges the stereotypical idea that women are weaker than men by utilizing

the song “Make a Man Out of You” and scenes such as the final showdown and where Mulan

steals her dad’s armor.

Mulan defies the typical stereotypes for women of being weaker than men as well as not

have the same intelligence as men. We constantly see Mulan best all the other male soldiers

whether it is in training or in battle. Even at the end “she is honoured in front of the ultimate

authority in her country, in spite of her sex” (Jones) for saving China with her strength and
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quick wit. Women are able to learn from this inspiring Disney Princess film that there is power

in adversity and that you are not limited due to your gender.
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Work Cited

Cook, Barry, Tony Bancroft, ​Mulan. ​United States: Walt Disney Home Entertainment, 2004.

Duong, William. “Figure 2f from: Irimia R, Gottschling M (2016) Taxonomic Revision of

Rochefortia Sw. (Ehretiaceae, Boraginales). Biodiversity Data Journal 4: e7720.
Https://Doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.4.e7720.” doi:10.3897/bdj.4.e7720.figure2f.

Hough, Soren. “How Disney's.” ​RogerEbert.com​, Leonard Goldberg,

www.rogerebert.com/balder-and-dash/how-disneys-mulan-brazenly-challenges-gender-a
nd-sexuality​.

Jones, Laura. “Masculinity and the Disney Princess.” ​The Artifice​, 28 Nov. 2015,
the-artifice.com/masculinity-disney-princess/.