MIM Notes 166        July 15, 1998

Mulan's dashed potential

by MC17

Disney's latest animated production, Mulan, portrays a 
2000-year-old legend about a young woman in ancient 
China who does not want to be the disciplined feminine 
wife expected of her culture. When China has to defend 
its borders and her weak and sick father is conscripted 
into the army, she cuts her hair and goes in his place 
dressed as a man.

This movie has a lot of potential for challenging gender 
roles in patriarchal culture, and as a Disney film it 
does better than might be expected, but in the end 
Mulan's defining victory is not the defeat of China's 
enemy or saving the thousands of lives or proving that 
wimmin can play important roles in society with brains 
and physical prowess. Instead her defining victory is 
finding a husband.

Some of the shortcomings of the film were imposed by 
Disney when in fact the legend was more progressive. 
According to the Director of the Chinese Culture 
Institute in Boston, "When (Mulan) did something to save 
her army, instead of being proud, she was afraid of 
being punished by death. This is totally opposite of 
what history showed. There were real women who 
contributed a great deal to the country as warriors, and 
history praised them."

In Disney's film, Mulan is a young girl who doesn't know 
how to use a sword or shoot a cannon, but joins the army 
to protect her sick father. However in the legend Mulan 
was trained as a soldier by her father, wins battles and 
is given the title of general by the emperor. Her father 
raised her like a son and taught her the military 
maneuvers. She was a capable commander.

In spite of their revisions of the legend which help 
Mulan avoid taking on the patriarchy head on, Mulan is a 
step forward for the capitalist and patriarchal Disney. 
Although Mulan's physique is not that far from the sexy 
little mermaid and Pocahantas, at least she passes 
pretty well for a man when she cross-dresses. And 
Mulan's determination and battlefield quick thinking are 
fitting characteristics for a female hero.

Mulan challenges the patriarchal ideal of wimmin when 
her fellow soldiers are dreaming of the perfect womyn 
and she asks what about a womyn who can use her brain 
and speaks her mind. And when the soldiers who had 
hailed her as a hero as a man no longer listened to her 
as a womyn she points out that she is not a different 
person than she was when they thought she was a man.

The setting in ancient China makes it easier for Disney 
to take on gender stereotypes without offending the 
modern day patriarchy. It is easier to say that society 
was backwards in the way it treated wimmin hundreds of 
years ago or in some fantasyland rather than attack the 
patriarchy in modern culture. But the issues raised by 
Mulan are relevant today.

Many feminists stop with their critique of patriarchy 
where Disney's Mulan stops: by pointing out the faults 
of previous societies or other cultures. All who are 
seriously interested in fighting the patriarchy must 
examine the role of imperialism and the contribution 
that First World privilege makes to the oppression of 
Third World wimmin and men. 

MIM works towards a society where romance culture is not 
the defining reality of existence for men or wimmin. 
Under communism life has inherent value because all 
people are working for the good of society and hence for 
themselves. And only when we have eliminated the 
patriarchy will we be able to enjoy relationships with 
others without power games and gender roles. 

Notes: AP June 23, 1998.