The Journal of Cartoon Over-analyzations

This is one of the finest (and longest) submissions from the old archives. And we are not just saying that because it was written by the Editor’s wife way back when they were still dating.

Contributed by Rachel M.

Mulan may at first glance appear to be quite revolutionary in comparison to the traditional formula for romantic tales which Disney has been known to employ. After all, it is the heroine of this film who ends up saving the lives of all the major male characters, including not only her love interest but also her father and the emperor, not to mention the whole of China. Mulan is not one to pass out from a prick of a spinning wheel spindle or a bite of a poison apple, into a sleep from which only a kiss from a handsome prince can wake her; she grabs a sword and joins the army. Clearly, this is far from just another Cinderella story. She doesn’t need glass slippers, magic mirrors, fairy godmothers, snow white skin, or ruby red lips to win her man — and yet, there is the eventual man to be won. It is interesting to examine critically, then, to what extent this film is actually subversive to the established ideas of romance. There are two issues to be addressed here: Mulan in the cultural context and setting of the story, and, more important to anthropological considerations of popular culture today, Mulan the movie in the cultural context of its audience. By examining both these milieux, it may be seen how this film suggests that the genre of romance and especially its enscripted masculine and feminine gender roles are largely cultural and (more subtly) psychological constructions.

It is quite obvious that there are clearly defined prescriptions for gender roles in Mulan’s culture. There is a huge social pressure for anyone in her culture to being honor to one’s own family. If one is a male, he is expected to do this by being brave and skilled in martial arts. If one is female, she is expected to bring honor simply by marrying such a man; in order to do so she must be a graceful, submissive, quiet, and generally refined young lady. Mulan, however, is quite arguably none of these things, as may be observed in the matchmaker ordeal at the beginning of the movie. While she is pretty, she is hardly polished, and though she is certainly creative, her ideas always seem to get her in trouble. She is constantly being rebuked for speaking “out of place.” And her impersonation of a man (military recruit, no less) is considered to be so offensive to the social construct that she faces the threat of execution when she is eventually found out.

Yet, these deviations from the role her society defines for her are not necessarily deviations from her role in the normal romance story. In fact, it is fairly typical for the heroine of a romance to be somewhat of an outcast, often because of her intelligence, fiery disposition, and/or refusal to be what it is that her society thinks she ought to be. Take, for instance, the other Disney heroines - Ariel from The Little Mermaid, Belle from Beauty and the Beast, Snow White, Cinderella - none of these really fit in where they find themselves when the stories first begin. The challenge of the hero, then, is to transform her into a feminine identity more in sync with the status quo (more so by the standards of the audience than by the fictionalized society of the characters). Whether this challenge is accomplished or not will determine whether the film is truly subversive to its romantic genre.

Is Mulan ultimately seditious to the rules of traditional romance? The verdict is not easily decided. On the one hand, yes, for in the end, she proves everyone else wrong and is able to bring her family honor in more than just the “one way” suggested in the song preceding her meeting with the matchmaker at the beginning of the film. In fact, she brings this honor in the exact ideal masculine way: by bringing home war trophies and the gratitude of the emperor. However, the status quo even of her culture does not quite manage to be overturned. Mulan’s grandmother is still not completely satisfied upon her homecoming until she discovers that she has also brought home a man. While the romantic interaction between the two is certainly downplayed, it is clear that in the end she becomes completely acceptable in her society not until she has won her man (by whatever means, traditional or no). Thus her love interest did play some part, albeit minimal, in her finding her sought-after identity.

The answer is questionable from a psychological standpoint as well, though the indications in this subject are somewhat subtler. The psychoanalytic explanation for romantic love is something that extends beyond culture and stems from love between mother and child in early infancy. This is resolved by females by an identification with the mother, and therefore a propensity to nurture in future romantic relationships. By contrast, it is resolved by males by a separation from the mother, followed by a quest for independence/identity, though the nuturement of a mother is still sought in future romantic relationships. There is little mention of the motherhood in Mulan; she and her mother do not appear to have an extraordinarily close bond. Much stronger of a character and more influential to Mulan is her father, and this along with her complex gender role she plays throughout the film seem to indicate that she may have more of an identification with her father than her mother. Even the adventuresome, quest-for-identity angle of the plot may seem to be a more masculine resolution. However, much more central to Mulan is her nurturing character, primarily with respect to men. From the very beginning of the film, this is seen in her relationship with her father. While she looks up to and respects him, she seems to enjoy mothering him by looking after his health. This protectiveness is seen much more intensely when she risks her life for his by taking his place in the military draft. Though later she ponders the notion that it was not so much out of care for her father as desire to prove herself that she went, it is still difficult to imagine her adopting such a radical and dangerous plan for any other reason, no matter how desperate she may have been to discover her own identity. Later we see this nurturing pattern transposed on Captain Li Shang, her love interest. When he is threatened to be removed from authority over his troops, or when he learns of the death of his father the general, she feels the need to comfort him (however awkwardly she can as the soldier “Peng”). Furthermore, she goes out of her ay to save his life, not once, but twice in the movie. While this behavior is contrary to the culturally defined gender roles, from the psychological perspective, the role Mulan pays seems traditional.

The gender roles presented in Mulan have been altered slightly, and yet in many ways do not stray too far, from the roles commonly scripted in romance tales, which are more or less the same encouraged by Mulan’s family and community. How, then, do these scripted roles compare to those actually supported by the society both by which and for whom the film was produced? Mulan is certainly the most progressive female character yet to appear in a Disney movie, and yet she can hardly be described as a threat to our somewhat more modern ideas of the gender roles enscripted in romance. Her take on femininity is close to what would be acceptable if not ideal to the popular social establishment: that is, a woman possessing beauty, strength, wit, bravery, independence…and some other characteristics that perhaps the more stringent proponents for feminism would not be quite so satisfied with. The fact that it is Mulan’s undeniable duty to serve and to nurture is never questioned in the movie, though her particular means to the end is presented as quasi-revolutionary. The story’s moral seems to imply that it is good to be a woman who can do all sorts of things, but that it is even better to give up all these things for the sake of devoting her life to her family. This sends a subtle, but clear and rather surprisingly conservative message to the women who may be with their children in the audience: all those women in today’s “post-feminist” society who are now facing the pressure to pursue all those opportunities that were not previously open to them, and yet not to abandon their even more important role as nurturer and primary caregiver. The situation suggests that, while it may be relatively trivial to construct a plot inside the boundaries of which the ideas of romance and gender roles are challenged, it is not so easy to challenge the very real social mores which exist in the society to which such a plot is presented.