The concepts of constructing gender and socialization can be applied to the film Mulan mainly because one of the major plots in the film consists of Mulan’s use of a false male identity with the name Ping, to prevent her father from fighting to the death in the upcoming war against The Huns. This extreme behaviour alone serves the purpose of exemplifying the emphasis of gender roles in the film, in that Mulan had to be seen physical as a male member in society, in order to fight for her country. Even her father as weak as he is, was chosen to fight over Mulan, who throughout the film exemplifies strength, honor and bravery, just a few of the characteristics that the males were seen to have, which permitted them with the right to fight for …show more content…
Gender roles are enforced in the film. One instance in which this is evident occurs after Mulan questions her father’s decision to fight. His response is that he knows his place, meaning as a man his role in society, or specifically his duty is to fight for China. Her father, Fa Zhou, then goes on to ask Mulan if she knows her place. This conversation itself depicts the traditional gender roles in Mulan’s time, males were dominant in all aspects and females were subordinate to them. Females and males were socialized through the tradition values that were upheld in …show more content…
This a troubling concept in that males are praised for being brave, but females are shamed for doing what is seen as a man’s duty and with gender being viewed as an ascribed status, females could do nothing to change the position to which they had been born into (lecture slides, gender). The difference in how both males and females are socialized, meaning how society tells females and males to act, assists in suppressing otherwise similar capabilities between both genders (gender lecture). Another instance in which gender stratification is evident when Mulan attempts to warn various males about the danger approaching, The Huns, and not one of them listen to her. Mushu goes on to explain to Mulan that she should have expected that now that she is a woman, no one would listen to her. Mushu’s explanation exemplifies societies expectation of women, to be seen and not heard in a male’s
In her call to adventure, Mulan can not help but try her best to protect her dad and his honor. When the news about the war is announced, and how every family must send their most fit boy to serve, Mulan calls out against the
Mulan, being the only woman in the army, comes across many tests that she has to pass to keep her secret. She overcomes the insecurities of thinking that she will never amount to what her family wants of her. The movie “Mulan” follows the basic hero’s journey. None of the steps are missed and everything is pretty clearly laid out.
Overall, the Disney movie, Mulan, demonstrates gender roles, socialization of gender roles, and consequences of breaking the gender roles. By Mulan going to war for her father, in China, many things were at risk, life, honor, and the country of China, itself. Displaying the characteristics a man had was the only way for Mulan to survive, granted, she was not great at displaying woman characteristics in the first place. Being caught in war, as a woman, meant death, but Mulan was lucky for her bravery when saving Captain Li Shang, for he spared her life, which allowed Mulan to help save China and the emperor in the end. Even though China had very strict gender roles, Mulan broke them to save her father’s life and became the person she was meant to be.
William Shakespeare once said, “[My] honor is my life; both grow in one; take honor from me, and my life is done.” The idea is touched upon in both the book Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston as well as Disney’s Mulan were family honor is more important than anything else. Mulan was directed by Tony Bancroft and Barry Cook, and produced by Walt Disney Pictures. The film Mulan retold the story of a woman warrior who took her father’s place in battle and became a savior of China.The movie uses many elements from the original story told in the chapter “White Tigers,” but adds many modern twists in order to make the story more appealing for a newer generation. In both stories of Fa Mu Lan the elements of sacrifice, silence and voice, cultural practices of ancestor worship and filial piety, and Chinese stereotypes are present.
perspective on the concept, arguing that gender is a cultural performance. Her careful reading of
Set in the Northern Wei dynasty of China, the gender roles of China were simple as depicted through song in Mulan. “We all must serve our Emperor… a man by bearing arms, a girl by bearing sons.” Mulan’s one and only role in life is to marry a man, who she is deemed fit for and to bear many sons and tend to the home. She is to live a life of homely domesticity. This is perhaps one of the most obvious motifs that don’t shine a nice pretty light on Mulan. Mulan has to go to a beauty salon in order to meet the matchmaker and “bring honor” to her family. At the salon, Mulan is mercilessly soaked in a freezing bath, has her hair tied up neatly, her waist laced up, and is overloaded with excessive make-up and jewels. The potential brides, Mulan included, are thus made to look like “cultured pearls, each a perfect porcelain doll.” According to the beauty specialists, “A girl can bring her family great honor in one way, by striking a good match.” They preach that “Men want girls with good taste, calm, obedient, who work fast-paced, with good breeding and a tiny waist.” This demonstrates heg...
In conclusion, the development of the folktales leads to the obtaining of ideas about gender. In many ways our society supports the idea that women seem underestimated as well as physically and mentally weak in comparison with the men who is portrayed as intelligent and superior. This can be shown in many ways in the different versions of this folktale through the concepts of symbolic characters, plot and narrative perspective.
In the Disney film Mulan, the character for Mulan plays an important part to support the example of a woman not satisfied with her state of being and subordinated position in society and therefore, takes action to show others her true capabilities and qualities. This prototype is scarcely depicted in today’s cartoons and films so that children rarely identify with this image. “Mulan” helps to promote this role model of an intelligent woman and could be the first step in breaking gender constraints. In addition, it might teach children that they have to find their own state of happiness rather than trying desperately to fulfill society’s expectations.
Women give up their independence and power to men. This submission reflects the power imbalance in our society. The inequality between men and women is still present in today’s culture and workforce. Men are usually described as strong, rational, courageous, competitive and dominating, while women are perceived as weak, emotional, cowardly, cooperative, and nurturing. This description gives a dilemma of stereotypes and identity towards each gender.
The symbolic interactionism is a theory concerned with the ability of humans to see themselves through the eyes of others and to enact social roles based on others’ expectations. In the film, Mulan’s abilities as a woman were not be accepted and recognized before she joined the army. For example, at that time, she was defined as a weak woman and helpless daughter. Although she worried about her old father, no one thought that she could help her father, and no one respected her thoughts. Her label made her only needs to obey and wait the results of war. However, when she came home after the war ends, her label also changed. This is because she met other’ expectations and played men’s role successfully. She mastered more capability like fighting a battle. Her label also became a hero and her family guardian. From the beginning to the end of the film, Mulan’s identity and label changed a lot because of her changing
The classic Disney movie, Mulan, is often praised as a film involving feminist empowerment, but upon closer look just the opposite appears to be true. The classic storyline includes Mulan, a young Chinese woman, taking over her fragile father’s place in the Chinese army, disguised as a man named Ping. She trains among the other soldiers, becoming one of the very best with her accompanying guardian dragon, Mushu and a cricket her grandmother gave her for luck for the matchmakers by her side. She ends up saving all of China by revealing that the Huns are back and invading the country, and is honored as a hero. This movie breaks away from the typical damsel in distress princess story by having a single woman save all of China. However, on Mulan’s journey she faced extreme female shaming, and experienced stereotypes attempting to belittle her; all
One’s gender and their role associated with that characteristic are critical to how one fits within society. According to Conley, gender is defined as “a social position, the set of social arrangements that are built around normative sex categories.” (Conley pg. 283) In other words, through socialization someone is raised as a certain gender by treated them one way or another. This is exhibited in the film as the main character, Toula, was taught from a young age that because she was a girl she was supposed to wear long shirts and have long hair. She continued to conform to these societal norms until meeting the man of her dreams and making the conscious decision to defy those customs.
Many people have considered gender to be a natural part of our lives, having its own roles and norms that are followed by the people within the categories of gender, male and female. However, these norms receive different views once put in action. In this report, I aimed to answer the question: in a male dominated society, how do female gender norms influence the way one perceives them self as well as they way others perceive them? The patterns, answering my question, which will guide my paper, resulting from the Hindi movie Kahaani, were that whenever a female was displaying feminine norms, she was given negative views by those of the male gender however those feminine roles show her positivity, allowing her to see that strength lies within those roles as well. Kahaani, based in a male dominated country India, is about a pregnant woman, who is actually a spy, in search of her “missing” husband but later finds out he resembles a terrorist. Due to the fact that she is pregnant, she was not viewed as harmful and thus was used and discriminated by the male police officers in order to lead them to the terrorist however she used her gender to her own benefit. In the following research report, I will outline the relations between the norms for a female and how they are perceived by others as well as the one characterizes by the gender, which is the pregnant woman. This will focus on the operationalization of the variables of gender roles, perceptions relating to actions, words and treatments the character receives. From these, I will explain the methods I used in order to obtain the patterns which answered my question after analyzing the movie.
Mulan reinforces the traditional ideas of masculinity in the song, “I’ll Make a Man Out of You” (Mulan 1998). The lyrics, “Let’s get down to business, to defeat the Huns. Did they send me daughters, when I asked for sons?”(Mulan, 1998) portrays the traditional gender roles of men; it claims that male is the only sex that is able to fight. The goal of this scene is to “make a man” out of the new recruits. The movie Mulan asserts that being feminine is detrimental to the war effort. Instead, the docile, feminine recruits have to be transformed into men. This song in Mulan argues that one should strive towards being a "man";
Men are usually associated with dominance, being a higher class, and aggressiveness. Women are associated with being fragile, nurturing, and subordination. The role you play in this world is made up before you’re even born. When you are born and you are a boy they dress you in blue. If you are a female you are dressed up in pink. Gender socialization occurs throughout agents named education family, and what the media thinks is right. All of these example show how gender roles are creating expectations for the gender of the child. Other agents that determine how you act are things such as religion. How the stereotypes of a religion can leave you trapped being someone or something you do not want to be. Things that should be gotten rid