Portrayal of Women: Mulan and Brave

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In every society there are certain gender roles that men and women meet either because they are forced or because it is tradition. Mulan and Brave both show two very different teenage girls who are being forced into gender roles. Mulan seems to want to comply with her gender role within the Chinese society; however, Merida makes her point clear about not wanting to accept her gender role within the medieval Scottish society. Mulan is story about a young Chinese girl, Mulan, who runs off to join the army in place of her father and then brings honor to her family without following the traditional gender role she was almost forced into. Similarly, Brave is the story of a Scottish girl, Merida, who is forced into her traditional gender role. Even though both of these girls had gender roles that they would have to take on, both took different attempts to avoid them. Mulan did not know she would change the role of women in her society when she went to war, but Merida knew she would change the roles of women in her society. These girls both knew about the challenges that were ahead but they did not anticpate the impact the the challenges would have on them. Although both these movies show two very strong girls who surpass many obstacles to change destiny, they also send a negative message about women to the audience.
Mulan is set in ancient China a time when women did not have a voice in the government or in their home. Women during this time were expected to clean, cook, and only do things their husbands approved of. The most important day in a woman’s life would be the day she had to see the matchmaker and impress her. In China it was tradition that a woman go to matchmaker for marriage. In the movie it shows that this has become...

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... saw women, even though Mulan did it unintentionally.
Next, Mulan and Brave in the end both send negative messages about women because they tell their parents lies, break laws, run away from there home and disrespect their parents. The people that surrounded both girls facilitated the negative messages to be sent. The women who stood along side these girls thought that women should be perfect and they wanted their daughter to be perfect to live up their expectation of women. Mulan thought that women should not have to get married or go through a matchmaker to do so similarly Merida thought that women should be able to pick their own husbands and thought that women should decide when to get married. In the end both girls changed their destinies but that does not change how much perfection was pushed until they showed their parents how accepting people could be.

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