Toxic Masculinity In The Animated Film Mulan

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The animated film “Mulan” came out in 1998 and is based on a Chinese legend of the same name. It tells the story of Mulan, who disguises herself as a man and takes her father’s place in the army (IMDB.com). The main theme of the movie is that girls can do anything boys can do, demonstrated through Mulan holding her own while training with men and going head to head with the Villain, Shan Yu, multiple times. However, while the movie breaks down gender roles and stereotypes for women, it leans heavily on toxic masculinity.
Toxic masculinity is defined as “masculinity based on simplified norms and understandings of traditionally masculine characteristics such as violence, physical strength, suppression of emotion and devaluation of women” (Elliot 18). It is often pushed onto young boys and men so they conform to the male gender stereotype. For this paper, I will be focusing on several key scenes, including when Mulan enters the training camp, “The Dark Side of the Moon” sequence, and …show more content…

The behaviors shown in this scene fall under toxic masculinity, boiling men down to being gross and violent in a way that inevitably gets them into trouble. The scene itself ends with a brawl between all the soldiers, getting them in trouble with Captain Shang.
However, as demonstrated by Chein Po when he attempts to calm Yao, these stereotypes are socially and culturally constructed according to Simone de Beauvoir (Butler 12). Being that these are fictional characters created by Disney, their behaviors are literally socially constructed. Wittig suggests that this compulsory gendered behavior is used to reinforce the gender binary (Bulter 26). In everyday life, pushing masculinity onto men is a way to reinforce gender roles and the gender binary, in “Mulan” it is used to show how Mulan is different from the men. However, as the movie goes on, we learn that she really

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