I was fortunate enough growing up to spend countless hours
rewinding my VHS tape featuring Mulan saving China. As kickass as Mulan was, I
now realize the problematic constraints she underwent to successfully save her
country. After failing an interview for an arranged marriage, in which she had
to reveal her feminine beauty by wearing a beautiful Chinese dress and by applying
a large sum of makeup, Mulan felt disgraced for not bringing honor to her
family. After singing some Christina Aguilera, the song Reflection, Mulan felt incompetent, but soon discovered the
opportunity to fight in the war for her father since he was somewhat crippled.
Of course, no women were allowed to fight in the war, so Mulan had to chop her
hair off, change her name to Ping, and take on an entirely masculine identity.
And she couldn’t possibly have done so as a woman without a sidekick or
advisor, Mushu (aka Eddie Murphy).
At the beginning of
her army training, she struggles alongside other trainees. The song, Make a Man out of You, featuring the
beginning lyrics from general Shang:
Let's get down to business
To defeat the Huns.
Did they send me daughters
When I asked for sons?
You're the saddest bunch I've ever met,
But you can bet before were through,
Mister I'll make a man out of you.
Did they send me daughters
When I asked for sons?
You're the saddest bunch I've ever met,
But you can bet before were through,
Mister I'll make a man out of you.
Clearly, this is a slap in the face to women. Shang is
claiming these all male trainees—and Mulan who is undercover—are not yet
men. He views them as weak and unworthy to fight in the war. Notice that
Tamora, Lavinia, or any women in Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus are not allowed to enter the war. Countless number
of men enter into combat, but no women participate in such activity. Titus
alone loses many sons as Marcus notes: “He [Titus] by the Senate is accited home/ From weary wars against the barbarous Goths,/ That with his sons, a
terror to our foes,/ Hath yoked a nation strong, trained up in arms./ Ten years
are spent since first he undertook/ This cause of Rome, and chastised it with
arms/ Our enemies’ pride. Five time he hath returned/ Bleeding to Rome, Bearing
his valiant sons/ In coffins from the field;” (1.1.27-35).
There is no mention of Lavinia over the ten year time span
Titus led Rome in war; not once did it mention her given the choice to fight
for her country. Instead Titus only reflects on the loss of his sons, “Rome, I
have been thy soldier for forty years,/ And led my country’s strength successfully,/
And buried one-and-twenty valiant sons/ Knighted in field, slain manfully in
arms/” (193-196). And Lavinia is left at home to welcome her father and
surviving brothers’ return.
In addition, Lavinia is assigned to an arranged marriage
like Mulan. While her brothers and father argue over which man is fit for her,
Lavinia is not asked what her own preference is (1.1). This trend carries
throughout the rest of the play. Shakespeare’s play and Mulan both display the unfair disadvantage women are faced with. Although women are free to enroll in the Armed Forces today, the weak and passive feminist ideal still exists. Young children already buy into this binary as shown by the Always commercial “Like a Girl.”
Even
if women have the grit of Mulan to save China, they are hindered from doing so.
*lyrics provided by lyricsmode.com
