Mulan is a Disney film that first came out in 1998 and is based on an old Chinese folk tale and while the movie brought great music and family entertainment, it also breaks many gender stereotypes often portrayed in the media. The story follows a young girl, Mulan, who defies tradition and takes her fathers spot in the war as he is supposed to be drafted. While hiding her true identity as a young woman Mulan trains alongside an army of men and even leads the army to victories in battle. Her identity is eventually exposed and her comrades turn on her, sparing her life but forcing her to leave the army. However, on her way home she discovers the army and town are in danger from an attack so she returns and risks everything to save China. The story has a happy ending with her comrades by her side and her ending up with the love interest General Li Shang.
While a heartwarming and fun story, there are a lot of media stereotypes broken by the movie. Not only does the story feature a young Asian woman as the main character, but Mulan also shows the less commonly portrayed traits of women such as her strength, courage, and battle strategies. One of the stereotypes Mulan challenges is the function of women in action movies often as damsels or someone needing assistance. However, Mulan is the hero in the film and saves her comrades, showing the strength she has in herself. Mulan challenges the expected character traits and role of a woman throughout the film as we see her not only succeed as a warrior, but even outperform her male comrades. One of the popular songs that came from the movie is called "I'll Make a Man Out of You" which plays as general Li Shang is training the young soldiers into shape. This song has a double meaning because it is known that Mulan, disguised as Ping, is actually a woman. This part of the movie shows a clear example of how Mulan is embodying traits and skills typically only men would be expected to have, showing that a woman can be just as good of a warrior.
I think the film was an effective way to promote a more accurate representation of women by showing a less commonly shown side to them that embodies strong attributes and battle skills. The movie also was a big step forward for the Asian community as it was one of the few mainstream movies when it came out that featured an Asian main character and story taking place in China. The program is effective because Mulan is a family movie and classic Disney animated film so children are being exposed to a strong portrayal of women and young girls are able to have a strong female character to look up to. While other Disney processes can be considered to be strong in many different ways Mulan's story is different from others and gives a role model to girls who might not identify as much with the traditional princesses such as Cinderella or Snow White. The film could also be considered to be effective at regressing negative stereotypes of female characters because in this story Mulan is the hero and saves the day the the end of the story. Therefore it challenges stereotypes of the female character being weak and in need while providing opportunities for future films to continue to challenge stereotypes as well as giving the younger generation a more diverse option of films to view and shape their view of the world.
Although Mulan is a very well made story and effectively challenges stereotypes of female characters in film there are some limitations to these efforts. The main drawback that could be considered is how Mulan is in many ways an action film and a lot of the reasons Mulan is seen as a strong character are because she is a warrior and battling in a position a man would normally be in. In some ways this discredits other female characters stories such as Cinderella, who did not go into battle, but portrayed strength through her hardship and perseverance even in life challenges. It is important to represent that a woman can be just as strong as a man, while still being a woman and being feminine, which Mulan does in some ways, but the main ways her strength comes through are as a soldier. Overall the film is done very well and was successful at representing the female character in a more positive and strong light especially for the time it was released in. Being one of the first mainstream films to feature an Asian story and strong female main character, despite some of the critiques, the film does an effective job of challenging stereotypes in Hollywood.
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