So I've talked a lot on my channel about how I didn't really like Mulan when I was looking back
on it as a young adult, and that it didn't speak to me as much as the other Disney princesses like The
Little Mermaid or Beauty and the Beast. And I know Mulan never became a princess in the movie, but
she's in the Disney princess lineup in her reflection outfit, so that's why I'm
calling her that. Anyway it took me a long time to realize that I actually do really like Mulan as a
character and the movie, but what made me hate it so much in the past was the discourse surrounding it.
Mainly the fact that there's this idea going around that Mulan didn't want to be feminine
and that she actually wanted to be masculine and do boy stuff, and it's like no actually. I'm not
here to say that you personally can't find Mulan empowering or see her as a girl boss because there
is a lot of commentary about women in society in the film. For example in a girl worth fighting for
there's a whole line where Mulan says how about a girl who's got a brain, who always speaks her mind.
And this is of course ironic and funny to the audience who know that Mulan is actually
describing herself, or at least someone that she wants to be. After Mulan's identity as a
woman is revealed she asks Shang, "You said you trust Ping, why is Mulan any different?"
Mushu also says "you're a girl now remember" when Mulan asks why isn't anyone listening to her.
"No one will listen!" "Huh? I'm sorry did you say something? "Mushu!" "You're a girl again, remember?"
Lastly there's the societal expectations that women be silent in front of men and that they must
become brides and fit into this feminine ideal, but Mulan doesn't hate on that. She doesn't disdain
being feminine. Yeah in honor to us all she does seem more at home with the dudes and
playing games than getting her makeup done, but she knows that this is also like her filial duty
and she respects that. Her duty as a daughter is one of her biggest motivations, if not the
biggest motivation that she has. She wants to make her family proud and bring them honor.
"You dishonor me." And she doesn't just want to make her family proud, she wants them to be proud of her.
Of course in the end we see that her family has always been proud of her no matter what
she does or doesn't do and that Mulan had it in her all this time. And that's fine because
that was like the whole point of the movie! The thesis of the film isn't just that Mulan is as
good as the guys and women are equal to men, it's that Mulan finally tried at something
and succeeded, and through that she realized her own self-worth. She realized that she didn't need
to prove herself to her family, but rather that she needed to prove herself to herself. And this
is perfectly illustrated in her mountaintop speech where Mushu also admits that he went
on this whole journey just to prove something to himself. "Maybe I didn't go for my father,
maybe what I really wanted was to prove I could do things right.
So when I looked in the mirror, I'd see someone worthwhile." This is also evident in her ballad
Reflection where she says that she doesn't know who that girl is that she sees staring back at her,
but not because this girl is in a dress and makeup, but rather because the girl in the mirror is a
disappointment. The girl in her reflection doesn't illustrate who Mulan wants to be internally! The
story of Mulan isn't just an external journey, it's also an internal journey. And of course that
doesn't mean that you can't watch Reflection and interpret it a different way, but this is I think
the way that it should be interpreted or at least you know is like the deeper meaning that's really
there and that the movie is really trying to push that I think gets lost in the shuffle of
pop feminism. Mulan in the beginning of the movie is clumsy, yes she's clever and also a kind and
loving daughter, but all that is worth nothing in her eyes because of her clumsiness that always
seems to mess things up for her and she messes things up because she's insecure. She doesn't know
who she is and in my opinion it's not because she doesn't feel comfortable being feminine, but rather
she's afraid to try and fail. I say this because she's not very tomboyish either. She doesn't really
seem to be interested or invested in anything. Yeah she's clever, but that's only to
set things up for later. But her personality is just you know very bland. Basically she's scared
at trying things and she's afraid of you know failure, but one thing that she's not afraid
to do is speak up for her father and protect her family, and thus these two sides of her personality
perfectly combine to move the movie forward. She's afraid of speaking up and she
also has to be quiet as a woman, but she's also afraid to speak up just because she's insecure
and she also wants to protect her family and this kind of gets her in trouble because she
knows that she's going to be reprimanded for it when she speaks out in that public gathering scene
in the beginning of the movie, but it's worth it to her because her family is everything
to her. So you know those two things kind of mesh really well together. So when she stands up for
her father and takes his place, it's not so much of a want but a need. Like if she doesn't take
his place, in the universe of the movie, he would be presumably killed. She doesn't choose to join
the army because she wants to defy gender norms, she does it as a duty to her father, to protect
him and also of course subconsciously to prove something to herself. She wants to prove herself as
worthy and on the first day, her clumsiness messes everything up and kind of ruins her reputation
for a while. She again is not really good at anything, but through joining the military and
through the montage of I'll Make a Man Out of you, she begins to believe more in herself and become
more secure about her abilities. When Shang tells her to "go home pack up your through"
she realizes that she really needs to get her butt in gear. The stakes are higher than if she
just fails the meeting with the matchmaker, now her father's life is presumably on the line.
She knows that it's now or never so she puts her nose to the grindstone and does something that
no other soldier has done before. Mulan grows more and more confident in herself to the point where
she goes rogue because she believes that her plan will work, and guess what? It does. However
afterwards her identity is revealed and the men leave her, albeit unwillingly, and she starts to
reflect back on what she did this all for and she realizes that she just didn't do it for her father,
but that she did to prove something to herself. To prove that maybe she'd look in the mirror
one day and see someone worthwhile. She then sees that the Huns are still alive and that they're
going to take over the imperial city. She tries to warn her fellow soldiers, but of course they won't
listen to her because girl, but after the enemies take the emperor hostage, she leads the troops
to victory. And Mulan could have so easily fallen into girl doing guys stuff is cool because guy
stuff territory, but it doesn't. Not only because Mulan doesn't show disdain for other girls and
actually wants to be feminine, but also because the men kind of embrace being feminine. Though
them dressed in drag is played for laughs there's also some really awesome and intense music behind
them as they climb the pillars with their shawls and save the emperor in drag with full makeup and
dresses, and I think that's awesome. And Mulan even defeats Shanyu with something feminine, a fan, again
showing her cleverness. And note that Mulan using her fan against Shaunyu isn't to show that you
know feminine things are better than masculine things or the fan is mightier than the sword, but
rather it's just quick thinking on her part. By the end of the movie Mulan's father reassures her that
he will love her no matter what and that he will be proud of her no matter what, and mulan realizes
that she just went on this whole journey because she wanted to prove something to herself, again
that she you know is worthy and is you know someone worth fighting for let's say,
and not because she doesn't like dresses or makeup or matchmaking. She learns to be self-assured and
secure in her identity and she never does this by hating on other girls or hating the feminine
or saying that you know men's stuff is better and more empowering. She even gets with Shang in the
end and I'm pretty sure that they get married, at least in the sequel? All in all Mulan is a great
movie and I do really enjoy it, but what I hate about it is how the iconography has been kind
of taken out of the movie and used to promote like this girl boss type of feminism because
the movie is so much more than just female empowerment or just this kind of branded female
empowerment, it's about learning to be more secure in yourself no matter who you are or what gender
you are. It's not just a movie about a girl doing manly stuff being good because it's guy stuff, even
though I guess you could make the argument that she only learns to be more confident in herself
through something that's stereotypically masculine, but something interesting is that she never really
fits into the masculine ideal either. She remains clumsy and kind of a klutz throughout the film.
Even after she climbs the pole and proves that she's the best soldier, she's still awkward in
front of the guys and you know doesn't really know how to act with them, and like Just Write
said in their video, seeing Mulan not fit into the masculine ideal made him feel seen
and that's awesome. I do think that it's really cool how Mulan is kind of representative
or at least makes some people feel seen, people who are in the LGBTQ+ community,
because you know it's really important, like that's important! And I love like the cover and
the poster of the movie and how it shows Mulan's duality, that she's a little bit feminine and a
little bit masculine. So that's it for the video! I just felt like clarifying that I do like mulan
and I just really dislike how you know a lot of people, or let's just say the pop feminism machine,
has kind of marketed this movie as just the movie about female empowerment because it's so much more
than that, and that her empowerment is also tied to her doing masculine stuff because her empowerment
just you know doesn't just come from joining the military, but it's about self-actualization. It's
more than just her wiping makeup off her face and cutting her hair, it's about an internal journey
that I think we can all relate to and also kind of go through. The journey of wanting to accept
yourself and love yourself and respect yourself and be proud of yourself, but not being able to
do that because you think that you're not worthy and that you think that you need to go through
all these things, when no, you've had it in you all along. I think everyone always has this need
you know to prove themselves when in reality you don't need to do that. I think the message
in the movie about reassurance, that people will love you no matter what, that's really
important, especially for kids. So yeah that's what that's what I like about Mulan. I mean her
mountaintop scene where she looks into the helmet and says maybe I'd see someone worthwhile and you
know when talking about her reflection, I mean that's so underrated! Anyway that's it for the
video, thank you so much for watching, if you like this one please give it a like, leave a comment,
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I post a new video. My next video is going to be about Taylor Swift and girls in the friend zone,
and you know a trip down memory lane of some of your favorite Nick and Disney channel
shows, so be on the lookout for that! And of course happy new year, happy 2021! By the time
you're seeing this it's already I think the second week of January so welcome! So yeah I'll
see you in the next one, thank you so much to my patrons and my subscribers, thank you so so much, bye!
you