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Mulan Film Response
Mulan is a great example of a film that demonstrates the presence of gender roles in culture and the roles of hegemonic masculinity. Mulan is a young woman who can’t seem to find her place in Chinese society. In the beginning of the movie, Mulan meets with the matchmaker. The matchmaker grades Mulan on her hair and makeup, her clothes, her manners, and overall how persuaded the matchmaker is that Mulan can be a wife and a mother. In this Chinese culture, Mulan’s gender role consists of marrying a man and starting a family. It’s expected of her to stay at home cooking, cleaning, and taking care of the children while her husband works. After brutally failing the matchmaker’s test, Mulan takes her father’s place at war to protect her family. Mulan’s journey consists of difficult tasks and uncomfortable situations in hopes of convincing her commander and soldiers that she’s a man. Throughout these tasks of shooting bow and arrows, diving through hoops of fire to save someone, and setting off grenades the proper way, the song being played is called “Be a Man”. One of the lines in the song says, “Did they send me daughters? When I asked for sons.” This reveals hegemonic masculinity and the idea that men must be more aggressive and assertive, and more physically fit and capable, than women. After Mulan helps defeat the Huns at war, she is congratulated and praised for her bravery and courage until the other men find out that she’s a woman. Her commander and soldiers were angry and disappointed with her because she her actions didn’t match up with the expectations of her gender role. One of the men yells at her, “I knew there was something wrong with you! A woman! Treacherous snake!” Mulan has to save China by defeating the Huns just to overcome the boundaries that hegemonic masculinity and gender roles create in her culture.