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Gender Stereotypes In Mulan

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Gender Stereotypes In Mulan
According to Frus and Williams, Mulan was Disney’s first animated film with a Chinese lead character with its first film produced in 1998 (156). Mulan was produced by Pam Coats and directed by Barry Cook and Tony Brancroft . According to Frus and Williams, Mulan tells a tale of a strong and smart young Chinese woman who is bored with life and in need of an adventure. She pretended to be a boy in order to be able to fight in the war in place of Fa Zhou, Mulan’s disabled veteran father and bring honour to her family. Mulan goes through various challenges to achieve this but at the end she succeeds at bringing honour to her family and country. According to Frus and Williams, the story of Mulan was based on the Chinese legend of Hua Mulan who was …show more content…
It is important to try to change the ideologies on gender roles as it affects children, especially girls. According to Geopalakrishnan and Persiani-Becker, “Studies have speculated and reported on the effects of the gender inequality, specifically on adolescent girls, which results in a flawed self-image, lack of motivation and drive, and gender stereotyping.” (102). Geopalakrishnan and Persiani-Becker discuss on how children begin to form their ideas on gender well before preadolescence as they begin to understand what it means to be male or female (102). According to Geopalakrishnan and Persiani-Becker, at the preadolescent stage, children begin to develop attitudes towards games for various genders, activities and gendered occupational roles (102). The Disney film, Mulan goes against this stereotype as there was a twist in gender roles. Mulan ended up saving Captain Shang’s life while putting her own life at risk. Geopalakrishman and Persiani-Becker point out how men are stereotyped to fix things while women are to become homemakers (103). Mulan goes against this stereotype as she enlists herself in the army disguised as a boy, learns how to be tough and “fight like a man” and ends up being the sole reason that China won the war with the use of her

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