Representation of Negative Gender Stereotypes in The Movie Mulan

Introduction

A gender stereotype is a vague perception or presumption of qualities or traits, or of the roles that women and men have or should have. Gender stereotypes are negative because they restrict the ability of males and females to improve their skills and abilities, follow their careers and make decisions regarding their lifestyles. “Gender stereotyping refers to the practice of ascribing to an individual woman or man specific attributes, characteristics, or roles by reason only of her or his membership in the social group of women or men. Gender stereotyping is wrongful when it results in a violation or violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms. There are three types of gender stereotype the first one is the patriarchal society which came from the word patriarchy which is a social classification where men have main power and predominance in political leadership positions, moral authority in political leadership positions, moral authority, social privilege, and property ownership. It is also can be specified as a culture in which men, throughout all aspects of society, have dominance over women. The second type is Sexual abuse is sexual conduct or sexual encounter that is imposed on a female or male without their permission. “Sexual abuse is sexual behavior or a sexual act forced upon a woman, man or child without their consent.” 

It is also an act of violence used by the abuser towards someone they find to be vulnerable than them. It is not a product of an unrestrained sex drive, but perhaps a violation intentionally performed with the intention of controlling. The majority victims of sexual violence are women, in a patriarchal society, sexual violence is another way of oppressing women such as the film producer Harvey Weinstein demanded sex in exchange of roles in his movies. The third type is domestic violence which is domestic violence is not just physical assault. Domestic violence would be any action directed at obtaining authority and control over a partner, or significant member of the family.

This case study is about the Disney movie Mulan and is basically focusing on the first type of gender stereotypes which is the patriarchal society where men are dominating the society. The tendency of the capitalist system to reorganize the economy to its own benefit on a worldwide scale has a direct impact on gender roles. Examination of its practices reveals that the capitalist system, on the one hand, relies on a pre-existing patriarchy of inequality and, on another reinforces several of its defining qualities.

Case Study: Mulan movie

Mulan is an American animated adventure movie produced for Walt Disney Pictures by Walt Disney Feature Animation in 1998. It is centered on Hua Mulan's Chinese legend and became the 36th animated film of Disney and the ninth animated movie produced and published during the Disney Reformation. Tony Bancroft and Barry Cook directed the movie with the plot by Robert D, San Souci and storyline by Rita Hsiao, LaZebnik, Chris Sanders, Eugenia Bostwick-Singer, and Raymond Singer. The English version stars Ming-Na Wen, Eddie Murphy, Miguel Ferrer and BD Wong, while Captain Li Shang's voice was recorded by Jackie Chan for the Chinese voice actors of the movie. The movie was released in June 19, 1998 and the duration of the movie is 1 hour 27 minutes, the movie was released in the Unites States, the budget of the movie was 90 million dollars and it reached 304.3 million dollars in the box office. Throughout the Han dynasty, the story line of the movie takes place in China, where Fa Mulan, daughter of old warrior Fa Zhou, imitates a man to take the place of her father throughout a general military service to combat an attack by Hun. The Huns, who are driven by the heartless Shan Yu, attack Han China by rupturing the Great Wall. The Chinese ruler arranges a general assembly, with induction sees requiring one man from every family to join the Chinese armed force. At the point when Fa Mulan hears that her old dad Fa Zhou, the main man in their family and a military veteran, is again to do battle, she gets on edge and worried because of his debilitating wellbeing. Taking her dad's old defensive layer, she camouflages herself as a man so she can enroll rather than her father. The family rapidly learns of her takeoff, and Mulan's grandma petitions the family precursors for Mulan's wellbeing. The predecessors request their 'extraordinary stone winged serpent' to ensure Mulan; a little mythical beast named Mushu, a disrespected previous watchman, is sent to stir the stone monster, yet coincidentally annihilates it all the while, which Mushu covers from the precursors and sets out to secure Mulan himself. Answering to the preparation camp, Mulan can be mistaken for a man, despite the fact that her military abilities are at first deficient. Mushu gives cumbersome direction to Mulan on the best way to act like a man. After the order of Captain Li Shang, she and her self enlisted people Yao, Ling, and Chien-Po bit by bit become prepared warriors. Wanting to see Mulan win, Mushu makes a phony request from Shang's dad, General Li, requesting Shang to pursue the principle royal armed force into the mountains. The fortifications set out, yet land at a copied out place to stay and find that General Li and his soldiers have been slaughtered by the Huns. As the fortifications seriously leave the mountains, they are trapped by the Huns, yet Mulan cunningly utilizes a gun to cause a torrential slide, which covers the greater part of the trespassers. An infuriated Shan Yu cuts her in the chest, and her trickery is uncovered when the injury is bound. Rather than executing Mulan as the law requires, Shang saves her life, however in any case ousts her from the military. Mulan is disregarded to pursue as the enlisted people leave for the royal city to report the updates on the Huns' demolition. In any case, it is found that few Hun warriors, including Shan Yu, have endure the torrential slide, and Mulan notices them as they advance toward the city, expectation on catching the ruler. At the magnificent city, Mulan can't persuade Shang about Shan Yu's endurance. The Huns catch the ruler and hold onto the royal residence. With Mulan's assistance, Yao, Ling, and Chien-Po present as courtesans, and can enter the royal residence. With the assistance of Shang, they rout Shan Yu's men; as Shang averts Shan Yu from killing the Emperor, Mulan draws the Hun head onto the rooftop, where she connects with him in single battle. In the meantime, following up on Mulan's directions and sign, Mushu fires a huge skyrocket at Shan Yu. The rocket strikes and impels him into a firecracker propelling pinnacle, where he kicks the bucket in the subsequent blast. Mulan is lauded by the Emperor and the gathered occupants of the city, who bow to her in an extraordinary respect. While she acknowledges the peak of the Emperor and the sword of Shan Yu as endowments, she respectfully decays his idea to be his guide, and requests to come back to her family. Mulan comes all the way back and displays these endowments to her dad, who is thrilled to have Mulan back securely. Having gotten captivated with Mulan, Shang before long lands under the affection of restoring her head protector, however acknowledges the family's challenge to remain for supper. Mushu is restored as a Fa family watchman by the progenitors in the midst of a returning festival. The cast of the movie are Ming-Na Wen as Mulan and her for singing voice was provided by Lea Salonga, Eddie Murphy as Mushu, BD Wong as Captain Li Shang and his singing voice was provided by Donny Osmond, Miguel Ferrer as Shan Yu, June Foray as Grandmother Fa and his singing voice was provided by Marni Nixon, Harvey Fierstein as Yao, Gedde Watanabe as Ling and his singing voice was provided by Matthew Wilder, Jerry Tondo as Chien-Po, James Hong as Chi-Fu, Soon-Tek Oh as Fa Zhou, Pat Morita as The Emperor of China, George Takei as First Ancestor, Miriam Margolyes as The Matchmaker, Freda Foh Shen as Fa Li, James Shigeta as General Li.

The Mulan Movie and the theory that is based on the movie is the patriarchal society. “A patriarchal social system can be defined as a system where men are in authority over women in all aspects of society. In modern American culture and society, the idea of patriarchy is not as accepted or practiced as it once was decades ago.” The characteristics of patriarchal system male dominance: men make all decisions in a patriarchal system, both in community and in their family unit, occupy all positions of power and control, and are considered superior. Male Identification: Men are worried about distinguishing proof that incorporates characteristics of control, quality, forcefulness, discernment, solid hardworking attitude, and intensity. Every one of these characteristics add to male recognizable proof in a male centric framework. Male Centeredness: In a male centric framework, the focal point of action and movement is on men and what they do to push the general public ahead. In any man centric framework, men will be the concentration and engineer all things considered and innovations, men will be the saints in all circumstances, and men will be the focal point of social commitment, fun, and amusement. Fixation on Control: Men living in a male centric framework or society must be in charge consistently. They want to control all social and family circumstances and must settle on all choices with respect to accounts and instruction. “As we see in the first line of “I’ll Make a Man Out of You”, Shang (the captain of Mulan’s military unit) tells the men that he asked for sons, not daughters to fight for him. The song tells us that he will shape the soldiers into men ready for war. He specifically targets Mulan during the song because in the beginning of training, she has a much more difficult time learning to fight'. At first, Mulan was expected to be selected as a wife for a potential suitor; this is an indication of women's roles in feudal society in itself. To add respect to your relatives as a daughter, the most you should do is to have to be a wife with 'good taste, cool, loyal, fast-paced job, and have a tiny waist,'said the lyrics to 'Honor all of us.' A girl must be respectful and depend on her husband's hands to be a woman worth fighting over. Mulan publicly opposed certain gender stereotypes in her cultural identity, risking her life for her father rescuing the King and her lover from harm. All of this has clearly demonstrated girls can just do what a man need to do, and perhaps even more. Mulan is a queen of her own self. She did it on her own and didn't depend on everyone else, particularly men. The movie revealed Mulan as a woman who was trying to pursue and trying to prove her self. Physically, she battles even further to defeat for her parents and because of her own dignity and respect. She's ensuring the safety of the whole empire. Mulan is radical and liberal, and so much more egalitarian. The best part of it is that Mulan is based on a real person. The original movie of Mulan originated from Chinese tale ' Ballad of Mulan.' The very beginning lines in the single 'I'll Make a Man Out of You' of the sound track of the Disney movie Mulan reflect the colonial economic dominance of the U.S. and traditional China. In Mulan, the patriarchal social class in our community could be seen not only as a continuation of cultural traditions but also as a rejection of traditions. This reflects even our own ever really-changing society today actually. Females is often seen as more delicate and soft, or as self reliant, but we need to note that traditional beliefs and views also currently exist. So in this movie there is a kind of gender stereotypes which is the patriarchal society that menas men are dominating the society such as in the movie how they see women and that her only role is to put makeup, be beautiful and get married. That women could not fight only men can and that women should stay at home, it made mulan camouflage into a man to be able to battel in the place of her father and how she kept trying hard to improve her self and working hard to be better but after that when she proved her self to be better and when they found out her real identity the wanted to execute her but the male lead Captain Li Shang stopped him self from executing her because she saved him once and he said “ a life for a life” and then he released her and told her to go back home but she could not and she went to help them save the emperor. “Women should learn to overcome criticisms emanating from the public and self reproaches and they should be determined to succeed even in a patriarchal society, they should define themselves.

Consequently, women should overcome the insurmountable odd of stereotyping in the same way that Mulan overcame it to join the army which was predominantly men domain and that eliminated the stereotypical feminine mentality. This stereotyping of women as people to perform certain limited roles should be despised.” “Modern women are struggling to define themselves and to justify their worth and they often get into trouble when they try to define and distinguish themselves. From the story, women can learn that it is not the physicality that defines gender roles but intellect and tenacity that defined.” 

Conclusion

Gender stereotypes are negative because they restrict the ability of males and females to improve their skills and abilities, follow their careers and make decisions regarding their lifestyles. The patriarchal society which came from the word patriarchy which is a social classification where men have main power and predominance in relations. Sexual abuse is sexual conduct or sexual encounter that is imposed on a female or male without their permission. Domestic violence which is Domestic violence is not just physical assault. Domestic violence would be any action directed at obtaining authority and control over a partner, or significant member of the family. So in this film there is a sort of gender stereotypes which is the male overpowering culture that means men are ruling the general public, for example, in the film how they see ladies and that her lone job is to put cosmetics, be lovely and get hitched. That ladies couldn't battle no one but men can and that ladies should remain at home, it made mulan cover into a man to have the option to battel in the spot of her dad and how she continued making a decent attempt to improve her self and endeavoring to be better however after that when she demonstrated her self to be better and when they discovered her genuine character the needed to execute her yet the male lead Captain Li Shang prevented him self from executing her since she spared him once and he said ' a life for an actual existence' and afterward he discharged her and advised her to return home yet she couldn't and she went to assist them with saving the empier.