#mulan2002

[antiqua-lugar]

my “fuck you” to mulan2020

(Btw I obviously did not pay to see this shit, support hongkong protesters and boycott disney) (Also I call qi/chi “magical powers” because this is what this movie thinks it is)

Note: I know this movie is important to people of all gender and gender expression, this is my take as a cis gnc woman/a cis woman who is not feminine and relates to Mulan in that way. I can see how trans readings of both movies might wildily different from mine and I look forward to them. TERF DON’T INTERACT I REALLY DON’T WANT YOUR BULLSHIT TAKE ON WOMANHOOD Anyway, my “fuck you” to mulan2020 is how it’s all about gender essentialism and that’s why we get the stupidest power girl moment eva and actually this movie tries to be so GIRLPOWAH that it’s actually super sexist.

Wait, what?

To explain this I will deconstruct the Stupidest GIRLPOWAH Ever, i.e. when Mulan decides to Stop Living a Lie TM and come out to the whole army, with flowing hair and a pretty dress. There are Three Things that make this moment The Worst:

1) Rebel Girl TM vs Normal Girl (Which Could Be You!) 

In mulan2020 #GIRLBOSS the whole plot centers around her gender (in a very stupid way). Mulan has the best MAGIC POWERS but unfortunately she’s a woman so she has to shut up and get marry or embrace her MAGIC POWERS and be seen as a Witch and shunned way.To explain this, they introduced a super cool female character... except she’s actually a witch with magic powers while Mulan is just good at kicking things. Why? Why aren’t all the men with MAGIC POWERS also turning into birds and donning kick ass make up? We just don’t know.The fact that she’s a woman is so important that it givers her womanangst for the whole movie because OMG SHE’S LYING. The Witch only shows up to tell her to come out (so they can be lesbians together? Idk honestly). Mulan2020 is about how Women Can’t But Mulan Can (Because She Has MAGIC POWERS). 

In Mulan, the whole plot centers around how she decided to take a risk for her family and she’s working her ass off to suceed also for herself AND how she has to hide gender identity because women aren’t allowed in teh army. She is not a Rebel Girl TM tragically shunned, she’s a normal girl (LIKE YOU!) who is trying  to do what her society and her family thinks she should do, except she can’t. The point of the movie is not that girls can kick things but that girls don’t need to perform womanhood according to society standard, and that’s okay because this standards are bullshit anyway and it’s better to be true to yourself not just for you, but for the world. The world is missing out by not having the real you (and your country could be invaded!)

2) Men As Tropes

The writing of the Mulan2020 is not that great so maybe that’s why, but all the men in this movie are just tropes.Dad, Army Dad, Hot Guy, Emperor, Friend #1, Friend #2. Friend#3. This would be bad in any movie but especially inan adaptation of Mulan. When she joins the army, she finds not only herself but also The Other and realises that they are not that Other after all. Mulan and her friends go through the same struggles, get strong together (Mulan is just better at it) and A Girl Worth Fighting For goes hand in hand with Honour to Us All : gender expectations affect everyone even if in different ways,shape the way they define hemselves and men and women, by not interacting much, have weird ideas about each other. It’s somewhat bizarre to see the Matchmaker ask Mulan to recite virtues while also seeing Yao claiming that women will fall for his muscles and Po only caring about heir cooking abilities. It’s not perfect by any means, but it asks questions and humanizes the characters. Even Shang is not a perfect  - he struggles and makes do like everyone else despite his physical prowess and kickass abilities.

The men in Mulan2002 are not written as people but as men in contrast to a woman, so they are allowed zero nuances. Hot Guy is Mulan’ love interest, so all their interactions are marked as such and no conversation is allowed unless it has some ridicous moment in it. Friend #1, Friend #2 and Friend #3 are Male Friends so they talk once about women and then she promises she will protect them all Because She’s Super Special. That’s it. They are also not allowed to have the crossdressing bit because Disney thinks China won’t like it, so even that tiny bit of “Mulan’s friends say fuck gender roles” is lost and they fight offscreen in a hole.

The men in Mulan2020 don’t stand as people, they stend for Men TM who need to be taught a lesson about how Women Can Also Kick Ass - except that Mulan can kick ass because she’s a SUPER SPECIAL WOMAN while her sister just got matched to a guy who is not afraid of spiders, woooo! Go Feminism! So gender is real, men and women are that different, unless they have magical powers. 

3) Being a Woman Wrong

The Big GIRLPOWAH move in this movie is Mulan riding into battle with long hair flowing in the wind after fashioning herself a dress.  She does so by throwing off her armour. While in battle. Because a bird witch told her that she needs to ACCEPT HER GENDER, GODDAMIT so Mulan runs off to tell the army that she’s a woman.

And women have pretty hair flowing in the wind, wear dresses and make impratical clothes choices just to look good. Aren’t you being too harsh?

When Mulan comes back to the army, she just begs them to listen while Hot Guy is the one to say “You believed Ping, why don’t you believe Mulan?” because Women Beg and Men Point Out Uncomfortable Truths.

Also Mulan gets a new sword where everything she did is branded as “Family Devotion” because women’s acts need to be contextualised as being done for The Right Feminine Reason.

Also IF YOU TELL MULAN TO ACT AS A WOMAN AND THE FIRST THING SHE DOES IS PUT ON A PRETTY DRESS, WHY DO YOU EXPECT ME TO NOT BELIEVE THAT THIS IS YOUR WHOLE IDEA OF WOMANHOOD. 

Fuck you, Mulan2020

for the“but femininity and female power” crowd: Disney movies where feminity is power has been done since Cinderella, Mulan2020 is just sexist