Mulan's Trans Narrative

Mulan’s Transgender Narrative: Textual Analysis of the Disney Movie

The motifs and symbols of the Disney movie, Mulan are synonymous with the transition and experiences of transgender individuals. The equivalence of experiences from movie to society are revealed through displays of extremities of traditional gender roles, reflecting an analogy of the struggles of coming out, and dialogue of slurs and/or offensive terms towards Mulan all together reflect a part of the transgender experience. This often leads to the conclusion that Mulan herself is a transman, however this is not the case. The movie itself simply reflects certain aspects of the transgender experience and offers a simplified way of looking at society’s broader view on transgender people and at their individual experiences.

    First I would like to address Mulan herself being transgender, and how that argument cannot be made. Her gender identity cannot be concluded for a few reasons, the first being that she never explicitly says it, rather other people force it on her. Throughout the movie she is told “you are a man” and “you are a woman”, but  Mulan herself does not say “I am a woman” or “I am a man”. It is possible to conclude a level of genderqueerness from that. That conclusion would be harmful because assuming someone’s gender without the person saying their identity negates a person’s ability to speak to their own identity.

The assumption also cannot be made that Mulan is a transgender man. Mulan, while presenting herself as a man throughout the film, ends the movie seeming to identifying as a woman. She finds her own comfort in her gender roles not conforming with society. It would be harmful to conclude that because she chose to dress as a man throughout that film that she is automatically a transman. Doing so would assume that gender is something that is chosen for a purpose, rather than an innate part of every individual.

In literal terms Mulan might be considered a cross-dresser, however because that term is considered outdated and offensive I will not be using it to describe her. Since she ends the movie seeming to identify as a woman, I will be using she/her pronouns to describe her.

Traditional Gender Roles

    While Mulan herself cannot be considered transgender, there are several aspects of the movie that reflect the transgender experience. The first parallel is the extremities of traditional gender roles. There are parts of the movie that highlight femininity and parts that highlight masculinity, such as the exaggerated masculinity of the army and songs like “Make a Man Out of You” and “Girl Worth Fighting For”. These parts are juxtaposed to reveal how the binary system is harmful to transgender people. Mulan’s changing hairstyle is the most frequent comparison of femininity and masculinity. These opposing forces display how society expects a transgender person to go from one side of the binary to the other, even though this is not a realistic ideal to hold.

The Hun doesn’t recognize her until she pulls her hair back. Mushu makes a comment that “she’s a girl again”, and that’s why no one is paying attention to her. The idea that gender expression dictates gender identity plays into the binary system society has in how they view gender. Society views femininity as female and masculinity as male, which is exactly how Mulan is viewed. The characters in the movie act as if her hair being down automatically makes her feminine/a woman instead of masculine/a man. The problem with the hair metaphor is that it very much plays into the binary system society has in the view of gender. It hurts Mulan in that she is not the traditional view of femininity.  The association of long hair with woman therefore hurts her. The association of hair in a bun aids her to the extent of fitting in, but still subscribes to the binary. The changing hairstyle explains a part of the transgender narrative, because society views a transgender person as rejecting expected gendered attributes in favor of the opposite. At the start of a transgender person’s gender journey, often they will reject traditional attributes associated with their rejected gender and adopt attributes associated with the gender they identify as. While this is not the case for all transgender people, it is still something society expects.

    Society’s view of femininity is something Mulan rejects throughout the film to the same effect of the changing hairstyle. Femininity that Mulan rejects is conveyed through the lotus flower symbol, the scene with the matchmaker, and the idea of maintaining a family’s honor through a woman being submissive and serving a man. These views of a binary opposite system is harmful, both in the effects on Mulan and the effects on transgender people in life.

    The lotus flower symbol is something Mulan is given to tell her that even though she has rejected society’s expectations for her, she is still a beautiful woman. For that reason, abandoning the lotus flower for the scroll explains a desire to reject not only gender expectations, but the gender altogether. While Mulan herself does not identify as a man, it is something that reflects a transgender narrative. Transgender people reject the idea of the binary gender system to express their identity.

    Mulan rejects femininity, however she does not automatically accept traditional masculinity, either. The parts of perceived masculinity in the film are exaggerated through the actions of the army, and the songs “I’ll Make a Man Out of You”, and “A Girl Worth FIghting For” which are both sang by the army as a way to solidify masculinity. By juxtaposing extreme femininity with extreme masculinity, the gender roles display how society views that transgender people go from one side of the binary to the other, and explains the harmful idea that men and women are on opposites sides of the gender binary in roles and expression.

The first song that famously highlights the masculinity of the army is “I’ll Make a Man Out of You”. The entire song is about forcing a gender stereotype on a group of people.  Shang often devalues femininity and displays masculinity as something to aspire to. An example of this is his question, “Did they send me daughters, when I asked for sons?”. The idea he perpetuates is that the men are behaving too feminine, and that they cannot fight while being traditionally feminine. This also displays society’s view that transgender individuals are on an unrealistic binary of gender expression, and Mulan is consistently breaking that binary as transgender individuals often do.

Shang saying that “[He’ll] make a man out of you” explains his false idea that gender is something that someone else can craft for the person. These lines also say that someone like Mulan, who is a woman, can be formed into a man by learning traditional masculine traits. Often society believes that gender can be crafted by others, rather than something that is an innate part of every individual. The idea of crafting gender is perpetuated later in the song during the lines, “be a man; We must be swift as the coursing river / Be a man; With all the force of a great typhoon / Be a man; With all the strength of a raging fire / Mysterious as the dark side of the moon”. The repetition of this phrase as the chorus continues the idea that Shang, or society, can craft gender by pushing a certain kind of gender expression. This idea is not true in society, however it reflects a transgender narrative in that transgender individuals are expected to perform this way, as Mulan is expected to perform this way. Mulan breaking these traditional ideas of binary show the reality of transgender individuals not subscribing to society’s ideas of gender.

The theme music of “I’ll Make a Man Out of You” comes back when the army men dress up as women concubines at the end of the movie. This musical theme coming back furthers the idea that gender cannot be crafted by society, and that gender expression does not dictate gender.

The second song that perpetuates masculinity (as well as heteronormativity) is “A Girl Worth Fighting For”. The army men all sing about who they are hoping to find after the war, when they come home as heroes. They assume that since Ping (Mulan) is male, he (she) will share their same ideals of women. Mulan displays how she does not share their values by saying her hope would be to have “a girl who’s got a brain, who always speaks her mind”. The army men reject this idea that a woman can have any value past being silent, cooking, and other devalued feminine activities. This is another example of Mulan displaying her rejection of these feminine activities in favor of something only allowed to men (having a brain and speaking their mind). Mulan again expresses her desire to reject the expected gender norms of a woman, reflecting the way a transgender person often rejects gender norms to be who they are.

The extremities of traditional gender roles presented in the movie Mulan allow the viewer to see how the character Mulan rejects what is expected by society. This parallels a transgender person rejecting the gender binary expected by society in favor of presenting their identity. These ideas are presented through Mulan’s changing hairstyles, and the songs “I’ll Make a Man Out of You” and “Girl Worth Fighting For”. The rejections of expectations display an aspect of the transgender narrative.

The ‘Coming Out’ Narrative

    Another characteristic of the movie Mulan that reflects the transgender narrative is the ‘coming out’ story that is represented in the song “Reflection”, Mulan choosing a male name to go by, and lack of a struggle for Mulan to “pass” as a man. Passing and choosing a name are consistently things that ‘out’ transgender people in daily life. In this way, Mulan represents the struggles a transgender person faces, and also ignores some of the struggles a transgender person faces as a way to make it seem less obvious to a casual viewer and broader society.

    The song “Reflection” contains a plethora of lines that can be applied to a transgender person’s introspection and start of a journey of gender-realization and coming out. Starting with the first line, “Look at me I will never pass for a perfect bride, or a perfect daughter” Mulan is portraying someone who feels as if the expectations put on her for her gender is nothing she will be able to attain. This is synonymous with a transgender narrative of someone not being able to attain or see themselves as what society says they should be. This idea continues with Mulan singing, “can it be I'm not meant to play this part”. Mulan is realizing that she may not be meant to live the in the role of woman that society assigned to her. The first part of the gender exploration process is realizing that being what society assigned and expects of a person is not all there is.

Mulan continues to articulate questions that relate to her gender expression, asking “Who is that girl I see, staring straight back at me? / When will my reflection show who I am inside?...Why is my reflection someone I don’t know?”. Mulan is wondering when her inner feelings will be able to be expressed outwardly in her gender expression. A transgender man’s reflection or appearance portraying what society views as feminine is likely to elicit a feeling of wishing they could portray to society their actual gender. This effect more often takes place before any kind of social transition. Transgender people frequently wish they could present and pass as their actual gender and not receive ridicule and consequences from society.

Lastly, Mulan realizes that she has tried to be what society expects and hide her true self, but can’t. She sings, “Somehow I cannot hide / Who I am / Though I've tried”, explaining that she has the ability to act like the traditional woman and she is able to be what the world wants of her, but it is not what she wants (or who she is). Transgender people frequently feel that they have to make a choice of continuing to live their lives in a state that could possibly keep them safer from society, but force them to hide who they are (that response often leads to mental health issues), or to be their true selves and suffer possible consequences. This last line also articulates a conclusion of gender exploration, when she reiterates the question, “When will my reflection show who I am inside?”. The reiteration of this line reflects the transgender person’s desire to exist as themselves without ridicule from society.

While the song “Reflection” has lines that have the ability to portray Mulan herself as transgender, it is important to make the distinction that Mulan is wishing here to be able to freely dismantle gender roles and is not necessarily saying that she wants to show her true gender as a man.

The second element of the coming out story is told when Mulan is forced to pick a masculine name to go by. The name that Mulan chooses is Ping. This part of her journey is meant to be a way of fitting in. She’s not picking a name for herself, but assuming a name for a purpose. While choosing a name is part of the transgender experience, it’s much more about choosing an identity. It is a part of a coming out journey that often allows trans people to reclaim a part of themselves, however it often comes with a negative aspect of  forcing them to consistently come out to every single person they meet. Having a traditionally masculine name while not “passing” or being accepted as a man (or vice versa) forces the person to continuously come out just by virtue of introduction.

There is a play on words in Mulan’s choice, in that Ping means pot and her surname, Fa, means flower. Together they make “flower pot”, which is a chinese slang term that means an effeminate or homosexual man. This is another example of her choosing a name for a purpose rather than as an innate part of her identity. If she had thought through a name before showing up, it is possible she would have chosen a name that would allow her to fit in further.

One of the very interesting parts of Mulan’s journey that deviates from a transgender narrative is Mulan’s lack of struggle to pass as a man. There are things that she has to hide, like in the lake bathing and such, but she is never called “she” while in her army uniform. She is never mistaken for a woman while in the army. In many ways that emulates what society views as the ‘ideal’ transition for a trans person. Society says that a trans person goes from one side of the binary to the other. The army men just assimilate Ping into their culture without a question, expecting Mulan to act like a man. The problem is that is not how trans people are accepted into society. Trans men are often called ‘she’ and trans women are often called ‘he’ during transition. The movie therefore gives a very simplified version of society’s view of the transgender experience.

The Use of Slurs

    The last aspect of the Disney movie Mulan that reflects the transgender experience is the slurs and offensive terms said about and towards Mulan for rejecting traditional gender roles. While Mulan does not have trouble passing as a man, she does receive ridicule throughout the movie from various characters. This form of ridicule is something transgender individuals are all too familiar with. It’s a harmful kind of rhetoric (particularly from trusted friends and family) that can make living as a trans person harder, as it made Mulan’s life and acceptance harder.

There are several phrases that imply that Mulan could never be a true man. While Mulan does not seem to identify as a man, it furthers society’s ideas of gender and the binary. The first slur is uttered by one of the ancestors, who says, “Your great grandaughter had to be a crossdresser”. Mulan doesn’t hear this, but this phrase perpetuates the idea of devaluing someone who might identify under the transgender umbrella. It explains the viewpoint that someone rejecting their expected gender role is negative. Mushu says, “Ms. Man decided to take a drag show on the road”. This also implies the idea that Mulan couldn’t possibly be a man, she is simply doing drag. While this can be argued whether or not it’s truth, the idea it perpetuates is that a trans person is not their true gender. It implies that trans people are acting and dressing against what society deems their gender. This also takes away a trans person’s ability to identify themselves, and in turn devalues their identity. Mushu also says to Mulan that there are “A couple of things i know they’re bound to notice” about her swimming in the lake. Mushu says this in regards to Mulan swimming in a lake at the army camp. The negative implications of this statement is the importance of genitalia in society’s view of gender. The broader society views gender dictated by genitalia, and that is not how gender works and therefore a harmful idea to perpetuate.

Possibly the most demeaning phrase told to Mulan is, “that creature’s not worth protecting”. This phrase implies that Mulan isn’t even human to him. She is a creature. Someone who does not subscribe society’s view of their gender is a creature, abomination, not human. This is an idea that is frequently perpetuated toward transgender people as a whole. Dehumanizing a group of people makes it easier to perpetuate violence towards the transgender community (something that is a very common problem). This is something society has consistently perpetuated.

Lastly, Shang degrades femininity and the idea that a woman could “become” a man. He asks, “Did they send me daughters when I asked for sons?” and “How could I make a man out of you”. The idea is to devalue femininity, but also suggests that someone like Mulan could never be a true man. This is an idea society has that transgender people can never be their true gender, which is not true and harmful and demeaning for those people.

Conclusion

The Disney movie Mulan goes through several aspects of what society deems the transgender experience. Through this, the movie is able to provide a simplified way of looking at transgender people and experiences. These views are not always good, and can be harmful and perpetuate a state of binary. There is some truth of transgender experience in each aspect. The rejection of assumed gender roles in favor of the exact opposite display society’s unrealistic view that a transgender person goes from one side of a binary to the other. A transgender person does not necessarily bounce from one side of the binary to the other, but they reject a certain amount of expected traditional gender roles. The narrative of having to “come out” in different ways is something transgender people can relate to in language, but not genuine since Mulan is not necessarily trans herself. Lastly the characters use of slurs and demeaning language show the broader society views the possibility of someone rejecting their expected gender roles. While society expects certain things from transgender individuals, the experiences are different. The dichotomy of expectations and society can be seen throughout the Disney movie, Mulan.

Works Cited

“Mulan.” Disney Wiki, disney.wikia.com/wiki/Mulan.

Cook, Barry, Tony Bancroft, Pam Coats, Rita Hsiao, Chris Sanders, Philip LaZebnik, Raymond Singer, Singer E. Bostwick, Matthew Wilder, David Zippel, Jerry Goldsmith, Michael Kelly, Ming-Na, B D. Wong, Soon-Teck Oh, Eddie Murphy, Freda F. Shen, Harvey Fierstein, George Takei, Jerry S. Tondo, Gedde Watanabe, Miguel Ferrer, James Hong, James Shigeta, June Foray, Pat Morita, Frank Welker, Hans P. Bacher, Ric Sluiter, and Souci R. D. San. Mulan. United States: Walt Disney Home Entertainment, 2004.