Tag: disney

hi my most controversial opinion by far is that disney’s mulan is significantly more meaningful as a trans girl story than as a trans guy story

although i agree completely that both groups share the same feeling of, i need a better term for it but being Not Like The Other Girls and a particular unease and anxiety surrounding womanhood and mainstream ideas of femininity, as perfectly represented in the opening song. and wanting to run away and also get Dad’s approval. It’s Definitely a Queer Film.

but ultimately, mulan had to hide herself in the military, i mean as in The Closet, as Just One of The Guys.
the narrative ultimately affirms that mulan is a woman and should not be treated lesser for it.

it ends with the reconciliation of herself as both a woman and a soldier, as just two parts of a whole, and really the message that the whole damn film is about is actively watered down with the interpretation of mulan as a trans man.

therefore i propose a compromise we can all agree on; general shang is a bi trans man.

jezunya:

bi-privilege:

the more i think about this

the more pissed a get. now, i’m not saying disney needs to make shang canonically bisexual (*cough* disney should definitely make shang canonically bisexual *cough*) but like…this changes some of the core lessons of the animated movie?? like

animated mulan:

  • shows a romantic relationships that is strongly rooted in friendship and mutual respect (unlike many other disney movies)
  • moral: gender is not your most important characteristic. your gender alone does not define who you are

live action mulan, apparently:

  • it’s totally healthy to date someone whose personality you actually can’t stand so long as You Want To Bang Them ¯_(ツ)_/¯

and all of this…just to remove….any slight hint…….of bisexual subtext………

Can we also talk about the transphobic undertones here? Like, he hates this one soldier who is Suspiciously Not Performing Masculinity Quite Right…..up until the moment the (heteronormative) narrative reveals that soldier to actually be a Perfectly Bangable Cis Lady! Whew! (So gross…)

[caption: a tweet from Nerdy Asians @nerdyasians which reads: The new character “Chen Honghui” hates Mulan all the way until he finds out she is female. This change from icon Li Shang is very suspicious]