I don’t know if this is weird or not, but I totes read Mulan as a trans woman! I tend to read all “women who pretend to be men” stories as very similar to my experience. In contrast, I’ve never imagined that a character presented to the audience as male was actually a trans woman.
Is my way much rarer?
In any event, I think we can all love Mulan!
[Image description: 1. A photo of two clasped hands. One arm is labeled “lesbians” and the other “trans men”. Their joined hands are labeled “loving mulan”
2. A photo of three joined hands, each one holding the wrist to their right. The hands are labeled “lesbians” “trans men” and “bi ppl who stan sheng”. The space in the middle is labeled “loving mulan”.
3. A pixilated stick photo of four hands clasped in a circle with the words superimposed on top: “ all LGBT people interpreting mulan’s undoubtably LGBT identity differently depending on their own experience, and subsequently loving Mulan because of our overlap of experience as LGBT people” End description.]
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.
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]
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