ML200 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Cross-Dressing, Horses In Warfare, Kristen Stewart
ML200
Damsels, Only Occasionally Distressed
Disey’s aio piesses
Mulan: Origins
• Uniquely simple Chinese tale
o No supernatural powers
o Desses as a a to take he fathe’s plae i the a
o Original version brother is too young, but Disney she has none
o Fights for 12 years
o Does’t aept a offiial post ut asks to etu to he faily
• Poem of Mulan (anonymous)
o Original setting end of fourth – mid-sixth century
o Suggests it’s had to tell ale fo feale
• Song of Mulan by Wei Yuanfu (mid-8th century)
o Exceptional women can reveal inadequacy of men
• Original setting: 386-536 CE?
• Disey’s Mulan
o Demonstrate the darker parts like gender bias and violence of war
o Still very influenced by the late tales
• Mulan (2009), live-action
o Truer to the poem
o Shows her how long
o Embroidery added in later years
o Mulan becomes an impressive warrior and hides her gender well
▪ Does have confidants
o Nobleman follows Mulan home but must have a diplomatic marriage to a princess in
order to prevent more deaths
Mulan notes
• Leaves aside notes of femininity
o Co eside epeo’s essage eside paets’ ed
o Cuts hair
▪ Functional cross-dressing in MA
o Takes dad’s aou, a hose, ad sod
• Turns herself into the son who can take his place
• Man out of you: deliberate opposition to her femininity
o Exposed to some of the most stereotypical form of masculinity
o Dichotomy – she climbs the pole in the end even though she struggles the whole way
o Makes herself acceptable according to the masculine standards set
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