"I'll Make a Man Out of You"

     In this post, I'm going to talk about a strong Disney character who does actually manage to stay strong. I feel as though I've been a bit tough on Disney and fairy tales, so I'm going to begin with one of their more redeeming movies and female characters today. When watching the movie Mulan, there are mainly two songs that jump out as illustrating the type of sexism I've been focusing on in this blog. The first one is the scene before Mulan meets the matchmaker. If you don't recall the scene about which I'm speaking, I've included it below. 

This scene talks a lot about what makes a good wife. It mentions beauty, obedience, having good breeding and good taste, and being a hard worker. It encourages reaching for the impossible idea of perfection by describing girls as "perfect porcelain dolls." It's also mentioned several times that a girl's only purpose is to get married and have sons. It claims that that is the only way for women to bring honor to their family.
     The next song is from men's perspective, unlike "Bring Honor to Us All." It's called "A Girl Worth Fighting For."

In this song, three of the main men in the movie describe their ideal women. The important things about these women are that they're beautiful, they're good cooks, and they adore their man. Then when Mulan mentions a woman "who's got a brain, who always speaks her mind," the men don't even pause for an entire second before dismissing the idea. However, these songs are not the main parts of Mulan that bother me. Rather, it's the need for Mulan to dress as a man in order to prove herself and the fact that it's widely accepted that if she's caught, she'll be killed.
     Mulan isn't the only piece of media that's about a woman having to pretend to be a man. This idea reaches all the way back the the Elizabethan Era and Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, in which a woman pretends to be a man after being shipwrecked. The popular movie She's the Man is actually a modern adaptation of this particular Shakespeare play. In this adaptation, the character of Viola won't be allowed onto her school's soccer team because she's a girl. As a result, she disguises herself as her brother, Sebastian, and takes his place at his school when she finds out he's putting off coming home from a trip. She uses this disguise to join his school's soccer team and prove herself as a soccer player.
     Another old example with a modern adaptation is an old English folk song about a woman who dresses as a highwayman to discover if her suitor truly loves her. In the poem, Sovay, the woman in the poem, gives her suitor a ring. She then proceeds to dress as a man and attempt to rob him of it. The man holds true and refuses to give the "highwayman" the ring, so Sovay knows that he loves her. However, in the modern adaptation, the book Sovay by Celia Rees, the man gives the ring to the "highwayman." Then when Sovay reveals to him that she is the highwayman, he gets defensive and dumps her, before she has a chance to dump him. Sovay then discovers that her father is being accused of treason and begins life as a highwayman in an attempt to save her family's honor. Disguised as a man, she finds she is more liberated and has more freedom than she ever had as a woman.
   A more recent story, one more along the lines of Mulan is Tamora Pierce's Song of the Lioness quartet, a fantasy story about a girl who wants to fight. In this series, Alanna is a girl who wants to be a knight. Her twin brother wants to be a mage and detests the fighting arts, so he and Alanna switch places. He goes to a convent where young boys and girls can be trained in magic, and she goes to the castle to be trained as a knight. Only the twins and two of their servants are aware of the deception, since Alanna would likely be executed if she were ever discovered. Sound familiar? Like Mulan, Alanna disguises herself as a boy to fight under the threat of death if she's discovered.
   All of these stories emphasize the freedom of being male and the idea that men are worth more than women. However, I would be remiss if I did not also talk about the positive things that these specific female characters represent. These girls rebel against social norms. They prove that a woman is capable of more than just being a wife. It's because of this that Mulan is one of my favorite Disney girls. She's not a damsel in distress or, coincidentally, a princess. She's unorthodox, and while her movie may emphasize some stereotypes, she does not.


References:
Mulan (movie)
Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare
She's the Man (movie)
Sovay by Celia Rees, as well as the traditional English folk song by the same name
Song of the Lioness quartet by Tamora Pierce

Purest of Them All

"Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who's the fairest of them all?" 

     This line is probably the most famous quote from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, which is one of the fairy tales that perpetuates patriarchal values the most. The propaganda begins in the title. The "heroine" of the story is named Snow White. White is typically the color of purity, which is why in many cultures brides wear white for their weddings. The story begins by labeling the main female character as pure in the most prominent way possible. She is also depicted as a perfect housewife, even before she's married. She's first seen as a maid, so we know she can keep house. This also shows her humility. She's a princess who seems to have no real problems or objections to being made to clean the castle she should be ruling. When she first arrives at the dwarfs' house, the first thing she notices other than everything's small size is how untidy it is. After she meets the dwarfs and they agree to let her stay, she immediately falls into a role of cooking and cleaning. 

     Every day, she bids the dwarfs farewell as they go to work, then cleans and cooks dinner for when they arrive home, and she sings while she does it! Never have I ever met a woman who loved to cook and clean as much as Snow White. Actually, I'm not sure there are even any other fairy tale women who do. Cinderella doesn't mind, but it doesn't make her happy. Aurora seems to have more of a job of gathering than cooking or cleaning. Belle daydreams and lets her father make a mess. It's only Snow White who portrays the quintessential housewife who keeps the house tidy and has dinner ready when the men get home. She has more in common with June Cleaver than most princesses. 

Snow White "whistling while she works."

     Then there's her beauty. A huntsman is so enchanted by her that he defies a queen who wouldn't think twice about killing him for disobeying her. Upon being discovered by the dwarfs, she's mistaken for an angel. She even charms Grumpy, who first asserted that "all females is poison! They're full of wicked wiles!" Of course, it is often repeated that she is the "fairest of them all," so if anyone were going to charm a grumpy dwarf, it would be her. She even manages to bag a prince who falls in love with her when he sees her singing at a well, despite her being dressed as a scullery maid. Prince's didn't love scullery maids at that point in history, so she really must have been something.  He falls in love at first sight, the way fairy tale princes often do. This, of course, means he falls in love with her voice and beauty, which isn't really love. Very few of the heroes in fairy tales actually take the time to get to know the women they whisk off into happily ever afters. Instead, they mistake admiration, attraction, or infatuation for love and assume that the beautiful woman they've saved will make a good wife. But the notion of love at first sight is a debate for another day.

Sources:
Disney's Snow White