In defense of Mulan

I just want to point out, and maybe this isn't true for you, but on my version of our blog, all my writing is pink and all your writing is blue. Damn you blogger-gods!

Ok, so I have to admit, the fact that Mulan bugs you so much kind of bugs me. Like you pointed out, every movie can only have one main character, so each story can only be really a boy's story or a girl's. As you also point out, the inverse Mulan story- where men are heroes and all the women are incompitant idiots is probably one of the most repeated tropes in film (including most of the other "girl's stories" Disney has put out... I mean none of the other Disney princesses really fight their own battles). SOOO what the hell is wrong with the woman needing to be the hero (and I want to say you should watch the movie again... the men really aren't all that incompetent and both her leader and her all of her various animal friends are male)?

It kind of brings us to what the hell we really want from our films. Like you said, very few films can fulfill all of the criteria we could throw out there, be both empowered and flawed in ways that aren't in some way kind of annoying. I feel like the best we can hope for, in some way, is to achieve some sort of balance in the whole of our viewership. I think about this a lot for what I would show the kids I don't actually have even as a sparkle in my eye. I am not willing to cut off my kids from Pixar movies (excpet cars) because they are generally really good, BUT I also don't want to send the message that heroes only come with penises. So, so what if Mulan shortchanges the characterization of the men for her story? It's her story!

At the same time, I think I am trying to figure out how to have a better balance in my own viewership- not just watching crap (and giving it my money) when it treats women as captive audiences for the power of oridnary man to blow shit up. I just don't care.

I think it's worth the caveat too, jumping off from your point about generational differences, that we are mostly dealing all with one period's worth of film makers lately. One that I perceive as being highly heteronormative ( I mean, our conversation has become totally relational- its always women in respect to men). I don't know how far we can get from this (Juno comes to mind as something that is less concerned with this sort of politic, where the men are really really supporting characters), especially because then we land on what is essentially feminine and what is essentially woman. How trans could we get here? Cate Blanchett as Bob Dylan? Hillary Swank as Brandon? Can we think of any men who play compelling female characters? I don't know how far we can go down that rabbit hole, but it is worth noting that it exists.