Sparkling jade jewelry, vibrant colors, flowing silks, and powdered white faces danced across my screen as a little girl watching Disney’s Mulan (1998). Behind the animation and the choral chorus of “Honor to Us All” lay a radical idea in children’s film. A woman’s worth is not bound by tradition but by her courage to defy it.
The beginning of the film shows the pressures that Mulan faces as a woman in the early Han Dynasty. Mulan is raised to be dutiful, poised, and polite. Eventually, when she is of age, she will be presented to the matchmaker for marriage. She can only bring honor to her family by entering a successful marriage. Mulan is scrubbed, wrapped in silks, and painted white to be acceptable for her audition to be the “perfect wife.” The lyrics only add to the absurdity of the situation: “Men want girls with good taste / Calm, obedient, who work fast-paced.” Listening to this as a child, it is easy to cast off the situation as something fantastical for the sake of the movie. But for centuries, this wasn’t satire; it was reality.
The fight for women’s suffrage was long and arduous, yet effective.
Initially, the fight for women’s suffrage was a slow process. Women were accustomed to traditional roles, including marriage, motherhood, and domestic responsibilities. After the 1950s, many believed that women should take more independent roles. They did, for a while. Today, women are regressing as the rise of conservatism and the “trad-wife” aesthetic through apps like TikTok. Women think that dependency is empowerment and assume that men are the providers and the “easy way out.” This narrative is false. True feminism isn’t about the kind of life you choose but who truly holds the power within that decision.
Now, the younger generations are taking back their independence.
Gen Z looks to TikTok and Instagram as their mediums to promote women’s suffrage, feminist movements, and even express themselves through edits and other digital art forms. A new trend has emerged recently on TikTok, utilizing the song “Honor to Us All.” Screens flash with the lyrics overlapping clips of powerful women, such as Serena Williams, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Anna Wintour, Kamala Harris, Greta Thunberg, and Princess Diana. The song, which once confined girls to submissiveness and strict household roles, is now being used to celebrate women’s accomplishments and failures, as well as their independence.
Mulan didn’t just teach girls that the only victory was Mulan’s defeat of the Huns, but instead proved that honor is taken, not given. Today, girls face subtle battles: being “too loud,” “too emotional,” “too selfish,” or not caring about their home and surroundings. Today, women are becoming more than just porcelain dolls; they are becoming their own individuals and role models.
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