Honor To Us All

While studying for my exam last night, I was listening to none other than Disney Pandora and on came a song called “Honor to Us All” from Mulan.  I have seen this movie many times, but never really listened to the words that closely.  As I studied and sang along, I began paying attention to what was really being said and realizing what it meant.  For those of you who haven’t seen Mulan, it is a story of a girl who learns her sick father is to be sent off to fight in a war.  She decides to disguise herself as a boy and pretend to be his son in order to go to war in his place.  She goes through many struggles in the movie trying to masculinize herself, including cutting her hair short and dressing/acting like a boy.  At one point, when this song is sung, the women of her village are trying to prepare Mulan for marriage by changing her tomboy ways.  The song goes on to describe the ideal woman, and what is expected of her.  I have attached the full lyrics if you would like to read through them, but I wanted to point out a few of the parts that caught my attention.  One section describes what men want out of women, among these things is calm, obedient, fast paced worker, good at breeding and a tiny waist.  All of these things fit the stereotypes of the “lady box” that is presented in society.  Another part that stood out to me was when they talk about the “recipe for instant bride”.  That goes along with the stereotype that woman’s main goal in life is to marry and make her husband happy.  The song suggests that by Mulan doing all of these things, and conforming to her villages expectations of women, the elders of the village will honor and respect her.  The Mulan vs. village elder’s battle resembles that of any society.  It seems that no matter where you go, older generations are still stuck on the complete separation of man and woman.  When you look at the younger generations, there tends to be much more fluidity and experimentation with gender, and overall they are more open to change.  Mulan is a movie I grew up with, and it’s funny to see that no matter how much we convince ourselves that society and media do not have an effect on our overall self representation, it really does in subtle ways such as this song.  There are millions of little girls watching this movie, and many others that have no idea they are being brainwashed into these views of women being the inferior ones.  It is very hard to change society when the discrimination is all around us.