Why do people think Mulan is trans?

submitted by EzukiRaen from (self.LGBDropTheT)

I watched the new Mulan movie with my mother a few days ago. Afterwards, we had a discussion about recent events as it relates to the LGBT+ communtiy as a whole. We generally agree on a lot of things, the main thing being that SJWs are nuts.

At some point, I mentioned how I don't understand why some people think Mulan is trans. My mother basically said, "Yeah, Mulan's a man. And Shang's gay. He likes twinks." I was both a little shocked and amused by this stance but, I am no closer to understanding why people think this. At no point in either of the original movies or the new one does Mulan express wanting to be a man. At most, she was trying to pass because if she didn't she would have been executed.

What I see from Mulan is a woman who didn't quite fit into the stereotypes of what a woman is and who did everything she could to protect her father. In addition, by the end of the original movie (and around the middle of the 2020 version) she clearly shows how she knows that she's a woman and accepts herself for who she is.

My mother also tried to bring up the song "Be a Man" but, again Mulan had to pass or she would have been killed. And I think it's disigenuous to use that song as an indicator of her being trans. The context of what it meant when it was writen is different from how people today are interpreting it. It reminds me of how a lot of older straight women call their female friends girlfriends. No one would assume that they're lesbian or bi because of that. So, why are people suddenly assuming that Mulan is trans?

Also, I think Shang is bi, not gay. He clearly showed interest in Mulan when he didn't know she was a woman and he officially got with her after he found out.

Yes, I know they're fictional characters and this isn't really a big deal. However, I can't stop thinking about it and wanted to share the experience. Has anyone else had any similar experiences?

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[–]ArthnoldManacatsaman🇬🇧🌳🟦 37 insightful - 2 fun37 insightful - 1 fun38 insightful - 2 fun -  (2 children)

It all boils down to a lack of nuance. Wokesters don't understand nuance. Two excellent competing quotes are:

The line between good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being.

Life is a battle between good people an evil people.

Hua Mulan doesn't join the army because she feels duty bound to, she joins the army because joining the army is what men do and is therefore a man.

She doesn't dress as a man because, as you rightly point out, what choice did she have, she just likes wearing mens' clothes, and looming war with the norther barbarians is a perfect time to have a trans awakening.

'Be a man' and 'I'll make a man out of you' aren't (perhaps a little outdated) metaphors for 'masculine' traits like bravery or courage in the face of the enemy, they mean that 'I'll literally make you into an adult human male, with my 4th century trans ray'.

I'd like to paraphrase something I read somewhere:

Patriarchy tells us only men can join the army and fight.

Feminism tells us that anyone can join the army and fight.

Woke tells us that whoever joins the army and fights must be men.

These people are, as you rightly suggest, nuts.

[–]reluctant_commenter 7 insightful - 1 fun7 insightful - 0 fun8 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

It all boils down to a lack of nuance. Wokesters don't understand nuance. Two excellent competing quotes are:

The line between good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being.

Life is a battle between good people an evil people.

Totally agree!!

[–]Three_oneFourWanted for thought crimes in countless ideologies 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Isn't one of the major plot points in the new one that Mulan must take off the binder she was using and allow her womanhood to not be hidden in order to use her magic powers?

That's as close to a desister's story as you can get

[–]Finnegan7921 34 insightful - 2 fun34 insightful - 1 fun35 insightful - 2 fun -  (3 children)

Nobody thought Mulan was trans until the trans craze swept social media. It was always "A girl who can be just as good of a soldier as a man". That was the message, not "Mulan is a man stuck in a woman's body."

[–]cure_osa_disorder 6 insightful - 4 fun6 insightful - 3 fun7 insightful - 4 fun -  (2 children)

Then what about the other male soldiers who did drag toward the end of the film?

[–]lovelyspearmintLesbeing a lesbian 19 insightful - 13 fun19 insightful - 12 fun20 insightful - 13 fun -  (0 children)

They were stunning and brave.

Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.

(/s that ted talk meme is so goddamn cringe and wokesters seem to use it all the time)

[–]deliciousdogfoodmy name isnt a puppyplay reference i swear 7 insightful - 2 fun7 insightful - 1 fun8 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

Teaching children that femme fatales are dangerous That sometimes a feminine approach can be just as effective if not more so than a masculine approach, maybe?

It was mostly played for laughs though.

[–]slushpilot 19 insightful - 2 fun19 insightful - 1 fun20 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

The whole film is a lamentation of the fact that women are expected to meet men's standards—or else they are nothing.

Hence, "Be A Man" is rhetorical, not literal. In other words, "what do you expect me to do, Be A Man?" because that should be a ridiculous expectation.

How isn't that obvious? Is our culture really that dense and shallow? (Maybe don't answer that.)

[–]wafflegaffWoman. SuperBi. 5 insightful - 2 fun5 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

our culture

<Picks up "culture" and hands it back.> No, thank you.

[–]BiHorror 13 insightful - 3 fun13 insightful - 2 fun14 insightful - 3 fun -  (1 child)

Mulan isn't a man nor is Shang gay or bi since he was attracted to someone of the female sex (if you could even call it attraction. When I look at it, it's more admiration than anything). I dislike how men admiring each other is being seen as a non-heterosexual thing...

They see her as a "transman" becuase she's not conforming to sex stereotypes/roles. Which is funny becuase she didn't do that out of choice, she did it to go to war in place of her father, then went back to being pretty feminine at the end of the movie.

[–]Eurowoman24 6 insightful - 2 fun6 insightful - 1 fun7 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

hence why men go "no homo" really casually.

[–]xanditAGAB (Assigned Gay at Birth) 13 insightful - 1 fun13 insightful - 0 fun14 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

Your interpretation of Milan is correct. Historically she would have had to pass as a male to get into the battler field. In the movie she is gender non conforming somewhat, in that she doesn’t want to be an ornamental bride. They see any non gender conforming ideas as only belonging to trans people so that makes her trans. She clearly goes back to looking feminine in the end, in the animated movie. I don’t think Shang is gay or bi, I just think that Disney either didn’t realize how showing the beginning of the romance while she was a man made him read as bi, or they were just virtual signaling. We as the audience aren’t supposed to feel it is bi because we know it’s actually a hetero flirtation. Kind of like “oh they are soulmates he knows she’s female” or something.

But anyway you know the t always need to shoehorn everybody under the trans umbrella. Even though all of us growing up with tha animated got the correct interpretation

[–]deliciousdogfoodmy name isnt a puppyplay reference i swear 11 insightful - 1 fun11 insightful - 0 fun12 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Something about describing Mulan as being GNC-adjacent because she wanted to be a human being and not what China thinks women are feels off to me.

Something about tying regressive ideas to the fundamental concept of femininity.

[–]cure_osa_disorder 8 insightful - 1 fun8 insightful - 0 fun9 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

But anyway you know the t always need to shoehorn everybody under the trans umbrella.

The debris of which we are inevitably forced to clean up with the LGBroomstick.

[–]ArthnoldManacatsaman🇬🇧🌳🟦 7 insightful - 1 fun7 insightful - 0 fun8 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

LGBroomstick

I love it

[–][deleted] 12 insightful - 1 fun12 insightful - 0 fun13 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Oh, you sweet summer child. Online fandoms love interpreting every little thing as a sign that a character is actually trans. I wouldn't care if people just acknowledged that it's their own fan theory. But as time goes on I've seen so many more people say "if you misgender this fictional character you are transphobic" and take their fan interpretation as concrete fact. It feels like they want to control every aspect of how people think. It's nuts.

[–]Constantine 11 insightful - 1 fun11 insightful - 0 fun12 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

Ugh this drives me so nuts. They're doing the same thing to Jo March from Little Women. Just because she liked playing male characters in her skits (because all the available actors were female and someone had to do it), and because she didn't want a man, and because she had to use male pen names to make money, she must've been trans. Misogyny couldn't have anything to do with any of that, no. During the American Civil War. In the 1860s. Because trans was a thing then. Not misogyny /s

edit: 1860s, not 1960s, lol

[–]lovelyspearmintLesbeing a lesbian 11 insightful - 1 fun11 insightful - 0 fun12 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Not to mention her eventual marriage seems shoehorned in the last minute so that she doesn't become an old spinster.

[–]Constantine 6 insightful - 3 fun6 insightful - 2 fun7 insightful - 3 fun -  (0 children)

Yeah, that was because the publisher wouldn’t publish the book as it was originally written, with Jo single. So Louisa May Alcott gave her an old, unattractive love interest to spite them. Malicious compliance.

[–]TovasshiDefinitely a house plant 10 insightful - 1 fun10 insightful - 0 fun11 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

In the remake she fights the witch and the witch keeps asking who she really is. There was a moment when she realized "truth" was needed for her to realize her real power, so she removes her disguise and fights as her true self (a woman).

[–]hyunnahh 10 insightful - 1 fun10 insightful - 0 fun11 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Mulan? Trans? The Hua Mulan? LOL! People are so hell-bent on making everyone trans that they don't even take the culture and symbolism of Hua Mulan into consideration.

[–]SnowAssMan 9 insightful - 2 fun9 insightful - 1 fun10 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

My mum says the same kind of things, but she has read queer theory, which is very different to trans activist ideology. "transgender" isn't an identity per se, it's just how you refer to someone who is wearing the clothes of the opposite sex. This is also how older people use the term. It's like a synonym for gender-bending, or something like that. It's why John Barrowman called himself "the transgender TARDIS", when wearing a TARDIS dress, which trans activists got annoyed about, probably because they're all young & they've never read any queer theory.

Calling them a gay couple is a little weird though.

Stories that act as a much better metaphors for modern transgenderism are Don Quixote for transgender males & Pinocchio for transgender females.

[–]fuck_reddit 7 insightful - 1 fun7 insightful - 0 fun8 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Jfc, the song "Be a Man" is sung by everyone but Mulan in the animation and it's supposed to be ironic cause YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO KNOW SHE'S NOT A MAN!!!

[–]Eurowoman24 6 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 0 fun7 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Shang wasn't bi.. at least not in that story. Saying he was into her when he thought she was a dude could support the idea the TQ have that people are attracted to gender and people presenting as m/f. People are attracted to specific sexual characteristics that belong to one sex or both, not how they dress as.

[–]QueenBread 5 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Because these days a lot of words are suddenly changing meaning in 'Murica. One of those is "trans". Trans used to mean someone undergoing unnecessary surgery to look like the other gender. Now, trans means a chick who has short hair and baggy clothes or a man who wears mascara and high heels.

[–]BigMommyMilkersYes, they're real 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Because women can't be masculine and men can't be feminine according to TRAs.

[–]Q-Continuum-kin 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Regressive overlay of gender onto biology. It's people who insist that arbitrary gender rules are innate so anyone using the opposite gender's roles must be trans.