"You the Man, Well, Sorta"

""You the Man, Well, Sorta" Gender Binaries and Liminality in Mulan" is a research paper by Gwendolyn Limbach.

I find particularly interesting Limbach's view that becoming a woman is a passive process, where as the men take part in physical activities enabling them "to become their own agents of achieving manhood" (120). This is a perspective I had not quite considered in this way, but that I completely agree with. Furthering her argument, Limbach explains becoming a woman is like following an instruction manual; as long as you follow obediently, you can do be made into a woman. However, the path to manhood is not so clearly lined out, and no step-by-step instructions are provided. Evidence for these conclusions can be found in the contrast between the songs "Honour to us all" and "Be a Man".

Another construct of note that Limbach briefly explores is that manhood needs womanhood to help define it. By portraying femininity as weaker, men are able to assert their dominance as a powerful male. Just as in the lake Yao asserts his dominance as "king of the rock" and reinforces his elevated power by taunting the others saying, "there's nuttin' you girls can do about it". This notion of equating weakness with womanhood crops up throughout the film, but I believe the fact that Mulan defeats Shan-Yu, the Hun leader, actually works to disprove these notions. The film, thus, highlights such patriarchal stereotypes in order to help deconstruct them.


Cross dressing is when a person of one biological sex wears clothes typical of the opposite sex.
Gender Binary is the set state of either male or female, separating both gender and sex into these two distinct forms.
Gender Liminality is the quality of ambiguity between being male of female.

Mulan is a cross-dresser; she is a biological female who wears men's clothes as she trains for war.
Throughout the film, Mulan displays liminality

Why does Mulan cross-dress?
 - familial piety: to save her father
 - a self-fulfilling journey: to discover who she truly is
Disney portrays cross-dressing as a means to an end; Cross-dressing is a way for Mulan to bring honour to her family by saving China, something she wouldn't have been permitted to do as a woman.

Limbach argues that the combination of Mulan not being shown to enjoy manhood, as well as her specific purposes for cross-dressing in the first place, are Disney's way of maintaining the traditional gender roles that they buy into. Limbach gives such examples as Mulan not wanting to smell like a man, and as her describing them as "disgusting", to show that, despite dressing like a man, Mulan doesn't truly desire to be one. "For the gender binary and patriarchal power structures to remain intact, gender crossing cannot be an attractive option for women". This, Limbach argues, is the reason the men at the training camp are portrayed as cruel, violent, and disgusting creatures.

I believe that, using the fan, while dressed as a woman, to defeat Shan-Yu (the Hun leader), Mulan proves that there is strength in femininity.

I disagree that every oblong shape must be phallic. Lombard describes the post Mulan climbs to retrieve the arrow, and Shan-Yu's sword in this way, and I disagree that such objects are explicit phallic imagery. I in no way agree that by presenting Mulan with Shan-Yu's sword, the Emperor bestows upon her an "officially condoned phallus, marking her instead as male". The sword is gifted to Mulan to thank her for what she has done for all of China and as a mark of achievement so that "the world will know" what she has done. It is gifted to her as she is dressed as a woman, after she heroically fought, as a woman. The Emperor respects her, as a woman. Mulan chooses to return home, as a woman. Mulan has earned her family honour, shown by the Emperor's gifted pendant, and so she no longer needs to cross-dress. She know knows who she is. As a woman, she has earned the respect she didn't previously have. So I don't feel that anything know marks her as male. She has completed her self-journey and concluded that she is returning to be a daughter.

I feel that Mulan is a story of female empowerment. It is, after all, categorised a part of the 2nd wave pseudo-feminist progressive Princess phase of Disney. I believe this is why Mulan defeats Shan-Yu as a woman, and not as the previously described liminal character between the mountains.

I disagree with part of Limbach's conclusion that Mulan just returns to a man's world. While I agree that Shang's arrival helps serve to "re-designate Mulan as fully female" (125). I do think it should also be noted that Shang is shy and awkward as he enters. It is Mulan who takes control of the situation, inviting Shang to stay for dinner. Thus, Mulan has not simply returned to man's world. She is a strong women, better equipped to assert herself after being able to 'act like a man' and now more accepted for doing so (unlike at the beginning of the film when she was shunned for talking out of place or being disobedient, both at the Match-makers and when confronting the conscription agents).