Mulan and the Badass Paradigm

https://www.rogerebert.com/balder-and-dash/how-disneys-mulan-brazenly-challenges-gender-and-sexuality

This article really outlines what is wrong with forcing masculine strength onto female characters. It makes women think that their femininity is not strong and could never be strong enough. That the only way to present strength is by negating every bit of femininity. It makes for a very two-dimensional role.

The Disney animated feature: Mulan, as mentioned in this article tackles this Badass Paradigm in a different way. Although Mulan does indeed reject her femininity throughout the film for a long while to become a worthy and even better warrior than most, it was ultimately her use of her femininity that (coupled with her wit) that won them the battle.

I have always enjoyed analyzing how the images displayed to us as children can affect us in the future and Mulan is one of my favorites to try to decipher. This article does a very good job at tackling the gender roles portrayed throughout the film.