Proceedings of the 2022 International Conference on International Studies in Social Sciences and Humanities (CISOC 2022)

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The Reimagined Princess, The Empowered Female Warrior

A Comparative Analysis of Mulan (1998) and Mulan (2020) Using the Fourth-Wave Feminist Framework

Authors
Caroline Yiqian Wang1, *
1School of Culture and Communication, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia
*Corresponding author. Email: yiqian3@student.unimelb.edu.au
Corresponding Author
Caroline Yiqian Wang
Available Online 10 December 2022.
DOI
10.2991/978-2-494069-25-1_17How to use a DOI?
Keywords
Fourth-wave Feminism; Disney; Cultural Studies; Popular Cinema
Abstract

For nearly a century, the Walt Disney Company has been constructing the world-famous Princess Line and enjoying a lengthy reign of female-centred, female-targeted media productions. Relying upon a problematically androcentric formula, these princess fairy tales advocate stereotypical femininity and romanticise imbalanced heterosexual relationships. Nevertheless, as gender progressive ideas become increasingly popular and accepted in the 21st century, Disney’s princess fantasies face repeated criticism and elicit concerns among modern-day audiences. To alter such a negative reputation and reinforce its control over the media market, Disney turns its princess animations into live-action remakes and upgrades these classic stories and characters with feminist zeitgeists. Taken Mulan (1998) and its recent remake as the case study, this article identifies specific differences between the two princess protagonists and demonstrates that fourth-wave feminist discourses — the emphasis on choice, the construction of contemporary female ideals, and nuanced attitudes towards stereotypical masculinity — play a key role in reimagining Mulan into a more independent and empowered female warrior. This comparative textual analysis also examines particular flaws and biases contained in the fourth-wave feminist ideology, including the narrow definition of ‘aspirational women,’ the overemphasis on individual efforts, and the neglect of structural inequalities.

Copyright
© 2023 The Author(s)
Open Access
Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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Volume Title
Proceedings of the 2022 International Conference on International Studies in Social Sciences and Humanities (CISOC 2022)
Series
Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research
Publication Date
10 December 2022
ISBN
978-2-494069-25-1
ISSN
2352-5398
DOI
10.2991/978-2-494069-25-1_17How to use a DOI?
Copyright
© 2023 The Author(s)
Open Access
Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

Cite this article

risenwbib
TY  - CONF
AU  - Caroline Yiqian Wang
PY  - 2022
DA  - 2022/12/10
TI  - The Reimagined Princess, The Empowered Female Warrior
BT  - Proceedings of the 2022 International Conference on International Studies in Social Sciences and Humanities (CISOC 2022)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 154
EP  - 170
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-494069-25-1_17
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-494069-25-1_17
ID  - YiqianWang2022
ER  -