In modern times, the huge progress of sexual liberation has evoked the reconsideration of gender identity, which leads to the reexamination of gender transgression and its sexual corollary. This essay will argue how the performativity of binary genders implicitly entails the possibility of alternative sexualities under the heterosexual hegemony through the analysis of a Disney animation Mulan (1998), which is a story of a woman successfully disguising as a warrior within an army for a decade. Firstly, the act of performing opposite sex and gender identity reveals the unnatural relation between genders and sexed bodies. Then, heterosexual system produces this ostensibly natural gender identity while gender identity forcedly reproduces the heterosexual
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The binary genders ascribed to sexed body have established the heterosexual system and the patriarchal hegemony. As Butler (Bodies That Matter 1) declares gender performativity is not a voluntary act that the doer can willfully choose, these reiterative and citational acts can be seen as the signification of gender to maintain the patriarchal hegemony. The heterosexual system constraints the unidirectional and singular option, because its need of reproduction requires the “natural” sexual magnetism between discrete genders (Foucault 154). Butler also stresses out the heterosexualization demands and instates the attractiveness between “feminine” and “masculine”, which has been disguised as the expressive signification of binary genders (Gender Trouble 24). The heterosexualization has contributed to the patriarchal hegemony, which creates and determines cultural norms for different gender roles in the society. In the film of Mulan, on the one hand, a warrior is a male role who stays in a masculine world of warfare (Edwards 6). On the other hand, the female body of Mulan predetermines her feminine appearance and a domestic role that she should guard. However, Mulan is both a “warrior” and a woman (He 627), and the inability of gender recognition in the army proves that the masculine …show more content…
Although gender performativity implicitly discloses the imitative fabric of gender in relation to biological sex and its contingency that denaturalize the discrete genders (Butler, Gender Trouble 175), it is not always subversive for the heterosexual system. Butler (Bodies That Matter 125) also emphasizes that cross-dressing sometimes serves the reidealization of the heterosexual gender norms as well as the denaturalization of gender identities. In the traditional Chinese society, the daring act of Mulan has challenges the inferiority of female roles in the patriarchal structure and deep-rooted sex-segregation (He 630). In addition, the possibility of Mulan female-to-male cross-dressing can be ascribed to this patriarchal structure because it can be seen as an upgrading in social status (Altenburger 171). At the same time, the necessity of her temporary cross-dressing is to satisfy the demand of patriarchal structure, which will eventually be rectified after the service in order not to subvert the patriarchal hegemony (He 628). In the end of the film, Mulan reinstates to her “original” gender role and the attraction between Mulan and a male character Shang has been resumed in the heterosexual disposition, which is a sign of restoring the
The binary genders ascribed to sexed body have established the heterosexual system and the patriarchal hegemony. As Butler (Bodies That Matter 1) declares gender performativity is not a voluntary act that the doer can willfully choose, these reiterative and citational acts can be seen as the signification of gender to maintain the patriarchal hegemony. The heterosexual system constraints the unidirectional and singular option, because its need of reproduction requires the “natural” sexual magnetism between discrete genders (Foucault 154). Butler also stresses out the heterosexualization demands and instates the attractiveness between “feminine” and “masculine”, which has been disguised as the expressive signification of binary genders (Gender Trouble 24). The heterosexualization has contributed to the patriarchal hegemony, which creates and determines cultural norms for different gender roles in the society. In the film of Mulan, on the one hand, a warrior is a male role who stays in a masculine world of warfare (Edwards 6). On the other hand, the female body of Mulan predetermines her feminine appearance and a domestic role that she should guard. However, Mulan is both a “warrior” and a woman (He 627), and the inability of gender recognition in the army proves that the masculine …show more content…
Although gender performativity implicitly discloses the imitative fabric of gender in relation to biological sex and its contingency that denaturalize the discrete genders (Butler, Gender Trouble 175), it is not always subversive for the heterosexual system. Butler (Bodies That Matter 125) also emphasizes that cross-dressing sometimes serves the reidealization of the heterosexual gender norms as well as the denaturalization of gender identities. In the traditional Chinese society, the daring act of Mulan has challenges the inferiority of female roles in the patriarchal structure and deep-rooted sex-segregation (He 630). In addition, the possibility of Mulan female-to-male cross-dressing can be ascribed to this patriarchal structure because it can be seen as an upgrading in social status (Altenburger 171). At the same time, the necessity of her temporary cross-dressing is to satisfy the demand of patriarchal structure, which will eventually be rectified after the service in order not to subvert the patriarchal hegemony (He 628). In the end of the film, Mulan reinstates to her “original” gender role and the attraction between Mulan and a male character Shang has been resumed in the heterosexual disposition, which is a sign of restoring the