"Mulan – True To Your Heart"
It's a podcast about analyzing gender roles in the film Mulan, released on Google Podcasts, and Steven, Frankie, and John narrate it. The podcast features character analysis of three main characters, Mulan, Mushu, and Li Shang. It reveals that Mulan symbolizes a different kind of feminine value, unlike other Disney princess films: independence, courage, and ambition. Besides, they also discussed whether Mushu represents race and Li Shang is gay for Ping, Mulan's masculine name. Their ideas developed by analyzing the background, the scenes, the voice actors, and reviewing the film, and combining with their own life. For example, when discussing whether Mushu is a representation of race, Steven agrees because he analyzes that the voice actors of Mushu are black people. One of our topics is what gender roles that leading females take and how they contribute to the construction of social norms. Therefore, I reckon that Mulan is a character that represents a different construction of social norms for females since females are always considered dressing dress, elegant, generous, and housekeeping. Besides, even though Mulan is a girl, she is a soldier, not a princess, representing a change in the female cultural norm. As Steven said in the podcast that girls don't have to be a princess and he said he "I shouldn't call my daughter princess because she might be lock into thinking she is a princess," which could support the idea that female don't need to be like princesses, but like Mulan (31:21).
"Masculinity, Marvel-Style"
It's an essay about how Marvel shapes and teaches us masculinity, and it's written by Matt Cates and published by the website Geek. This essay's main idea is to introduce how Marvel movies influence people and teach us about masculinity. Cates demonstrates that men form their masculinity by referring to the male characters around them, such as their father. In addition, unreal characters, such as characters in the movie, also perceive masculinity in men. Cates introduces five heroes in Marvel movies, Captain American, Black Panther, Hulk, Iron, and Thor, to reveal the common masculinity they both have, such as courage, strength, etc. One of the ideas in our group podcast is what gender role that leading males take, and how they contribute to the social construction of social norms, so Cates's essay excellently describes the common characteristic of heroic characters, "courage, compassion, persistence, fairness, respect, and humility" (Cates). Those characteristics are the masculinity for heroes in Marvel films, and it effectively reflects the cultural norm for male gender values. Besides, the source could also be used to explain how Disney films represent masculine and feminine values. I reckon that Disney films compare the things that heroes do with villains and highlight the masculine of heroes and the toxic masculine of villains to represent masculinity. The five heroes that Cates describes could reveal the male gender value.
"A Discussion of Feminism In 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens'"
It's an essay that discusses feminism in "Star Wars: The Force Awakens," written by Sam Adams and published on Medium. This essay's main idea is to demonstrate emerging ideologies about feminism and equality by comparing Rey, the heroine in this film, with Leia in the previous films. Besides, Adams describes every female character in this film by analyzing their appearance, outwear, and value to illustrate a shift of female gender value. Also, he analyzes some male characters in this film to highlight the gender value than females have. The third topic in my podcast is how Disney takes advantage of physical characteristics to express certain gender roles, so analyzing the appearance and outwear is a way to analyze gender roles. "Rey is presented in quite conservative clothing of a grey and brown tone; this represents Rey's independence and hard work-ethic" (Adams, 2017). Therefore, it's easy to get the gender value of Rey by analyzing Rey's outwear. Besides, Adams also compares Leia with Rey to portray Leia's outwear: "She's wearing an elegant flowing white gown and is lying down in a seductive position, she is immediately represented as the love interest and the damsel in distress" (2017). Therefore, it's easy to know the different female values between Rey and Leia by analyzing their different outwear, and it also symbolizes emerging ideologies about feminism and equality.
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