Queer approach to analyzing mainstream culture Essay

Queer approach to analyzing mainstream culture - Essay Example f seeking to understand this to a greater and more complete level, this brief analysis will consider one scene of the film and attempt to go in depth with regards to the different understandings of sexuality, identity, and gender that are therein represented. The scene in question that this author has chosen for analysis is that of the discovery of Mulan as a woman. This scene is a powerful indication of cultural approaches to gender and sexuality in a number of ways. As such, the first determinant that will be measured is with relation to the identity that is revealed within the given scene. In this way, as the men of the story find out that Mulan is indeed a woman, she is manhandled and forced out of the residence. This is importance for a number of reasons. Firstly, the revelation of her true identity is something that gives the men in the story the courage to treat her in a way that they would have never considered before had she still been considered a man. Her identification as a woman does not only change the way that the men physically treat her but the way in which their worldview is formed with relation to how they think of her. This is represented in two distinct ways within the scene in question. Firstly, as she is taken forcibly from her tent and pushed into the snow, the viewer is made aware of the clear and determinate connection between this action and the rejection fro mthe Garden of Eden; also presumably he result of female weakness. The inclusion of this reference to early mythology is unique due to the fact that it serves to further differentiate the response of the men within the scene to the gender that Mulan now represents. With regards to gender, the men make a clear and determinate change in the way that they speak to Mulan after the revelation. Indeed, the characters state â€Å"I knew there was something wrong with you†Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ a woman – treacherous snake† (Mulan 1). These words belie the true underlying motivations and