Investigating the construction of gender stereotypes in the animated movie Mulan: a feminist stylistics approach

While global initiatives towards gender equality, as outlined in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, have gained momentum, the mainstream film industry continues to perpetuate traditional gender narratives and male privilege on a global and cultural scale. This study engages with the problem of gender codification in motion picture industry. It particularly tackles the question of gender stereotyping in the Disney movie Mulan (1998), and how language codifies power relations and male privilege in patriarchal discourse. Adopting a feminist stylistics approach, the study examines the Disney Production Mulan (1998) to investigate the patriarchal discourse assignment of fixed constructs of male/female identities and social roles embedded in gender representation. It utilizes Conversation Analysis tools to showcase how the conversation exchanges between Mulan and other characters represent and construct the development of Disney viewpoint towards the question of gender. It argues for the significance of merging feminist stylistics model of analysis with the Conversation Analysis tools on the theoretical level in highlighting the power relation embedded in Mulan movie (1998) and Disney’s vision towards the question of gender. The study concluded that despite Disney’s movement towards feminist representation of female characters of the Third Wave of Feminism, the question of gender stereotyping and maintenance of male privilege still persist in gender representation: The male share in articulating patriarchal mindset and order exceeds female share. Keywords: Conversation Analysis, Disney, feminist stylistics, gender codification, gender representation, gender stereotyping, Patriarchal Discourse, United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Received on: 21 December 2024 Accepted on: 17 February 2025 Published on: 13 March 2025