It's always coalest before the dawn

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Posting deadline: 18th December at 9am UTC - may be the 17th in your time zone
Story reveal: 25th December
Author reveal: 1st January

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Comments

Re: Bullets Dodged

[(Anonymous)]

I have such an internal struggle with prompts like this, because I do honestly see where a movie like Mulan might be particularly attractive to someone who is nonbinary themselves, and yet I cannot help but notice that the entire fucking plot hinges on Mulan being a cisgender woman who crossdresses out of necessity. Like, I think it's pretty intentional that she's at her most badass when she's back to wearing hanfu.

Fic where Shang struggles with realizing he's not quite as straight or into unambiguous gender roles as he thought he was, though, A+ to that.

Re: Bullets Dodged

[(Anonymous)]

+1 This is exactly how I feel about this prompt.

Re: Bullets Dodged

[(Anonymous)]

+2. Mulan's problem isn't her gender, it's the restrictions imposed by society *to* her gender. If she'd been able to join the military as a woman she wouldn't have crossdressd.

Re: Bullets Dodged

[(Anonymous)]

It's also about filial loyalty. If she weren't standing in for her father, she wouldn't have joined the army in the first place. It's not even a story about a woamn feeling constrained by society's limitations of her sex.

Re: Bullets Dodged

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah, and that's actually a super important part of the original folk tale. All the parts where she's nearly executed or otherwise condemned by people for disguising herself are Disney additions: in the various original Chinese versions people are generally startled/impressed to learn the truth, not angry. Mulan steps outside the narrow box her culture allows for women, but she does it out of filial piety, so it's cool.

Re: Bullets Dodged

[(Anonymous)]

+ 3

It's the hard-and-fastness of 'she's obviously not cis and you're a moron/bigot if you disagree' that puts it over the edge to me.