“Bring Honor to Us All”: Mulan, TikTok, and the Making of Feminist Resistance

In recent years, the rise of “alpha male” culture, hyper-masculinity, and the online manosphere has signaled a broader cultural backlash against feminist progress, contributing to the perception that we are now living in a so-called “post-feminist” world. Across digital platforms, figures such as Andrew Tate and Sneako, who promote rigid gender hierarchies and male dominance, have gained significant visibility, normalizing forms of misogyny that are often dismissed as humour, confidence, or self-improvement. This resurgence of gendered hostility is not incidental but learned, circulating through cultural narratives, social media, and everyday discourse that reinforce the idea that masculinity must be dominant and femininity subordinate. As bell hooks argues, beliefs about gender and feminism are rarely formed through direct engagement with feminist theory, but are instead shaped by the cultural messages individuals absorb over time (hooks 1). In this context, the persistence, and in many cases intensification, of misogyny suggests not the success of feminism, but its ongoing necessity, raising urgent questions about how such ideologies are reproduced and, crucially, how they might be challenged.

In a viral TikTok video by Wyatt, a group of men are asked a seemingly simple question: “Do you think you could beat a professional female athlete?” The responses are immediate and confident. “Yes, all of them.” “I can beat you in anything that you can do.” Others qualify their answers with casual sexism, suggesting that while women may outperform men in domestic tasks like “cleaning the kitchen” or “cooking food,” in all other domains male superiority is assumed. Even when prompted with specific examples such as Serena Williams, some participants reluctantly concede, though not without hesitation. These comments, while presented in a casual and humorous format, reveal something more troubling: the persistence of deeply embedded patriarchal beliefs that frame women as inherently weaker, less capable, and confined to limited roles. As bell hooks notes, much of what people believe about feminism and gender does not come from direct engagement with feminist thought, but rather from cultural messages absorbed “thirdhand,” shaping perception without critical reflection (hooks introduction vii).

Yet what is equally striking is the response this video generates. Users across the platform begin to create edits that directly challenge these claims. One such video overlays the men’s assertions with clips of elite female athletes running, skiing, playing hockey, performing gymnastics, set to the lyrics of Taylor Swift’s “The Man,” transforming dismissal into defiance. Others turn to popular culture, particularly Disney’s Mulan (1998), repurposing its imagery as a form of rebuttal. In one widely circulated edit by anthropomorfunk, the matchmaker’s declaration, “you will never bring your family honor,” is juxtaposed with a montage of Mulan’s achievements, from seizing her father’s sword to defeating the majority of the invading army. The comments beneath such videos are revealing: “you will never bring your family honor—proceeds to bring honor for the whole population of China,” one user writes, while another reflects, “I blame Mulan for me turning into a crazy extreme feminist.” In another edit by Hope, focused on the moment Mulan decides to take her father’s place, a viewer recalls, “this scene changed something in me when I saw it for the first time as a child,” echoed by others who note, “Mulan made 7yo me a feminist” and “I can’t even explain what Mulan did for me as a kid.”

These responses suggest that Mulan is not simply a film of the past, but an ongoing cultural force that continues to shape how individuals understand gender, strength, and resistance. While scholars such as Henry A. Giroux have critically examined Disney as a powerful site of ideological production, one that often simplifies complex social issues, it is equally important to consider how such texts function in practice, particularly among audiences who encounter feminist ideas not through theory but through narrative and identification. This essay argues that in a contemporary digital landscape where sexist ideologies continue to circulate widely, Mulan operates as a form of feminist public pedagogy. Through its portrayal of resistance to gender norms, its extension in Mulan II, and its continued reinterpretation on platforms like TikTok, the film demonstrates how popular culture can foster feminist consciousness, offering accessible yet meaningful frameworks through which individuals come to recognize and challenge the structures that shape their lives.

To understand the persistence of misogynistic attitudes in contemporary digital spaces, it is essential to recognize, as bell hooks argues, that feminism is fundamentally “a movement to end sexism, sexist exploitation, and oppression” (hooks 1). This definition shifts the focus away from individual acts of discrimination and toward a broader system of power that structures everyday life. For hooks, sexism is not simply a matter of personal bias or isolated belief, but a deeply embedded social framework that is learned, internalized, and continuously reproduced through culture. Crucially, she notes that most people’s understanding of feminism does not come from direct engagement with feminist theory, but rather from secondhand cultural narratives that distort its meaning and purpose (hooks introduction vii). This gap between lived perception and feminist definition helps explain why sexist ideologies persist even in contexts where gender equality is assumed to have been achieved.

The TikTok video discussed in the introduction offers a clear example of this phenomenon. The men’s responses, asserting that they could outperform any female athlete, that male “genetics absolutely dominate” (Wyatt), or that women are better suited to domestic tasks, are not simply spontaneous or uninformed remarks. Instead, they reflect what hooks identifies as the normalization of patriarchal thinking, in which dominance, strength, and authority are coded as inherently masculine, while femininity is associated with limitation, dependence, or lesser capability. Even when confronted with specific counterexamples, such as Serena Williams, one of the most accomplished athletes in the world, hesitation and reluctance persist, revealing how deeply ingrained these assumptions remain. What is particularly striking is the casual tone in which these claims are delivered; framed as humour or confidence, they are rendered socially acceptable due to the amount of likes, even as they reproduce longstanding hierarchies.

Hooks’ framework allows these interactions to be read not as anomalies, but as evidence of a broader ideological system at work. Patriarchy operates most effectively when it appears natural or common sense, when its assumptions go unquestioned and are reinforced through everyday discourse. In this sense, platforms like TikTok do not create sexism, but rather provide a visible space in which it is performed, circulated, and normalized. The video becomes a microcosm of the larger cultural environment, demonstrating how patriarchal beliefs continue to shape perceptions of gender in subtle yet powerful ways. Recognizing this system is a necessary first step, not only for identifying the problem, but for understanding how it might be challenged by an intervention that, as this essay argues, can emerge through the very cultural forms that also help sustain it.

If patriarchal beliefs are learned and reproduced through culture, then media becomes a central site through which such ideologies are both reinforced and contested. In “The Mouse that Roared: Disney and the End of Innocence”, Henry A. Giroux argues that corporations such as Disney play a powerful role in shaping culture, noting that media has become a “pivotal force, ‘shaping human meaning and behaviour and regulating our social practices at every turn’” (Giroux 2). Rather than functioning as neutral storytelling, Disney’s films operate as pedagogical tools that influence how young people come to understand themselves, their identities, and their place within broader social structures. Giroux emphasizes that popular culture is now “the primary way in which youth learn about themselves, their relationship to others, and the larger world” (2), positioning media as a central site of informal education.

Giroux’s critique is particularly concerned with the ways in which corporate media can shape and limit public understanding, especially when cultural production is controlled by large institutions. He warns that such media systems do not simply entertain, but are deeply embedded in systems of power, meaning they cannot be seen as “removed from the realm of power, politics, and ideology” (4). This concern is important when considering films like Mulan, which present resistance to gender norms but do so through individualized narratives of personal transformation rather than sustained critiques of structural inequality. From this perspective, Disney’s portrayal of feminism may appear limited, offering moments of empowerment without fully dismantling the systems that produce gendered hierarchies.

However, while Giroux’s analysis highlights the ideological constraints of corporate media, it also opens up an important space for reconsideration. If media is as pedagogically powerful as he suggests, then its influence cannot be dismissed outright. Extending Giroux’s framework to contemporary digital culture reveals that this pedagogical function is no longer confined to traditional media forms. Platforms such as TikTok operate as decentralized spaces of cultural production, where users not only consume content but actively reinterpret and redistribute it. In this sense, TikTok can be understood as both a continuation and transformation of the processes Giroux identifies. The same mechanisms that allow sexist ideologies to circulate widely also enable users to challenge and subvert them, as seen in response videos that juxtapose misogynistic claims with images of female strength and achievement. Similarly, the widespread reuse of Mulan clips demonstrates how existing media texts can be recontextualized to serve new ideological purposes.

Rather than viewing Disney and platforms like TikTok as separate or opposing cultural forces, it is more productive to see them as interconnected sites within a broader pedagogical network. Disney produces narratives that shape early understandings of gender and identity, while TikTok extends and reworks those narratives within contemporary discourse. As Giroux himself acknowledges, media culture plays a key role in “regulating the meanings, values, and tastes” that shape everyday life (2-3). By situating both Disney and TikTok within this framework, it becomes possible to understand how media not only reflects existing social structures, but also provides tools through which they can be contested, reimagined, and transformed.

The persistence of patriarchal beliefs visible in contemporary digital spaces is strikingly mirrored in the gendered expectations depicted in Disney’s Mulan. Early in the film, Mulan is instructed that her value lies not in her individuality or capability, but in her ability to conform to rigid social expectations surrounding femininity and marriage. During the matchmaker scene, she is told that she must “bring honor to us all” (Mulan 0:10:49), a phrase that equates her worth with her capacity to uphold family reputation through obedience and domestic suitability. When she fails to perform this role correctly, the matchmaker harshly declares, “You may look like a bride, but you will never bring your family honor” (Mulan 0:13:19). This moment establishes a system in which women are evaluated not by their abilities, but by their adherence to prescribed gender roles.

This logic closely parallels the assumptions expressed in the TikTok video discussed earlier. Just as the men in the video confidently assert that women are inherently less capable, claiming “it’s like a sports car going fast as hell but you got a semi that’s a lot more fuel” (Wyatt) and relegating women to domestic tasks, Mulan presents a world in which female identity is narrowly defined and socially enforced. In both cases, gender hierarchy is treated as natural and unquestionable, reinforced through everyday language that positions men as strong and authoritative, and women as limited or secondary. The father’s assertion that Mulan must learn her “place” further reinforces this structure, suggesting that deviation from gender norms is not only discouraged but seen as a form of dishonour (Mulan 0:19:14).

By presenting these constraints so explicitly, Mulan does more than simply depict a historical setting; it exposes the underlying logic of patriarchy in a way that remains recognizable in contemporary discourse. The parallels between the film and TikTok reveal that these beliefs are not confined to the past but continue to shape how gender is understood and performed today. In this sense, Mulan functions as both a reflection and a critique of patriarchal ideology, making visible the same assumptions that continue to circulate in modern digital culture. Recognizing these parallels is essential, as it underscores the extent to which the problem is ongoing and sets the stage for understanding how the film’s narrative of resistance speaks directly to these enduring structures.

While Mulan clearly depicts the constraints of patriarchy, its narrative power lies in how it actively challenges and reworks those limitations. Mulan’s decision to take her father’s place in the army is not framed as an abstract feminist statement, but as an act grounded in both personal agency and relational responsibility. This dual motivation reflects what recent scholarship identifies as a key feature of Mulan’s evolving character: she is “not just portrayed as a legendary national heroine or a filial daughter,” but as “a multifaceted character, resilient yet vulnerable, ambitious yet deeply attached to her family” (Deng 2). This complexity is crucial, as it resists the binary logic of patriarchy that positions strength and femininity as mutually exclusive.

In contrast to the assumptions expressed in the TikTok video, where men confidently assert that women are inherently less capable, Mulan repeatedly demonstrates physical strength, strategic intelligence, and leadership. As the other soldiers proclaim, “Let’s hear it for Ping! The bravest of us all!” (Mulan 1:01:14). Later in the film, this recognition is further solidified when the emperor bows to her, declaring, “You have saved us all” (Mulan 1:18:14). Her success in the army is not the result of innate superiority, but of adaptability, perseverance, and critical thinking, qualities that directly undermine the notion that ability is determined by gender. Importantly, her actions do not require her to abandon femininity altogether. As the article notes, contemporary interpretations of Mulan increasingly emphasize how she “combines grace with courage” and embodies both emotional depth and heroic ambition (Deng 2). This challenges the patriarchal expectation that power must be coded as masculine, instead presenting strength as something that can coexist with traditionally feminine traits.

This tension is particularly visible in the way Mulan navigates identity throughout the film. While she adopts a male disguise to survive within a patriarchal system, her success ultimately exposes the instability of the very categories that exclude her. In this sense, Mulan does not simply “fit” into male-defined structures of power; she reveals their limitations. As Deng’s article suggests, the Mulan narrative has never been static but has been “continually moulded” across cultures and historical contexts, with her identity reshaped to reflect changing understandings of gender and social roles (Deng 3). Disney’s adaptation, despite its limitations, participates in this ongoing process by foregrounding gender as something that can be performed, challenged, and redefined.

The continued circulation of Mulan on TikTok demonstrates how this narrative of resistance remains culturally active. In contrast to the misogynistic claims made in the original video, users repurpose Mulan’s story as a direct rebuttal, using clips of her achievements to challenge the idea that women are inherently weaker. Viewer responses such as “Mulan made 7yo me a feminist” and “this scene changed something in me” suggest that the film does more than represent strength; it produces it, shaping how audiences understand their own capabilities and identities. However, as Serene Khader cautions, “the success of individual women is all women’s success… [but] this line of reasoning moves too fast” (Khader 78). While Mulan centers on an individual act of resistance, its afterlife complicates this limitation. Mulan II shifts the focus from individual achievement to collective transformation, as Mulan’s influence extends to the young girls in the village and the three princesses, who begin to question and ultimately reject the roles imposed upon them. At the same time, TikTok users participate in a similar process, transforming Mulan’s story into a shared cultural resource through which feminist ideas are collectively produced and circulated. In this way, Mulan functions not only as a critique of patriarchal ideology, but as a resource through which individuals learn to recognize and resist it. By offering a model of strength that refuses to conform to restrictive gender norms, the film directly challenges the same assumptions that continue to circulate in contemporary digital culture, demonstrating its enduring relevance as a feminist text.

While Mulan clearly depicts the constraints of patriarchy, it also offers a narrative of resistance that aligns closely with bell hooks’ understanding of feminism as a struggle to end sexism rather than to reverse gender hierarchies. As hooks suggests, “feminist thinking teaches us all… to love justice and freedom in ways that foster and affirm life” (hooks 71), positioning feminism not as domination but as a transformative practice grounded in equity and resistance. Mulan’s actions throughout the film reflect this definition, not because she seeks to dominate men, but because she refuses to accept the limitations placed upon her identity. Her decision to take her father’s place in the army is not framed as a desire for power, but as an act of agency and necessity, challenging the assumption that courage and honour are inherently masculine traits.

At the same time, Henry A. Giroux argues that Disney’s animated films often reproduce “retrograde gender roles” and participate in a broader “sexist… ethos” that shapes how children understand identity and power (Giroux 85–86). This critique is crucial, as it highlights the ways in which popular culture can reinforce limiting and hierarchical understandings of gender. However, Mulan complicates this pattern, a point reflected not only in the film itself but in its reception. As one TikTok user writes, “Why can’t Disney make strong female leads like this anymore? Mulan is a great example of a woman being strong and independent, while still falling in love” (hope). Rather than simply reproducing traditional femininity, the film presents a protagonist who actively resists the roles imposed upon her, exposing the instability of the very gender norms Giroux critiques.

This resistance is most visible in the film’s repeated tension between performance and identity. Early in the film, Mulan is told that she must be “quiet and demure, graceful, polite, delicate, refined, poised” (Mulan 0:05:04), a list that reduces femininity to a rigid and performative ideal. Her failure at the matchmaker scene demonstrates not personal inadequacy, but the impossibility of fully embodying these expectations. Later, when she disguises herself as a man, she is again required to perform a socially constructed role, this time masculinity. The song “I’ll Make a Man Out of You” reinforces this performance, equating manhood with strength, discipline, and emotional restraint. Yet Mulan ultimately succeeds not by perfectly embodying masculinity, but by drawing on qualities that exist outside of these rigid binaries: intelligence, adaptability, and resilience.

In this sense, Mulan does not simply invert gender roles but destabilizes them altogether. As hooks emphasizes, “feminists are made, not born” (hooks 7), highlighting that feminist consciousness is not innate but learned through experience, reflection, and cultural engagement. The film reflects this idea through characters who enforce gender norms regardless of their own position within the hierarchy, from the matchmaker to the soldiers who initially mock Mulan. By revealing how these expectations are socially produced and enforced, Mulan exposes patriarchy as a system rather than a natural order.

Rather than offering a simplistic narrative of empowerment, the film presents resistance as complex and ongoing. Mulan’s success does not dismantle the patriarchal system entirely, but it does create a moment of disruption that reveals its instability. In doing so, the film aligns with hooks’ vision of feminism as a transformative practice, one that challenges the structures of oppression while imagining the possibility of a more equitable social order.

Ultimately, the persistence of misogynistic discourse across digital platforms demonstrates that the struggle against patriarchy is far from complete. As the TikTok video discussed at the outset reveals, beliefs about male superiority and female limitation continue to circulate in everyday conversations, often framed as humour or common sense. These attitudes, as bell hooks argues, are not innate but learned, shaped through cultural narratives that are absorbed over time rather than critically examined (hooks 1). If sexism is sustained through culture, then it follows that culture also holds the potential to challenge it.

This is where the significance of Mulan becomes clear. As Henry A. Giroux cautions, Disney films operate within broader systems of power and ideology, shaping cultural understandings of gender and identity (Giroux 4), Mulan demonstrates how popular culture can also work against these constraints. By presenting a protagonist who resists imposed identity and redefines strength outside of rigid gender binaries, the film offers an accessible entry point into feminist thinking. As Giroux himself suggests, media plays a crucial role in shaping how individuals “learn about themselves, their relationship to others, and the larger world.” (2), making its cultural impact both significant and unavoidable.

What ultimately distinguishes Mulan is not its perfection as a feminist text, but its ability to resonate across time and context. The continued circulation of the film on platforms like TikTok through edits, reinterpretations, and personal reflections, demonstrates that its meaning is not fixed, but actively produced by its audiences. The value of Mulan lies not in its ability to fully represent feminist politics, but in its capacity to initiate them. Viewers who describe the film as having “changed something” in them or as having made them “a feminist” attest to its role in shaping identity and consciousness in ways that extend far beyond its original release. In this sense, Mulan functions as a form of feminist public pedagogy, not because it offers a complete critique of patriarchy, but because it provides a narrative through which individuals can begin to recognize and question the structures that shape their lives.

In a cultural moment marked by both the resurgence of hyper-masculine ideologies and the rapid circulation of media, the importance of such narratives becomes even more pronounced. Feminism does not spread solely through academic texts or theoretical discourse, but through the stories, images, videos, and characters that individuals encounter and carry with them over time. Mulan endures not simply as a film, but as an evolving cultural resource, one that continues to challenge, inspire, and equip new generations with the tools to imagine and enact resistance.

Works Cited

anthropomorfunk. “Mulan edit set to ‘We On Go’ by BIA featuring scenes of Mulan’s transformation and battle achievements.” TikTok, 02/2026 https://vt.tiktok.com/ZSHUeQ3k8/.

bell.edits_00. “Response video using Taylor Swift’s ‘The Man’ to challenge claims about female athletes.” TikTok, 02/2026 https://vt.tiktok.com/ZSHURnpwn/.

Deng, Fuling. “Changing Perspectives on Mulan: A Comparative Study of the Chinese and American Editions of the Picturebook I Am Hua Mulan.” Children’s Literature in Education, 2025. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10583-025-09640-z.

Giroux, Henry A. The Mouse That Roared: Disney and the End of Innocence. Rowman & Littlefield, 1999.

hooks, bell. Feminism Is for Everybody: Passionate Politics. South End Press, 2000.

hope. “Edit of Mulan’s decision scene with caption ‘this scene changed something in me when I saw it for the first time as a child.’” TikTok, 06/2025 https://vt.tiktok.com/ZSHUeqG9w/.

Khader, Serene. Faux Feminism: Why We Fall for White Feminism and How We Can Stop. Beacon Press, 2024. https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/mcmu/detail.action?docID=31096139

Mulan. Directed by Tony Bancroft and Barry Cook, Walt Disney Pictures, 1998.

Mulan II. Directed by Darrell Rooney and Lynne Southerland, Walt Disney Pictures, 2004.

posieswhims. “Mulan edit set to ‘Love Me’ by JMSN focusing on themes of honor, identity, and recognition.” TikTok, 11/2025 https://vt.tiktok.com/ZSHUe4Hy9/.

Wyatteiden. “Interview asking whether men could beat professional female athletes.” TikTok, https://vt.tiktok.com/ZSHURxg7g/.

Thumbnail: DeesseNoire, Untitled, Retrieved from https://www.deviantart.com/deessenoire/art/Mulan-283048436

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