Sleeping Beauty was made and produced in the 1950’s at this time of life, society was recognised in Disney films to be where the girl is blonde and wants to be saved by the strong prince and that is what the majority of girls wanted to be like at the time.
However Mulan is modern and it turns out that she is the heroine. This proves how much society has changed and shows the different ways that women are presented during that period of time. Cross-dressing is also the case in this film. In the Chinese culture women are not allowed to go to war for their country so Mulan disguises herself as a man and makes herself look like a man with her features and clothing. There is no way this would happen in films like sleeping beauty.
If danger occurs during the film Mulan would battle and act more heroically, whereas sleeping Beauty would be scared and need some heroic man to save her. This would be seen as sexism nowadays as it is the man who does all the battling and not the women.
According to Vladimir Propp, Mulan is a heroine and Sleeping Beauty isn’t Mulan fights battles. She is also Asian and Sleeping Beauty is American. In the 1950’s no Asian would be made a hero. If this happened in today’s society, it would be seen as racism.
Sexism is part of Mulan as it shows the woman is battling and being strong and brave. Sleeping Beauty the girl lies to wait for the male to save her and battle for her.
According to Propp Sleeping Beauty is a heroine as she is a reward for the hero. Vladimir Propp suggested that there are only ever a limited number of character types.
In Mulan there is a key scene where the male is hurt and injured and Mulan is the one who saves him. This proves that in this society it is more recognised that women can be stronger than men. This brings the question to the audiences mind on who is stronger men or women and who should be head of the household.
This shows the differences in society and that in the earlier years, films were brought out for the young blonde girl to be saved by the heroic prince and that was what people wanted to be like. In Mulan there are Asian heroes, which wasn’t recognised at the time of sleeping Beauty. Also, in Mulan the active and stronger character is female and it shows that today’s society is more equal. Today’s society is more equal for men and women and the scenes I studied in Sleeping Beauty and Mulan show that women were presented in a very different ways.