Disney’s pre-production process for its live-action remake of Mulan has caused quite the ruckus — and a well-justified ruckus at that.
To begin, one of the original scripts purchased by Disney detailed a “white male lead,” according to Vulture. The not-so-tiny element created quite the upset amidst Hollywood’s notorious white-washing, something the current generation has little patience for. This major oversight, however, was resolved when Disney revealed that Mulan would rightly take the place as lead role and her love interest would be Chinese.
Following this, they announced that all of the iconic songs from the original would not be included in the remake. However, director Niki Caro has not officially confirmed this lack of music. According to The Hollywood Reporter,she stated, “We’re still exploring the role that music’s gonna play in it, but for sure there will be music.” Fans are still on edge.
Luckily, the chance for any white-washing of the cast or story-line has been eliminated, and there is still hope for the “role of music” to flourish and Make a Man Out of Us. Unfortunately, a third blunder made by Disney in their pre-production plans is seemingly permanent.
Li Shang, the army captain and Mulan’s love interest in the original film, has been replaced by Cheng Honghui, the soldier. This is a major cause for concern not only because Li Shang is a beloved character, but because his accidental bisexuality gives the LGBTQIA+ community a realistic representation in a media source that–let’s face it–shaped many of our childhoods. In the original film, Shang expresses attraction to Mulan as well as her male alter-ego Ping, before he discovers Ping is a woman in disguise. According to Disney, Honghui will not share the sexual-fluidity expressed by Shang, and instead will be a key rival and bully to the disguised-Mulan, until he realizes she is a woman. This is a major instance of bi-erasure in the media, as well as sexism.
Even though bisexual people make up more than half of the LGBTQIA+ community, according to an estimate by The Williams Institute, bi-representation in television and movies is hard to come by. And when it ispresent, it often takes on the form of a crude misrepresentation or unwarranted criticism. Bisexual characters are unfairly portrayed as cheaters and tricksters. Their sexuality is frequently recognized as being temporary and/or part of a phase, not as the legitimate expression of sexuality that it is. Pop culture needs to start including the “B” in LGBT.
The media has a long track record of failing to fairly represent marginalized groups. The world is made up of so many identities: race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, ability/disability, etc. When the media limits representation to only select groups, or demonizes minority groups with negative stereotyping, it sends the message that minority individuals are not “valid” and are somehow “wrong” for not adhering to the projected norm. This is ridiculous, since most of those differences are unchangeable (i.e. race, sexuality), and yet the impact of their absence in the media has extremely harmful effects, such as poor self-esteem, encouragement of stereotyping, and in some cases increase rates of bullying, prejudice or discrimination.
In March, Disney announced it would be delaying the release date of Mulan until 2020 due to an underestimation of casting time, according to Variety.With two more years until we see the Disney classic on the big screen, let’s hope they use this time to reconsider their decision to erase not only a treasured character, but a treasured queer character. Disney should use this opportunity to act as a much-needed proponent of positive bisexual representation in pop culture.