Mulan brings us the ultimate honor by proving that fighting for who you are and what you believe in is way more honorable that trying to fulfill a role society says you have to.

Throughout the entire movie Mulan is constantly fighting for a place she is told she doesn’t belong. She proves that you are most effective as yourself than as a mold. She constantly moves based on her own intuition and not on anyone else’s expectations. As women we are constantly told who we should be and how we should behave. We have options, but society chose them for us.

Mulan defies all of that in an effort to save her father from returning to war. I don’t believe her life long dream was to become a soldier, but she clearly isn’t the perfect porcelain doll everyone expects her to be. This entire film Mulan is in a community of impossible expectations, and she proves over and over again that we don’t have to accept those.

There are endless examples of Mulan breaking rules to actually come out on top. And she never does so out of disrespect or negativity, but simply because she is confident that she can do it better and she doesn’t let anyone stop her. She knows that facing adversity produces growth, and she never lets it determine or deter the actions she knows are right (like that time she blew up an entire mountain and drowned a whole army in snow and if she hadn’t her bf Shang would have had them try to fight like a million crazy bad guys bc of pride. lol boys are dumb).

Mulan refuses to be silenced. She speaks out against anyone she doesn’t agree with even when it is clearly not her turn to speak. It’s tragic that this film about ancient China still so accurately represents what women face daily and in our workplaces, but how magic is it that we can take Mulan as an example to fight against that. Our hun armies may look different, but we are fighting the same fight. And if we do so as gracefully, as respectfully, and as intelligently as Mulan, we cannot lose.

In the fight to become our best selves we can’t let huns or weird assistants or attractive soldiers stand in our way. We can’t let pushy aunts or abrasive matchmakers tell us what we want because they have no clue and no right. If your reflection doesn’t show who you really are, change it. We can fight for honor, and we can decide what that looks like.

And always remember, that YOU are the man. Well, sort of.