This mashup was originally created as a response to a group of aggressively masculine classmates in my Resist Violence course—a class that introduced me to the power of using art as a form of activism. I centered the piece around the song “I’ll Make a Man Out of You” from Disney’s Mulan, which encapsulates traditional ideals of manhood. By juxtaposing this track with curated clips of male role models admired by many boys, I constructed a portrait of masculinity defined by control and anger as its only permissible emotion.

To emphasize the broader social consequences, I layered in news footage covering sexual misconduct, school shootings, and white supremacist rallies—illustrating how toxic masculinity intersects with violence, racism, and systemic abuse. This project aims to prompt male viewers to reflect critically on their own relationship with masculinity and recognize how these rigid ideals harm not only others, but themselves as well.