Mulan is not a metaphor for neurodivergence.
Because none of you can describe what āneurodivergenceā is. You canāt make a metaphor for something that is undefinable.
If you think Mulan ālooks at the world a little differently than everyone else,ā then sure, itās a story with that in it. But guess what? Grandma also looks at the world differently than everyone else. Oh! And Fa Zhou looks at the world differently than Mulan! And Fa Zhouās wife looks at the world differently than Mushu! And Mushu looks at the world differently than Shan Yu! And Shan Yu looks at the world differently than The Emperorās Advisor!
Heyyy maybe weāre all humans who have our own unique perspectives & responses to the world around us. Some of us have some pieces of unique perspectives/responses in common, like fabrics we like the feel of or topics we happen to be focused on in this season of life, and some of us, shocker, have different pieces/responses in common! Hey, weāre all alike and weāre all unlikeāwhich means weāre mostly alike! Even in the way we think!
Maybe you donāt need a word that means āIām different, but not in a specifically definable way, just in a way that makes me both like and unlike some people, somewhere, sometime, depending on how āseenā I need to feel in a given moment, and who/what piece of media Iād like associated with me/that given people group.ā
Unless you can define āneurodivergentā beyond what I just said. Then tell me how Mulan is a metaphor for that definitionāof āneurodivergentā beyond what I just said.













