In this scene, Mulan is prepared to see the matchmaker who will determine her “worthiness” as a bride. The women sing a song called “Honor to us all,” which serves as a direct reflection of traditional societal and cultural expectations for young Asian women. She is expected to be beautiful, graceful, obedient. They expect her to have perfect posture, makeup, and traditional skills of a good housewife.
Mulan’s awkwardness throughout the scene demonstrates her discomfort, and also essentially her fear, in performing this standard of femininity. She fears that she is incapable of ever performing femininity "perfectly" in the way she is expected to. It serves as greater commentary that societal expectations for women are increasingly impossible to ever attain, and that the perfect performance of femininity is a myth. Her attempts to conform feel forced and unnatural, underscoring the tension between individual identity and societal pressure.
In this, her reactions foreshadow her later decision to defy gender norms entirely by disguising herself as a male soldier. She finds it in herself to reject a traditional view, marriage as validation of femininity, because she feels unable to meet societal standards.
In the Euphoria special episode “F*ck Anyone Who’s Not a Sea Blob,” Jules opens up about her views of femininity and going through puberty as a trans woman. She talked about how hormone blockers prevented her body from developing traits that men “wouldn’t find desirable.”
Jules then speaks about her fears on puberty and how it felt like a kind of “broadening” that would force her away from ever achieving an image of femininity. She associated womanhood with being “small, thin, delicate,” and going through puberty threatened to push her permanently onto the “other” side. The prospect of undergoing this metamorphosis felt like being forcibly shaped into a man, condemned to a body and identity she didn’t want.
In this confession, Jules reveals a bit about the fears and struggles that transgender people face in feeling comfortable with their own bodies. The episode captures the intense vulnerability of that fear, and how puberty can feel like a struggle for agency, authenticity, and the ability to perform your gender.
Nate Jacobs’ character in Euphoria exemplifies the dual nature of toxic masculinity. It is both externally imposed and internally reinforced. Nate Jacobs in Euphoria is one of the clearest examples of how toxic masculinity is both performed and enforced. His character embodies the pressures men face to be emotionless and tough as a result of patriarchal standards. Nate’s aggression, manipulation, and constant need to assert power over others become symptoms of a gender role that leaves him no space to be vulnerable. His violence is framed as the only outlet he believes he’s allowed.
His relationships with other characters reveal deep discomfort with his sexuality and the other parts of himself he has been taught to repress. Much of Nate’s anger comes from the fear of being seen as anything less than the rigid ideal of “a real man.” He lashes out at others while also punishing himself, trapped in a cycle he can’t break.
He demonstrates that, in performing toxic masculinity, he is not just harmful to the people around him but also to himself. His character warns us that masculinity built on insecurity and anger isn't sustainable long-term, especially because he can’t deny the elements of his true identity.