'Fox & Friends' Thinks 'Frozen' Is Bad for Boys
Wouldn’t it be nice if, just once, a Hollywood movie featured a strong male hero? That’s the question being asked — with a straight face! — on Fox & Friends, in a new segment that criticizes the Disney blockbuster Frozen for empowering women “at the cost of tearing down men.” Penny Nance, CEO of the conservative lobbyist group Concerned Women for America, appeared on the Fox News show to argue that Disney, and “Hollywood in general,” vilifies masculinity by depicting male characters in movies as evil, stupid, or superfluous. To illustrate, Fox showed two scenes from Frozen, one of which was the leading man Kristoff — you know, the movie’s good guy — telling Princess Anna that all men pick their noses. Oh, the vilifying!
Frozen does, in fact, have a male villain in the scheming Hans, but its other male characters are good-hearted and integral to the story. The argument that Frozen sets a bad example for boys is absurd, as is the idea that Hollywood films are responsible for teaching men how to be heroes. Yet Nance takes this leap of logic even further, somehow connecting Frozen’s dearth of manliness to the Aurora, Colorado movie theater shooting in 2012. Somewhere, Olaf the snowman is very confused that he’s being dragged into this.
But let’s take a moment to ease the mind of Fox News anchor Steve Doocy, who agrees with Nance that “it would be nice for Hollywood to have more male figures in those kind of movies.” Looking only at Walt Disney animated films from the past five years, here are the ones that feature a strong male character in the lead role: Big Hero 6, Planes: Fire & Rescue, Planes, Monsters University, Wreck-It Ralph, Frankenweenie, Winnie the Pooh, Cars 2, Mars Needs Moms, and Toy Story 3.
And here are the ones that feature a female lead character: Frozen, Brave, and Tangled. (Note: they are all princesses.)
So even in the relatively girl-friendly world of Disney, men still get to be heroes more often than women. And in Hollywood movies as a whole, women continue to be underrepresented, comprising less than a third of characters and only 15 percent of protagonists. Steve Doocy, in other words, can sleep easy at night. The rest of us, maybe less so.
Frozen returns to theaters on March 13 with the seven-minute short Frozen Fever, playing before Cinderella.
Image: AP Photo/Disney
