Uh… Hold up: Frozen minimizes the importance of men? According to one guest on Fox News, it sure does: “Hollywood in general has often sent the message that men are superfluous, that they’re stupid, that they’re in the way,” says Penny Nance, CEO of Concerned Women for America, a coalition of conservative women.
“The question for us as moms is when we bring our daughters to see ‘Frozen’… we often have our little boys sitting there, and is this message helpful? We want them to know that they’re essential… We want to empower women, and that’s good… but we don’t have to empower women at the cost of tearing down men.”
The anchor, Steve Doocey, agreed with everything Nance had to say (which is, let’s face it, not a surprise, coming from a Fox correspondent).
Like most frat houses, Hollywood isn’t in the business of making men feel bad about themselves. But “Frozen” empowers women by empowering women: It’s a cute story about sisterly love in a magical kingdom full of ice and wonder. Some dude is a love interest. Another dude is evil. There’s a talking snowman. The end.
So do guys need a movie meant to build up little girls to also attend to their needs? We say: absolutely not. It seems like every Hollywood blockbuster is about a white guy who saves something or someone, achieves his dreams, and gets the girl. Having a movie that’s just about little girls—what they think and feel—is a good thing.
What’s more: The male characters in “Frozen” aren’t a group of wrongly-accused villains. Hans is kind of brilliant, and largely very successful. Sure, he’s evil, but for an evil dude, he gets really close to his goal, and he doesn’t even make the classic villain mistake of stalling way too long before he kills his target. And Kristoff is absolutely not a throwaway character. He’s a strong, goofy dude who has a pretty heroic day job. And the snowman? What is there not to love about Olaf the snowman?!
But the point is not to pit character against character in an animated gender war. The issue is that Penny Nance, Steve Doocey, and Fox, by extension, are complaining about a children’s film that encourages girls to choose themselves and shows them that sometimes the princess gets to be the hero. The fact that this is something that’s up for debate in the first place? That’s the real problem that needs tearing down.
Image via Cartoon Brew
