This is just strange.

Earlier this week on the Fox News program Fox & Friends, host Steve Doocy and guest Penny Young Nance of Concerned Women for America suggested that Disney’s 2013 hit Frozen was somehow anti-male, apparently because there are male bad guys in the movie and a male hero claims at one point that all men pick their noses. (There’s an amusing disclaimer in the film’s end credits distancing Disney from this position.)

Doocy seemed particularly concerned that the animated short “Frozen Fever” (which he misleadingly refers to as a “movie”), forthcoming in March, will (he for some reason thinks) likely “depict men as evil and cold and bumblers.”

Penny Nance responded that it wasn’t just Disney. “Hollywood in general has often sent the message that men are superfluous, that they’re stupid, that they’re in the way, and if they contribute anything to a family, it’s a paycheck.”

Really? She gives no examples, and the only ones that spring to mind are a subset of sitcoms, such as Family Guy.

Doocy suggested, “It would be nice for Hollywood to have more male figures in those kinds of movies.” I’m not sure what specific kinds of movies he has in mind. It’s true that some of Disney’s best-known classic animated fairy tales (Snow White, Cinderella, The Little Mermaid, to name a few, but not Pinocchio, Dumbo, The Lion King, Aladdin, and plenty of others) have had female protagonists who end up attached to generic Prince Charmings devoid of any particular depth of characterization. Frozen, however, has a well-realized and heroic male protagonist. Maybe he’s really thinking of Maleficent but doesn’t want to mention it by name because he’s scared of Angelina Jolie.

Here’s a clip of the Fox & Friends segment in question. If you haven’t seen Frozen, be aware that this does give away one of the film’s surprises.

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