For the better part of two decades, Rush Limbaugh has been the nation’s self-appointed crusader against the “chickification” of America. Well, it looks like El Rushbo has a new foot soldier in his army fighting to save the world for men. Namely, “Fox & Friends” co-host Steve Doocy. Seems that Doocy doesn’t like how the smash hit “Frozen” portrays men.
On Wednesday’s show, Doocy wondered if movies like ‘Frozen’ were empowering women at the expense of turning men into “fools and villains.” Just when you thought there would be at least a semblance of an honest discussion on this, Doocy opted for a chat with Penny Nance, the president of Concerned Women for America. If that group doesn’t sound familiar to you, it’s a socially conservative women’s group founded by Beverly LaHaye, the wife of “Left Behind” author Tim LaHaye. Media Matters got a clip.
Doocy told Nance that from what he’d seen, “Frozen Fever,” due out in March, will portray men in the same way the original did. Nance replied that Hollywood has developed a bad habit of portraying men as “superfluous” and “in the way”–except when they’re bringing home their paychecks. “Frozen,” in her mind, is simply one of the worst offenders. She suggested that movies like “Frozen” aren’t exactly the best things for impressionable little boys to see. Boys, she said, are supposed to be taught to be “heroes” who will be great dads and husbands.
Doocy seemed to agree, saying that a Hollywood executive might tell Nance that it’s easier to make fun of men. Nance replied that while it was good to empower men, movies like “Frozen” do so at the expense of tearing down men. CWA, she said, is “a women’s group who loves men,” and wants to see more strong male figures in movies. Specifically, she wants more men like Jon Blunk, who threw himself in front of a bullet intended for his girlfriend in the Aurora shootings.
Am I hearing this right? If more men watch movies like “Frozen,” it may let them down to the point they won’t stand up for their women? Simply put, Doocy and Nance don’t know what they’re talking about. A few years ago, I got hooked on “Charmed”–in fact, I have all eight seasons on DVD. For those who don’t know, that show broke the ground for movies like “Frozen.” When it went off the air in 2006, no show in the history of television had lasted longer with a cast of all female leads (it has since been passed by “Desperate Housewives”). By Doocy and Nance’s logic, because I happen to be a fan of a show featuring strong and empowered women, I may have emasculated myself as a man.
Has it occurred to Doocy and Nance that maybe, just maybe, there are a good number of men who want to see women portrayed as something other than damsels in distress? Kevin Fallon of The Daily Beast is wondering the same thing. He pointed out that Nance blew a chance to simply praise Blunk (who was one of three guys who took bullets for their women that night). Instead, Nance was “suggesting and speculating” that Blunk’s girlfriend was just too dainty to defend herself. “The leap that’s taken here is just so rich,” Fallon said. MSNBC’s Chris Hayes came to a similar conclusion. After riffing on how Disney has given us such inept bunglers as Hercules, Tarzan and Aladdin, he pointed out that barely 30 percent of speaking roles in the top grossing films of 2013 went to women–and only 28 percent had a woman as even a co-lead.
This is yet another example of Fox News revealing that its claim to be “fair and balanced” is a transparent lie.
