Before Indiana Governor Mike Pence was Donald Trump’s running mate, he was a talk radio show host—with strong opinions about Disney films.
In 1999, Pence ran an op-ed on the website for The Mike Pence Show, arguing that Mulan, the Disney movie based on a story about young woman who took her father’s place in the army in Han Dynasty-era China, is liberal propaganda aimed at changing “the next generation’s attitude about women in combat,” according to Buzzfeed.
“Despite her delicate features and voice, Disney expects us to believe that Mulan’s ingenuity and courage were enough to carry her to military success on an equal basis with her cloddish cohorts,” wrote Pence.
And it’s not just Mulan’s “delicacy” that bothers Pence. “It is instructive that even in the Disney film, young Ms. Mulan falls in love with her superior officer! Me thinks the politically correct Disney types completely missed the irony of this part of the story,” he wrote.
Leaving aside his focus on the realism of this animated film—which also features a variety of talking animals—Pence’s argument is two-fold: Women are too fragile to fight and soldiers are incapable of behaving like the professionals they are.
These theories haven’t aged well. Women have been steadily progressing toward military equality in recent years, and in December of 2015, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter announced that all combat roles in the U.S. armed forces are now open to women.
It’s unclear whether Pence still holds the views expressed in his op-ed; the Governor’s office had not responded to Fortune’s request for comment at the time of publication. However, Pence has already come under fire for his position on other women’s issues. In March, he signed a controversial bill that would ban abortion even in cases of fetal abnormality, and he has long been a proponent of defunding Planned Parenthood. Given his history on these issues, it’s difficult to imagine that Pence will be much help to Trump when it comes to making up ground with female voters.
Read the full text of Pence’s op-ed in Buzzfeed.
This article originally appeared on Fortune.com
More Must-Reads From TIME
- The 100 Most Influential People of 2024
- The Revolution of Yulia Navalnaya
- 6 Compliments That Land Every Time
- What's the Deal With the Bitcoin Halving?
- If You're Dating Right Now , You're Brave: Column
- The AI That Could Heal a Divided Internet
- Fallout Is a Brilliant Model for the Future of Video Game Adaptations
- Want Weekly Recs on What to Watch, Read, and More? Sign Up for Worth Your Time
Contact us at letters@time.com