--- title: Mike Pence: 'Mulan' Shows Why Women Shouldn't be in the Army description: Before Indiana Governor Mike Pence was Donald Trump’s running mate, he was a talk radio show host—with strong opinions about Disney films. canonical: https://time.com/4412435/mike-pence-mulan-military/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-07-19T13:49:29.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T09:02:57.762Z og:title: Mike Pence: 'Mulan' an Example of Why Women Shouldn't Serve in the Military og:description: 'Moral of story: Women in military, bad idea' og:url: https://time.com/4412435/mike-pence-mulan-military/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2544096f0487508f/698785f0e53aba46c34d8578/497243_full.jpg?branch=production&width=1440&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: MULAN-1998 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Mike Pence: 'Mulan' an Example of Why Women Shouldn't Serve in the Military twitter:description: 'Moral of story: Women in military, bad idea' twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2544096f0487508f/698785f0e53aba46c34d8578/497243_full.jpg?branch=production&width=1440&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Mike Pence Uses _Mulan_ as an Example of Why Women Shouldn't Serve in the Military by [Kristen Bellstrom / Fortune](https://time.com/author/fortune/) ## Kristen Bellstrom / Fortune Jul 19, 2016 1:49 PM UTC  MULAN, 1998 MULAN, 1998Buena Vista Pictures by [Kristen Bellstrom / Fortune](https://time.com/author/fortune/) ## Kristen Bellstrom / Fortune Jul 19, 2016 1:49 PM UTC Before Indiana Governor Mike Pence was Donald Trump’s running mate, he was a talk radio show host—with strong opinions about [Disney](http://fortune.com/fortune500/disney-53/) 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_](https://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynski/mister-ill-make-a-man-out-of-you?utm%5Fterm=.yv1jmoZgw#.jkVkvxmKj). “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 ](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2016/03/24/indiana-just-banned-abortion-if-the-fetus-has-down-syndrome/?utm%5Fterm=.a0c0d633503e)that would ban abortion even in cases of fetal abnormality, and he has long been a proponent of [defunding Planned Parenthood.](http://www.vox.com/2016/7/14/12189446/mike-pence-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](http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2016/07/10/hillary-clinton-women-voters/86793244/) with female voters. Read the [full text](https://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynski/mister-ill-make-a-man-out-of-you?utm%5Fterm=.yv1jmoZgw#.jkVkvxmKj) of Pence’s op-ed in _Buzzfeed_. _This_ [_article_](http://fortune.com/2016/07/18/mike-pence-mulan-women-military/) _originally appeared on_ [_Fortune.com_](http://www.fortune.com) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4412435/mike-pence-mulan-military/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4412435/mike-pence-mulan-military/"},"headline":"Mike Pence Uses Mulan as an Example of Why Women Shouldn't Serve in the Military","datePublished":"2016-07-19T13:49:29.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T09:02:57.762Z","description":"'Moral of story: Women in military, bad idea'","url":"https://time.com/4412435/mike-pence-mulan-military/","keywords":["motto"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2544096f0487508f/698785f0e53aba46c34d8578/497243_full.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Kristen Bellstrom / Fortune"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2544096f0487508f/698785f0e53aba46c34d8578/497243_full.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"MULAN-1998","caption":"MULAN-1998","creditText":"Buena Vista Pictures","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/motto/","name":"motto"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4412435/mike-pence-mulan-military/","name":"Mike Pence Uses Mulan as an Example of Why Women Shouldn't Serve in the Military"}}]}] ```