Animated adventures of female warrior designed to influence attitudes to women in combat, says Donald Trump’s running mate in US presidential election

Mulan, Disney’s 1998 animation about a Han Dynasty-era woman who disguises herself as a man in order to battling an invading army, was “mischievous liberal” propaganda designed to influence “the next generation’s attitudes about women in combat,” according to an op-ed written by Donald Trump’s running mate Mike Pence.

Pence’s piece, written in 1999 and re-discovered by Buzzfeed, attacked the cartoon for suggesting that a woman could fight alongside men, before saying the animation’s romantic subplot proved that straight men and women were unable to serve beside each other without sex becoming an issue.

He wrote: “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. They likely added it because it added realism with which the viewer could identify with the characters.

“You see, now stay with me on this, many young men find many young women to be attractive sexually. Many young women find many young men to be attractive sexually. Put them together, in close quarters, for long periods of time, and things will get interesting. Just like they eventually did for young Mulan. Moral of story: women in military, bad idea.”

Pence’s piece, which questioned the plausibility of the film, didn’t make reference to Hua Mulan, the female warrior on which the Mulan story is based. That legend, about a women skilled in martial arts, is said to be based on the Shang dynasty military strategist Fu Hao.

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“Despite her delicate features and voice,” wrote Pence, “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.”

Women were barred from serving in frontline combat roles in the US military until 2013. In December 2015, the US defence secretary Ash Carter announced that combat roles would be open to all genders.

Trump’s views on women serving on the frontline have flip-flopped. In August 2015, he said that women should be allowed to enter combat “because they’re really into it”, citing mixed martial artist Rhonda Rousey as someone who would be as capable a fighter as her male colleagues. Previously Trump had tweeted that an integrated military was a politically correct idea suggested by “dumb politicians”.

He wrote: “26,000 unreported sexual assults [sic] in the military – only 238 convictions. What did these geniuses expect when they put men & women together?”

