Tonight, I had the pleasure of joining my mom and my daughter for a girls’ night out at a performance of “Disney on Ice”.  Seems appropriate that we went to watch an event that took place in an ice rink, since we’ve spent much of the last month hibernating inside due to all the snow and ice on the ground.  It was a great show; Disney rarely disappoints.

As I sat watching the skaters, I began to think about the title of the show, “Princesses and Heroes”; I’ll admit that it got on my nerves a little bit.  I noticed that none of the princesses featured in the show were also heroes; instead, they waited for a prince to come and save them (although, I’m not familiar enough with Princess Tiana’s storyline to know if her happy ending depends on the intervention of a prince; sadly, the newest princesses, Anna and Elsa, were not included in this show).  This is not a new observation, by any means, but it was in full force as so many children watched, mesmerized by the movement on the ice. 

I’m not saying that the Disney princess stories are bad, or that little girls shouldn’t watch them, but I would like to see more princesses taking care of themselves.  C’mon, Disney, let’s see more strong, independent female heroines!  It seems as though most of the female characters who are independent are also villains.  (Oh, and I was totally rooting for Maleficent’s dragon tonight, even though I knew how the story ends.) “Frozen” was great, because it does feature two strong women who are able to fend for themselves; so, there are two of these strong role models, out of a cast of at least six princesses (I could be missing one).  It’s better than nothing, sure, but I’ll still hope to see more in the future.

Aside from the time I spent watching the show from my perch on my soap box, we had a great time.  I was pleasantly surprised to find that the parking garage was $10 less for this event than it was for the hockey game we attended a few weeks ago.  And, when we left, I fully expected to sit in the car for an hour (like we did last year after DoI), waiting to exit the parking garage; but, we were able to pull right out of our spot and sit for less than five minutes to get out.  If nothing else, that was worth the cost of the show right there, ha!

But, most importantly, I got to spend an evening with two of my very favorite people.  Soap box or not, I wouldn’t have traded that for anything.  

**A friend brought to my attention that Merida, from Brave, was an independent character.  I’ll admit, I totally forgot about her, as well as a couple of other princesses (who may or not fit into this; I can’t remember their stories).  So, I’ll bump my count to three strong role models, out of nine.  JFK