Elsa

What did Cinderella eat?

Whether we know it or not - and apparently we do not - the Disney Princess swallowed up our daughters.

Is it true, even a little bit, that parents should do our best to rescue our daughters from the inexplicable obsession with Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Ariel, Belle, Snow White (and many more)? Are girls destined to go gaga over the Disney princess? I've been reading Peggy Orenstein's Cinderella Ate My Daughter to find out more. Orenstein saw no reason for the royalty of girls (and hers) to the submissive, low-achieving and pink femininity, earnestly waiting for the prince to rescue, protect and take care of them.

She had a point. Many of us have a hard time when a preschooler answers "Princess" when being asked what she wants to be when she grows up.

What about the latest Disney princess movie Frozen? I know most of you will ask by now.

Unless you haven't met any little girl over the last six months, you must have heard about this popular movie with two Oscar nominations. Girls are simply drawn into the gravitational pull of the story about Queen-to-be Elsa and her sister Anna, and never quite get back out. My four-year-old, enamored of the fictional snow kingdom and icy power, told me her favorite color is blue now (and not pink any more). I swear, my daughter has sung the hit song "Let It Go" for three hundred times.

To those of us who are somehow uneasy with the traditional plot of charming prince saving a princess, Frozen departs from the kissy-kissy formula and broadens the message to include another type of true love - the bona fide sisterly love. In many ways, the blueprint of this Disney movie is a breakthrough. The prince remains charming, and yet he turns out to be the bad guy. Exactly the opposite of the case in Beauty and the Beast.

Written on purpose or not, as this Disney movie has shown, the big step away from the romantic fantasy is the way to go. Let us go.