For some reason, I went on a small Michelle Trachtenberg kick and picked up (among other things) Ice Princess from Netflix. It’s a cute little Disney film that even includes Hayden Panettiere before she was on Heroes.
In the film, Michelle plays a nerdy high school senior who is working on a special physics project in order to get a scholarship. She decides to study ice skating, but then gets sucked into skating herself and eventually decides that skating is her true passion.
I’m sure that the moral of the story is supposed to be “find your passion” and “follow your heart” and that sort of thing. However, what I actually saw was that being a physics nerd isn’t cool and that girls should go into skating because that’s more feminine and appropriate. ACK!
Amusingly enough, Hayden’s character eventually quits skating because she wants to do better in school. Yet for some reason, she’s portrayed as the “villain”?
This is exactly the wrong message that Disney should be sending to the young girls that will watch this movie. Disney should focus on building strong women that can excel in all sorts of areas, including physics. No wonder there aren’t enough women in math and science!
I haven’t seen many girl-oriented Disney movies that came out after Ice Princess in 2005, so perhaps they have gotten better? My guess is no. Physics doesn’t sell to the under-12 set, while ice skating does. *sigh*
Filed under: entertainment | Tagged: girls, Hayden Panettiere, Ice Princess, ice skating, Michelle Trachtenberg, physics
Hey, i have too seen the ice princess and i see totally were ur opinion is coming from and agree, at the time i didnt realise but the movie does do wat u said in ur blog.