What's wrong with being a princess?

What's wrong with being a princess? If you're opposed to monarchies, I imagine you could come up with quite a lot... or if you're a feminist mother trying to teach her daughter that there's no need to rely on Prince Charming or pink merchandise, like this particular writer for the NY Times who examines the "trend" of princesses. Here's a mother wondering if, "to mangle Freud, maybe a princess is sometimes just a princess. And, as my daughter wants to know, what’s wrong with that?"

Here's my issue with Disney princesses. Why do they never have mothers? Why is it always an indulgent father and no mother in sight? The first Disney princess, Princess Aurora (Sleeping Beauty), has a mother, but we dismiss her to the shadows. After that, it's apparently easier to simply do away with her than explain why she's not featured anywhere. Ariel's mother is nowhere to be found and she doesn't seem to have any acceptable feminist role models in her six older sisters. The stories of Cinderella and Snow White feature dead mothers and the introduction of an evil step-mother. No word on Jasmine's mom and ditto for Belle -- we assume death. Then we move on to the heroines who aren't princesses (and, let's also note, not Aryan white girls). Pocahontas's father is the chief of the tribe and Mulan's is a respected, older warrior. Pocahontas appears to have no mother, but Mulan has a mother AND a grandmother (though the majority of consideration is given to her relationship with her father). I will note that both of these heroines don't really lend themselves to pink and fluffy skirts -- Pocahontas has her buckskin and while Mulan does dress in a traditional kimono and make-up during the movie, it is proved to not be reflective of her true self (after all, she goes to the army and brings back a man). Every single one places more importance on the young woman's relationship with her father.
Why don't we see a single Disney heroine have a good relationship with a living mother? (Also, I'm not picky... I'd settle for an aunt or a grandmother if we just can't tear ourselves away from the mold.) Would a strong mother be averse to the coddling that the single fathers seem to bestow? Is the dead mother thing a ploy to make them grow up faster so they can appear to handle themselves (and their father) before they get whisked away by Prince Charming? Or is it that mothers are the ones who have the most issue with this whole princess thing because they're worried that it isn't empowering enough? If there's no mom, there's no one to second guess the pink and the tiaras that the fathers would like to idealize them in.

Anyway, that's my rant. If anyone's still hunting for a gift for their little princess this year, perhaps I could recommend Frances Hodgson Burnett and Sara Crewe over Disney dollars.

"It's true," she said. "Sometimes I do pretend I am a princess. I pretend I am a princess, so that I can try and behave like one."