Return to Video

Tropes vs. Women: #3 The Smurfette Principle

  • 0:27 - 0:30
    What do Inception, the Transformers,
  • 0:30 - 0:31
    and the Muppets all have in common?
  • 0:32 - 0:34
    They all suffer from a trope called
  • 0:34 - 0:35
    the Smurfette Principle.
  • 0:35 - 0:37
    As defined by TVTropes:
  • 0:54 - 0:56
    In 1991 Katha Pollitt, a feminist essayist
  • 0:56 - 0:58
    wrote an article for the NY Times
  • 0:58 - 1:00
    because she was disturbed by the lack of
  • 1:00 - 1:02
    substantive female characters
  • 1:02 - 1:03
    for her young daughter to watch.
  • 1:03 - 1:04
    She found that most of the programming
  • 1:04 - 1:06
    aimed at young people
  • 1:06 - 1:08
    had a majority of male characters,
  • 1:08 - 1:11
    with just one female included in the group,
  • 1:11 - 1:12
    she called this The Smurfette Principle.
  • 1:13 - 1:15
    You’ve probably guessed by now
  • 1:15 - 1:16
    that this trope was named after
  • 1:16 - 1:18
    the only female smurf in all of Smurfville.
  • 1:18 - 1:20
    Once upon a time,
  • 1:20 - 1:21
    the Smurfs were an harmonious
  • 1:21 - 1:24
    all-dude miniature civilization comprised entirely
  • 1:24 - 1:27
    of kind good natured little blue dudes
  • 1:27 - 1:30
    living out their cooperative-dude existence
  • 1:30 - 1:33
    somewhere deep in their dude forest utopia.
  • 1:33 - 1:35
    We’ve got Lazy, Grouchy, Jokey,
  • 1:35 - 1:38
    Brainy, Baby, and Papa Smurf
  • 1:38 - 1:39
    and all their Smurf buddies
  • 1:39 - 1:41
    living out their smurfy existence
  • 1:41 - 1:44
    free from any of those meddling, divisive,
  • 1:44 - 1:46
    controlling, manipulative, mean women folk.
  • 1:46 - 1:48
    But one day the evil wizard Gargamel
  • 1:48 - 1:51
    decided on a devilish plan to sabotage smurfdom.
  • 1:51 - 1:53
    And how will he do that?
  • 1:53 - 1:57
    yes that’s right, by creating a female smurf!
  • 1:57 - 2:01
    “That’s it, I’ll get them through their hearts,”
  • 2:01 - 2:04
    “I will send them a Smurfette!”
  • 2:04 - 2:06
    So Gargamel sent in Smurfette
  • 2:06 - 2:07
    to cause divisions between
  • 2:07 - 2:09
    the lovable blue creatures so he can capture
  • 2:09 - 2:11
    and eat their tender blue flesh
  • 2:11 - 2:13
    in a nice honey lemon sauce.
  • 2:13 - 2:15
    Long story short,
  • 2:15 - 2:16
    love and understanding won out
  • 2:16 - 2:18
    when Papa Smurf worked some smurf magic and
  • 2:18 - 2:20
    transformed Gargamel’s impostor
  • 2:20 - 2:23
    into a real live smurf girl,
  • 2:23 - 2:26
    “sexy” blond hair, high heels and all!
  • 2:27 - 2:28
    Down in the 100 acre woods,
  • 2:28 - 2:30
    we follow the adventures of
  • 2:30 - 2:32
    Winnie the Pooh, Rabbit, Piglet, Eeyore, Owl
  • 2:32 - 2:35
    and Tigger – all dudes of course…
  • 2:35 - 2:37
    in fact there’s only one female character,
  • 2:37 - 2:40
    Kanga, who shows up occasionally
  • 2:40 - 2:42
    as the mother of little roo.
  • 2:42 - 2:44
    Even Jim Henson didn’t seem too keen on the women,
  • 2:44 - 2:47
    along side Kermit, Gonzo, and Fozzie the Bear,
  • 2:47 - 2:49
    Miss Piggy was the only female muppet.
  • 2:50 - 2:52
    We can even see the Smurfette Principle
  • 2:52 - 2:54
    outside of programming aimed at young people.
  • 2:54 - 2:57
    So for example you have George Lucas’
  • 2:57 - 2:58
    original Star Wars trilogy where
  • 2:58 - 3:01
    Princess Leia is the only principle female character
  • 3:01 - 3:03
    in the entire galactic empire.
  • 3:04 - 3:06
    If you’re like me then you are probably thinking
  • 3:06 - 3:08
    there’s got to be something wrong, I mean,
  • 3:08 - 3:10
    Star Trek has had a female captain,
  • 3:10 - 3:12
    Buffy has saved the world from a demon apocalypse
  • 3:12 - 3:14
    at least half dozen times,
  • 3:14 - 3:17
    this trope has gotta be a thing of the past right?
  • 3:17 - 3:21
    Ellen Page gets Smurfette’d in Inception as her character
  • 3:21 - 3:23
    is the only female dream team member.
  • 3:23 - 3:25
    Big Bang Theory has a primary main cast of brainy
  • 3:25 - 3:28
    men plus the smurfette that lives across the hall.
  • 3:28 - 3:30
    While there’ve been a small handful
  • 3:30 - 3:32
    of female autobots in the Transformers universe,
  • 3:32 - 3:34
    Arcee is the only regularly reoccurring
  • 3:34 - 3:37
    female cast member and she only appeared in
  • 3:37 - 3:39
    8 episodes out of the original series.
  • 3:39 - 3:41
    She was set to appear in the 1st Transformers
  • 3:41 - 3:43
    live action film but she was dropped and
  • 3:43 - 3:45
    replaced with Ironhide.
  • 3:45 - 3:47
    She did however appear in the second film
  • 3:47 - 3:49
    Revenge of the Fallen
  • 3:49 - 3:51
    which also happens to be one of the most sexist
  • 3:51 - 3:54
    and racist films I’ve ever seen.
  • 3:55 - 3:58
    This version of Arcee is either a hivemind
  • 3:58 - 4:00
    with 3 different motorcycle components
  • 4:00 - 4:02
    or the other two bikes are her sisters,
  • 4:02 - 4:04
    it’s not exactly clear.
  • 4:07 - 4:09
    But it doesn’t really matter anyway
  • 4:09 - 4:11
    because they all get blown up at the end.
  • 4:12 - 4:14
    Plus they only appear on screen
  • 4:14 - 4:17
    for a grand total of exactly…
  • 4:17 - 4:20
    “Follow us to the pillars — AHHH!”
  • 4:22 - 4:24
    39 seconds.
  • 4:24 - 4:26
    Even in most seasons of Jon Stewart’s
  • 4:26 - 4:27
    the Daily Show there has been
  • 4:27 - 4:30
    only one female correspondent at a time.
  • 4:30 - 4:31
    The Smurfette principle is especially
  • 4:31 - 4:33
    important to remember now because
  • 4:33 - 4:36
    Hollywood is currently trying to remake everything
  • 4:36 - 4:38
    and anything that we even vaguely remember
  • 4:38 - 4:40
    from the 80′s and 90′s in an attempt
  • 4:40 - 4:43
    to cash in on our collective nostalgia,
  • 4:43 - 4:45
    you know, instead of maybe taking a risk
  • 4:45 - 4:47
    on things that are new and exciting.
  • 4:47 - 4:49
    We even have a live action Smurfs movie coming out.
  • 4:52 - 4:55
    We’ve had 2 big blockbuster movies based on
  • 4:55 - 4:57
    the Transformers, and sadly
  • 4:57 - 4:59
    there’s another one on its way.
  • 4:59 - 5:01
    The 2009 Star Trek reboot by JJ Abrams
  • 5:01 - 5:04
    had Uhura as the only female character
  • 5:04 - 5:05
    in the main bridge crew.
  • 5:05 - 5:07
    And just like Star Trek we can be sure
  • 5:07 - 5:09
    that hollywood is not going to try to bring
  • 5:09 - 5:11
    gender equality into these reboots
  • 5:11 - 5:13
    but rather just stick with their Smurfettes.
  • 5:13 - 5:15
    The problem with narratives infused with
  • 5:15 - 5:17
    the Smurfette Principle is not only the lack of women
  • 5:17 - 5:19
    but as Katha Pollitt points out in her NY Times article:
  • 5:26 - 5:28
    Basically this means that men are the default
  • 5:28 - 5:31
    and women get to be sidekicks or sexy decorations.
  • 5:32 - 5:35
    Even when there’s only one female primary cast member,
  • 5:35 - 5:37
    as videoblogger Nostalgia Chick points out in her
  • 5:37 - 5:39
    Smurfette Principle video, they are usually just
  • 5:39 - 5:42
    “sexy” female duplicates of their male counterparts.
  • 5:42 - 5:44
    “Disney was the one that kinda really started”
  • 5:44 - 5:46
    “this interest in the whole default and”
  • 5:46 - 5:48
    “deviation from default complex,”
  • 5:48 - 5:50
    “basically this idea that men seem to want”
  • 5:50 - 5:52
    “a vagina’d version of themselves.”
  • 5:52 - 5:53
    That’s an excellent point,
  • 5:53 - 5:54
    thank you Nostalgia Chick.
  • 5:54 - 5:57
    The Smurfette Principle is an alternative name for
  • 5:57 - 5:59
    Tokenism or the Token Minority which is
  • 5:59 - 6:01
    the inclusion of one cast member
  • 6:01 - 6:02
    from a marginalized group in an otherwise,
  • 6:02 - 6:06
    white, straight male ensemble.
  • 6:06 - 6:08
    We see this most often when writers include
  • 6:08 - 6:10
    one person of colour and that character
  • 6:10 - 6:12
    is usually painfully stereotyped.
  • 6:12 - 6:15
    This is a little trick used by movie studios to pretend
  • 6:15 - 6:19
    to appear “multicultural” and “diverse” when really
  • 6:19 - 6:21
    they’re just upholding the status quo
  • 6:21 - 6:23
    and not changing anything substantially.
  • 6:23 - 6:25
    So here’s a tip for all you Hollywood writers
  • 6:25 - 6:27
    out there, it is in fact possible to have
  • 6:27 - 6:29
    more than one woman in your script.
  • 6:29 - 6:31
    Really, I swear it is.
  • 6:31 - 6:34
    You could even have 2 or 3 women or even
  • 6:34 - 6:37
    the majority of your cast be women.
  • 6:37 - 6:39
    Here’s a simple test you can ask yourself
  • 6:39 - 6:41
    when you’re writing your scripts:
  • 6:41 - 6:44
    “Does my movie have more than one woman on the primary cast?”
  • 6:45 - 6:47
    That’s it, that’s the whole test.
  • 6:48 - 6:50
    If you answered “NO” then you need to
  • 6:50 - 6:52
    go back to the drawing board.
  • 6:52 - 6:53
    If you answered “YES” then we can proceed to
  • 6:53 - 6:55
    the Bechdel Test.
  • 6:55 - 6:57
    Once you’ve got two female characters
  • 6:57 - 6:59
    who are talking to each other about things other then men,
  • 6:59 - 7:03
    then we can talk about fully developed female characters.
  • 7:03 - 7:07
    [Song] “la, la, la, la, sing a happy song,”
  • 7:07 -
    [Song] “la, la, la, la, smurf the whole day long”
Title:
Tropes vs. Women: #3 The Smurfette Principle
Description:

The Smurfette Principle was named two decades ago by Katha Pollitt, when she noticed that there were a disproportionate amount of male characters in programming aimed at young people. Even in adult programming, when women do appear in the primary cast of a television show or movie, they are usually alone in a group of men. Sadly, this trope has made its way into the 21st century.
more » « less
Video Language:
English
Team:
Feminist Frequency
Duration:
07:10

English, British subtitles

Revisions Compare revisions

Our website uses cookies for analysis purposes.