Return to Video

Tropes vs. Women: #3 The Smurfette Principle

  • 0:02 - 0:06
    Feminist Frequency and bitch media
  • 0:06 - 0:09
    Tropes vs. Women
  • 0:09 - 0:12
    A trope is a common pattern in a story
  • 0:12 - 0:14
    or a recognizable attribute in a character
  • 0:14 - 0:17
    that conveys information to the audience.
  • 0:17 - 0:20
    A trope becomes a cliche when it's overused.
  • 0:20 - 0:24
    Sadly, some of these tropes often perpetuate offensive stereotypes.
  • 0:24 - 0:27
    #3 Smurfette Principle
  • 0:28 - 0:29
    What do Inception, the Transformers,
  • 0:29 - 0:32
    and the Muppets all have in common?
  • 0:32 - 0:33
    They all suffer from a trope called
  • 0:33 - 0:35
    the Smurfette Principle.
  • 0:35 - 0:37
    As defined by TVTropes:
  • 0:37 - 0:39
    "The Smurfette Principle is the tendency for works of fiction"
  • 0:39 - 0:41
    "to have only exactly one female amongst an"
  • 0:41 - 0:44
    "ensemble of male characters, in spite of the fact that"
  • 0:44 - 0:46
    "roughly half of the human race is female."
  • 0:46 - 0:50
    "Unless a show is purposefully aimed at a female viewing audience,"
  • 0:50 - 0:53
    "the main characters will tend to be disproportionately male." - TV Tropes
  • 0:53 - 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 - 1:01
    substantive female characters
  • 1:01 - 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 - 1:10
    with just one female included in the group,
  • 1:10 - 1:12
    she called this The Smurfette Principle.
  • 1:13 - 1:14
    You’ve probably guessed by now
  • 1:14 - 1:15
    that this trope was named after
  • 1:15 - 1:18
    the only female smurf in all of Smurfville.
  • 1:18 - 1:19
    Once upon a time,
  • 1:19 - 1:21
    the Smurfs were an harmonious
  • 1:21 - 1:24
    all-dude miniature civilization comprised entirely
  • 1:24 - 1:26
    of kind good natured little blue dudes
  • 1:26 - 1:29
    living out their cooperative-dude existence
  • 1:29 - 1:32
    somewhere deep in their dude forest utopia.
  • 1:32 - 1:34
    We’ve got Lazy, Grouchy, Jokey,
  • 1:34 - 1:37
    Brainy, Baby, and Papa Smurf
  • 1:37 - 1:39
    and all their Smurf buddies
  • 1:39 - 1:41
    living out their smurfy existence
  • 1:41 - 1:43
    free from any of those meddling, divisive,
  • 1:43 - 1:45
    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 - 1:56
    yes that’s right, by creating a female smurf!
  • 1:56 - 2:00
    “That’s it, I’ll get them through their hearts,”
  • 2:00 - 2:03
    “I will send them a Smurfette!”
  • 2:03 - 2:05
    So Gargamel sent in Smurfette
  • 2:05 - 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 - 2:14
    Long story short,
  • 2:14 - 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 - 2:22
    into a real live smurf girl,
  • 2:22 - 2:25
    “sexy” blond hair, high heels and all!
  • 2:26 - 2:27
    Down in the 100 acre woods,
  • 2:27 - 2:29
    we follow the adventures of
  • 2:29 - 2:32
    Winnie the Pooh, Rabbit, Piglet, Eeyore, Owl
  • 2:32 - 2:34
    and Tigger – all dudes of course…
  • 2:35 - 2:37
    in fact there’s only one female character,
  • 2:37 - 2:39
    Kanga, who shows up occasionally
  • 2:39 - 2:41
    as the mother of little roo.
  • 2:41 - 2:43
    Even Jim Henson didn’t seem too keen on the women,
  • 2:43 - 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 - 2:56
    So for example you have George Lucas’
  • 2:56 - 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.
  • 3:03 - 3:05
    If you’re like me then you are probably thinking
  • 3:05 - 3:07
    there’s got to be something wrong, I mean,
  • 3:07 - 3:09
    Star Trek has had a female captain,
  • 3:09 - 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 - 3:20
    Ellen Page gets Smurfette’d in Inception as her character
  • 3:20 - 3:22
    is the only female dream team member.
  • 3:22 - 3:25
    Big Bang Theory has a primary main cast of brainy
  • 3:25 - 3:27
    men plus the smurfette that lives across the hall.
  • 3:27 - 3:29
    While there’ve been a small handful
  • 3:29 - 3:32
    of female autobots in the Transformers universe,
  • 3:32 - 3:34
    Arcee is the only regularly reoccurring
  • 3:34 - 3:36
    female cast member and she only appeared in
  • 3:36 - 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 - 3:53
    and racist films I’ve ever seen.
  • 3:55 - 3:57
    This version of Arcee is either a hivemind
  • 3:57 - 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 - 4:16
    for a grand total of exactly…
  • 4:17 - 4:20
    “Follow us to the pillars — AHHH!”
  • 4:22 - 4:24
    39 seconds.
  • 4:24 - 4:25
    Even in most seasons of Jon Stewart’s
  • 4:25 - 4:27
    the Daily Show there has been
  • 4:27 - 4:29
    only one female correspondent at a time.
  • 4:29 - 4:31
    The Smurfette principle is especially
  • 4:31 - 4:32
    important to remember now because
  • 4:32 - 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 - 4:42
    to cash in on our collective nostalgia,
  • 4:42 - 4:44
    you know, instead of maybe taking a risk
  • 4:44 - 4:46
    on things that are new and exciting.
  • 4:46 - 4:49
    We even have a live action Smurfs movie coming out.
  • 4:52 - 4:54
    We’ve had 2 big blockbuster movies based on
  • 4:54 - 4:56
    the Transformers, and sadly
  • 4:56 - 4:58
    there’s another one on its way.
  • 4:58 - 5:01
    The 2009 Star Trek reboot by JJ Abrams
  • 5:01 - 5:03
    had Uhura as the only female character
  • 5:03 - 5:05
    in the main bridge crew.
  • 5:05 - 5:07
    And just like Star Trek we can be sure
  • 5:07 - 5:08
    that hollywood is not going to try to bring
  • 5:08 - 5:10
    gender equality into these reboots
  • 5:10 - 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:
  • 5:20 - 5:21
    "Boys define the group,"
  • 5:21 - 5:23
    "its story and its code of values."
  • 5:23 - 5:26
    "Girls exist only in relation to boys." - Katha Pollitt
  • 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 - 5:47
    “deviation from default complex,”
  • 5:47 - 5:49
    “basically this idea that men seem to want”
  • 5:49 - 5:51
    “a vagina’d version of themselves.”
  • 5:51 - 5:53
    That’s an excellent point,
  • 5:53 - 5:54
    thank you Nostalgia Chick.
  • 5:54 - 5:56
    The Smurfette Principle is an alternative name for
  • 5:56 - 5:59
    Tokenism or the Token Minority which is
  • 5:59 - 6:01
    the inclusion of one cast member
  • 6:01 - 6:03
    from a marginalized group in an otherwise,
  • 6:03 - 6:06
    white, straight male ensemble.
  • 6:06 - 6:07
    We see this most often when writers include
  • 6:07 - 6:09
    one person of colour and that character
  • 6:09 - 6:12
    is usually painfully stereotyped.
  • 6:12 - 6:15
    This is a little trick used by movie studios to pretend
  • 6:15 - 6:18
    to appear “multicultural” and “diverse” when really
  • 6:18 - 6:20
    they’re just upholding the status quo
  • 6:20 - 6:22
    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 - 6:40
    when you’re writing your scripts:
  • 6:40 - 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 - 6:51
    go back to the drawing board.
  • 6:51 - 6:54
    If you answered “YES” then we can proceed to
  • 6:54 - 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 - 7:02
    then we can talk about fully developed female characters.
  • 7:03 - 7:06
    [Song] “la, la, la, la, sing a happy song,”
  • 7:06 - 5999:59
    [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 subtitles

Revisions Compare revisions

Our website uses cookies for analysis purposes.