The Smurfette Principle/Analysis

Smurfette Principle for Animals (a.k.a. Most Animal Characters Are Male)
A natural consequence of the way that The Chick and other female-specific trope characterizations are presumed to be gender-specific, sometimes an author will write their animal-based characters as if most animals were male even though the vast majority of species are actually predominantly female. Humans and other primates are mostly balanced between male and female, but species such as ants and eusocial bees and wasps, are virtually all female. Nevermind that many species such as the brahminy blind snake and some whiptail lizards are all-female. Indeed, (when birds and mammals are excluded) being either completely female or hermaphroditic is the norm for living things on Earth. In real-world life forms pretty much everything less "evolved" than a duck is either considered "female" based on the reproductive zygote they produce, is a hermaphrodite, or doesn't even have an intersex status because they use a method of reproduction that doesn't include zygotes at all.

In fiction in general there may be far fewer female characters than male ones, but this trope is about the related-but-different issue of overwhelming prevalence of male animal characters and glaring shortage of female animal characters. The gender imbalance for human characters in children's books came close to disappearing by The Nineties, but the significant gender disparity remains for animal characters in the same genres. This trope is egregious when species in which the characters are scientifically supposed to be overwhelmingly female (or lack males entirely) are portrayed as predominantly male. This trope is related to the issue of gender-based character tropes such as The Chick, Love Interest, or Distressed Damsel, and the especially glaring shortage of animal protagonists who are female.

In the case of animal characters this trope arises from the way that humans perceive animals. On one hand humans do not see the secondary characteristics that are used for gender identification when they look at an animal. Additionally, English (unlike other languages) does not weight most nouns with an inherent gender. While a European might use different words for male or female horses and know that a female and male of a species are not the same word, an urban English speaker may not know they're talking about a male vs. a female instead of just using synonyms. When dealing with a species with sexes that are extremely different in appearance, an English speaker may even think that they're talking about two different species. English-speakers don't usually fuss with specific terms unless the speaker handles the animal regularly or is looking for a synonym. Also, most animators and writers were male early on and even in modern times.

This trope undoubtedly feeds back into causing a plethora of other tropes, as well. Insect Gender Bender, Animal Gender Bender in general, Viewer Gender Confusion when regarding animal characters, more tertiary and even Secondary Sexual Characteristics on a female than a male, and the male dog part of Female Feline Male Mutt. It even inspired the redirect for the latter trope, All Dogs Are Male. A common subversion is Your Tomcat Is Pregnant, which is based on a frequent real-world result of the same phenomena that cause this trope.

Since this is such an Omnipresent Trope, please list only subversions, extreme examples, lampshades, discussions, parodies, inversions, and aversions. A gender-equal cast of animals would count as an aversion, as does one or more female main protagonists. If there are more female animals than male ones the cast of animal characters, then it is an inversion.

Sub Trope of Men Are Generic Women Are Special. Results from Most Writers Are Male and causes Viewer Gender Confusion. See also Female Feline Male Mutt, Wouldn't Hit a Girl. See Animal Gender Bender and its Sub Trope, Insect Gender Bender.

Causes for This Trope:
In the case of animal characters this trope arises from the way that humans perceive animals. On one hand humans do not see the secondary characteristics that are used for gender identification when they look at an animal. A cat or dog doesn't have wide vs. narrow hips, wide vs. narrow shoulders, fatty mammary glands, nor applied traits such as hair length. This is what also leads to the Humanoid Female Animal trope when portraying Civilized Animal, Funny Animal, and Petting Zoo People characters.

Additionally, English (unlike other languages) does not weight most nouns with an inherent gender. While a European might use different words for male or female horses and know that a colt and a foal or filly are not the same thing, an urban English speaker may not know they're talking about a male vs. a female instead of just using synonyms. When dealing with a species with sexes that are extremely different in appearance, an English speaker may even think that they're talking about two different species. English-speakers don't usually fuss with specific terms unless the speaker handles the animal regularly or is looking for a synonym, so terms like horse, colt, foal, filly, stallion, mare, and stud wind up losing their highly specific meanings when turned to common use (note that the terms used in this example are a direct analog to the English terms human, boy, baby or girl, girl or maid, man, woman, and male prostitute, and were useful to horse-breeders who needed to know if they were purchasing an animal that was too young to do work, could be worked, or even could no longer be ridden for speed because the animal's body had changed due to being used for breeding). This has slowly led to English becoming a neuter language in which male pronouns are used generically, furthering the cycle of so-called "Chickification." Both of these issues cause the Insect Gender Bender phenomenon, especially for ants, bees, wasps, and mosquitoes, who have larval and pupal stages but don't even have the gender trait approximations found in mammals.

Although there are examples of this going back much further than modern works (a Victorian example could be The Wind in The Willows, which lacks female animal characters entirely) this issue has another unique technical basis that may have also been at play. Animals don't talk, so animal-based characters were usually animated in visual media in the modern United States. Early on most animators and writers were male and before Retta Scott, Disney's first woman animator, came, all of Disney's animators were male. Things are different these days but inertia has kept male animators in the majority (at least for another few years).

In older animated cartoons and TV shows much of the early innovators were artists rather than authors, so the plotlines were sometimes secondary to an artist finding a way to get paid for their visual work. As a result many cartoons were written as comedies, and the easiest way to make a popular comedy at the time was to use gratuitous slapstick. Since there was a Double Standard against hitting a female character this often meant that the characters "just couldn't be" girls unless they were macguffins for the male counterparts to pursue or fight over.

How Female Animal Characters are Portrayed and How and Why They are Underrepresented in Media
One reason for the shortage of female animal characters was a Double Standard in Golden Age animation against hitting a female character. Because of this Double Standard, this often meant that the characters "just couldn't be" girls. Because of this, the first few Golden Age female animal characters were usually introduced as macguffins for the male counterparts to pursue or fight over or Distressed Damsels to saved by them (i.e., Minnie Mouse and Daisy Duck).

Even these days, its far more common for female animal characters to be portrayed as either The Chick, the Love Interest, or the Faux Action Girl as opposed to as the main protagonist or a protagonist on equal footing with a male protagonist. More recently, more Action Girl and other strong female animal characters have cropped up, but they still usually played second fiddle to a male protagonist.

Female animal characters are also far more likely to be sexualized than male animal characters.

Comics

 * In the not-a-sequelto-Bloom County-series, Outland. In the strip, a woman asked why all the well-known animal characters in comics and animation are all male; any female animal characters were just The Girlfriend. Opus announced that the strip was just about to hire the first major female animal character star to join the main cast, Hazel the Hedgehog. In a brilliant sequence that ran for weeks, she lampshaded why most animal characters are male. (Are we asking girls to identify with a "little pig-rodent"? Can she participate in a slapstick pie fight if depicting violence against females is taboo? Is she still her own distinct character if we have to Put a Bow On Her Head?)

Film

 * This trope is what caused so many viewers to say (if they ever figured it out), "What?! Terk is a girl?!" Same case with Sabor the leopard.
 * Kanga is the only female character in the 2011 Winnie the Pooh, as she was in the original Winnie the Pooh books.
 * Mrs Fox is the only female animal character in the Fantastic Mr. Fox cast.
 * Cleo the goldfish is the only female animal character in Pinocchio

Literature

 * The only female animal in the original Winnie the Pooh cast is Kanga. It was meant to have all male characters, as the writer admired The Wind in The Willows. He even thought that the father kangaroo was the one with the pouch.

New Media

 * Margot Magowan's blogpost, New Study Reports "Huge Gender Imbalance" in Kidlit.
 * The Dogs and Smurfs blogpost by Max Barry.
 * The Guardian.com's article, Study Finds Huge Gender Imbalance in Children's Literature
 * Science Daily's article, Gender Bias Uncovered in Children's Books With Male Characters, Including Male Animals, Leading the Fictional Pack
 * Florida State University's article, From Peter Rabbit to Curious George, FSU study finds 100 years of gender bias in children's books
 * The Telegraph's article, Children's books are 'sexist and enforce gender inequality'
 * Jezebel's article, Boys Rule The Animal Kingdom Too
 * Daily Mail's article, The 'sexist' tales of Peter Rabbit and Fantastic Mr Fox

Western Animation

 * All of Hanna Barbera's Talking Animal characters were male until Cindy Bear was introduced.

Anime and Manga

 * The titular protagonist of Chi's Sweet Home and Chis New Address is a female kitten.

Film

 * Home On the Range features three female main protagonists, cows Maggie, Grace, and Mrs. Calloway.
 * Inverted in that every elephant in Dumbo except the titular elephant calf is female, but played straight in that all the crows and most of the other animals are male. The inversion among the elephants is justified because elephant groups are matriarchal.
 * Bambi inverts this with the number of rabbits that appear as Thumper is the only male rabbit in both original movie and sequel but played straight with the other animals.
 * The main protagonist of The Secret of NIMH is a female fieldmouse named Mrs. Brisby.
 * The two sequels to the live action Alvinandthe Chipmunks movie feature three female chipmunks called The Chipettes along with the three male chipmunks, Alvin, Simon, and Theodore, making the cast among the chipmunks gender-equal.
 * The main protagonist of The Lion King 2: Simba's Pride is a lioness named Kiara.
 * Lady and The Tramp is the first Disney movie with a female animal main protagonist.
 * Bianca from The Rescuers is a female protagonist on equal footing with Bernard the male protagonist.
 * Kitty Softpaws in Puss in Boots is a protagonist portrayed as basicially equal to titular protagonist himself.
 * Rita from Flushed Away is a female protagonist on equal footing with Roddy the male protagonist.

Literature

 * Averted with Olivia; the titular pig of the books and TV series is female an there are a fair number of other significant female pig characters (Olivia's mom, Francine, Ms. Hoggenmueler).
 * Mrs. Tiggy Winkle, the titular character of Beatrix Potter's ''The Tale Of Mrs Tiggy Winkle, is one of the few aversions among children's books.
 * Also averted with Jemima Puddle-Duck, the titular character of Beatrix Potter's The Tale Of Jemima Puddle Duck
 * Averted in Warrior Cats: The Clan society is set up for almost perfect gender equality with both toms and she-cats receiving equal training and equal opportunity to become medicine cat, deputy, or Clan leader. Not to mention that there has never been a point in the series where there were no female leaders, all the Action Girls throughout the series, and how more recently most deputies have been female. The only difference between toms and she-cats is that she-cats have to nurse their kits for six months, which is more a biological necessity than discrimination. On top of that, there has been an almost equal number of male and female protagonists. The only real difference between the genders is that female deputies and leaders are not allowed to have kits, because it is believed that it will leave them unable to perform their duties.
 * Averted with the Little Grey Rabbit series of books; there are two main female animal characters (Little Grey Rabbit and Squirrel) and one main male animal character (Hare).

Video Games

 * Pokémon can probably be listed as an aversion since the addition of gender in its second generation: Most species (at least in Random Encounters) have a 50/50 male-female ratio. NPC trainers vary; they seem to use Pokemon that are the same gender as themselves.

Western Animation

 * Averted with the Pteranodon family and Buddy Tyrannosaurus in Dinosaur Train; the family is split equally genderwise (three female, three male). Also, many other female characters appear in the show.
 * Averted with My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic. The Mane Six, the two ruling Princesses, and the Cutie Mark Crusaders are all female and there are lots of minor female pony characters as well.
 * Inverted in some earlier incarnations of My Little Pony; there were only female ponies.
 * Averted with Martha Speaks; the titular character is a female dog.
 * Averted with Peppa Pig; the titular character is a female pig.
 * Averted with Angelina Ballerina; the titular character is a female mouse.
 * Averted with Mama Mirabelles Home Movies; the titular character is a female elephant and the main cast is gender-equal.
 * Inverted with the main cast of Wonder Pets; Tuck the turtle is the only male character on the team.
 * Brandy Harrington the female dog from Brandy and Mr. Whiskers is a main protagonist who is on equal footing with Mr. Whiskers the main male protagonist rabbit.
 * Gaspard And Lisa are two main peotagonists, a male dog and female dog respectively, who are on equal footing with each other.
 * Babs Bunny from Tiny Toon Adventures is a main protagonist who is on equal footing with Buster Bunny, the main male protagonist.
 * Animaniacs has a few aversions
 * Dot is on equal footing with her brothers Yakko and Wakko even though the three are Two Guys and A Girl.
 * Rita the cat is on equal footing with Runt the dog. In "Kiki's Kitten," Rita is even the main protagonist.
 * Marita is on equal footing with Flavio.
 * Minerva Mink is the main protagonist of her shorts, even though she is sexualized.
 * Slappy is either on equal footing with her nephew Skippy or the main protagonist of her shorts more so than he is.
 * Kitty Katswell the female cat from Tuff Puppy is a main protagonist who is on equal footing with Dudley Puppy the main male protagonist dog.
 * Cow the from Cow and Chicken is a main female protagonist who is on equal footing with Chicken the main protagonist rooster.
 * Inverted among the three main bovine characters in Back At the Barnyard; there are two female cows, Abby and Bessie, and one male "cow" named Otis. Otherwise, however, this is played straight.
 * Averted and inverted with Blues Clues. Not only is the main protagonist is a female, many of the other animals are female and the animal characters that show up are more likely to be female.
 * Averted and even inverted in Minnies Bow Toons. The main protagonist and many of the other characters in the show are female.
 * Averted in Arthur, especially in the later seasons. The female characters are shown just as prominently as the male characters. Also, there are just as many episodes starring female characters as there are episodes starring male characters.
 * The Smurfette Principle is even lampshaded. In one episode, Francine and Muffy watched the Show Within a Show, "Trucks: The Musical", but they didn't like that much because it had only three female characters. So Francine and Muffy created their own work, "Agent Double X", which features a main female protagonist.
 * The Disney theatrical short shown before the 2011 Winnie the Pooh movie, "The Ballad of Nessie" features not only a female animal main protagonist, her name is featured in the title of the short as well!

Film

 * In The Land Before Time, the ratio of male to female was originally going to be 4:1, in other words, a straight example of Smurfette Principle. The character Cera was originally going to be male, thus being a basic rival for Littlefoot, while Ducky would have been the only female and a fairly stereotypical one at that. However George Lucas realised that Cera's gender had no real bearing on the plot and asked if Cera could be a female, but keep the character's personality exactly the same. The result was a memorably less clichéd female character and an unusual (for the time) male/female rivalry.
 * Most of the funny side characters and sidekicks in Disney movies who are animal characters are male. One major exception to the male animal side character and sidekick rule is Dory from Finding Nemo. The role of Dory was written as a male, but Ellen Degeneres was so funny that they cast her. They did not have to make any changes to the script though because it was a gender-neutral role.
 * A few other exceptions include Cleo from Pinocchio (a movie that has only one other female character), Dinah from Alice in Wonderland, Nana from Peter Pan, Peg and Si and Am from Lady and The Tramp, Abigail and Amelia the geese and Frou Frou the horse from The Aristocats, Lady Kluck from Robin Hood, Big Mama and Vixey (love interest, but also side character) from The Fox and The Hound, Rita and Georgette from Oliver and Company, Joanna from The Rescuers Down Under, Shenzi from The Lion King and Timon's mom from the midquel, Foxy Loxy and Goosey Loosey from Chicken Little, and Mittens from Bolt.

Western Animation

 * Most of the older Walt Disney cartoon canon are male, and the females are often just stereotypical female versions of existing male characters, such as Minnie Mouse and Daisy Duck. Minnie's The Chick alright, but Daisy is pretty cool for her time, kinda Tsundere-like.
 * In the 1980s, Disney briefly tried to revive the classic Disney characters through such madness as making Donald a skateboarder and Goofy a fighter pilot a la Top Gun. However, there was a considerable upshot to this: Minnie Mouse became a far more interesting character than she'd ever been after fifty years of being "Mickey's girlfriend". As a matter of fact, she mimicked the young Madonna (in a kid-friendly way, of course). She had aher own "Totally Minnie" album (much Better Than It Sounds), her own television special, and...very quickly and sadly devolved back into The Chick once this was all scrapped and Disney fired up the cutesy-poo "Minnie and Me" merchandise line, where she once again donned her polka-dot dress and giggled over Mickey. Sigh...
 * Minnie got revamped again for the House of Mouse series, and while Mickey was still the "boss", as the club's owner and emcee, more often than not Minnie was the one giving him orders, being the show producer and club accountant, and very competent at the job. Sadly, again, this didn't last, and once the next series came around, she was again The Chick. House of Mouse also resurrected Clarabelle Cow as a recurring character, and commonly featured female musical guests, though the ratio was still heavily in favor of the guys.
 * Minnie Mouse finally has her own show, Minnies Bow Toons. Her friends, Daisy Duck and Clarabelle Cow and her nieces Millie and Melody Mouse show up, as do quite a few other female characters.