The Smurfette Principle: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}{{outdated}}<!-- Doctor Who and The Order of the Stick both need updating, and maybe other entries as well -->
[[File:SmurfSexRatio.jpg|link=The Smurfs|frame|Take note of the Male-to-Female ratio.]]
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The name of this trope was first coined by [http://www.nytimes.com/1991/04/07/magazine/hers-the-smurfette-principle.html an article in the New York Times printed April 7, 1991, called "The Smurfette Principle"]. The article discussed the negative message which this trope gave its young audience: that males are individuals who have adventures, while females are a type of deviation [[Never a Self-Made Woman|who exist only in relation to males]].
Contrast [[Two Girls to a Team]], [[
{{examples}}
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* ''[[Sailor Moon]]'' inverts this, Tuxedo Mask and Artemis being the only male (non-villain) primary character.
==
* [[Trope Namers|Named for]] Smurfette, the only female [[The Smurfs|Smurf]] for years out of a population of 100.
** Ironically, ''The Smurfs'' [[The Smurfs (animation)|cartoon]] actually toned this ''down'', a little. While you could argue Smurfette is as much a stereotype as any other specific smurf, Peyo (their creator) caught some flak by admitting she was not intended to be a real heroic character at all, describing her in mostly childish ways. The [[Hanna-Barbera]] show only played this up in her origin, where she was created by Gargamel to disrupt the lives of the Smurfs. Otherwise, Smurfette is typically a strong-willed type who is often ready to take charge when necessary in Papa Smurf's absence.
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** Although, as noted in ''[[Donnie Darko]]'', as a creation of Gargamel Smufette wasn't a true Smurf. Originally, the Smurfs were all male (or possibly asexual).
** This was later spoofed in ''[[Fables]]'' the founders of Smalltown were members of an [[Gulliver's Travels|Lilliput]] army (i.e. all men) until [[Thumbelina]] showed up so had to go find more magic barley seed that was used to made her because of mass riots fighting over her.
* ''[[Bloom County]]'''s cast had a series of strips dealing with the necessity of introducing a female character after the Supreme Court declared male-only clubs unconstitutional. ("Nothing's more 'male-only' than Bloom County! We've GOT to introduce a WOMAN!") Before, the comic strip had several notable reoccurring female characters including the feminist schoolteacher Ms. Harlow, who actually ''did'' [[Does Not Like Men|like men]]. Eventually, Ronald-Ann was created as a regular, who subverted the trope by ''not'' being [[The Chick]]. {{spoiler|Rosebud the Basselope}} was also revealed to be female, much to the surprise of the cast. Unfortunately, it looks like this was [[retcon]]ned to oblivion.▼
** Even more directly addressed in the not-a-sequel-series-I-swear, ''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 [[Distaff Counterpart|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]]?)▼
* In Hergé's ''[[Tintin]]'' comics, just about the only recurring female character is Bianca Castafiore, who's an impossible diva. Oh, and her maid.
** [[Word of God]] says that Hergé had a lot of trouble drawing adult characters that weren't ugly or ridiculous (Tintin doesn't count, as the character design is almost childish and very simple anyway) - something that didn't bother Hergé when it came to men, but annoyed him greatly when drawing women. He actually started to get better at it in the latter albums, and a cute female character with a major role was introduced in "Tintin et l'Alph-Art", but this effort suffered [[Author Existence Failure]].
* Alison Bechdel's ''[[Dykes to Watch Out For]]'' initially inverted this, with scarcely any male characters, partly as a response to the Smurfette principle (as discussed in ''The Indelible Alison Bechdel'') and partly to force male readers to identify with the female characters, as women often have to identify with male characters. Over the last several years, more male characters have appeared; one of the main characters, Sparrow, had a long-term relationship and a child with a man named Stuart. This may have also been her accommodating what has become to be known as [[
* When the ''[[Fantastic Four (Comic Book)|Fantastic Four]]'' started in 1961, the Invisible Girl was the only female member, and she was the weakest of the four (her force fields weren't invented till later).
* When the ''[[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]]'' started in 1963, Jean Grey was the only female member, and the weakest (it was a decade before she got Phoenix powers).
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*** Actually, there wasn't even ''one''. They were looking for a [[Token Minority|token girl]] and they saw that a character called "Wonder Girl" had already been published, so they decided to use her. Somehow they (not to mention their editors!) missed the fact that "Wonder Girl" was actually just Diana as a teenager for something like ''four or five years'' real time. She was finally given the first of way too many origin stories in an attempt to fix this mistake. [[Continuity Snarl|And thus began a grand and glorious tradition of no one having any idea who she is or where she came from.]]
* ''The [[Doom Patrol]]'' started with one woman, Elasti-Girl.
* Inverted in ''[[Y: The
* Silk Spectre II from ''[[Watchmen (comics)|Watchmen]]'' is the only female super-hero of the second generation. Furthermore, her central importance to the plot is that of her role as a woman, being a kept-girlfriend to Dr. Manhattan and then the love interest of Nite Owl II. However, this is a [[Deconstruction]], so it may be intentional to demonstrate the usual roles female characters play in the comic book genre.
* [[Rupert Bear]] had few female characters - Ottoline Otter (introduced about a couple of decades ago) and Tiger Lilly, not counting the mothers of the characters - and the main cast was mostly male. The CGI adaptation saw it fit to [[Gender Flip]] Ping Pong and Freida Fox.
* With the occasional exception of Xavin, ''[[Runaways]]'' inverts this by having, at most, 2 male characters in any team roster. Of those characters, only Victor has had superpowers constantly.
* ''[[100
* According to Norwegian Scholar Jon Gisle, the population of [[Disney Ducks Comic Universe|Duckburg]] is about 80% male.
* In ''[[Scott Pilgrim]]'', one of Ramona's evil ex-boyfriends {{spoiler|is actually a girl.}}
* [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] in ''[[Youngblood: Judgment Day]]'', where Glory is keen to the idea of re-forming the Allies of Justice because she enjoys being the only woman in a team of men—it's implied that it makes her feel like she's the one in charge.
* Platnium was the only female member of the [[Metal Men]]. Tin later created Nameless, who didn't really do much other than act as his girlfriend. Right before the [[Cerebus Syndrome]] [[Retool]], [[Team Dad|Doc Magnus]] created [[Distaff Counterpart]]s of the team, but they were one-off characters. In recent years, the team finally gained a bona-fide second female member, [[Deadpan Snarker|Copper]].
* The newspaper comic ''Tumbleweeds'' had two Smurfettes—Hildegarde Hamhocker among the townsfolk of Grimy Gulch, and Little Flower among the Poohawks. Aside from Hildegarde's little niece Echo, other female characters are extremely rare (if not non-existent) in the strip.▼
== Fan Works ==
* Averted by the Warriors, the superteam to which Douglas Sangnoir of ''[[Drunkard's Walk]]'' belongs in his home timeline. Judging by the names dropped at various points in the story, it numbers less than a dozen, but at least five female members have been mentioned -- one of whom is the team leader. And when he summons simulacra of the team's "heavy hitters" in ''Drunkard's Walk II'', ''all four'' are women.
== Film ==
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* The [[Five-Man Band]] in ''[[Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future]]'' included Captain Power, Hawk, Tank, and Scout, all male. Sometime before the start of the show, they rescued Jennifer "Pilot" Chase from the Dread Youth. She was an awkward mix of skills and talents: she was on par with Power and Scout in combat and infiltration, but the former could easily (and often did) replace her at the helm of the Jumpship, and most of the time she was there only to be [[The Chick]]. Worse, at the end of its [[Cut Short|only season]], she was [[Killed Off for Real]] in a [[Heroic Sacrifice]]. Leaked scripts for a proposed Season 2 would have brought in a more [[Action Girl|Amazonian]] replacement.
* ''[[Kamen Rider]]'' has always been quite the wiener party, with female Riders being few and far in between. ''[[Kamen Rider Ryuki]]'' introduced the first official female Rider. Her title was "Kamen Rider Femme". Go figure. ("Femme" is French for "woman"...) She only appears in a movie, thus being non-canon. Oh, and she {{spoiler|dies after like 30 minutes}}, but not before {{spoiler|killing the most evil Kamen Rider apparently.}}
** ''Ryuki''{{'}}s Western Adaptation ''[[Kamen Rider Dragon Knight]]'' expanded the role of Femme's counterpart Kamen Rider Siren with original footage; making her a [[Sixth Ranger]] and forming a [[Power Trio]] with the two male leads. She's still the only girl out of thirteen Riders, but points for doing what they could.
** Furthering the point on the rare female Kamen Riders, Shuki from ''[[Kamen Rider Hibiki]]'' was the first female Rider to be in a TV series rather than a movie-only character. The tragic [[Executive Meddling]] that ruined the show in an attempt to make it more like other ''Kamen Rider'' series {{spoiler|killed her off.}}
** On a few occasions, women have "borrowed" Rider powers (including [[Kamen Rider Faiz]], [[Kamen Rider Kiva|IXA]], and the ''[[Kamen Rider Decade]]'' incarnation of [[Kamen Rider Den-O|Den-O]]), but this is always temporary.
** Preceding all of them was Electro-Human Tackle (yes, that was her name) from ''[[Kamen Rider Stronger]]'', who had all the qualifications to be considered a Rider, but wasn't. The manga ''[[Kamen Rider Spirits]]'' addresses this by saying that {{spoiler|following her [[Heroic Sacrifice]], Shigeru/Stronger wanted her to rest in peace as a normal woman.}}
** ''[[Kamen Rider Decade]]'' tries to redress some of the issue by having Natsumi temporarily become [[Kamen Rider Den-O|Den-O]] and later {{spoiler|becoming Kamen Rider Kivala in the [[Grand Finale]] movie (Keyword: "Finale". Go figure.)...and '''not''' dying, unlike the previous female Riders}} as well as giving ''[[Kamen Rider Hibiki|Hibiki]]''{{'}}s Akira full-fledged powers as Kamen Rider Amaki (in ''Hibiki'', she only ever assumed a middle-stage transformation).
* Both the U.K and U.S versions of ''[[Whose Line Is It Anyway?
** Lampshaded in one episode during a game of ''Scenes From A Hat'' in which the scene was "Bad Times to Kiss Someone". Since all the players were male, when the game ended, Colin Mochrie asked if they could get some women on the show.
** This is a common issue on similarly structured comedy shows. The most [[Egregious]] offender is probably ''[[Mock the Week]]'', since all four recurring panelists (out of six) are male and the host is as well.
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* ''[[Mission: Impossible (TV series)||Mission Impossible]]'' (both the original and revival) never had more than one female regular at a time (though missions could and did have more than one female agent involved) - the original had Cinnamon in the first three seasons, then a revolving door of replacements in season four, Dana in season five, and then Casey for the final two seasons; in the revival Casey came first, and she was replaced by Shannon.
* Two episodes of the original ''[[Outer Limits]]'', "The Chameleon" and "The Invisible Enemy", have all-male casts.
== Music ==
* Unlike other genres, it is still rare for a hip-hop label to have more than one female rapper at the same time, especially for solo acts. These women generally wind up falling into two roles: hyper-sexualized [[Ms. Fanservice]]'s ([[Trope Codifier]] [[Lil' Kim]], [[Nicki Minaj]], Trina, Shawnna, and Olivia for Bad Boy Entertainment, YMCMB, Slip-n-Slide, Disturbing tha Peace, and G-Unit, respectively) or projecting a less sexual [[One of the Boys]] image ([[Trope Codifier]] MC Lyte, Lady of Rage, Yo-Yo and Da Brat for First Priority, Death Row, Lench Mob and So So Def, respectively). Post-Lil Kim, the former category has become more prominent, though, since the late '90s, more female emcees have found a happy medium between emphasizing their vocal prowess ''and'' sexual expression (former Flipmode artist Rah Digga and Eve, from Ruff Ryders). The one-girl-to-a-team rule has notably been averted by Murder Inc. (who featured Charli Baltimore, Lil' Mo and Vita), and Def Jam which, for a short period during the 2000s hosted Foxy Brown, Lady Sovereign, Unladylike, Shareefa, and Shawnna, simultaneously.
* In [[The Protomen]]'s ''[[Mega Man (video game)|Mega Man]]'' [[Rock Opera]] (also known as ''The Protomen''), Dr. Light's girlfriend Emily is the only female character to have lines.
== Newspaper Comics ==
▲* ''[[Bloom County]]'''s cast had a series of strips dealing with the necessity of introducing a female character after the Supreme Court declared male-only clubs unconstitutional. ("Nothing's more 'male-only' than Bloom County! We've GOT to introduce a WOMAN!") Before, the comic strip had several notable reoccurring female characters including the feminist schoolteacher Ms. Harlow, who actually ''did'' [[Does Not Like Men|like men]]. Eventually, Ronald-Ann was created as a regular, who subverted the trope by ''not'' being [[The Chick]]. {{spoiler|Rosebud the Basselope}} was also revealed to be female, much to the surprise of the cast. Unfortunately, it looks like this was [[retcon]]ned to oblivion.
▲** Even more directly addressed in the not-a-sequel-series-I-swear, ''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 [[Distaff Counterpart|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]]?)
▲* The newspaper comic ''Tumbleweeds'' had two Smurfettes—Hildegarde Hamhocker among the townsfolk of Grimy Gulch, and Little Flower among the Poohawks. Aside from Hildegarde's little niece Echo, other female characters are extremely rare (if not non-existent) in the strip.
== Professional Wrestling ==
* This is especially glaring in [[World Wrestling Entertainment|WWE]] where of course there are far more men than women on the roster with several different divisions devoted to the men while having a separate single women's division. For a while they had two different titles for the women (one for Raw, one for Smackdown) but they have since been unified leaving the women with just one title to fight for.
** In [[TNA]] they have a singles and a set of tag team titles for their women but in contrast to WWE, not enough women on the roster to have full fledged divisions for both. Indeed for the majority of 2010, the same woman (Madison Rayne) held the singles title and was one of the tag champions. While she was built up as a strong singles champion, the tag titles were mostly forgotten about and three months went by without the belts being defended at all. When new champions were crowned, one of them actually did not appear on TV at all after winning them and left the company a few weeks later while the other appeared once before also leaving.
* It's a problem in both WWE and TNA that each episode of their show typically features one women's match. Often, Impact and Raw will feature two women's matches (usually the three hour Raws where there is more time) but mismatched rosters means that Smackdown has about five women while Raw has about eleven and in 2010 most of the time the women were only featured in backstage segments on Smackdown since they had to avoid being too repetitive with matches. Then of course there's the odd time where there won't be any women's matches at all.
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* PPVs also fall victim to this since there will often only be one women's match per PPV (apart from Night of Champions when they had two titles so they had two matches; they skated around this in 2010 by having the unification match at Night of Champions) and indeed, as is often the case on the regular TV shows, a mixed tag match will often be counted as the token women's match despite the women usually taking a backseat in those matches.
* In fairness though, while episodes will normally feature only one match, WWE and TNA do generally try to feature all their women on TV regularly. There have been cases where multiple storylines for the women have taken place at the same time with backstage segments and pairing the women with male Superstars. WWE have recently been quite good at making sure all their Divas are featured on TV regularly (without throwing them all in a multi diva tag match). NXT has been a big help with this.
== Radio ==
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* When Sandi Toksvig first appeared on ''[[I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue]]'' in the 1990s, she remarked how proud she was to be 'in the long line of women who have appeared on the show' (she was the third, and the show had been running for about twenty years at that point.) This provoked considerable laughter from the audience, and a sort of 'oooh' noise from Tim Brooke-Taylor.
** Barry Cryer proceeded to make the apologetic comment "Well, they were all [[wikipedia:Rosie the Riveter|in the factories]] [[Long Runners|when we started]]!"
== Tabletop Games ==
=== Board Games ===
* [[Chess]] has only one female character, the queen, which makes sense since the names are inspired by medieval warfare. However, [[God Save Us From the Queen|she is also the most powerful piece.]]
* The ''Guess Who?'' game (in the late
* While the ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]'' fluff contains a good number of female characters, there are very few of those that can be used in-game.
** Also, although a number of armies (in particular the Imperial Guard and the Eldar/Dark Eldar) are said to contain large numbers of women, up until recently unless a unit was [[Amazon Brigade|overwhelmingly female]] the models wouldn't reflect it. More recent miniatures have started to correct this pattern, with female torsos being available in the Eldar Guardian box sets for example.
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* [[Transformers]] series' toy lines. All of them. [[Fridge Logic|Though one could argue why alien robots conform to human genders in the first place]].
* Most action toy lines in general follow this trope, generally on the basis that boys won't buy action figures of female characters. This was the reason Katara from ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'' never got an action figure despite being an [[Action Girl]] on the main cast, while a male character, Jet, who only appeared in a few episodes, managed to get one.
== Video Games ==
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** The original version of ''[[Final Fantasy III]]'' stars the all-male Onion Knights; the remake for the DS make one of them a girl.
** Notably, every game since ''[[Final Fantasy IV]]'' has had exactly three female characters in the playable cast, regardless of the total cast size. This is explicitly referred to as the [[Rule of Three|Three Females Rule]] in Squaresoft fan circles. This even extends to entries that don't follow The Smurfette Principle, like ''[[Final Fantasy V]]'' (three women, two men) and '' [[Final Fantasy X]]-2'' (an all-female party of three). Note that more recent games have gravitated toward a total playable cast size of 6, thus equalizing the gender balance while still following the rule.
** This is obvious in the crossover ''Dissidia''. [[Final Fantasy VI|Terra]] is the only female on the protagonist side in the main storyline, besides the goddess Cosmos herself, entirely because the roster is composed of only the main characters of each game, and ''[[Final Fantasy VI]]''
* In the first ''[[Shin Megami Tensei]]'', all of the Seraphim (Michael, Uriel, Raphael, and Gabriel) were presumably male, but the second game reveals Gabriel is a girl, and all subsequent SMT and [[Persona]] games featuring Gabriel retain this.
* ''[[Wild ARMs 1]]'' and ''[[Wild ARMs 3|3]]'' both follow this trope. Each of the two games has one playable female character (teamed up with two or three males), though Cecilia and Virginia are each portrayed as the one calling the shots.
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** ''[[Gauntlet (1985 video game)|Gauntlet]]'' has three male (Warrior, Wizard, Elf), one female (Valkyrie). Sequel ''Gauntlet Legends'' averts this by changing the androgynous-looking elf to a female elven Archer. ''Dark Legacy'' falls back in when adding four more characters to the exisitng four: three male (Dwarf, Knight, Jester) and one female (Sorceress). As well, the breasts on all the women became about [[Gag Boobs|twice the size of their heads]]. ''Seven Sorrows'' then goes back to the original four characters.
*** ''Get Medieval'', a [[Spiritual Successor]] by Monolith Productions, kept a 2:2 ration by turning the Wizard into a naughty sorceress whose every line was a [[Double Entendre]]. (Okay, some were even single ones...)
** Both ''[[Left 4 Dead]]'' games have one female in a group of three males. In the sequel, the two groups meet so it's two girls with six guys. All the [[Non-Player Character|NPCs]] in the game are male, including the zombies until the female version of the Boomer was introduced in the sequel.
* In the ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]'' games, while there are a small handful of important female NPCs, when it comes to the playable characters, the three main characters are all male, and there's only one female [[Guest Star Party Member]] in each game; Ariel of ''[[The Little Mermaid]]'' in the first one, and [[Mulan]] in the sequel.
** This is partially due to the constraints of the setting. How many female Disney characters could believably be adapted to combat? Even Ariel was a big stretch...though given that this is a game who managed to make {{spoiler|Mickey Mouse}} a [[Badass]], it's not impossible.
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** The main characters of ''[[Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep]]'', Terra, Ven(tus), and Aqua fall victim to this. 2 males, one female. {{spoiler|Then it turns out that due to their fates and how the endgame plays out, Terra and Ven become [[Decoy Protagonist|decoy protagonists]] to Aqua somewhat...}}
* Most ''[[Super Robot Wars]]'' games allow the player to choose between an equal number of male or female original characters. While this doesn't quite help the ratio among the licensed games, it makes for a more or less even mix among characters in the ''Original Generation'' series.
* The ''[[Mega Man (video game)|Mega Man]]'' series, as a whole, does this constantly.
** The [[Capcom vs. Whatever]] games have their own different [[Unfortunate Implications]] concerning Roll. In ''[[Marvel vs. Capcom 2]]'', she was such an awful [[Joke Character]] that she got her own [[Character Tiers|tier]]. In ''[[Tatsunoko vs. Capcom]]'', thanks to the release of ''[[Mega Man Powered Up]]'', her
** In [[Mega Man (animation)|the Ruby-Spears cartoon]], Roll was more of a [[Faux Action Girl]] than a generic housekeeper. There was still the "vacuum-for-an-arm" complex she seemed to have developed, though...
** The ''[[Mega Man X|X]]'' series has only a couple, mostly in noncombat roles as well—Iris was Zero's love interest and apparently not a combatant (though she did fight at the end—against him, {{spoiler|and she dies by his sword}}), Alia plays mission control in later games, and a few of the bosses are feminine.
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** The ''[[Mega Man Zero|Zero]]'' series began to turn the tables. The series had Ciel (the most important non-player character), Leviathan (one of the four Guardians, a [[Quirky Miniboss Squad]] that evolved), Neige, and many of the bosses and Resistance [[Non-Player Character|NPCs]] are female.
** Finally, each of the ''[[Mega Man ZX|ZX]]'' games has one male and one female protagonist—a decision that [[Schrödinger's Player Character|has its own problems]], but at least lets girls save the ''Mega Man'' world for once.
** The ''[[Mega Man Battle Network|Battle Network]]'' series inherited the same problem as the original, since most of the Navis are based on original-series Robot Masters and it's really difficult to tell which generic navis are supposed to be female (though [[Japanese Pronouns|somewhat]] [[Keigo|easier]] in Japanese). However, there are ''lots'' of female human characters to make up for it.
** The
▲** The upcoming ''Rockman Online'' has four announced characters: X, Zero, Duo, and Cinnamon. Guess which one's the token chick.
* ''[[StarCraft]]'' had exactly one named female character: Sarah Kerrigan, who is [[Left for Dead|betrayed]] but rapidly becomes the [[Big Bad|queen bitch of the universe]] as the Queen of the Zerg. The expansion set added the Protoss matriarch Raszagal (the only female Protoss for the next ten years). ''[[StarCraft II]]'' expands the universe a bit, including adding supporting female human characters, but with Raszagal dead, the role of "only female Protoss" is inherited by Executor Selendis, who will be the protagonist of the second expansion set.
** Starcraft: Ghost's main character was to be a female Ghost, not unlike Kerrigan. In its cinematic, she sits in the shadows of a Dropship on the way to the battle area. A macho Marine makes a sexist comment, and is silently stared down as she leans out of the shadows and is revealed to [[Samus Is a Girl|be a woman]].
* Many early computer games would let the players choose their gender (as well as, often, other attributes like name, race and age) at the start of the game (unless you were a [[Featureless Protagonist]], of course). As the amount of assets (graphics, voice acting, and sometimes even onscreen actors) needed to portray player characters increased, many studios discreetly dumped this feature. Modern games that let you choose a gender offer varying amounts of plot and gameplay branching as a result of the choice.
* ''[[Fallout]]'' allowed you to choose your character's gender, but of the four recruitable NPCs only one was female. In ''[[Fallout 2]]'' it got worse, with eight recruitable males, four dogs, a robot... and one female human, who was literally worse than useless (useless in a fight, can't gain levels, takes up a party slot and ''won't leave unless you kill her or sell her to slavers''. The being said, [[Femme Fatale|some quests in the game were more easily completed if you were a woman]]. It is debatable whether this helps, but it certainly won't pass [[
** ''[[Fallout 3]]'' is somewhat better in this regard, having two female recruitable NPCs who are relatively useful. However, they are still in the minority (there are three male companions, as well as a genderless (formerly male) super mutant, a male dog and a robot with a male voice).
*** Many fans believe Fawkes was a human female.
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* The ''[[Ace Combat]]'' series is a pretty bad offender (but then again, they are gaming equivalents of ''[[Top Gun]]''):
** ''[[Ace Combat 2]]'' had a single significant female character, namely the optional wingwoman Kei Nagase. The other potential wingman was a [[Scary Black Man]] and the [[Player Character]] [[Featureless Protagonist]] is referred to as male.
** The
** ''[[Ace Combat 04: Shattered Skies]]'' gave us Yellow 4, the [[Cartwright Curse|Doomed Love Interest]] of the hero's rival, and the only female in her squadron.
** ''[[Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War]]'' featured the ''other'' Kei Nagase, the only female in the entire game until the brief late-mission appearance of Bartlett's old flame.
** ''[[Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War]]'' goes for a Token Enemy Female again and gives us [[Badass Spaniard|Marcela Vasquez]], the only female boss-level ace and the only woman to get her own interview. Also, out of 169 [[Nominal Importance|named aces]] in the game, only 9 are female. That's about 19 to 1 male-to-female ratio.
** ''[[Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation]]'' tried to address this issue by showing a part of the story through the eyes of Melissa and Ludmila, two female refugees wandering the war-torn Emmeria, looking for their daughter and fiance, respectively. Also, it had a Token Enemy Female, Irena Dvornik, as well as allied pilot Lanner.
** ''[[Ace Combat: Assault Horizon]]'' follows the suit with only one female character of [[Nominal Importance]] and speaking role, Janice Rehl. A Nagase lookalike is present in some cutscenes but that's sadly just a non-speaking cameo.
*** On a more meta level, Janice is so far the ''only'' playable female character in a twenty years-old series. And only for half a mission.
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* Of the gang of playable characters in ''[[Borderlands]]'', three are male, with a fourth man driving the truck, and one is female - introduced as "The Siren," which is barely a gnat's whisker away from simply calling her "the token girl." The vast majority of enemies will be male, too. Or arguably, in the case of the skags, not sexually dimorphic.
* A pub in ''[[Dishonored]]''. ''[[Cracked.com]]'''s [http://www.cracked.com/article_20657_the-6-most-bizarre-ways-to-lose-popular-video-games.html The 6 Most Bizarre Ways to Lose Popular Video Games] describes it as containing "Havelock the leader, Piero the geeky inventor, and Callista the woman."
* [[Real Life Writes The Plot]]; the reason ''[[Super Mario Wonder]]'' averts this Trope by including Daisy as a playable character is because, as the developers claim, their own daughters (who beta tested the game) would argue over who would use Peach in multi-player mode. They later decided to add Toadette too to the roster, making the playable cast five guys and three gals.
== [[Web Comics]] ==
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* [[The Nostalgia Chick]] talks about this in a video titled "[https://web.archive.org/web/20140830043656/http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/thedudette/nostalgia-chick/16616-the-smurfette-principle The Smurfette Principle]". At that point, she was also an example of it, though two other women joined the site at the same time, and [[That Guy With The Glasses]], as a site, has gone on to build a larger female cast.
* Most videos on ''[[Cracked.com]]'' have a single female.
== Western Animation ==
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** In the original book, the gender issue was dealt with as just the way rabbits ''think''. They're not human. They can't wrap their minds around a board that floats on the water. They pass countless dangers and finally locate the perfect new home, settle down to start a colony, and realize, "Oh, damn, we forget to bring any women." Which is the impetus for the second half of the story ("Shoot, we better find someone to bear our kits").
** It's also worth noting that in the sequel, ''Tales from Watership Down'', some females do get larger roles. A story about a doe-led warren is told, and the doe Hyzenthlay {{spoiler|becomes co-leader of the ''Watership Down'' rabbits}}. This was author Richard Adams' specific response to complaints that the first book was too testosterone-centric.
* For all their [[Emotional Torque|perfection]], one major complaint about [[Pixar]] is the lack of films that have passed
** ''[[Toy Story (franchise)|Toy Story]]''{{'}}s main cast includes a young boy's toy collection, with predictably male-oriented rather than girls' toys. Bo Peep was the only female in the cast, a domestic woman and [[Shallow Love Interest]] with no part in the main action. The second and third films even out the gender inequality, though not by much.
*** Even though Toy Story 3 had many more female characters than the other two, I think it should be worth mentioning that {{spoiler|Andy got rid of Bo Peep}}.
** ''[[A Bug's
** The only major female characters in ''[[Monsters, Inc.]]'' are a little girl with limited dialogue, the forgettable love interest Celia, and {{spoiler|Roz the undercover CDA agent}}, who has little screen time. The ratio is 4:2.
** ''[[Finding Nemo]]'' has 9:3.
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* The 80s cartoon series ''[[He-Man and the Masters of the Universe|He Man and The Masters of The Universe]]'' followed this trope, having only two females (Teela and the Sorceress) in the main cast of heroes (the villains had one too: Evil-Lynn). They were also the only inhabitants of the planet immune to the steroids in the water supply.
** Heck, in the original comics that came with the toys, before the cartoon series, Teela WAS the Sorceress.
** Its spinoff series ''[[She-Ra:
* On ''[[Dragon Booster]]'', the main cast is made up of three males (Artha, Parm, and Lance), and one female (Kitt). Though initially a rival to Artha (and with potential to grow as a character), Kitt eventually devolved into a cheerleader for Artha who was consistently beaten in any kind of race (despite the fact that she had more experience at racing than Artha, who ''didn't want to race at all'' at the start of the series) and only ever did anything plot-wise by getting mind-controlled or kidnapped. There were other female characters, including a few crew leaders, but, like Kitt, they took a back seat to the males.
** The "Kitt can never win" issue might have some strange connection to the advertising trope where you can't show a girl winning a board game, for fear that it'll be less appealing to boys.
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* ''[[Phineas and Ferb]]'' sort of counts: despite a half-dozen [[Scout Out|Fireside Girls]], [[The Chick|Isabella]] is the only girl in Phineas and Ferb's group with any significant personality. The creators have since developed the Fireside Girls a ''bit'' more, and there are plenty of other notable female characters, particularly [[The Cassandra|Candace]], [[Asian Airhead|Stacy]], [[Hot Mom|Linda]], and [[Mad Scientist's Beautiful Daughter|Vanessa]].
* ''[[KaBlam!]]!'s'' male cast (that was included in over three episodes) consisted of Henry, Mr. foot, and Mr. Stockdale (starting Season 4). "Over three appearances" girl? June. However, she wasn't the stereotypical [[The Chick|chick]], as she was just originally a dumber, over-excited, female version of Henry.
** ''[[Action League NOW]]''{{'}}s only main female was Thundergirl, and Justice (the dog) since it switched from male to female in some episodes.
* The cartoon adaptation of ''[[Redwall|Martin the Warrior]]'' averted this by changing the normally 3:1 ratio to 2:2, by making Pallum the Hedgehog a girl.
* On ''[[Jimmy Two-Shoes|Jimmy Two Shoes]]'', Heloise is the only regular female character. This is noteable in the title sequence, where she's the ''only'' female in the final group shot at 5:1. Recurring characters [[Crazy Awesome|Saffi]] and [[Rich Bitch|Jez]] ease this a bit, but they still tend not to have much of a role.
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* Played with in the "You Got F'ed in the A" episode of ''[[South Park]]'', when Stan is putting together his dance team.
** "We can't have [a dance team of] all guys; [[Have I Mentioned I Am Heterosexual Today?|people will think we're fags]]"
*
* Until the very end of the premiere of ''[[Young Justice (animation)|Young Justice]]'' there are no females, and for several episodes thereafter there's only Miss Martian. Even with Artemis there's still a pretty noticeable disparity. Although the group's "[[Team Mom|den mother]]" and combat trainer is Black Canary, and an aged-down [[Zatanna]] has appeared as a [[Guest Star Party Member]] for a few episodes.
** Averted as of "Usual Suspects." The team is now a [[Gender Equal Ensemble]] with four boys and four girls.
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'''Herbert/Obi-Wan''': Who do you think it is? Who's the only goddamn woman in the galaxy? }}
* ''[[Kaeloo]]'', the eponymous character of said series, is the only female in the main cast. Even so, [[Viewer Gender Confusion|most viewers find it hard to tell]].
== Real Life ==
* Reversed in Federal Civil Service in the USA, with some agencies like the Forest Service being 70% or more female due to Affirmative Action. Ironically due to executive meddling of another kind in 1993, qualifications were waived for the typical middle and high level manager in most agencies, resulting in more than half of Federal Civil Service not meeting the educational requirements and/or time in grade required in 2011. The typical situation under the [[Bill Clinton|Clinton]] Administration was to give National Forests, BLM Districts, Field Offices and similar high level positions to secretaries and aides, raising them as many as 11 paygrades overnight. It's not uncommon for entire offices to be women and to have them composed of "scientists", "engineers" and so on that do not have a degree in the field they represent.
** Defied in Federal Civil Service in Canada, by the simple expedient of not listing the applicants' sex or gender on the application forms that the hiring boards get to see. The best-qualified people are the ones considered for every position, be they male, female, or other. After a decade (specifically, the first decade of the 2000s), the gender gap has shrunk to the point where The Smurfette Principle no longer applies, but
* [[Venus]], the only planet named after a goddess. Asteroids started off better off, with all of the first ten asteroids discovered named after goddesses.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Always Female]]
▲[[Category:Laws and Formulas]]
[[Category:Characters and Casting]]
[[Category:Double Standard]]
[[Category:Gender and Sexuality Tropes]]
[[Category:
[[Category:Token Index]]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Smurfette Principle, The}}
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