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The Smurfette Principle: Difference between revisions
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** The ''[[Discworld]]'' Watch books feature only two non-dwarf female Watchmen. They're even [[Twofer Token Minority|Twofer Token Minorities]] (one is a [[Our Werewolves Are Different|werewolf]], the other a [[Our Vampires Are Different|vampire]]). There ARE other female Watch Officers- a Constable Jolson may have been vaguely referred to as 'she'- but they don't get screen time.
*** Leave us not forget Corporal Cheeri Littlebottom, the unfortunately-named one-dwarf forensics department of the Watch. Of course, it's not obvious that she ''is'' a she until the end of the book in which she's introduced, but that's par for the course for Discworld dwarves. Littlebottom later starts a sort of feminist movement for female dwarves by making it obvious that she is female, which is apparently a serious taboo for dwarves.
** Subverted with a vengeance in ''[[Monstrous Regiment]]'', of course.
** Kirsty from the ''[[Johnny Maxwell Trilogy]]'' is the only girl, but does not accept her status, going so far as to call the others 'four token boys'.
** ''[[Only You Can Save Mankind]]'' inverts this trope: the Gunnery Officer on the ScreeWee ship is the token male on a ship crewed by females.
** In ''[[Good Omens]],'' [[Tomboy|Pepper]] and [[Lady of War|War]] are the only girls in their respective groups (a gang of children for Pepper, the [[Horsemen of the Apocalypse]] for War). There are, however, several other female characters in the story.▼
*** Well, she's a [[Gender Flip]] of Ginger in the Just William books. So at least the ladies are making inroads.
* ''[[A Series of Unfortunate Events]]'' averts this to the extent that it seems deliberate. The Baudelaires are one male, two female; their counterparts the Quagmires are one female, two male. Count Olaf's theater troupe contains two men, two women and "a person who [[Ambiguous Gender|looks neither like a man nor a woman]]".
* R.A. Salvatore's ''[[Icewind Dale]]'' series (of the [[Forgotten Realms]]) originally did not have any major female characters. But soon he learned that [[Executive Meddling|further books of his would be rejected if he didn't add one]]. And thus Catti-Brie was given the literary equivalent of [[Promotion to Opening Titles]].
* In the [[Forgotten Realms]] stories starring [[Lady of War|half-elf warrior Arilyn Moonblade]] and human mage Danilo Thann by Elaine Cunningham, aside from Arilyn herself, it seems like ''every single female character'' winds up [[Women in Refrigerators]] at some point. Aside from the [[Big Bad]] of the week, the males survive and get larger roles (including Danilo, as well as fan favorites Elaith, Foxfire, etc.) [[Most Gamers Are Male|Considering the tabletop RPG market]], this may be due to [[Executive Meddling]].
* ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' features very few women. The actual Fellowship is completely male, and the only female character to take an active role in the sprawling thousand-page plot is Eowyn. Galadriel is powerful and important, but mostly "offscreen". Lobelia Sackville-Baggins, Mrs Maggott, Goldberry, Ioreth, Mrs Cotton, and Rose Cotton are trivial. Arwen barely has a speaking part. Everyone else is male.
** Tolkien does point out that her people have a tradition of warrior women. Peter Jackson's films are actually much better examples of the Smurfette principle than the books.
* ''[[Fate/Zero]]'' has a bit of this with Saber, {{spoiler|a [[Gender Bender]] version of a traditionally male character to start with}} and the only female amongst individual servants. It repeats again with the Assassins with one female and three males on the team.
▲* In ''[[Good Omens]],'' [[Tomboy|Pepper]] and [[Lady of War|War]] are the only girls in their respective groups (a gang of children for Pepper, the [[Horsemen of the Apocalypse]] for War). There are, however, several other female characters in the story.
* Beverly Marsh is the only female in The Losers Club in ''[[IT]]''. [[Deconstructed Trope|This has its]] [[Squick|consequences later]].
* From 72 demons featured in ''[[Ars Goetia]]'', only Marchosias, Vepar, and Gremory are female. And that's only from their usual forms on manifestation (respectively: [[Mix-and-Match Critters|gryphon-winged, snake-tailed she-wolf]]; mermaid; camel-riding noblewoman); the text itself still uses male pronouns for all the demons. Marchosias, Vepar, and Gremory included.
* The only female disciple of Aldur in ''[[Belgariad]]'' is Polgara. Well, also Poledra, but she's a [[Missing Mom]] most of the time. And these women are Belgarath's wife and daughter, so apparently to be a female member of the group [[Never a Self-Made Woman|you have to have a connection to a male member of the group]].
* [[Isaac Asimov]], until he married his second wife, had issues with women due to relations with [[My Beloved Smother|his beloved
* ''[[Of Mice and Men]]'': There are a total of eleven characters mentioned in any capacity in the book. Two are women. One, Lennie's Aunt Clara, deceased, is never seen and is only a part of Lennie's background. The other, Curley's wife, doesn't get a name. {{spoiler|And she dies anyway}}.
* ''[[Cthulhu Mythos]]'':
**
** The
* A subtler version is at play in Zamyatin's ''[[We]]'': everyone in the society is issued with an alphanumeric designation instead of a name, with one letter followed by several numbers. Men get consonants; women get vowels. Note the ratio.
** Except in Russia, the ratio is about 2:1 - 10 vowels, 20 consonants, so it's not as extreme.
* In Sharon Creech's ''[[The Wanderer]]'', Sophie is the only girl among the surly crew of the titular sailboat, made up of her three uncles and two (male
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