The Smurfette Principle: Difference between revisions

In classic comedy animation or shows, especially slapstick, women are often absent because [[Wouldn't Hit a Girl|hitting a girl]] just isn't [[Double Standard|considered]] [[Dude, Not Funny|funny]]. (In the case of harmless [[Amusing Injuries]], this [[Slapstick Knows No Gender|isn't always the case]].)

 

 

As noted in the examples below, this trope is nearly universal in all forms of media. Most writers try to balance this out with [[Positive Discrimination]], [[Girls Need Role Models|making the girl]] more intelligent and [[Women Are Wiser|level-headed than everyone else]], but it still doesn't change the simple fact that there's only one of her. Usually, all it does is turn her into a [[Mary Sue]] for [[The Scrappy|everyone to loathe]].

** The Toei anime added [[Ascended Extra|Miho]], the [[Tomboy and Girly Girl|Girly Girl to Anzu's Tomboy]].

** In the spin-off ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh GX (Anime)|Yu-Gi-Oh GX]]'' it gets even worse - Asuka is the only girl among Judai, Sho, Ryo, Manjoume, Daichi, Ed and Tyranno. The only other female cast member to get more than a few episodes was Rei, who didn't join the cast until the third season and even then didn't get a lot of screentime in comparison to the rest of the cast.

* ''[[One Piece (Manga)|One Piece]]'' has two female Straw Hats (with one temporary member), one female Supernova, and one female Warlord of the Sea. Most of the evil organizations have exactly one female member, [[Designated Girl Fight|whom Nami tends to fight]], with the notable exception of Baroque Works (half its Officer Agents are female, although most of the Mooks are male), and '''all''' of Amazon Lily is female. The Marines are almost entirely male, except for Hina, Tashigi, Tsuru (the old woman who's sometimes seen with Sengoku), and Bellemere (in the past).

** Also one female Giant, who is also a Marine, and one Celestial Dragon.

** Later, another female Smurf, the younger and more tomboyish Sassette, was created by similar means as Smurfette. The final season added Nanny Smurf, who confusingly seems to have been a natural female Smurf.

** Although, as noted in ''[[Donnie Darko (Film)|Donnie Darko]]'', as a creation of Gargamel Smufette wasn't a true Smurf. Originally, the Smurfs were all male (or possibly asexual).

* ''[[Bloom County (Comic Strip)|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|retconned]] 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]]?)

* ''Bimbos in Time'' inverts this by having only one male character in the hero team (referred to as "the male Bimbo"); indeed, the only other male character with a major role in the story is the villain.

* Dorothy Lamour in the [[Bob Hope]]/[[Bing Crosby]] "[[Road To|Road]]" movies (''Road to Morocco'', etc). [[Roger Ebert]] referred to "Dorothy Lamour Syndrome" in his Little Movie Glossary; when two men and one woman have a dialogue in a movie, the woman is usually reduced to looking back and forth between the two men as they talk. Lamour had an excuse, as Hope and Crosby were frequently off-script and adlibbing.

** The second movie averts it by bringing in Catherine-Zeta Jones, and the third movie plays it straight by dropping [[Julia Roberts]] and Jones and bringing in Ellen Barkin. It should be noted that all three of these women were a love interest for one of the main (male) characters.

* ''[[Prince of Persia the Sands of Time (Film)|Prince of Persia the Sands of Time]]'' has princess Tamina as the only female character in the movie, but she proves she's not just there to look pretty. {{spoiler|[[Royals Who Actually Do Something|The fate of the world lies in her hands.]]}}

* ''[[Inception (Film)|Inception]]'' has a crew of around six guys and one girl. There is one other important female character, and {{spoiler|for most of the film, she's a projection of the main (male) character's subconscious.}}

* The casting for ''[[The Avengers (Film)|The Avengers]]'' is even ''less'' balanced than the Sixties teams. While the original team had a 4-1 ratio (Hulk left almost as soon as Cap joined) and the second had a 3-1 ratio, the movie's inclusion of Fury and Agent Coulson as "title" characters currently puts the central cast at ''7''-1. Needless to say, some chunks of fandom took note. Maria Hill was added to adjust the ratio a little.

** Depending on the medium. In the film itself there are three female Autobots: Arcee, Elita One and Chromia. Arcee gets the most screen time and the line, but the sisters do get a good fight scene with Sideswipe at the beginning. In the novel and comics Arcee is the central component with Chromia and Elita One as drone units she controls and they can combine into a larger robot.

** Arcee was cut at the last minute from the first movie and was replaced by Ironhide because of negative fan reaction to her. Also, it was decided that there wasn't enough time to discuss why there were female Transformers in the first place (not that it stopped them from appearing in the second movie). There are a handful of female human characters, though most are simply eye candy.

* In ''[[Good Omens (Literature)|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]].

* 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 Smother]]. Susan Calvin was the shining exception in the 400+ books he wrote until he was old.

* Lampshaded in ''[[It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (TV)|Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia]]''. In "The Gang Solves the Gas Crisis." The gang are trying to figure out their roles within the group and summarise that Mac's the brains, Dennis is the looks, Frank's the muscle, Charlie's the wild card and Dee's the useless chick.

* The ''[[Law and Order]]'' universe is always a bit prone to this:

** On ''[[Law and Order Special Victims Unit]]'', Olivia Benson is very noticeably the only female detective, which, in a squad which deals with rape victims daily, seems somewhat impractical. This was diluted as the show continued, as the ADA was invariably female, and Melinda Warner was given a [[Promotion to Opening Titles]], but it's still pretty glaring.

*** No she isn't. She is the only female detective in the main cast, except for Jefferies in Season 1 and now Rawlins in Season 13, but it is never said or even implied that she is the only female detective in the unit. Unnamed female detectives can be seen in the background. The ADA is also almost always a woman.

* Out of the four leads on ''[[Seinfeld (TV)|Seinfeld]]'', only one (Elaine) is a woman, and she was [[Sixth Ranger|a late addition to the cast.]] All four do get roughly equal screen time, though.

* Inverted on ''[[The L Word]]'' where the vast majority of the ([[Loads and Loads of Characters|very large]]) [[Ensemble Cast]] is female and there are only ever one or two major male characters at any time.

** First Doctor; 50/50 for the first while. There was the Doctor and Ian, plus Barbara and Susan.

** Second Doctor had for a while 2 boys (the Doctor and Jamie) plus one girl, Zoe. Another girl, Victoria, occasionally joined them.

* ''Dead Ringers'' featured a primarily male cast, with a single female member. This allowed the male impressionists to stick to the impressions they were good at or otherwise fitted their voices (and on the TV adaptation, appearances), while the sole female impressionist had to be three times better because she had to do ALL the women.

* When Sandi Toksvig first appeared on ''[[I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue (Radio)|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.

 

 

** The ''[[Mega Man X (Video Game)|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.

*** ''X8'' changes this slightly, as the three female operators are unlockable as bonus characters, each one emulating one of the main (male) characters to varying degrees of success. Alia isn't all that useful as she lacks X's ability to use different armor parts, but Layer is every bit as powerful (and badass) as Zero, and Palette lacks only Axl's ability to copy enemies (which is mostly used for the purpose of finding items rather than combat).

** Finally, each of the ''[[Mega Man ZX (Video Game)|ZX]]'' games has one male and one female protagonist -- a decision that [[Schrodinger's Player Character|has its own problems]], but at least lets girls save the ''Mega Man'' world for once.

** The ''[[Mega Man Battle Network (Video Game)|Battle Network]]'' series inherited the same problem as the original, since most of the Navis are based on original-series Robot Masters. However, there are ''lots'' of female human characters to make up for it.

** ''[[Finding Nemo (Film)|Finding Nemo]]'' has 9:3.

*** The writer explains on the DVD commentary that in fact ''Dory was originally male'' until he saw [[Ellen De Generes]] on television and realised that was the sweet-but-scatty tone he was looking for.

** ''[[Cars (Animation)|Cars]]'': the ratio is 9:3.

*** In the first film, [[Viewer Gender Confusion|the racecar sponsoring RevNGo]] is actually the only female competing in the Piston Cup, and in the sequel, Carla Veloso, the Brazilian racecar is the only female competing in the World Grand Prix.

[[Category:Token Index]]

[[Category:The Smurfette Principle]]