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{{quote|"''Your'e not as smart as [[Hot Scientist|Stewart]]. But, you're the only girl in town. ''"|'''Taylor''', ''[[Planet of the Apes]]''}}
{{quote|"''I'm the only girl.''"|'''Marzipan''', ''[[
''For any series not aimed solely at females, odds are high that only one female will be in the regular cast.''
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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
{{examples}}
== Anime and Manga ==
* ''[[
** You could very arguably make a case for ChiChi, Videl, and Android 18 as regulars, but the latter two don't appear until later in the series.
** The original Dragon Ball series, however, started with a cast of a girl and a boy, later adding males Yamcha and Oolong and (maybe) female Puar. The males started to outnumber the females later, where against all the fighters in the cast there were only Chi-chi and Lunch, and then the latter was [[Chuck Cunningham Syndrome|forgotten]].
* In ''[[Ghost in
** Justified due to the fact that, while speculative fiction, it preserves the country's real world issues. Sexism in the government is dealt with explicitly later in Stand Alone Complex, and is a major catalyst for many of the political issues encountered later. Given this attitude, it's not unthinkable that an Elite government operations unit would have difficulty maintaining women not hyper-competent.
* ''[[
** There has recently be ''one'' recent group that is an exception: the Cloud village team taught by a man named Killer Bee ({{spoiler|the host of the eight-tailed beast}}) is the first to have two girls (Karui and Samui) and one guy (Omoi), although arguably, that squad is one person short since Samui is the squad's leader, a position equivalent to Kurenai/Kakashi/Gai's.
** Although this can be read as there being a 2:1 male to female ratio, thus making 1/3 of the main and secondary characters female and therefore averting this trope - 1/3 of [[Loads and Loads of Characters|a large cast]] is much more than one.
* Similarly, in ''[[Pokémon (
** Before catching Snivy, Pidove was the only female on Ash's Unova team. Because of this, Pidove was the only one who could get close to Snivy without being affected by Attract. <ref> Attract causes foes of the opposite gender to fall in love with them.</ref>
** The various manga series are typically better at this.
* ''[[
** While all the main characters of the various regions have a [[Two Guys and
* Between the two fighting groups in ''[[X
** {{spoiler|Although [[Ambiguous Gender|Nataku]] could count as a girl}}
* ''[[
** The sequel ''Chronicles of the Heroic Knight'' averts this. The "new generation" of heroes consists of three (or four) male and three female characters. As with the previous heroes, Shiris was given a bigger role, and former [[Faux Action Girl]] Deedlit was [[Action Girl|markedly more competent]] -- both had to save the male heroes more than once.
* Inverted in ''[[
* In ''[[Saint Seiya Omega]]'', Aquila Yuna is the only girl among the Bronze Saints.
* ''[[
* ''[[
** That said, Princess Romelle could be seen as an additional female character, even though she doesn't make her debut until Episode 17, and a more kick-ass one than Allura. (Unlike the former, Romelle actually 'fights back' against would-be attackers.) [[Ensemble Darkhorse|Queen Merla]] was added by the American writers/editors of the series for the second season that got distributed to the Western market.
* ''[[
* ''[[
* ''[[
** ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam Wing
** ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam 00
*** There is Chall Austica of manga-only 00P fame.
** ''[[Mobile Fighter G Gundam
** UC makes things more complicated. ''[[
*** A major female character in the first Gundam series ({{spoiler|Sayla}}) was planned to be far more important in the storyline before her voice actress died unexpectedly.
** ''[[
** While not the main character, Chris Mckenzie of [[Mobile Suit Gundam 0080 War in The Pocket
** Yoshiyuki Tomino reportedly ''wanted'' the main character of ''[[Turn a Gundam (Anime)|Turn a Gundam]]'' to be female, but was overruled by the producers. [[Writer Revolt|This may explain why]] the male lead spends most of the series [[Wholesome Crossdresser|disguised as a girl]].
* In ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh (
** 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 (
* The director of ''[[Mai-HiME (
* ''[[
** Also one female Giant, who is also a Marine, and one Celestial Dragon.
* While half of the Soul Reaper lieutenants in ''[[
** Though in the case of Starrk, {{spoiler|Lilynette is actually his other half. When they were made into Arrancar, they separated into two bodies rather than just a body and a sword. Starrk specifically says, "We are the Primera [first] Espada".}}
** Similarly with the Vizard. Though the number is almost equal with a 3:5 the Principle is still in effect since {{spoiler|all three females are former Lieutenants while four of the five male members are former Captains.}}
* ''[[
** If one looks closely during the opening action scene and the briefing room scenes, they can find the ''real'' smurfette of ''[[Appleseed]]''. There's one other female member of E.S.W.A.T. (who is never named, never speaks, and sure as hell never does anything cool; that's [[Badass|Deunan's job]]).
* In ''[[
** Counter to the [[Die for Our Ship|usual progression]] of such a circumstance, Hungary, Belarus, Ukraine, Lichtenstein, and Taiwan are all varying degrees of [[Ensemble Darkhorse]]. Vietnam, Belgium, and the African nations haven't gained such distinction, unfortunately. The fans' fondness of [[Attractive Bent Gender|gender bending]] deserves mention, too.
* Riza Hawkeye is the only woman in Roy Mustang's group in ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]''. Somewhat justified in that there are fewer women in the military than there are men, and the reason she's in the group in the first place is because she's Mustang's aide, confidante, and bodyguard. She's [[The Chick]] only in the sense of being the sole female and dearly loved by her male counterparts; fact is, she's more badass than any of the other four subordinates. This may also be justified, as the country that the series mainly takes place in is an alternate-universe version of pre-World War II Germany, an era where seeing women in the military was a lot less common.
** Among the homunculi, Lust is the only female in the manga/Brotherhood anime (though Envy is genderless according to [[Word of God]]), but the first anime replaced the male Sloth with a female one.
* Heeello, ''[[
** Presumably it's especially glaring because they're teenagers, which heightens the difference between girls and boys more than in elementary school. Bonus points for two of the boys, especially Shinko, having gotten pretty, and the fat one being less absurd-looking than before.
* ''[[
* In ''[[
* In ''[[
** The only exception to the "manager" rule is the Teikoku Alexanders, whose token female is the quarterback.
* ''[[
* In ''[[
** This happens to the Kira Task Force in the Live Action Film, where [[Word of God]] states that she was added simply to make it so it wasn't an all male team like in the anime.
* In ''[[
** Possibly subverted with the A-class, because although Yukihira Sakurako is the only female {{spoiler|until another female member joins}} in the group, she is the only one in the class who gets significant screen time, other than [[Comic Relief]] Saburomaru.
* This trope is scaled up for ''[[
* Casca is the only woman in the Band of the Hawk from ''[[
* ''[[Jo Jo's Bizarre Adventure
** Averted in Part 6, where the primary protagonist and two of her closest allies are women, with at least a couple of female antagonists.
* ''[[
== Board Games ==
* [[
* The ''Guess Who?'' game (in the late 80’s) had exactly 5 girls and like 35 guys. This was a game of yes/no questions about appearance. If you drew a card w/ a girl on it you were almost sure to lose that round. Women were truly an “unusual subtype”. They were rarer than bald people, people with glasses, and gingers.
== Card Games ==
* The [[
== Comics ==
* [[Trope Namers|Named for]] Smurfette, the only female [[The Smurfs
** Ironically, ''The Smurfs'' [[The Smurfs (
** 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 ''[[
** This was later spoofed in ''[[Fables (Comic Book)|Fables]]'' the founders of Smalltown were members of an [[Gulliver's Travels
* ''[[
** 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
** [[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 ''[[
* 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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*** Averted during the "Sisterhood of Evil" era, when the three female members of the team carried on in the absence of the then incarcerated male members.
* When ''[[The Avengers (Comic Book)|The Avengers]]'' started in 1963, [[The Wasp]] was the only female member, and the weakest. Then all the original members left in 1965, but there was still only one female, the Scarlet Witch, who was the weakest...[[A God Am I|at the time]].
** [[Took a Level In Badass|They got better though]]. Scarlet Witch grew to become one of the most powerful mutants in the 'verse, and the team has since then featured several significant female characters, like [[
** The Wasp herself eventually became a badass hero in her own right and she even led the Avengers.
* When the ''[[Justice League of America]]'' started in 1960, [[Wonder Woman]] was the only female member, and though not ''necessarily'' the weakest, was certainly the most resembling. At least the early Gardner Fox stories treated her like the other members, and not like [[The Chick]]. Though she soon became the secretary at the JLA's meetings, taking minutes and so on. It took almost a decade before [[Black Canary]] became the second female member (and that was only after Wonder Woman had resigned; it would take several more years before there was more than one woman on the team).
** In the original ''[[Justice Society of America]]'' comic (predating the Justice League by decades), Wonder Woman was the only female character, and had to be the secretary and never took part in storylines, so JLA Wonder Woman actually came out ahead. That was in the 1940s however, and the reason she didn't take part in storylines was because she had her own book. As a rule the JSA active members were limited to popular characters who didn't support their own title, and even [[
** To add insult to injury, the JLA '''rejected''' a female member prior to letting Black Canary in: Hawkgirl was specifically disallowed, initially because the bylaws required they only let in one new member at a time, and they had just let in Hawkman. Later, she was kept out because her powers duplicated Hawkman's, so she brought nothing new to the table. [[Hawkman]], of course, can only fly, thus is made completely redundant by Superman, but nobody moved to kick Hawkman out on these grounds. Hawkgirl was finally allowed in in the 70s, when the writers caught up with the sexual revolution.
** While we are on the subject of Justice League, the fact that movies starring male superheroes are being greenlit left and right, and Wonder Woman's own film is ''still'' in [[Development Hell]], has not gone unnoticed.
*** Considering the [[Sarcasm Mode|runaway success]] of ''[[Supergirl (
* The first incarnation of the ''[[Teen Titans (Comic Book)|Teen Titans]]'' only had one girl, Wonder Girl. That soon changed.
** In their defense, the team was made up of every sidekick DC had going at the time. There was only one choice unless they wanted to make up a new character.
*** 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:
* Silk Spectre II from ''[[Watchmen (
* [[
* With the occasional exception of Xavin, ''[[
* ''[[
* According to Norwegian Scholar Jon Gisle, the population of [[Disney Ducks Comic Universe|Duckburg]] is about 80 % male.
* In [[
* [[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|Distaff Counterparts]] 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]].
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== Film ==
* 7 is the only female ragdoll in ''[[9
** They were made from the brain essence of a man, so it's surprising there are ANY females among them.
** Made fun of in [http://mad-but-happy.deviantart.com/art/Pick-of-the-Litter-140004585 this] comic.
* The Smurfette Principle was dissected and explained with disturbing precision in ''[[
** While it's true that they reproduce by stork, this doesn't stop them from falling in love with Smurfette. More on this issue in Comics, above.
* In ''[[Fight Club (
** The movie is about universal frustrations. By portraying these frustrations as male and implying that few females could relate to it, it invokes the trope even further.
** The movie is in fact concerned with male frustrations, being narrated by and about a frustrated and idealised masculinity. Specifically, how modern consumerism has an inherent effeminacy (e.g. "the Ikea Nesting Instinct" & "we used to read pornography: now it was the Horchow Collection..."), versus the classic masculinity of the pre-historic "hunter / gatherer" ideal that Tyler Durden advocates. The Gender Binary is destabilised both by the sexually aggressive, non-feminine Marla; and Bob who has his testicles removed and grows breasts. The Narrator (and therefore Durden) are consumed by the implications of (post-)modernity for the masculine subject, hence why the Fight Club is male only.
* In ''The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen'' (both [[The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (
* In [[The Film of the Book]] as with [[The Lord of the Rings
** In the [[Ralph Bakshi]] [[The Lord of the Rings (
* ''[[
** It affects the merchandise, too. Toy producer Hasbro has always been reluctant to make action figures based on Padmé's various gowns, but have settled for releasing one a year. It's somewhat justified by the fact that most of Padme's outfits don't easily lend themselves to ''action'' figures. But if Alien Extra #5 is getting a toy, well...
** ''[[
** After the [[There Is Another]] line in ''[[
* In ''[[Wanted (
* The Toho films are notorious for this. Throughout their famous [[Kaiju]] (specifically [[Godzilla]]) film series, only 6 monsters have been female. These monsters are Mothra, Rodan (one of the monsters in the original film was a female), Manda, Kamacuras (arguably, since there is more than one), Megaguirus, and Biollante. This becomes especially evident when one begins to wonder where the heck Godzilla's son came from. Some fans believe that [[Godzilla vs. Destoroyah
** In the British Godzilla knock-off ''[[
* ''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.
* ''[[Ocean's Eleven
** 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 casting for ''[[The Avengers (
* ''[[Transformers:
** 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 ''[[
* With the exception of Kelly, the female characters in ''[[
* In ''[[
** In the original ''[[Predator]]'', the cast was made up of a bunch of battle-hardened marines and one female prisoner-of-war whose primary function was to create an [[Enemy Mine]] situation.
* In the 2010 film [[The Traveler]], Jane Hollow is the only female police officer present in the film, and the only female who took part in the assaulting of the drifter 1 year prior to the story.
* In the 2011 J.J. Abrams' film [[
* [[
* Sif is the only [[Action Girl]] in [[Thor (
* All three main characters in ''[[
* Like its source material, the 2011 film ''[[Tintin (
* Out of all the support crew for [[Captain America: The First Avenger
* In ''[[
* ''[[
** At the end, {{spoiler|when the show is revived, [[Affirmative Action Girl|Laliari]] joins the cast}}
* In ''[[The Avengers (
* In ''[[Mystery Men]]'', The Bowler.
* The [[Men in Black (
== Literature ==
* ''[[The Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy (
* It took ''456 pages'' to reach a female character in ''The Sword of [[Shannara]]''. [[Lampshade Hanging|Even her rescuer was VERY surprised]].
* In [[Orson Scott Card]]'s ''[[
** Eventually, Petra winds up first a kinda-shallow [[Love Interest]] and then a babymomma. To something like eight kids. And settles down with ''Peter'', of all people, since Bean had to go away into space with the mutant babies and you can't have a woman ''alone''. (Unless she's a nun. The nun was cool.) [[Writer
* [[Tamora Pierce]] has stated she writes stories with female leads precisely because of this. At the time she was starting the ''Circle of Magic'' series, she saw an article that mentioned that 75% of recently published fantasy books had male heroes, so she inverted the figure by having three girls and one boy as the main characters (a male character with stereotypically "girlie" [[Green Thumb|plant-based magic]] at that).
** The teachers were two men and two women, though, and Sandry also had Duke Vedris.
** However, Pierce does have a roughly equal number of male and female secondary characters in almost all the books.
*** And sometimes they overshadow her girls, especially when she gets to the romance stage. Still, she does all right. In the Trickster books even the [[Love Interest]] didn't hold a candle to Ally for character-dominance. Of course, the relationship had a really odd progression. Starting with the fact that he's a ''crow.''
* [[
** The ''[[
** The ''[[
*** 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.
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*** 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 [[
* In the [[
* ''[[
** 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
* In ''[[
* 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 ''[[
* 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.
* ''[[
* [[Cthulhu Mythos|Shub-Niggurath]] is the Smurfette of the [[
* The [[Cthulhu Mythos|Mythos]] also has [[Generation Xerox|Cthylla]], who is the only "daughter" of Cthulhu's offsrping.
* A subtler version is at play in Zamyatin's ''[[
** 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 ) cousins. And they didn't even want to take her in the first place. Their main reasoning was "wouldn't you rather stay at land, where you can take shower every day?". Yup, [[Sarcasm Mode|very convincing]].
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* [[Inverted Trope|Reversed]] in ''[[Designing Women]]'': Anthony was not only the token male, but also the [[Token Minority]], making him a [[Twofer Token Minority]].
** Depending on who you speak to, some consider him almost a [[Threefer Token Minority]], since it seems like there's significant evidence in the series to suggest he might also be gay.
* Virtually every seasonal roster of ''[[
** With that said, in five instances where the original ''[[Super Sentai]]'' countpart only had one female ranger, the yellow ranger was [[Gender Flip|gender flipped]] for the ''Power Rangers'' adaptation in order to provide the team with [[Two Girls to
** Neither show ever had a female character in Red until ''[[
** Also, ''[[Super Sentai]]'' often has one female major villain. She is usually a comic relief character. This is less prevalent in ''[[
** ''[[Engine Sentai Go-onger]]'', for once, had one of the extra rangers as a female with actual screentime. The ratio of the Go-onger team was still 5:2, but at least they made an effort. ''[[
** In the toylines, [[Girl Show Ghetto|the female Rangers usually get basic action figures produced and that's it]], while the boys get [[Environment Specific Action Figure]] variations out the wazoo. With the ''[[Power Rangers Jungle Fury
*** Some series have made non-Yellow females a Blue or White Ranger rather than Pink, so that even if little boys don't want her action figure (because the costume will usually have a skirt on it) they can still be persuaded to buy other merchandise based on the character - her weapons, mecha, etc.
* The only major female Muppet is Miss Piggy, a glamourous diva. When she was first introduced, she was a minor character. The large cast of ''[[The Muppet Show]]'' is male-dominant, but this may be due to its slapstick nature (Miss Piggy, for example, rarely takes any of the slapstick, but she certainly dishes it out when provoked). Furthermore, the regular cast used to include other female characters, such as Janice and Hilda, but both became much less prominent after Hilda's puppeteer quit and Janice's puppeteer died, leaving Piggy. Janice herself rarely appeared outside of her [[Five-Man Band|(The Electric Mayhem)]], of which she was [[The Chick]].
** There have been a few other female Muppets, but their tenure is either short-lived; or they're one-off characters. A notable example is Annie-Sue Pig; a young ingénue and foil to Miss Piggy. Her appearances declined considerably after the 3rd season, although she did still appear from time to time. A number of the [[Ambiguous Gender|ambiguously-gendered]] monsters are noted in background material as being female; but there is no clear indication of this on the show.
*** This applies to the puppeteers as well; in the first season, there were seven puppeteers, and only one (Eren Ozker) was a woman. Ozker & John Lovelady left after Season 1, so they held auditions for a new female for Season 2, with Louise Gold getting the part (although she was uncredited for the season). In Season 3, they hired another female puppeteer (Kathryn Mullen) but also hired another male (Steve Whitmire) making it 6 guys, 2 girls. Also, in relation to Miss Piggy & Janice, they were (and still are) performed by males. Yeah.
** ''[[
** The spinoff ''[[
** ''[[
** ''[[Bear in
* ''[[Stargate SG
* [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] on ''[[3rd Rock
* [[Justified Trope]] on ''[[M*A*S*H
* ''[[
** Both Python precursor series, ''Do Not Adjust Your Set'' and ''At Last the 1948 Show'', featured five person casts consisting of four men and one woman.
* Possibly lampshaded during the fourth season of ''[[House (TV series)|House]]'': The title character has two slots for doctors to work under him, and four prospects, two of each gender. He {{spoiler|kicks one of the women out, and tells the other, nicknamed "13", that he'd hire her if he had a slot}}. Later, his boss, Lisa Cuddy, informs him that he has to {{spoiler|hire at least one woman, and tells him to hire 13}}. Cuddy starts to walk away, then realizes that she had just {{spoiler|[[Batman Gambit|given him exactly what he wanted]].}}
* On ''[[Star Trek:
** This was due to [[Executive Meddling]]. The original pilot had a female ''second-in-command''. The network couldn't fire her fast enough (even if she managed to sneak back on set anyway in a blonde wig and a nurse's outfit).
*** The network might also have resented the fact that she was [[Gene Roddenberry]]'s [[Casting Couch|girlfriend]].
*** According to [[William Shatner]] at least, ''women'' in the test audiences found the female second-in-command "pushy" and "annoying". Maybe [[The World Is Not Ready|The World Was Not Ready]]...
**** It's also been said that [[NBC]] gave Roddenberry a somewhat [[Sadistic Choice]]: either keep the female second-in-command or keep Spock, but not both. Years later, Majel Barrett would quip that he "kept the Vulcan and married the woman, 'cause he didn't think [[Leonard Nimoy|Leonard]] would have it the other way around."
** For a world with supposed complete gender equality, this applies to most ''Trek'' series. ''[[Star Trek:
** Much improved in ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
** Further improved in ''[[Star Trek: Voyager
** ''[[Star Trek: Enterprise
** Interestingly [[Equal Opportunity Evil|villains don't suffer this problem]]: ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
* ''[[Chouseishin Gransazer]]'' has twelve Gransazers (transforming superheroes), divided into four "tribes", each consisting of two guys and a girl. The two guys of each tribe can be quite clearly categorized as an "alpha male" and a "beta male". The girl is invariably [[The Chick]]. Ai of the Water Tribe is the chickiest of the four, though. (Her name means "love". It doesn't get any more cheesy and girly than that.)
* The [[Five-Man Band]] in ''[[Captain Power and
* ''[[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.
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** 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.
*** In fairness, there is a paucity of female comedians already, so it's not necessarily the fault of the people who make the programmes.
* Reversed in ''[[Sex and
* ''[[
** The show's spotty record with women correspondents was [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] when Kristen Schaal took over the show and declared Jon Stewart to be the new Senior Men's Correspondent: "Feel free to talk about men's issues. But don't expect to be on the show more than every four to twelve weeks or so."
*** Olivia Munn has appeared multiple times, which may make her the third regular female correspondent.
* Averted and inspected in ''[[Rescue Me]]''. Janet Gavin and other women are major characters, and the presence of ''one'' woman in the firehouse warranted an entire subplot.
* The sitcom ''[[
* The main trio of ''[[
** Although, as of now, this has been reversed. Nina has become a principal cast member and now that {{spoiler|[[Aidan Turner]] has left the show}} the ratio is now two women to one man.
** Nope. It ''looked'' like it was going to turn out that way at the end of series 3, but what with {{spoiler|Nina and George both getting killed off and replaced by two male characters}}, the formula ultimately remains the same. In the show's defense, it's not ''that'' bad to only have one major female character when there are only three protagonists in total.
* ''[[Big Wolf
* In ''[[
* ''[[
* An interesting case is the BBC's ''[[Robin Hood (TV series)|Robin Hood]]''. For the first four episodes, Marian was the only female character, not so much because of The Smurfette Principle, but simply because there was no other reoccurring female character in the legends. This was solved with the introduction of Djaq, a [[Sweet Polly Oliver]] in the [[Gender Flip|Gender Flipped]] role of the Saracen, who contributed her skills as a physician and scientist to the team. However, both Marian and Djaq were written out of the show at the end of Season 2, and replaced with [[Affirmative Action Girl|Isabella and Kate]]. Although Isabella had an important part to play in the narrative, the [[Creator's Pet|widely-hated]] Kate was simply the Token Girl amongst the outlaws, a task that involved [[Shallow Love Interest|fan-girling Robin]], [[Damsel Scrappy|getting kidnapped every week]], and [[The Load|being a useless tag-along]]. [[Unfortunate Implications]] abounded.
* ''[[
* ''[[Homicide
* The new version of ''[[Hawaii Five-O]]'' has Kono [[Gender Flip|Gender Flipped]] in order to have a girl among the lead characters.
* ''[[
** However, in seasons 1 and 2, there was often Leslie Winkle acting as a female [[Sixth Ranger]]. As of Season 4, the odds have improved considerably, with Bernadette and Amy both being upgraded to main cast status for all the episodes they appear in. They still have a ways to go though: the two don't appear in every episode. Priya is also a major character, and mothers of the main characters (particularly Howard and Raj) are frequently involved.
* ''[[
* Pick an [[American Idol|Idol]] jury. Pick any [[American Idol|Idol]] jury.
** They added Kara DioGaurdi in the eighth season, making it two male judges and two female judges. When Paula Abdul left before Season 9 she was replaced by Ellen DeGeneres. Beginning with Season 10 it's back two male judges(Randy Jackson and Steven Tyler) and one female judge(Jennifer Lopez).
** OK, so pick any jury on any other talent show. So You Think You Can Dance: 2 men, 1 woman. America's Got Talent: 2 men, 1 woman. The Sing-Off: 2 men, 1 woman. The Voice: ''3'' men, 1 woman.
* Lampshaded in ''[[It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
* The ''[[Law and Order]]'' universe is always a bit prone to this:
** On [[Fan Nickname|The Mother Ship]], the lack of female characters lead to one of the most positive examples of [[Executive Meddling]] ever, giving us [[Benevolent Boss|Anita Van Buren]] and [[Hello, Attorney!|Claire Kincaid]]. Ever since, there have been two women (Van Buren and Jack McCoy's current [[Hello, Attorney!]] ADA), apart from the single season in which Nina Cassidy was a detective. She was known as Detective Beauty Queen.
** 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.
** On the other hand, ''[[Law and Order: Criminal Intent]]'' is always very good about having one male and one female partner. For maximum [[Unresolved Sexual Tension|UST]].
** Both leads on ''[[Law
** ''[[Law and Order Los Angeles]]'' had a male dominated police force, though their Captain was a female. While the prosecutors rotated a bit during the season, only the ADA's assistant was ever female, exemplifying this trope in spades.
* Amanda Keller is the only female cast member on the Australian panel/game show ''[[Talkin Bout Your Generation]]'', not counting female guest stars.
* ''[[
** They do have Abby, a lab tech who is one of three characters who has been in every episode (the other two being Gibbs and Dinozzo).
* ''[[The X
* Out of the four leads on ''[[
* 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.
* Constantly played straight and averted in ''[[Doctor Who]]'', thanks to the ever changing nature of the show. Because the Doctor is male (although, he could [[The Nth Doctor|regenerate]] into a girl, theoretically) writers tend to balance him out by having a female companion. Extra companions will occasionally be brought on, but their gender in completely random. Examples of multi-companion crews have been:
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** For the majoirity of Nine's run Rose Tyler was the only companion, although the very popular Captain Jack Harkness came on near the end. By the end of the Russel T. Davies era all the companions from the period came back, including Martha Jones, Donna Noble, Sarah Jane Smith and Jackie Tyler for the girls, with the guys including Jack and Mickey.
** The Eleventh's Team TARDIS could be considered 50/50, so far: You've got the Doctor and Rory, but also Amy and River.
* ''[[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|Ms. Fanservices]] ([[Trope Codifier]] [[Lil
* In [[
== Professional Wrestling ==
* This is especially glaring in [[
** 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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* ''I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again'' featured a primarily male cast, with a single female member who played fairly stereotypical female characters.
* ''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 ''[[
** 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 ==
* While the ''[[
** 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.
** Space Marines cannot be female. This is handwaved, badly.
* The fantasy origin of ''[[
* ''[[
* In [[AT-43]], most armies appear to be equal-opportunity employers going by the background story, but there are basically no models of female regular troops. However, about half the special characters (who are all officers) ''are'' female, as are two out of the three released models of medics and one of the three scientist models.
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== Toys ==
* Across [[LEGO]]'s various themes:
** In ''[[
*** When the focus shifted to the Agori race on another planet, it was established that whose tribes don't have the One Gender rule. In theory, there can be more females than there were before since no one role ''has'' to be male, and said female could be of any tribe. In practice, only one female character was introduced as a set in the one-and-a-half years of this story...and she was ''still'' the blue one. Supporting material discusses this somewhat - the story arc in question focuses on [[Gladiator Games|arena gladiators]] [[Serious Business|with survival of the race as a whole at stake]] (not the most feminine profession) and it's mentioned that female gladiators are generally less common because the villagers are less inclined to put their faith in female gladiators, which they perceive to be weaker. Of course, said sole female gladiator introduced really isn't at all fond of the sentiment.
** In Life on Mars, an older theme from the [[Turn Of The Century]], there is exactly one female character: Cassiopeia, a female Martian (distinguished from the others by her [[Tertiary Sexual Characteristics|eyelashes]]).
** LEGO's recent "Minifigures" series has received criticism for only having two female minifigures per series of 16. It doesn't help that they're stereotypes like cheerleaders and nurses.
*** ...and surfers, snowboarders and cavewomen.
** LEGO themes in general get this pretty badly - compared to most, BIONICLE actually had it downright ''good'' -, to the point that the fanbase [[And the Fandom Rejoiced|tends to get excited by]] the female minifigs of the Minifigures series so that they can actually have a slightly more feasible number of females in their city setup or whatever. Hell, the theme which had the best ratio was probably the ''[[Harry Potter]]'' licence, and even it downplayed every female except Hermione (with the next-most important female character, Ginny, only appearing in three sets across the decade of the line's existence; anyone else is lucky to get more than one). When [[Star Wars:
* Before they became animated series, the [[G.I. Joe (Franchise)|G.I. Joe]] and [[He
* [[
* 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 ''[[
== Video Games ==
* ''[[
* The ''[[
** Of the six character classes in ''Final Fantasy I'', only the [[White Mage]] looks female (and the original White Wizard [http://images4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110109223549/finalfantasy/images/b/bc/White_Wizard_%28Final_Fantasy%29.png graphic] confirms White mage as a male [[Bishonen]]). It's possible to see all of the characters as androgynous to be female and the remakes give most classes both male and female names.
** ''[[Final Fantasy II (Video Game)|Final Fantasy II]]'' only has two female playable characters out of ten, Maria and Leila, with the latter being one of the seven [[Guest Star Party Member|Guest Star Party Members]]. The core group is [[Two Guys and
** The original version of ''[[
** Notably, every game since ''[[
** This is obvious in the crossover ''Dissidia''. [[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.
* ''[[
** Heck, Virginia is considered [[The Hero|The Main Character]] of Wild Arms 3.
** [[Wild Arms
** [[Wild Arms 2]] and [[Wild
* Overall, the major ''[[
* ''[[
* ''[[
** At one point, Sega tried to produce a series with "Sonic's Sister", but the effort proved unsuccessful. Perhaps because they tried to [[Dolled-Up Installment|edit her into]] ''[[
* In the first installment of the Nintendo [[Massive Multiplayer Crossover]], ''[[
* On a related note, many other [[Fighting Game|fighting games]] fall victim to the same problem, but not because they're drawing from other canons. It is rare to find more than a few female characters available to play out of an otherwise large collection. Generally, the female characters are also [[Fragile Speedster|notably weaker]] than the male characters. This is parodied brutally in ''[[
** A pretty notable exception in ''[[
** Eventually averted by both of Namco's major fighting-game franchises, ''[[
* The ''[[Super Mario Bros
** And Birdo? Actually, fandom and the story bits from various games are conflicted over whether Birdo is a man, woman, or transsexual. In the games it was initially a male cross-dresser, but was retconned into being female.
** Also, some of the RPGs feature individual female characters from enemy species (e.g. Goombella the Goomba from ''[[
** On the villain side, the first evil female was the single girl of the Koopalings, Wendy O. Koopa. Captain Syrup showed up later as Wario's nemesis, and some stage bosses were female (Naval Piranha). Lately the villainous ladies have become more numerous with Cackletta, the Shadow Queen, Princess Shroob and Elder Princess Shroob, Mimi, the Shadow Sirens, and Robirdo.
* ''[[Donkey Kong Country (
** Similarly, the Kremlings were always male in the games, and it wasn't until ''Barrel Blast'' that females were finally featured (specifically, Kass and Kalypso).
** ''[[
* Many games with a four- or [[Five-Man Band]] have exactly one female. [[The Chick|Guess which role she usually fills]]. Examples:
** ''Billy Hatcher'': four main characters, one female.
*** Billy Hatcher also only had one female chicken elder. The rest were male. In fact, her being the only female elder is [[Lampshade Hanging|noted by an NPC]].
** ''[[Crazy Taxi]]'' has four playable drivers, one woman.
** Capcom's ''[[
** ''[[Final Fight
** ''[[Gauntlet (
*** ''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 [[NP Cs]] in the game are male, including the zombies until the female version of the Boomer was introduced in the sequel.
* In the ''[[
** 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.
** Well, let us not forget [[Cast Full of Pretty Boys|Organization XIII]]. Out of thirteen members, there is only ''one'' female (maybe Xion, the new character introduced in ''[[Oddly
*** Xion's a confusing example, {{spoiler|She's a replica, which doesn't even make gender matter, but she also takes the view of the memories of who's viewing her, this makes her female (A memory of Kairi) to Roxas, but Xigbar sees her as male (Ventus).}}
** The main characters of ''[[
* Most ''[[
* The ''[[Mega Man (
** The [[Capcom vs. Whatever]] games have their own different [[Unfortunate Implications]] concerning Roll. In ''[[
** In [[Mega Man (
** The ''[[Mega Man X
*** ''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).
** The ''[[Mega Man Zero
** Finally, each of the ''[[Mega Man ZX
** The ''[[Mega Man Battle Network
*** Actually, one of the no-name NPCs you can talk to in the second game casually mentions "A cute girl like me wouldn't-", despite having a generic Navi NPC sprite ("commercial model", they're called in-game), albeit a red-hued version.
** 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: 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.
* ''[[
** ''[[
*** Many fans believe Fawkes was a human female.
** ''[[Fallout
** The [[All There in the Manual|Fallout Bible]] mentions Vault 68, populated with 999 men and only one woman, and Vault 69, with 999 women and only one man. It is never mentioned what happened in these vaults, but considering the [[Crapsack World|tone of the games]] and the other vaults, they probably didn't end well.
* ''[[
* ''[[
* Rather smurfy is the ''[[
** Looking at the races themselves, only the Night Elves have a significant amount of female units. The humans have the sorceress, orcs have nothing at all and the undeads have the banshees. And there are no female neutrals either, unless you count the High Elven archers. Oh, and in the game, the Priestess's icon is a portrait of her ''tiger'', not the Priestess herself, unlike all the other male heroes who have portraits of their faces.
** A few bones are thrown to the gender-equality crowd in the expansion ''The Frozen Throne''. Three female heroes -- the Warden, the Dark Ranger, and the Naga Sorceress -- were added, and were at least decent.
** The earlier games in the series had ''no'' female characters in the game. At all. Until ''Beyond The Dark Portal'', and then you got only one: Alleria Windrunner, a unique unit and Sylvanas's elder sister.
*** ''Warcraft 1'' had a half-orc, half-human (who was later retconned into half-Dranei) girl. Garona Halforcen was present in one mission of ''Warcraft 1''. The Smurfette Principle in full force.
** The Orc gender balance was also acknowledged in ''[[
** And that is before getting into their [http://www.wowpedia.org/images/thumb/7/7e/Sylvanasstatuee.jpg/180px-Sylvanasstatuee.jpg outfits.]
* Contrast ''[[
* The ''[[Star Fox (
** The [[Vaporware|unreleased]] ''Star Fox 2'', however, would have added two female characters to the roster - [[Genki Girl]] Fay and [[Action Girl]] Miyu.
** And in ''Command'', there are a solid 4 females: Krystal, Kat, and newcomers Lucy (Peppy's daughter) and [[The Scrappy|Amanda]], Slippy's ''female'' love interest. There is even an all-girl mission.
** Then we have the 1993 [[
* All three entries of the ''[[Earthbound
* Four main playable characters in ''[[
* ''[[
* The first iteration of ''[[
** One of Chun-Li's win quotes in ''[[
** The cast of crossover characters from ''[[
** ''[[
*** The western release of the Super NES port of ''Final Fight'', [[Wouldn't Hit a Girl|replaced Roxy and Poison with two (non-crossdressing) dudes named Sid and Billy]], making Jessica (an NPC) into the only girl in Metro City.
* The ''[[
* The ''[[Art of Fighting]]'' trilogy has a total of only five female fighters in the entire series. In the first installment, King, the sole female fighter in that game, [[Bifauxnen|is disguised as a male bouncer]] [[Clothing Damage|until her shirt is torn in battle]]. [[Fan Service|Wonder why her gender was revealed that way?]]
* Despite being the flagship [[Action Girl]] of the video game world, Samus Aran of ''[[
** If we've learned anything from the series, it's [[Samus Is a Girl|don't assume the guy in the all-encompassing armor...is.]]
* In ''[[Bully (
* While ''[[
* At one time to some people, ''[[Spyro the Dragon]]'' was classified as a ''sexist'' game because there were no important female characters at first. But then along came Bianca and Elora, with the first being a sort of villain and the other just a love interest. And then there was [[Ensemble Darkhorse|Sheila]], a female kangaroo. Even in the ''Legend of Spyro'' series, Cynder is the only important female, with no other females present, which leads to this trope heading for some very [[Unfortunate Implications]], although false allegations of Cynder being a [[Mary Sue]] are over powering what bizarre ideas could be drawn from a universe of mostly male dragons.
* Both ''[[Star Wars: Battlefront (
** If you own the Xbox version there is Asajj Ventress hero character from the DLC.
* ''[[
* In ''[[Diablo (
** Diablo I was either more or less balanced with the inclusion of the Hellfire expansion depending on how you approach it. It added the male monk class by default, plus mildly altered remakes of the Warrior and Rogue that could only be unlocked by futzing with a system file.
* ''[[
* Every ''[[
** Somewhat misleading also, as female Farseers in lore are actually a minority, and howling banshees are 50% male (though they still wear female armor and refer to themselves as the daughters of...some elder crone chick from their mythology. Reverse is true for the other aspect warriors, it's just not obvious.)
* ''[[Nezumi Man]]'' has Wave Nezumi, the only female boss of the eight. Kind of a coincidence then that her powers are the same element as Splash Woman's.
* ''[[
** The villian groups in [[City of Adventure|Paragon City]] are almost all male, with two exceptions (there seems to be a pattern here...), the [[Circus of Fear|Carnival of Shadows]] and the Knives of Artemis.
* The only females in the entirety of ''[[Half-Life (
* The playable characters in both ''[[
* Let's see, [[
* ''[[Drakengard]]'': Aside from professionally [[Distressed Damsel]] Furiae, the only female character of note is Arioch. Who is a deranged, barren elf who [[Eats Babies|eats children]]. She isn't even the worst person in the party, which includes a sociopathic mass murderer who routinely kicks his own allies in the head, a senile, racist old man, a pedophile, and a six-year-old boy {{spoiler|who dooms the world out of petty spite}}.
* Several of the [[
* The ''[[
* Rachel Parker in the [[Resistance]] series is the only female recurring survivor.
** Somewhat subverted with [[Resistance Retribution]] where the major issue is fighting an army of Female Chimera along with the typical Chimera mooks.
* Chizuru, Shermie and Shion are the only female boss characters you will face in ''[[
* The ''[[Ace Combat]]'' series is a pretty bad offender (but then again, they are gaming equivalents of ''[[Top Gun]]''):
** ''[[
** The un-[[Macekre|macekred]] Japanese version of ''[[
** ''[[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.
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** ''[[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.
* Noble Team in ''[[Halo
* The only female in ''[[
* Anya Stroud is the only female who fought alongside Marcus in Delta Squad in ''[[
* Depending on the game, [[The Legend of Zelda
* In ''[[Rage (
* Of the gang of playable characters in ''[[
== [[Web Comics]] ==
* This is lampshaded early on in the ''[[Insecticomics]]'' where Kickback claims that viewers had complained that the comic didn't have any female characters and uses this as a justification to vote to change Laserbeak's gender to female. Somehow.
* A [[Lampshade Hanging]] occured in [http://exterminatusnow.comicgenesis.com/d/20060113.html this] ''[[
* ''[[
** ''O0TS'' may have started out this way, but a large portion of the most recent stories have shown the personality conflicts between two very different female protagonists: Haley and Celia.
* ''[[
* Erin is pretty much the only female character in the ''[[Magic:
* Inverted in ''[http://amazoness.co.uk/ Amazoness!]'', which is set in the mythical Amazon city of Themiskyra in which men are not allowed to step foot. The only men who have shown up so far are nameless mooks who exist only to be killed by the Amazons in battle. There is the matter of {{spoiler|Eutropia who is biologically male but psychologically female.}}
* The entire cast of ''[[8-Bit Theater (Webcomic)|Eight Bit Theater]]'' contains a grand total of four female characters (White Mage, Kary, Bahamut's witch girlfriend, and princess Sara), only one of which is a major one. She is also the [[White Magician Girl]], not quite a main character and by a wide margin the least powerful character. However, this is almost undoubtedly a result of the source material or a deliberate parody thereof.
** {{spoiler|However, in the end she kills the [[Big Bad]] without the help of the men, who were too incompetent to do it themselves. This does not change the fact that every other important character is male, save one villain.}}
* Inverted in ''[[
* In ''[[Ctrl
* The first two arcs of ''[[
* Inverted heavily in ''[[
* Linda Concarne is the only female regular in ''[[
* Terra the earthworm in ''[[
* Six Pack of Otters is something of an interesting case. We have not yet been introduced to all six of the Otters that the title implies...but of the five that we have met, four are male. And the fifth, female Otter's presence is felt mostly by the other four (male) cast-member's reaction to her: she's not unseen, but she hasn't had a whole ton of screen-time either. Made unusual because the author of the comic is female, and the setting is a college campus (i.e. there's no particular reason that the setting should include few females).
* Early on in ''[[
* To the extent that ''[[
* ''[[
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** Inverted in the recent arc "The Watchers". The title organization has about nine members, and only one of them is male. He's the second-in-command, and is often teased by the female members for being the only guy. But this is probably the author's subversion and attempted attack on the Smurfette Principle. It seems to go against the themes of previous arcs, but The Watcher arc is written by a different author (the other arcs alternate between three other guys).
*** Oddly, the author behind The Watcher arc has a tendency to make fun of the other three authors by writing characters that are presented as male at first, but turn out later to be female...
* ''[[
** The commentary to ''Why Come Only One Girl?'' points out that Teen Girl Squad eventually became their "new female outlet".
** The Cheat Commandos, as a parody of '80s cartoons, do this explicitly with "Foxface", whose action figure boasts "Lady Type!" and "Not One of The Guys!!" The latter is a direct reference to the token females of ''[[G.I. Joe (Franchise)|G.I. Joe]]''. Even then, Foxface has never had a speaking part (though Crack Stuntman's girlfriend got a brief speaking part as a character in one episode.)
* In ''[[
* [[
== Western Animation ==
* ''[[
** They later made an effort to keep it that way because after {{spoiler|Zuko completed his [[Heel Face Turn]] and joined the Gaang}}; just ''three episodes later'' {{spoiler|Suki joined them too.}}
*** On a smaller scale, [[Cute Bruiser|Toph Bei Fong]] appears to be the only female competitor in the Earth Rumble VI.
*** In the spinoff series ''[[
* Examples from [[Hanna-Barbera]]:
** All of H-B's [[Talking Animal]] characters were male until Cindy Bear was introduced.
** Penelope Pitstop was the only woman not only in ''[[
** The animated series of ''[[The Little Rascals]]'' consisted of four boys and Darla Hood, although this is probably a legacy from the original shorts, where the boys were firmly in their "[[Girls Have Cooties]]" stage.
** For the first season of ''[[
** ''[[
*** In the original series, Jezebel Jade was the only female character to appear in at least two episodes. Several episodes had all-male casts.
*** The 1980s version introduced Jessie Bradshaw to the all-male cast of the original series. She was meant to be a recurring character, but only appeared in the last episode before the series' cancellation. She would return in the two follow-up made-for-TV animated movies, which [[Retcon|retconned]]/[[The Reveal|revealed her]] to be Race Bannon's daughter. In the 90's update, she was made a main character.
**** Unfortunately, it also reinforced the stereotypes about women as motherly and men as inept parents when it turned Dr. Quest from a loving, nurturing father into an odiously stereotypical "clueless male" dad who could not possibly be nurturing specifically because he was not a female.
* In most series in the ''[[
** The ''Superfriends'' in Season 1 attempted to mitigate this a little by adding Wendy. But she was the Smurfette of her heroes-in-training subgroup. Marvin and Wonder Dog, so named as an honorific to Wonder Woman, are both male.
*** It's notable, however, that Wendy was usually the more competent detective of the trio, being very much the Velma to Marvin & Wonderdog's Shaggy & Scooby.
** In the subsequent seasons, Jayna of the Wonder Twins was added, but she was still the Smurfette of her own subgroup, as co-Wonder Twin Zan and Team Pet Gleek were also both male.
* ''[[
** That's not to say that there were no female characters originally. Tweety's owner is always referred to as Granny. In fact, she had a classic WB cartoon named for her, "Tugboat Granny". So, she is a named character and is an important part of the Warners mythos. Most notably, in modern adaptations, she's the caretaker of the [[
** Poor Penelope Pussycat. No one ever remembers her name...
*** That's because she didn't have a name in the original [[Pepe Le Pew]] cartoons -- or rather, she did, but it changed every cartoon. She was "Fabrette" on "Really Scent," Fifi in "Two Scents Worth," and other times, she was just a nameless cat who got painted and is left to be chased and harassed by this horny skunk.
*** The only time she was named Penelope during [[The Golden Age of Animation]] ''[[
** Don't forget Witch Hazel!
** Petunia Pig is Porky's girlfriend, but she had a ''much'' more prominent role in the ''Looney Tunes'' comic books and merchandise than she ever did on screen, having only ever appeared in a handful of animated shorts.
** Then there's Mama Bear in [[Chuck Jones]]' "Three Bears" series (there pretty much had to be.) She's passive and deadpan (compared to her violent husband and idiot son), but that's what makes her hilarious.
** More success was found with its successor shows, ''[[
*** A first season episode of ''Tiny Toons'', "Fields of Honey", actually revolved around Babs trying to find a female Looney Toon who could serve as her mentor. It turned out to be a black-and-white era character, Honey, whose comic schtick was not unlike hers; she had simply been forgotten. But note that in [[Real Life]], Honey existed -- and she was merely [[Shallow Love Interest|Bosko's girlfriend]] and was ''nothing'' like the one portrayed here.
** Still around, though not really successful: Lola Bunny, introduced in ''[[
*** Her predecessor, Honey Bunny (no relation to Bosko's girlfriend Honey), was a staple of the old Gold Key and Whitman Looney Toons comic books for years and years. Sadly, Honey seems to have been largely forgotten since Lola was introduced.
* Most of the older [[Disney]] cartoon canon are male, and the females are often just [[Distaff Counterpart|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 [[We Are Still Relevant Dammit|making Donald a skateboarder and Goofy a fighter pilot a la]] ''[[
** Minnie got revamped again for the ''[[
* In ''[[
** This isn't helped by long-time ''Transformers'' comic writer Simon Furman, who writes Transformers as having ''no'' gender and has publically stated that he hates the idea of female Transformers. This, combined with the fact that Jhiaxus' experiments in giving Transformers gender made Arcee both a female and [[Ax Crazy]] brings up some [[Unfortunate Implications]].
** Admittedly, it is a show about alien robots who technically wouldn't have genders. This is however not a good excuse for cutting out the characters designed to look female, or cancelling their toys. Also, Furman seems to think "no gender" means male by default. Literally, it would mean that there's no reason Optimus Prime can't be female!
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** Devil's Due's ''G.I. Joe: Declassified'' series also (sort of) added a black female member to the Joe team. One of the early Marvel G.I. Joe comics showed someone looking at a list of team members on a computer, including the never-seen "Shooter" (an in joke based on the name of Marvel's then editor-in-chief, Jim Shooter). Over 20 years later, the ''Declassified'' series [[Retcon|revealed]] that Shooter was actually a black woman, who was the original G.I. Joe team's sniper. Her presence on the team was so top secret that even the other Joes didn't know about her...and consequently didn't realize they were leaving her behind as they fled an about-to-explode Cobra base at the end of their first mission. (She got shot moments before the base exploded, so the Joes weren't directly responsible for her death.)
* The only female in ''[[Winnie the Pooh]]'' is Kanga, a mother, who isn't seen nearly as much as her own son. [[Justified Trope|Although this makes perfect sense, given the fact that it's based on a little boy's stuffed animal collection.]]
* ''[[
** In the original ''[[
** April's [[Action Girl]] role was fully realized in [[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (
*** In addition the character of Karai was given a significant role, adding another female warrior to the cast.
** The ''Fast Forward'' series also features only one girl, Starlee.
Line 595:
** 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 the [[Useful Notes/The Bechdel Test|test]]:
** ''[[
*** 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 Life
** The only major female characters in ''[[Monsters,
** ''[[
*** The writer explains on the DVD commentary that in fact ''Dory was originally male'' until he saw [[Ellen
** ''[[
** ''[[
*** 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.
** There are no female rats in ''[[Ratatouille]]'' (at least not any with a speaking role). Remy's family consists of a father and a brother. The major human female character, Colette, is very much aware that she is the only female chef in the restaurant and in a definite minority in the profession in general. She was forced to claw her way up and as a result, feels that she has to be tough and defensive to succeed in a career she worked so hard for. However, when her protégé, Linguini (and secretly Remy the Rat as well), make it clear that they deeply respect her expertise, she [[Defrosting Ice Queen|softens]] to become a good friend and more later on.
Line 609:
** ''[[WALL-E]]'' has 4:2, plus a male-sounding text-to-speech program for the autopilot.
*** Actually, there is a third female character in WALL-E. D-Fib has been confirmed as female in obscure media.
** ''[[Up (
** ''[[
* The 80s cartoon series ''[[He
** Heck, in the original comics that came with the toys, before the cartoon series, Teela WAS the Sorceress.
** Its spinoff series ''[[She
* 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.
* Inverted in the Italian cartoon ''[[
** [[Magical Girl]] show - European version.
* ''[[
** However, coaches such as Annie and Clarabel were always female. Which, given that the coaches couldn't even move without an engine's help, [[Unfortunate Implications|made things worse]].
* ''[[Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go!]]'' began with Nova as the sole female, adding Jinmay later. But this may have been intentional as the show was a partial [[Homage]] to super robot anime's [[Five-Man Band]] style, and [[Squick|Chiro's love interest couldn't very well be a monkey]].
** This led the fangirls of the four monkey males (especially Antauri) to pair themselves up with them by creating robot monkey [[Author Avatar|Author Avatars]]. Which leads, on the other hand, to loads of [[Die for Our Ship]] (or pairing her up with the other male monkeys) towards Nova (if the fangirl pair herself up with Sparx), and a few [[Crossover Ship|Crossover Ships]].
* ''[[Captain Planet and
* ''[[Legion of Super
* The final season of ''[[
* ''[[
* In ''[[The Land Before Time]]'', the ratio of male to female was originally going to be 4:1. 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 keeping 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.
** In ''[[The Land Before Time]] [[Sequelitis|IV]]'', a guest character called Ali is introduced who is the same species as Littlefoot -- but she's a girl. To get the effect, the animators made her look ''exactly'' like Littlefoot, only she has blue eyes instead of red, [[Tertiary Sexual Characteristics|slightly longer eyelashes and her skin is a little redder]] (which [[Pink Girl, Blue Boy|turns pink in the dark for some bizarre reason]]).
** In the TV series, an old male character returned as a permanent member, but then a new female character was added, making the ratio 4:3.
* ''[[
* Cheetara of the ''[[
** Another female, Pumyra, was added in Season 2...along with ''two more'' male characters.
* In ''[[
* ''[[
* In ''[[Back
** As well as Ella, Maddie, and a number of female extras.
* ''[[
** Sometimes it [[Depending
* ''[[
* ''[[Batman:
** The series' director addressed this in an interview on Toonzone recently; since the series would have an accompanying toy line (see trope description ''way'' back up at the top) they consciously focused on the male heroes for the first 13 episodes. The second season not only includes Huntress, but Black Canary as well.
* Shao Lin is the only female monkey on ''[[Captain Simian
* Susan/Ginormica is the only woman in the main cast of ''[[Monsters vs. Aliens]]'' ("We are in the presence of the rare female monster."). However, she is the main character and has the most [[Character Development]] of anyone else, going from [[The Chick]] to [[Action Girl]]. The rest of the female characters are in small, stereotypical roles, with the exception of the girl [[Auto Erotica|making out in a car]], which reverses the usual role by being more assertive than her milquetoast boyfriend.
** The jury is still out on whether {{spoiler|Insectosaurus is female or not, since he/she has eyelashes in his/her final form as a butterfly}}. Even so, the ratio of female monsters to male would still be 2/5.
* ''[[
* ''[[
* ''[[Street Sharks]]'' had Lena, who acted as a spy and collected information for the guys (and sprung them from traps whenever they got kidnapped). She mostly vanished towards the end though.
* ''[[
* ''[[
* ''[[
* ''[[Ka Blam!
** ''[[
* 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
* The extent to which the principle is used in ''[[The Simpsons (
* ''[[
* ''[[
* Played straight on ''[[
** However, Mandell ''inverted'' the Trope with ''[[Princess Gwenevere and
* ''[[WITCH (
* Played with in the "You Got F'ed in the A" episode of ''[[
** "We can't have [a dance team of] all guys; [[Have I Mentioned I Am Heterosexual Today?|people will think we're fags]]"
* The two recent Disney films, ''[[The Princess and
* Until the very end of the premiere of ''[[Young Justice (
** Averted as of "Usual Suspects." The team is now a [[Gender Equal Ensemble]] with four boys and four girls.
* ''[[Men in Black (
* For the entire first season of ''[[
* ''[[
* ''[[
{{quote| '''Chris/Luke''': A sister! Who is it?<br />
'''Herbert/Obi-Wan''': Who do you think it is? Who's the only goddamn woman in the galaxy? }}
|