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{{short description|One female character in an otherwise male cast}}
{{use dmy dates|date=October 2017}}The '''Smurfette principle''' is the practice in media, such as film and television, to include only one woman in an otherwise entirely male ensemble.<ref name="DayKugler2014">{{cite book|author1=Lori Day|author2=Charlotte Kugler|title=Her Next Chapter: How Mother-Daughter Book Clubs Can Help Girls Navigate Malicious Media, Risky Relationships, Girl Gossip, and So Much More|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z6k2AwAAQBAJ&pg=PA203|date=1 May 2014|publisher=Chicago Review Press|isbn=978-1-61374-859-6|pages=203–}}</ref><ref name="Jason Richards">{{Cite news|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2011/07/the-problem-with-smurfette/242690/|title=The Problem With Smurfette|last=Richards|first=Jason|date=2011-07-28|work=The Atlantic|access-date=2018-07-23|language=en-US}}</ref> It establishes a male-dominated narrative, where the woman is the exception and exists only in reference to the men.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/soraya-chemaly/is-smurfette-giving-it-awy_b_1011329.html|title=Is Smurfette Giving It Away? What the Smurfette Principle Teaches Your Kids About Girls|first=Soraya|last=Chemaly|website=[[HuffPost]] |date=19 October 2011|publisher=}}</ref><ref name="GmelchStoffer1998">{{cite book|author1=Sharon Gmelch|author2=Marcie Heffernan Stoffer|author3=Jody Lynn Yetzer|title=Gender on Campus: Issues for College Women|url=https://archive.org/details/genderoncampusis00gmel|url-access=registration|year=1998|publisher=Rutgers University Press|isbn=978-0-8135-2522-8|pages=[https://archive.org/details/genderoncampusis00gmel/page/224 224]–}}</ref> The concept is named after [[Smurfette]], the only female among [[the Smurfs]], a group of comic book creatures.

== Description by Katha Pollitt ==
The term was coined by [[Katha Pollitt]] in 1991 in ''[[The New York Times]]'':<ref name="hers">[https://www.nytimes.com/1991/04/07/magazine/hers-the-smurfette-principle.html Hers; The Smurfette Principle]. ''The New York Times'', 7 April 1991</ref>

{{quote|Contemporary shows are either essentially all-male, like "[[Garfield]]", or are organized on what I call the [[Smurfette]] principle: a group of male buddies will be accented by a lone female, stereotypically defined (...) The message is clear. Boys are the norm, girls the variation; boys are central, girls peripheral; boys are individuals, girls types. Boys define the group, its story and its code of values. Girls exist only in relation to boys.|author=|title=|source=}}

Pollitt observed this as what she thought of in terms of a common media practice while shopping for her daughter's Christmas toys. The initial use of the term was in relation to "preschool culture," that to Pollitt, would hinder a child's understanding of gender. She wrote: "The sexism in preschool culture deforms both boys and girls. Little girls learn to split their consciousness, filtering their dreams and ambitions through boy characters while admiring the clothes of the princess."<ref name="hers" />

The female character essentially represents "femininity" in these cases. She may or may not play a major role in the story, but typically is "everything female." Some examples that Pollitt cites include the mother figure, a “glamour queen,” or a female sidekick of sorts.<ref name="hers" /> As a consequence, works employing this [[Trope (literature)|trope]] often fail the [[Bechdel test]], an indicator of gender bias in fiction.

== Observations ==
In 2011, Pollitt discussed her term again in ''[[The Atlantic]]''. She said that the issue is still highly prevalent in the current media. She specifically cited the feature film, ''[[Super 8 (2011 film)|Super 8]]'' (popular at that time), which had only one female main character (played by [[Elle Fanning]]). Also at this time, she extended the principle to include television networks. The only major female anchor in the [[MSNBC]] lineup in 2011, according to Pollitt, was [[Rachel Maddow]]. She commented, "It's quite remarkable that there's only this one woman, and it's never equal."<ref name="Jason Richards" />

This phenomenon has not disappeared by any means, making many appearances in popular literature and discourse. Journalists complain that major blockbusters often include only one female, and this trend is not fading anytime soon.<ref name="Why Can't">{{cite web |last1=Rose |first1=Steve |title=The Smurfette Principle: why can't Hollywood accept gender equality? |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/dec/11/smurfette-principle-why-cant-hollywood-accept-gender-equality |website=The Guardian |access-date=19 June 2023 |date=11 December 2017}}</ref> This is visible in ensemble movie posters, like with ''[[Ocean's Eleven]]'', ''[[The Matrix]]'', and [[Star Wars (film)|''Star Wars'']], among many others.<ref>{{Cite magazine|url=https://time.com/4616798/movie-posters-single-woman/|title=This Is the Disturbing Movie Poster 'Smurfette Principle' |magazine= [[Time (magazine)|Time]] |language=en-us|access-date=2018-07-23}}</ref> New York Magazine compiled all lines spoken by women in the [[Star Wars original trilogy|original ''Star Wars'' trilogy]] other than Princess Leia, which constitute a mere 63 seconds of dialogue during the total series run time of nearly seven hours (23,160 seconds).<ref>Women Don't Talk Much in "Star Wars". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODgwL7DJ9dY</ref> Steve Rose looks at Eleven's situation in the TV show ''[[Stranger Things]]'', where she is essentially replaced (while on her own adventures) by Max, another young girl, who is also teased, then "lusted after," another common reaction to a lone female character.<ref name="Why Can't" /> The "Smurfette," or sole female cast member, has been understood to typically have a stereotypical role of a romantic partner, a “brooding badass,” or exists to deflate the tension of an all-male cast.<ref name="TN2mag" />

As a result of the discontent about the lack of women, a new pattern has emerged, of “gender-inversion,” resulting in versions of existing media franchises with lead casts of exclusively female actresses, like ''[[Ocean's 8]]'' and ''[[Ghostbusters (2016 film)|Ghostbusters]]''.<ref name= "TN2mag">{{Cite news |url= http://www.tn2magazine.ie/smurfette-principle/|title=The Smurfette Principle |date= 2017-08-25 |work= TN2 Magazine | publisher= [[Trinity College Dublin|Trinity College]] | via= tn2magazine.ie |access-date=2018-07-23 |language= en-GB}}</ref>

The [[Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media]] found that only “10% of all films have a gender balanced cast,” thus reinforcing the existence of the lack of fair female representation, i.e. the Smurfette Principle.<ref>{{Cite news |url= https://seejane.org/symposiums-on-gender-in-media/gender-bias-without-borders/|title=Gender Bias Without Borders |work= SeeJane.org | publisher= [[Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media]]|access-date=2018-07-23|language=en-US}}</ref><ref name="TN2mag" />

In an article and video for ''[[Bitch (magazine)|Bitch Magazine]]'', [[Anita Sarkeesian]] asserts that the tendency of media from the 1980s and 1990s—which typically adhere to this principle—continuously being remade results in the recurrence of this issue, creating an ongoing cycle. She also called on the film industry to include more female characters, or even a female-dominated cast, and pass the [[Bechdel test]], stating that after these are kept in mind and actually accomplished, meaningful diversity will be possible.<ref name="Sarkeesian">{{Cite news |url= https://feministfrequency.com/video/tropes-vs-women-3-the-smurfette-principle/|title=Tropes vs. Women: #3 The Smurfette Principle|date=2011-04-21 |work= Feminist Frequency| access-date=2018-07-23|language=en-US}}</ref>

== Uses in scholarship ==
Rickie Solinger, in a review of some of Pollitt's major works up to 1993, wrote that the Smurfette principle applies to preschoolers and adults alike.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Solinger|first=Rickie|date=1995|editor-last=Pollitt|editor-first=Katha|title=First-Class Citizen|journal=The Women's Review of Books|volume=12|issue=7|pages=1–3|doi=10.2307/4022132|jstor=4022132}}</ref>

Jan Susina, a scholar and researcher of child and adolescent literature, used the term in a 1995 edition of the journal, ''The Lion and the Unicorn'', to back up his assertion that children's literature is being “dumbed down” as a larger symptom of cultural problems, particularly that entertainment is like “junk food,” or unrewarding to the audience. He uses Pollitt's term as evidence that a lack of women contributes to low quality media for children and also that the popular media has picked up on this issue in major publications.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Susina|first=Jan|date=1993|title=Editor's Note: Kiddie Lit(e): The Dumbing Down of Children's Literature|journal=The Lion and the Unicorn|language=en|volume=17|issue=1|pages=v–ix|doi=10.1353/uni.0.0256|s2cid=144833564|issn=1080-6563}}</ref>

==Examples==
The principle has been observed in the following works among others:
*[[Dolly for Sue]] in the Island of Misfit Toys sequence in ''[[Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (TV special)|Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer]]''<ref name="dollyforsue">{{Cite web|url=https://pcmworldnews.com/news/2019/12/what-was-wrong-with-rudolphs-dolly-for-sue/|title=What Was Wrong with Rudolph's Dolly for Sue?|date=December 2019}}</ref>
*[[Miss Piggy]] in ''[[The Muppets]]''<ref name="hers" /><ref name="Sarkeesian" />
*[[Princess Leia]] in ''[[Star Wars]]''<ref name="Sarkeesian" />
*[[Penny (The Big Bang Theory)|Penny]] in ''[[The Big Bang Theory]]''<ref name="Sarkeesian" /> (seasons 1–3)
*[[Elaine Benes]] in ''[[Seinfeld]]''<ref name="Cultural Hegemony">{{cite book | url=https://archive.org/details/culturalhegemony0000artz | url-access=registration | page=[https://archive.org/details/culturalhegemony0000artz/page/210 210] | quote=seinfeld smurfette principle. | title=Cultural Hegemony in the United States|publisher=[[SAGE Publications]]|year=2000|isbn=9781452221960}}</ref>
*[[Kanga (Winnie-the-Pooh)|Kanga]] in ''[[Winnie the Pooh (franchise)|Winnie the Pooh]]''<ref name="hers"/>
*[[April O'Neil]] in ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]''<ref name="hers"/><ref name="GmelchStoffer1998" />
*[[Gamora]] in ''[[Guardians of the Galaxy (2008 team)|Guardians of the Galaxy]]''{{cn|date=September 2024}}
*[[Eleven (Stranger Things)|Eleven]] in ''[[Stranger Things]]'' (season 1)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.indiewire.com/2017/10/stranger-things-sexist-eleven-max-season-3-smurfette-1201892995/|title='Stranger Things 2' Reinforced a Sexist and Ubiquitous Trope, But Season 3 Could Fix That|first=Liz Shannon|last=Miller|date=31 October 2017|publisher=}}</ref>
*[[Diana Prince (DC Extended Universe)|Wonder Woman]] in the [[DC Extended Universe]]<ref>{{Cite web |date=2017-06-03 |title=How Wonder Woman Falls Into The Smurfette Trap |url=https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/how-wonder-woman-falls-into-the-smurfette-trap/ |access-date=2022-07-25 |website=Den of Geek |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Thebooksmugglers.com |url=https://www.thebooksmugglers.com/2017/01/one-girl-justice-league-tansy-rayner-roberts.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170201174819/https://www.thebooksmugglers.com/2017/01/one-girl-justice-league-tansy-rayner-roberts.html |archive-date=2017-02-01 |access-date=2022-07-25 |website=www.thebooksmugglers.com|date=23 January 2017 }}</ref>

== See also ==
{{wiktionary|Smurfette principle}}

* [[Bechdel test]]
* [[Damsel in distress]]
* [[Manic Pixie Dream Girl]]
* [[Mary Sue]]
* [[Reverse harem]]
* [[Tokenism]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{The Smurfs}}

[[Category:Gender and society]]
[[Category:The Smurfs]]
[[Category:Female stock characters]]