What is the Smurfette Principle?

What is the Smurfette Principle? Thanks for asking! Does that ring a bell? How many of you spent hours in front of the Smurfs as children? We’re sure you remember the smiley little girl with blond hair, a white dress and high heels. In case your memory has faded, in the wonderful world of the Smurfs, Smurfette is created by the evil wizard Gargamel to sow discord! How curious that the role of agitator is reserved for a female character, don’t you think?! Add to that the fact that the Smurfville population is exclusively male, until the arrival of the lone Smurfette. That’s where the idea of the Smurfette Principle comes from. It’s mainly to do with the overrepresentation of male figures as protagonists in works of fiction, to the detriment of female characters. How can you base a whole theory on a single cartoon? What’s wrong with that? It’s fiction after all and fiction can write its own rules, can’t it? In under 3 minutes, we answer your questions! To listen to the last episodes, you can click here: What are sensitivity readers? What is live shopping? What is Friends? A podcast written and realised by Joseph Chance. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices