"There is difference and there is power. And who holds the power decides the meaning of the difference." --June Jordan

Friday, May 1, 2009

My Antifeminist Childhood: Smurfette Edition

In her famous 1991 essay, "The Smurfette Principle", Katha Pollit calls out the all-too-common phenomenon in cartoons and other kids' shows in which "a group of male buddies will be accented by a lone female, stereotypically defined". Re-reading this article recently, I realized that no account of my antifeminist childhood would be complete without taking a look at the character for whom this principle was named: Smurfette.

For anyone who forgot how our favorite token female smurf came into being, I present the episode depicting her creation in its entirety. Maybe someday, I'll have time to comb through it and analyze the countless antifeminist messages, but it pretty much just speaks for itself:






3 comments:

Jessie said...

Watching this has brought it all back to me like a long-buried traumatic memory.

plumpdumpling said...

Gargamel was dumpy?! I remember him as a tall, thin, sleek-looking villain. But he has a double chin!

Smurfette's less hot than I remember, too, though part of my memory may be clouded by the fact that in college, someone sent me Smurfette slash that was really steamy.

Tracey said...

Well, she's traditionally "hotter" after Papa Smurf femmes up her dress and makes her blonde.

And, yeah. I remember Gargamel being a lot more menacing than he actually is, too.