I ran across this today while teasing a friend by calling her smurfette. I had no idea people took the smurfs so seriously. I'm firmly an anarcho-capitalist, so i don't agree with any of this, but I found it interesting:
One part in particular that got me was the part about Smurfette and "feminism":
I never knew she was created by Gargomel, who incidentally had great influence on my life while I was growing up..) Feminism and The Smurfs:
Monique Wittig wrote that women are defined as women, while men are defined by their occupation, the idea being that men have occupatons but women do not. For example, if an accident was being reported, the victims might be described as 'a teacher, a plumber and a woman'. Smurfette is unique in the village in that she is not defined by an occupation or a personality trait like the male, or real Smurfs, but by her sex. She is not a real member of society because of her sex, and this is represented metaphorically in the show by the fact that she was created by Gargomel.
The dimunitive suffix of 'ette', common in our society, also identifies Smurfette as being not the equal of the males. She is the second sex.
Above I asserted that eveyone in the Village was equal. In a sense, this is still true. In the beginning, it was all male, and Smurfette's introduction did not disrupt the patriarchal order. Thus, Smurfette is equal to the others politically, but not socially.
In an ideal, sexist, patriarchal state, women are not a part of the community. They do not occupy the 'public sphere' of work and the outside world, and they certainly do not work. Smurfette's main occupation seems to be standing around looking pretty, ie 'being the woman', although when it comes to problem solving, the producers have not, thankfully, made her a brainless bimbo. She is quite a bit sharper than the rest of the Smurfs, except of course, for Papa.
Smurfette is definitely the 'object' of the male gaze. Since she is the object, the males are the subjects. They are active, she is passive.
Smurfette has no breasts. I believe this is significant when we consider how Smurfette was created. She began life as the almost Frankensteinian creation of Gargomel. As a capitalist, he naturally is treating her as a commodity, something which can be made, used and disposed of, all ultimately to make him money. The idea that a woman can be made by a man denies women's key role in procreation. The fact that she does not posess breasts goes further to this denial of nature, an attempt to control women, to make them conform to the societal norm imposed by the patriachal order.
Smurfette is a secondary creation, in that she was made after the males. She has a heart of stone, and technically, she is unnatural. Physically and metaphorically, she is not a 'real' smurf. She is, in short, bad and wrong, as patriarchal cultures have viewed women for centuries.
How do you make a better woman? In other words how do you make a woman who is acceptable by society (ie. the Village or our own society)? One, you take all the fight out of her. Make her compliant, make her toe the line created and maintained by the male-dominated social structure. One visual example of this is her transformation from a brunette to a blonde. Western society traditionally stereotypes dark-haired women as brainy, but blondes as dumber, but more beautiful and desirable. And that is another way to make a better woman. You make her beautiful. Essentially, when Papa Smurf casts his spell to make Smurfette a 'real' Smurf, the visible difference ws that she was more 'beautiful' as well. Thus it follows that before, she was ugly. So when it comes to women, ugly equals wrong, and beautiful equals right, and in a sense, real. But why is one thing beautiful and another thing not? Who says??Ultimately, the patriachal order. And the Smurf Village, with its 99:1 ratio of males to females, is definitely a patriarchy. This adds to he idea of woman as commodity - she is changed and made by men, and is beautiful by their standards. And at the end of it she is thankful.
Gloria Steinem once wrote that 'women were history's first drag queens', meaning that ideals of beauty are all imposed by the patriachal order, and there is no reason for women to look 'like women' other than a need for distinction between the sexes, and to reinforce the idea of women as mere objects, as the focus of male gaze. Smurfette is no exception.
In an ideal patriarchal society, there are no women. Can you imagine what the Smurf village would be like if the ratio of males to females was 50:50? One thing is certain, it would not be the same utopia it is presented as in the show. Perhaps this means that the ideal Marxist state can only truly operate when everyone is equal, including sexually, although it is almost impossible to imagine an all-female Smurf Village. This is probably more due to deep, intrinsic sexism in our own society than any other reason. If female was the 'natural' sex for Smurfs, I cannot see why they would all look like Smurfette. The concept of beauty, if it existed at all, would have no basis, no frame of reference in which to be equated with 'blonde and cute'.
?
Wikipedia has a fairly long article on the Smurf Communism theme:
That seems to parallel the Bible in that women were "sent" as a corrupting force on men, something they have certainly succeeded in. It also illustrates how common it is for groups of productive males to have women sent in the mix in order to disrupt things. I think having her hair change from black to blonde also represents that she is a Saiya-jin, and thus, probably quite powerful.With the exception of Smurfette, the Smurfs are completely male. Smurfette herself was created by Gargamel using magic in one episode - she was sent in as an evil force to corrupt and infiltrate the other Smurfs. Upon reaching the village, Smurfette had stiff black hair. Using a spell, Papa Smurf broke Gargamel's hold on Smurfette and she became one with the Smurfs--only now she had blond hair. The Smurfs sometimes do treat Smurfette as an object of attraction, but the majority of the time they grant her respect and place her at an equal level. The society must struggle to prevent the potential decadence created by the female allure. Soviet communism also battled the conflicts between the ideological proclamation of women's rights and the potential downsides to a Western-style sexual liberation. On the other hand, feminist commentators have sometimes decried Smurfette's peculiarly idle and image-obsessed presentation on the show.
More along the feminist angle, i found this article which uses female cartoon characters to illustrate the progress(and failure) of feminism. In it, they also give the dialog and situation in which Smurfette joins the show, which made me a tingle a bit:
The Smurfette" was one of the first episodes created.(19) It sheds light on the differences between "Smurf" and "Smurfette." She is originally created by the evil Gargamel as a means of capturing the Smurfs. "I'll get them through their hearts," he shouts. "I will send them a Smurfette. The Smurfette will be their downfall!" He describes her as "the first female Smurf - a beautiful, but evil, Smurf to lead all the others to me." The first (and for a long time the only) female Smurf, then, begins as a seductress created by the forces of evil.
The effects of "the Smurfette" are soon apparent. The first Smurf to find her is Hefty Smurf. Hefty embodies the image of working-class masculinity. With an arrow-through-the-heart tattoo on his arm, he possesses the greatest physical strength of all the Smurfs. When he finds her in the forest crying, "Boo-hoo! I'm so lost and alone," she immediately attempts to seduce him. Their initial dialogue is strikingly racy for a children's television show:
HEFTY: Who are you?
SMURFETTE: I'm a Smurfette.
HEFTY: A Smurfette?
SMURFETTE: Ya' know what that is?
HEFTY: No.
SMURFETTE: Do you like what you see?
HEFTY: I don't know.
SMURFETTE: You will.
Getting the Smurfs "through their hearts" apparently implies sexual seduction. Hefty carries her back to the Smurf village over his shoulder ("I'm weak... and helpless," she states), where Papa Smurf tells her she can stay as long as she likes. "You're among friends now," he says. The Smurfs (all male, of course) are overjoyed. "We're in for a treat," one exclaims. "You're in for a surprise," Smurfette says to herself. They welcome her with more than just friendship. They find her "femininity" appealing, and treat her differently than they would a male Smurf.
That dialog is pretty bad ass for a cartoon aimed at kids. That sounds like something I would say to a chick. Maybe the smurfs were a bigger influence than i realized.
The difference between a "bad" Smurfette and a "good" Smurfette becomes clear after Papa Smurf has worked his magic upon her. Stepping outside of his house, he says to the male Smurfs, "Fellow Smurfs, I will now introduce the new and improved Smurfette." They stare in awe at her. One gawks with his tongue hanging out. The old ("bad") Smurfette had medium-length black hair, a simple dress, and shoes similar to those worn by the male Smurfs. The new and "good" Smurfette, however, has long blonde hair, a more decorative dress and high heels. In becoming a "Smurf," she has become both of a "lighter" race and of a higher class.
Yet why did she need to be transformed? What was it about Smurfette that was not "a real Smurf?" It is implied that, were she not to undergo the metamorphosis, she would continue to try to seduce the other Smurfs. When she is of a "darker" race (and a lower class), she cannot stop using her sexuality for evil. In order for her to be good and virtuous, she has to be of Northern European descent.





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