Cartoons are a highlight of a child's day. I remember waking up on a Saturday morning overcome with joy knowing that all day I would be watching my favorite television shows. Programs like "Jem," "My Little Ponies," "The Monchichis," and my all time favorite - "The Smurfs," could brighten any kids day. Now that I am more educated and less naive, I look back on that one show only to find latent sexism messages. "The Smurfs'" have only one female character, Smurfette, which creates many subtle problems. Smurfette's stereotypical physical characteristics, personal attributes, and anonymity role in the community promote inaccurate stereotypes of females.

Smurfette's physical characteristics draw her as a stereotype which promotes sexism because of the prejudice messages the writers illustrate. From the moment you see Smurfette's physical features, blond flowing hair, attractive, and always in a white dress with heels. One will immediately expect her to be feminine in actions and dialogue. Studies show that children easily observe the feminine stereotypes, "North American children report that viewing sex-typed materials lead to sex-typed attitudes" (Davidson, Yasuna & Tower, 1979, Pingree, 1978). This study supports that children are impressionable and can develop attributes from television characters. In the cartoon "The Smurfs," Smurfette always wears her hair down and when danger strikes she is forced to run in heels, is this fair? The creators of Smurfette confine her by the way she is dressed. This message is not positive for children.

Smurfette's attributes, such as a tendacy to worry and be silent, create subtle, but stong sexist messages. Whenever Smurfette speaks she first starts her sentence with the signal clause "Oh!" For example, she says to Papa Smurf, "Oh, I don't know how you could sleep alright! I've been worried all night!", referring to the younger smurfs spending the night outside alone. Because the writers solely choose Smurfette to endure feelings of anxiousness and concern for children's safety, they consequently draw with a biased hand. Whether the scene entails them running from Gargamel, the antagonist, or reflecting on the day in Smurf Village, the writers consistently position her next to or near Papa Smurf. In one show she silently stood facing the other smurfs adjacent to Papa Smurf while he praised their group work ethic. Visually, because Smurfette does not stand within the group of other Smurfs those watching assume she actually does not fit into the group's dynamics. When female children constantly watch Smurfette's daily routine, they subliminally accept her actions as right and tend to inherit various sexist qualities. However, when male children observe Smurfette's actions they will assume her as typical and expect other females to act and respond similarly.

Smurfette does not have a specific job or title to her name; therefore others view her as insignificant. She does not have a trade or ability to bring any product to the community. Because Smurf Village resembles a communistic society, having a vocation secures a position in their communal environment. Characters such as Handy Smurf, the architect, and Jokey Smurf, the group's comic relief, all have definite responsibilities to the community and appear certain in the community. By not giving Smurfette a job or title relays the message that women should agree to any assignment the men give. Whether the task be to help save a fellow Smurf from Gargamel or take care of the adolescent Smurfs, she must rise to any and all occasions. Her unemployment directly corrolates with her insignificance to the community. Particularly male children who watch "The Smurfs" will begin to view female as subordinate and try not to embody and feminine qualities for fear of being insignificant. One study on children's television shows in Japan it suggests that children learn "being feminine is not rewarding in that it is consistently related to a loss of social power" (Rolandelli). If another smurf embodies a typically female characteristic such as concern for self-appearance, which Vanity Smurf does, or an interest in the arts, as Painter Smurf is, then the writers give them effeminate characteristics. Vanity Smurf speaks with a lisp and wears a flower behind his ear and his job seems vague which makes him insignificant as well.

If "The Smurfs" theme song permanently stands in the heads of children young and old, what other characteristics of the show are, too? In order for a woman to be fairly portrayed in cartoons at this point, a feminist hand is needed. Nicole Hollander, author of a comic strip named "Sylvia", created a strong female character. Sylvia concentrates on friendships rather than relationships with men, finds no interest in politics or sports, but readers of the strip find her as a strong-willed individual with her own views about life. Consequently Smurfette wears a dress everyday, therefore, by appearance alone watchers do not see her as a serious character. Sylvia's humble and simple appearance and sharp, witty comments probably help people see her as a serious person and not just a woman. Because cartoons never get old or stop being syndicated, future writers should be more conscious as to what they write or how they draw a certain character because its actions and words affect many people throughout generations.

Works Cited

1) Davison E.S., Yasuna A., & Tower. "The Effects of Television Cartoons on Sex-Role Stereotyping in Young Girls" Child Development, 1979, p. 597-600.
2) Pingree S. "The Effects of Non-Sexist Television Commericials ans Perception of Reality on Children's Atttiudes About Women", Psychology of Women Quarterly, 1978, p. 262-277.
3) Rondelli "Gender Role Portrayal Analysis of Children's Televsion Programming in Japan" Human Relations, December 1991, p. 1273-99.