Smurfette

Smurfette
Smurfette as she originally appeared (left) and after Papa Smurf turned her into a real Smurf (right)
Publication information
Publisher	Dupuis
First appearance	1966 (Comic Strip)
Created by	Peyo
In-story information
Species	Smurf

Smurfette (French: La Schtroumpfette) is the original female Smurf. She was created by evil wizard Gargamel, the Smurfs' enemy, in order to spy on them and sow jealousy. However, she decides that she wants to be a real Smurf and Papa Smurf casts a spell that changes her hair from black to blonde as a sign of her transformation. She was the only female Smurf until the creation of Sassette. A Granny Smurf was also later introduced, although it is unclear how she was created. Thierry Culliford, the son of the comics' creator, Peyo, and current head of the Studio Peyo, announced in 2008 that more female Smurfs would be introduced in the stories. Smurfette has stereotypical feminine features, with long blonde wavy hair, long eyelashes, and wears a white dress and white high heels. She is the love interest of almost every Smurf.

The adventure of Smurfette first started in Spirou magazine in 1966. She was made by Gargamel as a means to create unrest in the Smurf village. When this was discovered, Papa Smurf succeeded in turning her into a real Smurf, altering her appearance at the same time. She still was a source of problems between the Smurfs, though, and at the end of this story, she left the Smurf village, thus restoring the status quo of the community. She made the occasional on-off appearance, but when the animated TV series of the Smurfs was introduced in the 1980s, she was featured as a permanent character, appearing in stories in which she was not included in the original source comics. Subsequently, the comics also started to feature her as a permanent character.

Hal Erickson said in Television Cartoon Shows: An Illustrated Encyclopedia 1949-1993 that the reintroduction of Smurfette as a permanent character in the animated series was "bowing to merchandising dictates" in order to "appeal to little girl toy consumers." Jeffery P. Dennis, author of the journal article "The Same Thing We Do Every Night: Signifying Same-Sex Desire in Television Cartoons," said that the inclusion of Smurfette in the cartoon version of The Smurfs was likely to serve as an object of heterosexual desire for the other Smurfs and to end speculation arguing that the Smurfs were gay. In a response to Dennis's statements, Martin Goodman of Animation World Network, said that Dennis had not taken into account Erickson's comments about merchandising. Goodman further argued that capturing the young female audience would increase ratings, so the networks were more likely trying to pander to young girls than trying to defuse gay rumors. To back this up is the fact that Smurfette was the most frequently merchandised of the Smurfs. Katha Pollitt's ideas about Smurfette blend both a feminist and capitalist critique: she coined the phrase "the Smurfette Principle" in a 1991 piece in the New York Times, in which she wrote, "...a group of male buddies will be accented by a lone female, stereotypically defined. In the worst cartoons -- the ones that blend seamlessly into the animated cereal commercials...."