Agatha's Guide to Character Writing

Female Characters: The Smurfette Principle

The Smurfette Principle is an easy one, it’s based on the Smurfette character from the Smurfs cartoon and is a woman, who is the only one amongst a large ensemble of male characters. It was coined in 1991 by writer and cultural critic Katha Pollitt. The Smurfette Principle is in many texts, so don’t worry, and lots of people unintentionally do this. You can see the Smurfette principle in TV shows such as The Big Bang Theory and Seinfeld, and in movies such as Transformers and Inception. The Smurfette Principle is a good thing to think about, gender balance can create a more interesting read.

However sometimes there can be good stories with only one female involved, again Inception, I believe is still good because Ellen Page’s character Ariadne is heavily involved in the film. So the Smurfette Principle can be done. However if you were to do said principle in the same way as Megan Fox’s character Mikaela in Transformers, using the one main female as eye candy, who can fix cars and look absolutely sexual whilst doing it. Then I think your character is a few sandwiches short of a picnic. To write a stronger female character I think it maybe an idea to bring her out of the Smurfette Principle, have more than one main more woman and make them rise about the Bechdel Test (see previous chapter)

True, that this looks a bit like feminist propaganda, but think about it, if you do this you could make a stronger character and that’s what this book is all about, ideas that may help you improve in character writing.