The "token girl" trope in comics and cartoons, aka "the smurfette principal"
How prevalent is the token girl in media today? A lot of newer shows and comics are wising up to it being a cliche and are putting at least 2 women on the team from the start. Honestly the trope can be so insulting sometimes that I'd rather have an all-male cast than a single poorly written women who seems out of place.
Does it bother you when a boys franchise tries to appeal to women by putting in more female characters? Or is it all good as long as the girls are cute (this is Yea Forums after all)?
Didn't pay attention to a word you said. Want to fuck Smurfette.
Robert White
FPBP
Jose Gomez
Based
Jordan Myers
Modern cartoons seem to actively avoid this. Which is nice. If there is just one girl, usually her personality isn't "girl."
Evan Moore
>Smurfette principal I need art of her sitting at a desk on top of a bigger desk, like the frog principal from My Gym Partner is a Monkey
Jack Anderson
If Smurfette were the principal, would the school be Three Apples High?
William Wilson
That still applies in Canadian series and toddler cartoons for boys.
Adam Jones
Ironically it's more often adult series, even live action sitcoms, where there's just one woman and her personality is always the "straight (wo)man" to the funnier characters, which translates to a nagging, unlikable buzzkill.
That's actually way more sexist than just letting female characters be shitty idiots like every other character.
Asher Adams
Stay classy Yea Forums
Tyler Allen
Only reason I care about the Smurfs, Smurfette is hot.
Aaron Hughes
The new Saint Seiya, FUCK NETFLIX!
Bentley Reyes
To be fair, Smurfette's not the only girl since they introduced Sassette back in the day, plus Vexy and all the Lost Village girls from the newer movies.
Cameron Ramirez
Milo Murphy's Law has at least 3 female characters, but Sara's mostly relegated to "Dr. Zone fangirl", Amanda doesn't appear much, while Melissa is a typical "perfect female character" trope".
Meanwhile, Phineas and Ferb has two female characters (Isabella and Candace) and they're very interesting.
How can such a downgrade happen?
Alexander Reyes
Murphy's Law. Duh.
Kevin Cook
>papa smurf will you lick my ass
Luis Young
I agree that forced diversity is cancer. I don't mind if the characters are actually well written though and have a personality beyond just being the token girl. If they just happen to be a girl and their character doesn't really involve that at all, I don't really mind. I think shows like Teen Titans and SRMTHFG did this alright.
Evan Johnson
There's that one goth girl smurf they had in the movie. Does anyone else remember the live action movies? The ones with Neil Patrick Harris?
Ryan Gutierrez
Bump
Josiah Howard
I did say Vexy. That's her name.
Luke Torres
Are there any western shows that focus on a purely male cast? That to me feels like the rarest type of all.
She kept many little boys from turning gay, this is also why trannies want to make females less sexy in cartoons.
Eli Perry
What do you mean by "primarily male"?
Kayden Richardson
Based and redpilled.
Liam Walker
Basically a show that doesn’t really have any female characters. The image posted is an anime with that scenario, a male cast that most likely won’t drift into fan service or romance but focus on themes that are tackled from a male perspective.
Jose Murphy
I think my least favorite part of the smurfette principle would be those times when the producers and executives supervising a show allow a female character to be made because they think she’s just gonna be a token or love interest, but then the show makers actually make her a decent well rounded character in her own right, and those executives and higher ups get angry because they’re worried about appealing to the wrong demographic or they don’t want to make toys of female characters, so they want the show makers to tone it back with her.
I think this has kinda happened with Moror City, Batman Beyond, and Avatar, to varying degrees.
Evan Martin
Spongebob
David Moore
Johnny Quest, Tom and Jerry, Angry Beavers, Ren and Stimpy.
Pretty much any cartoon from before the 90s that wasn’t specifically targeted at girls.
Why not? The guys don't even know what's under there.
Tyler Flores
To keep things on track, gonna put in my two cents on this whole trope...not a big fan but I don't mind it comes long as the token female is written well and is just another personality trait that had no baring in gender.
Though it does raise some interesting character dynamics in certain scenarios. But again, they should be characters first then filing some executive quota for money points
The only time I was cool with the trope is when it's a trio. Like 2 Guys and a girl or the other way around.
Chase Anderson
now every character is a girl
Ryan Sanders
Nah, there still has to be dumb, useless boys for the girls to be much better than.
Joshua Lewis
Fuck off.
Kevin Jones
>Kaiji
How does such a manly show have their main character shed more tears that all of Steven Universe and make it actually work!?
Fapping before posting would massively improve the quality of the threads here, then we can have actual damn discussions. The fact that Yea Forums posters would rather fap than actually discuss cartoons is sad, you're all fucking plebs who don't actually care about the medium.
Cooper Howard
but i'm in front of my computer dick in hand literally all day, aren't you?
>but i'm in front of my computer dick in hand literally all day, aren't you I don’t have a dick
Connor Flores
Based. Tropefags are the FUCKING worst and the cancer killing media.
Dylan Hernandez
why, what happened?
Daniel Sanders
Figures. Go back to where you come from, honey. Cheesecake belongs on Yea Forums.
Julian Ramirez
Does Smurfette's existence have a narrative explanation though? She's the only female because Gargamel used alchemy to create her. It might not be much, but at least Peyo tried.
Caleb Young
Who cares?
Benjamin Brooks
This. There is nothing wrong with Smurfette.
Owen Roberts
His stakes are justified for years, Steven is surrounded by deus ex plot armor shit IGNORING his 100 point in Speech.
Adrian Phillips
I fucking hate modern critical theory. TVTropes is a cancer of a site, and ascribing “”””””progressive””””””””” philosophy into art reflecting an inherently unequal world is what leads us to stories that do not satisfy what normal humans want in a story, nor reflect reality.
Angel Young
When I make a cartoon, the only male character will be chained in the basement for the sole purpose of opening pickle jars and listening to the rest of the cast’s problems.
Lincoln Torres
I like to imagine basement dude actually is down there willingly because he enjoys it, and despite being a sex weirdo, he can dish out sagely advice and emotional assistance when needed.
