Smurfette syndrome
The sexist narrative trope of having only one female character in a group consisting of a large number of male characters.
It relates to tokenism and exceptionalism.
Origin
The name comes from the fact that there is only one female character, la Schtroumpfette (the Smurfette), in the entire village in Les Schtroumpfs (The Smurfs), a Belgian comic book series (later made into the English-language cartoon). (A second female Smurf called Sassette came in later, but this still leaves a superlatively unbalanced gender ratio.)
Both the Smurfette and Sassette were magical creations added to a pre-existing, all-male Smurf community.
Incidents of the Syndrome
- Witchblade
- numerous works of urban fantasy / paranormal romance[1] -- e.g., Jenna Black's The Devil Inside
Notes
- ↑ Lesley W, 10 Things Every Potential UF Heroine Needs to Know, LesleyW's BookNook, 2008/12/10 ("3) You will have no girlfriends. All the women you meet will either be a) passing acquaintances, b) bitter enemies or c) so powerful, you have no common point of reference. If you do have a girlfriend, she'll shortly be leaving to start a UF series of her own or worse see #10.").