The Women Sidekicks

From: Laura
In cartoons and in movies that children watch female characters are usually portrayed as subordinate to the male characters and are more often than not just there to serve as sidekicks or helpers to the male characters. They are not really seen as being important to the overall story or adding any value to the story. Their purpose and their existence are being dwarfed and minimized by the male characters like in my photo. My photo has Mary Jane, who is Spiderman’s girlfriend in both the movies and the comics, in the center, but she is smaller and takes up less space than the male superheroes surrounding her because as compared to them she is insignificant and not memorable just like when the author, Kathy Pollitt, of the article “The Smurfette Principle” reads to her daughter “The Cat in the Hat” she has to tell her Sally’s name because she can’t remember it. “‘Who’s that?’ she [Sophie] asks every time we reread ‘The Cat in the Hat’. It’s Sally, the timid little sister of the resourceful boy narrator. She wants Sally to matter, I think, and since Sally is really just a name and a hair ribbon, we have to say her name again and again.” (Pollitt). I had a very similar experience of my own when I read my essay to several people. When I mentioned Mary Jane none of them knew who she was, and I had to tell them who she was, which further proves the point that female characters are often forgotten and insignificant. In contrast the male superheroes, like Superman and Captain America, are much larger and more prevalent in the photo because they are seen as important, powerful, strong, significant, memorable, they are the ones that little boys look up to and aspire to be like. However, for little girls it is a different story. “Little girls learn to split their consciousness, filtering their dreams and ambitions through boy characters while admiring the clothes of the princess. The more privileged and daring can dream of becoming exceptional women in a man’s world – Smurfettes. The others are being taught to accept the more usual fate, which is to be a passenger car drawn through life by a masculine train engine.” (Pollitt). Plain and simple little girls are taught that they are not as important as men and that they shouldn’t strive to be strong, powerful, ambitious, or driven, like men should strive to be. They are taught that they are supposed to live for men and support them, not be individuals or stand out in the crowd. In many ways little girls are taught that women are still second-class citizens, making it seem as though the feminist movement and all the change that came along with it never existed, which is kind of sad. If only there were more Wonder Women, Supergirls, Black Widows, Annas, Elsas, Rapunzels, and Moanas in kids TV and movies, maybe then little girls would be more empowered to chart their own paths and be more than just the supporting role.

   
Pollitt, Kathy. “The Smurfette Principle.” The New York Times Magazine, 1991,     www.nytimes.com/1991/04/07/magazine/hers-the-smurfette-    principle.html?pagewanted=print.