The Skye Principle

From: Isabella

            In the article Titled “The Smurfette Principle”, The author explains that in most children’s shows, girls are vastly underrepresented. In fact, in most shows, there is a group of boys and men and only one woman or girl who is usually seen as the sidekick. For example, The Smurfs had an entire colony of men and one girl. This influences young girls and how they see themselves. I chose this topic because I see it happen in my classroom every day. The most popular show for kids right now is paw patrol. In paw patrol there is a group of 5 male “pups” and their one girl “pup” friend. They each represent some type of community helpers such as firemen, police officers and trash men and just as you would guess Skye is none of the above. Skye is what I would call a flight attendant although the show tries their best to make her seem like she is more of a pilot type, this is not the case. She is never shown flying he own plane and very rarely does anything to help “save the day” like the boys do. She is usually just the sidekick, as expected. In my photo, I showcased five of the male students from my school dressed in their Paw Patrol capes which they never have to fight over because there are enough male characters for each of them to play. Then I chose one of the many girls in our preschool who must wait her turn to play the one and only female character from paw patrol. While taking the photo, I first tried to pose them the way that I have pictured in my mind and I was just not getting the photo that I wanted. Then, I asked them to pose the way that they thought each of their characters on the show. This produced the exact picture that I had wanted. As you can see, my boys put their hands on their hips in a power pose while my “Skye” put her hands together in front of her stomach in a shy way. This is to represent that she has less power than they do. The boys are purposefully taking up more of the frame than our one girl is. This is to show that not only are them more of them, but they also have more power and representation than she does.  I also had her stand behind the boys to show that she is usually following their lead. The part that I found truly amazing was the facial expressions that they each have. Some of the boys chose to look serious and powerful while some just look plain happy and excited. My Skye is none of these things. She is looking sheepishly at the camera as if she is ashamed or scared. She looks subordinate and less important than the boys and looks far from what I would call happy. While editing my photo, I put an effect on the photo that puts a shadow over her to make her appear like she is less in the picture and almost as if she has been erased. This is to represent the fact that women and girls have been almost erased from shows because they are so underrepresented in the media. 

 

Work Cited

Pollitt, Katha. “Hers; The Smurfette Principle.” The New York Times, 7 Apr. 1991.