In the Shadows, On the Sidelines

From: Sophia

            For my photo, I took inspiration from the concept of the Smurfette Principal. This concept is defined by Katha Pollit: “A group of male buddies will be accented by a lone female, stereotypically defined…The message is clear. Boys are the norm, girls the variation; boys are central, girls peripheral; boys are individuals, girls types. Boys define the group, its story and its code of values. Girls exist only in relation to boys” (Pollitt 2). This pattern appears again and again in media made for both children and adults, and seeing this dynamic changes the way kids process gender norms. When females are portrayed as dainty, subservient accessories to males, girls absorb these portrayals and internalize the desire to lessen themselves. Gender schemas, as defined by Laurie Rudman, are “cognitive associations of different attributes, behaviors, objects, or social practices” (Rudman 59) with maleness and femaleness. Gender schemas cause people to associate femaleness with weakness, daintiness, and submissiveness, all in a package. When there is only one female character in a group of males, and gender schemas are used as markers to differentiate her from her male counterparts, these characters end up being flawed sources of representation. Since they are often the only source of representation, girls are exposed to gender schemas and stereotypes through media.

.Instead of using quantity to highlight the gap between male representation and female representation for heroes in children’s media, I used scale. The feminine-coded miniature My Little Pony figurine literally stands in the shadow of a hypermasculine muscular Troll doll, looking down towards his feet. The pony figurine’s posture is bowing down in such a way that is reminiscent of cowering, but the Troll doll confidently stares at the camera while triumphantly raising his left arm. The shadow of the Troll doll is even more imposing, having a dramatically large arm. Since the pony toy is so miniscule, the Troll appears gigantic. A light is pointed straight at the Troll’s face, highlighting it and minimizing the pony. The shot is angled in a way that suggests you would not see the pony toy if you looked at the two toys head on, and the image gives us a glimpse of “behind the scenes”.

Works Cited

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

Rudman, Laurie A., et al. "The Two Cultures of Childhood." The Social Psychology of
Gender: How Power and Intimacy Shape Gender Relations. The Guilford Press,
2015, 59-63.