An Analysis of the Essay The Smurfette Principle by Katha Pollitt Essay

The Smurfette Principle As Katha Pollitt said, girls just dont matter much (Pollitt 40). In her essay The Smurfette Principle, Pollitt talks about how girls are not represented well in the world of preschool culture. Pollitt describes how boys are always the main characters in books, movies, television shows, etc. This display of genders in the media impacts the views of preschoolers who are exposed to these books and movies as it teaches them what the role of males and females are. It teaches them that males are more important and are always the main attraction while females play the supporting role and are not that important in the overall scheme of things. Pollitt defines this as the Smurfette principle a group of male buddies will be accented by a lone female, stereotypically defined (Pollitt 38). I agree with many of the points that Pollitt makes in her essay. The representation of females in preschool culture is very poor. Females are almost never the lead role and if they are the lead role they reinforce many stereotypes that females have. There is no denying that males are a lot more prominent in children television shows and books and are almost always shown in a good light. As opposed to Pollitt, I dont believe the roles that females have in preschool culture affects preschoolers knowledge of the norms in our society. I believe rather that preschoolers are more impacted by what they see in real life than what they watch on television or read in books. Pollitt starts off her essay by explaining a time when she bought her daughter a Little Mermaid cassette. She explained how the only reason she bought the cassette was because Ariel was a better representative of females. To further her point of how males are prominently featured in preschool culture, Pollitt uses many examples of this occurring. She points out how April, of the wildly popular Teen-Age Mutant...

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