The gender ratio in the Smurfs is one to ninety-nine, with just one main female character. The male Smurfs have diverse professions: an architect, chef, painter, poet, etc. Smurfette is the only main recurring female in the storyline. She is a feminine character: caring, curious, girly, and often helpless in dangerous situations. Clumsy is an awkward, cheerful, and sensitive Smurf, who defines himself as androgynous. The protagonists get into various adventures with Smurfette’s participation, who is often rescued by her friends. The little blue people were infatuated with Smurfette when she first came, and she is the sweetheart of the village. The female character meets stereotypes concerning gender roles: boys can be intelligent, clumsy, grumpy, strong, wise, and females are motherly, graceful, hopeless, and dependent. The boys are identified and named based on their unique qualities, whereas Smurfette is characterized by femininity.
The sex-typed categories in the Smurfs are mostly masculine and feminine. These models generally instill in young minds that women are inferior to men with intelligence and their role in life. Peoples’ perception of gender equality and roles have changed over time: the banal masculine and feminine features are outdated, and children may learn impractical life lessons. Bem proposed a third trait to male and female genders, androgyny, identifying people who show high levels of characteristics for both genders (Geldenhuys & Bosch, 2019). The gender roles in the Smurfs are polarized and fixed between male and female stereotypes, which is a mentality of the past.