Stumbling Toward Enlightenment

Who do Inception, Transformers and the Muppets all have in common? A soft spot for talking frogs? Nope. According to Feminist Frequency’s Anita Sarkeesian, they all provide examples of the “Smurfette Principle” in action on the big screen.

So what is this so-called Smurfette Principle? Hint: It has nothing to do with blueness.

“The Smurfette Principle is the tendency for works of fiction to have exactly one female amongst an ensemble of male character, in spite of the fact that roughly half the human race is female. Unless a show is purposefully aimed at a female audience, the main characters will tend to be disproportionately male.”

Think Miss Piggy amongst male Muppets or Megan Fox in Transformers.

Shirley Anita St. Hill Chisholm (November 30, 1924 – January 1, 2005) was an American politician, educator, and author. She was a Congresswoman, representing New York’s 12th Congressional District for seven terms from 1969 to 1983. In 1968, she became the first black woman elected to Congress. On January 25, 1972, she became the first major-party black candidate for President of the United States and the first woman to run for the Democratic presidential nomination (Margaret Chase Smith had previously run for the Republican presidential nomination). She received 152 first-ballot votes at the 1972 Democratic National Convention. [Wikipedia]

Throughout her political career she worked on behalf of the underdogs—blacks, women, children, inner city dwellers, and domestic workers. Education, day care, youth programs, and women’s rights were her favorite issues. She was, as she put it, “unbought and unbossed.” However, she suffered a series of betrayals that left her furious: “I love a good fight and people know [it]… But what hurst me more than anything else… is the brothers in politics…they won’t get off my back.” [Remember the Ladies, Kirsten Olsen]

Why are we not seeing people of color in the news around green building, greening the economy, green jobs, etc. I just watched a video about the first completely solar-powered aircraft hanger, and there wasn’t one non-white face in it.

I get newsletters about sustainability and the “green revolution” from all over the place in my in-box every day. I can count on one third of the fingers of one hand how many of them even mention people of color, let alone show people of color being interviewed, or being innovative. Van Jones has gone up to Washington, I saw an interview with him yesterday, conducted by the Washington Post. Even he seems to be backing away from his original “green for al” position.

It’s disappointing. It’s frustrating.

When will people of color become integrated into this country’s social fabric? When will adult black men be free of the fear of harassment just because they’re adult black men? Or black women free of being characterized as “angry” when they know what they want and want to say, and know how to ask for and say it? When they show themselves as powerful, self-assured and intelligent? When?