Are The Smurfs Racist, Sexist Fascists?

By on June 6, 2011 in News 9

SmurfsMeaghan Murphy writes on Fox News:

Sacre bleu! The Smurfs may not be as innocent as they look.

The tribe of little blue creatures who live peacefully among the mushrooms are “steeped in Stalinism and Nazism,” according to a French sociologist.

“Collective work always focuses on self-sufficiency for food and energy,” Antoine Buéno states in Le Petit Livre Bleu (The Little Blue Book). “The Smurfs do not have private property; their leader is Papa Smurf who shows very authoritarian and paternalistic characteristics.”

Buéno also makes the connection that the little blue men’s biggest enemy, the magician Gargamel, seems to have a Jewish background — citing similarities to the anti-Semitic images of the World War II era.

The French writer also claims that the Smurfs do not just resemble Nazis, but sexist Nazis to boot! Smurfette—traditionally the only woman living in the Smurf’s village — allegedly meets the Aryan ideal of beauty with her blonde hair and refined features.

For more information, see original article.

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  • Anonymous

    The smurfs are asexual and thus can’t really be sexist, the fact that Smurfette exists in the first place is an anomaly. They have communal property, but that’s fairly common in tribal societies of <100 people. And the black smurf thing is about as racist as the black plague.

  • Anton

    This was actually on the radio over here, when the book originally came out. In America, the original version of “the black smurf” became “the purple smurf” on the TV show. Same basic concept, no outrage.

    Also, those who would actually buy the comic and read it, will notice that when a black smurf first appears, it has stung by a “bzz-fly”. When it first meets a regular smurf, it’s kind towards the black smurf and tries to talk to it. But because of the chemical, the only thing it can do is attack.

    So, the regular smurfs fear the black smurfs because they attack them, which is caused by those bees. It’s not because they’re black, that’s just a side-effect. A badly chosen one from an editorial viewpoint, but still.

    Also, about the Smurfette “meeting the Aryan ideals of beauty with her blonde hair and refined features”, that ideal was an American ideal too in the 80-90′s. Being blond and having a shapely form isn’t unique to Aryan ideology.

    Concering Gargamel: he’s just an ugly fuck. That’s all there’s to it. He’s a criminal who wants money, like all criminals. Don’t forget this is a kid’s comic. Portraying villians as ugly, greedy, cowardly and overall incompetent, is pretty much the standard.

    The leadership of Papa smurf has actually been explored in the comics. There’s one comic where Papa smurf has to head off somewhere far away to get some rare herbs or something. In the mean time, the smurfs has to take care of themselves somehow. Soon, the smurfs are no longer in argreement on how things should be done.

    Several smurfs attempt to gain power and eventually, one gets the most allies and conquers the others. He becomes “The SmurfenFührer”. Single ruler over all smurfs.Resitance movements form and it goes back and forth for a while, until finally it ends in an all-out battle. And when the smurfs are exhausted from the fight, who should show up but Gargamel, who found them because of all the noise they’re making.

    Luckily, Papa smurf arrives back just in time to help the smurfs fend him off.

    There’s a reason Papa smurf is the village leader. He’s got the experience, he’s got the brains, he’s got the charisma.

    This entire analysis is just an attempt to find something to be insulted by, for the sake of playing the victim.

  • DeepCough

    Goddammit, I thought we already covered this in “Donnie Darko.”

  • The House of Madness

    I’ve often wondered about their little caps that look so much much like the Liberty Caps seen in France during, around and before the Revolution… plus the mushroom thing… a case could easily be made that it’s all a psychedelic symbol set, or occult… and what about Azrael, Gargamel’s cat? Named after the ISLAMIC angel of death? So maybe they’re jihadists or something… it’s all in how you spin it.

  • 58GH

    No they’re communist nazi terrorists.

  • Anonymous

    File this under : “Who gives a flying fuck”

  • Anonymous

    “Smurfette—traditionally the only woman living in the Smurf’s village — allegedly meets the Aryan ideal of beauty with her blonde hair and refined features.”

    1.  She’s basically drawn the same as all the others, in my opinon:  no T, no A.  I say the case here is stronger for her being a tranny or drag queen.  I think Fox needs to expound on the sexual perversity that’s a lot more apparent here than any type of crypto-Aryan thing, which is after all a key demographic marker for Fox’s own target audience.

    2.  Refined?  D’yever listen to that horrible raspy voice?  That’s total NJ douchette for you.  That’s refined only if you think Snookie counts as a refined East-Coast type.  Which I guess it could seem if you come from Dog Patch, in the heartland of Fox’s audience.

  • Godozo

    Geez, Fox…this showed up in Wikipedia years ago, under the phrase “Smurf Communism” and references survive under “Smurf Economy”

    It still survives in the internet…just Google it.

    Furthermore, since there’s less than 150 smurfs….

  • Anarchy Wolf

    And the award for reading too much into things goes to…