Mickey & Friends

The condition of the Disney troop is very similar to that of its Looney Tunes rivals. Almost all of the regular characters in the Mickey/Donald/Goofy cartoons are male, and the only females are the boys' love interests. No female characters stand on their own; they exist to fulfill a role created by the existence of the male characters. As much as Minnie has, to her credit, developed something of her own marketing empire, she is still primarily identified as Mickey's Girlfriend. Ditto for Daisy Duck and her relationship to Donald.

Disney, much like Warner Brothers, has taken some serious heat in recent years for its portrayals of women and minorities. Once again, then, nitpicking over the insensitivity of Disney cartoons seems like well-worn and almost redundant territory; for me, "Disney" has become almost synonymous with "anti-feminism." But however familiar we may be with Disney's gender offenses, its cast of original cartoon characters serves to nicely illustrate the Smurfette Priniciple.