What’s your Smurf name?

On The Society Pages, Phillip Cohen writes about his McDonald’s experience and being asked, before receiving the Happy Meal, if the child who is eating it is a boy or girl.

“I’m told by the Happy Meal box that ‘Smurfs are named after their individual talents: there’s Farmer, Painter and Baker… Know your talent and find your Smurf name!’…I wondered what Smurfette’s individual talent’ was that got her – the only female Smurf- named ‘Smurfette.'”

(You should visit Cohen’s site, he includes a great table about the lack of women in power positions in the film industry.)

Both of Cohen’s girls chose boy Smurfs. So maybe there’s a positive side to a blatantly sexist Hollywood blockbuster colliding with a blatantly sexist food chain policy: the male privilege becomes so exposed its laughable. What if McDonald’s, after the Smurf experience, decides to change its sexist policy? Forevermore, instead of the servers asking if the customer is a boy or a girl, now they want to know: what talent would you most like to have? What skill would you most like to master? What character would you like to write a story about?

In five minutes, my 5 year old daughter came up with six girl Smurfs: Flyer (she has wings); Magician (she holds a wand); Sky or Weather (she makes rainbows & rain, the sun and moon rise and set, and sunset and sunrise); Singer (she holds a microphone) and Motorcycle (rides a motorcycle.) My eight year old daughter adds: Zombie (covered in mummy bands and blood); Living Dead (skeleton); Fairytale (she jumps into books) and Superhero (wears a cape); X-Ray (can look through walls) Library (holds a library card, shares her library with all the Smurfs, most popular Smurf); Guilty (always lies, holds pen and paper to write down lies so she can remember them) Sporty (holds soccer ball).

My Smurf name, according to my husband: Mouthy.

(Read my earlier Smurf/ McDonald’s post here: Free order of sexism with that happy Meal?

6 thoughts on “What’s your Smurf name?

  1. ill just b mommy smurff and my husband is papa love smurff and my 4yrs daughter is bossy smurff and my 7yr old son is whiny smurff and my 9 yr old is story smurff

    • Mama Smurf,

      Your email got me thinking– how do Smurf’s reproduce?

      I love your Smurf names, though it does seem bossy is almost always limited to describing girls or women. Assertive Smurf?

      Thanks for visiting ReelGirl.

      Margot

  2. This is interesting, because it made me think of the Smurf nicknames I would give my daughters (age 6 and 4). My wife (who would likely be dubbed Cake Smurf because she teaches cake decorating/sculpting and makes custom cakes) jokingly said the 6 year old would be Sassy Smurf and her younger sister would be Snarly Smurf.

    I thought about this, my 6 year old daughter cares for people and runs to their aid if they’re hurt. I would likely call her Paramedic Smurf. The younger one, she’s a spitfire, a real wildcard, likely Maverick Smurf would suit her. However, they would both likely want to be “Cowgirl Smurf” since they love horses, and my wife and I fully encourage their love of horses and horse riding.

    I see my wife as a real leader, so I might call her Captain Smurf, because she is cool under fire.

    I see myself as Spaz Smurf, though many of my friends would likely call me Politics Smurf, Smart Alec Smurf, or Tattoo Smurf, though my brother would call me “Crazy Music Smurf.”

    This could be fun, how about asking kids what animal they would like to be? I was recently on a playground with a huge group of kids, and having them pretend to be an animal on their way down the corkscrew slide and make whatever noise they think that animal would make.

    Another great post, this one had me think and brought up a fun conversation with my wife, and later my kids (once they wake up 🙂

  3. My family had this same conversation last week.

    My 7 year old daughter says her smurf name is Dancey because she dances a lot. My 8 year old daughter went with Tuffy because “she’s a tuff girl”. My teenager said she didnt care because she’s 15, we called her sassy smurf. My wife wants to be known as Cookie or mommy smurf because she’s a chef. I was told my name is Daddy smurf. That’s all i got.

Leave a Reply