Rain is SO not Smurfy

Yes, it's true. Endless buckets of soul-crushing rain were falling on us in Manhattan yesterday. Somewhere else, maybe, there wasn't rain. Here...there was.

Auditions were held for the play this weekend, and we still have more to do. But I think I've had it up to my chin with theatre for at least the afternoon. Last night, Phantasmaphile and I went to the 92nd Street Y to see a lecture on Jungian readings of Fairy Tales. Twas fun and illuminating.

So, in the meantime, considering my brain is full of headshots and the gray day... I think I'd like to talk about something entirely different... entirely unrelated.

Smurfette.

Smurfette was created by Gargamel (the Smurf's arch-nemesis) to destroy the Smurfs. Before her, there were only male smurfs, and everyone had adventures, but no one was full of sexual jealousy. Sexual jealousy is really un-Smurfy.

Anyhow... Gargamel creates this little temptress to infiltrate the Smurf's little all-male community and create havoc by doing stuff like bending over to pick up a leaf and expecting the Smurfs to kill themselves carrying her bags and singing really out of key. She was a pill, basically. She also had black hair...a problem that would quickly be rectified.

Her ingredients (which I just Googled) included "The chatter of a magpie, the guile of a vixen and the disposition of a shrew...an adder's tongue...a peck of a bird's brain...the hardest stone for a heart." Gargamel called the introduction of a girl smurf "A ruthless curse that will make them beg for mercy."

Gargamel was going through a really painful divorce at the time.

Papa Smurf (who is apparently completely uninterested in girls) decides to make a real Smurf of her, a good Smurf.

I don't remember what magical brew does it (probably Bacardi) but she is transformed into a vapid Blonde who is permanently attached to a mirror. Sure, the Smurfs still fancy her well-enough, but they also sort of have disdain for her because she's completely self-obsessed and blonde. She's essentially made harmless by being given a frontal lobotomy, otherwise known as "blonde hair on tv."

Now what sort of message did this send to the people of my generation? I beg you to tell me.