History TheSmurfettePrinciple / WesternAnimation

* ''WesternAnimation/LegionOfSuperHeroes'' started the show with female Legionnaires Saturn Girl, Phantom Girl, and Triplicate Girl. And then, in Season 2, [[ExecutiveMeddling the powers that be]] decided that male viewership would be put off by so many girls, so the girls were incapacitated and/or inexplicably sidelined for many episodes. The Legion has a massive cast with a fairly even gender --and species-- balance, so the comics were averting this trope even all the way back to UsefulNotes/{{the Silver Age|OfComicBooks}}! The addition of Shrinking Violet in the same season was a [[{{Pun}} very small]] counterbalance.

** In ''WesternAnimation/TransformersTheMovie'', outside of a few background characters, the only female character, human or robot, is Arcee. (Additionally, the movie was made primarily to introduce a new batch of toys, but despite releasing toys for the other main characters, an Arcee figure was not released!)

** Downplayed in ''WesternAnimation/TransformersRescueBotsAcademy'', where Whirl is the sole female among the Rescue Bots Recruits, but three other female Transformers are featured as minor characters(Glow, Brushfire and Dinobot Slash).

* ''WesternAnimation/XavierRiddleAndTheSecretMuseum'': Yadina is the only girl in the main cast ([[CompanionCube Dr. Zoom]] and [[RobotBuddy Berby]] don't count because they aren't human/alive]]).

* ''Franchise/WinnieThePooh'' has a main cast of ten, of which only Kanga is female. [[EnforcedTrope This makes perfect sense, given the fact that it's based on a little boy's stuffed animal collection, and Kanga is present to be the mother of baby Roo.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/ChipNDaleRescueRangers'': Chip and Dale are brothers/friends (it's not entirely clear which one), who pick up Montery Jack and his pal Zipper. Rounding out the crew is the only female, Gadget (who was actually the daughter of the guy they wanted to recruit). Downplayed in that being female is not her dominant characteristic; instead, she is TheSmartGuy of the show's FiveManBand.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futz}}'':There is only one female among the cast.

* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheGrimAdventuresOfBillyAndMandy'' featured [[CaptainErsatz Ersatzes]] of the [[TropeNamer Trope-Namers]], and actually parodied the trope in a rather brilliant way, by having the "Shlubs" follow the sort of social and mating behavior that is the origin of this trope whenever it occurs in real-life animals; which is to say, the Shlubs follow BizarreSexualDimorphism via TinyGuyHugeGirl, the one female in a given settlement being easily ten times the height of the menfolk, an who will fight any other female who turns up in her settlement to the death, which implies that she's mated to the men.

** WesternAnimation/TheCattanoogaCats Kitty Jo is the only female member in the band. Around the World in 79 days has Jenny Trent as the only girl in the segment.
** April is the only girl in ''WesternAnimation/TheFunkyPhantom'', stuck with her two friends Skip and Augie (always feuding), their pets Elmo and Boo (always feuding), and the Revolutionary war ghost Jonathan Muddlemore (Mudsy for short).

* For the entire first season of ''WesternAnimation/RegularShow'', there was only one female in the cast: Margaret the cardinal, who wasn't even part of the eight main characters. She only appeared in three episodes, one of which was only via dream sequence. However, Season 2 has introduced another female character, though both are supporting cast members.

* ''WesternAnimation/ThunderCats1985'' began with a core cast of Lion-o, Panthro, Tigra, Snarf and Cheetara, with occasional appearences by Jaga. Only Cheetara is female, but from the first episode fraternal twins Wilykat and Wilykit are established as the resident [[TagalongKid Tagalong Kids]], making the initial set-up more akin to TwoGirlsToATeam. The series would later add Pumyra in addition to a number of female supporting characters.

** In ''Revenge of the Island'' Dawn becomes the sole female member of the Toxic Rats for a while. After she gets eliminated the team becomes all-male until Chris has Scott swap teams with Jo.

* In ''WesternAnimation/StillWater'' , Addy is the only girl among the show's 4 main characters.

* ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'': When it comes to the show’s six main characters, [[TokenMinority Sandy]] is the only girl among them. Mrs. Puff, Pearl, and Karen are more like supporting characters, if anything.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{PacMan}}'':
** Usually Pinky is the only female ghost, but in the 1982 cartoon, she is a male. But Sue is the only female ghost in this cartoon.

* ''WesternAnimation/TotalDrama

* ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse''has Stella Zhau as the only female member of Lincoln Loud's friend group, while the other boys are five.

* ''WesternAnimation/MartinTheWarrior'': This cartoon adaptation of the ''Literature/{{Redwall}}'' story [[AvertedTrope avoided the 1 female member]] problem by changing Pallum the Hedgehog into a girl, leading to TwoGirlsToATeam.

* ''WesternAnimation/TotalDrama World Tour'' has Team Chris is Really, Really, Really, Really Hot, which consists of four (later five) guys, and Izzy (who had switched teams with Sierra, so they could be with their love interests). The season also includes a team following TheOneGuy and a GenderEqualEnsemble.

* ''WesternAnimation/ThunderCats1985'' began with a cast of Lion-o, Panthro, Tigra, Snarf and Cheetara, with occasional appearences by Jaga. Only Cheetara is female, but the series would continue to add characters, including [=WilyKit=] and Pumyra.

* ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'': Out of the show’s six main characters, [[TokenMinority Sandy]] is the only girl among them. Mrs. Puff, Pearl, and Karen are more like supporting characters, if anything.

* ''WesternAnimation/InspectorGadget'' is a downplayed example. Penny is the only female of the five main characters, but being female is not her sole character trait, being closer to TheSmartGuy than TheChick.

* ''WesternAnimation/AvengersAssemble'' has the ''Comicbook/BlackWidow'' main character as the only female hero on a team with eight members, the others being Ant-Man, Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, Hawkeye, Falcon and Captain America. Season 4 adds 3 new female characters (Captain Marvel, Ms. Marvel, and The Wasp) on a team of ''thirteen'' members.
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheAvengersEarthsMightiestHeroes'' Wasp was the sole female Avenger in season 1. Averted by season 2 adding the titular character from ''Comicbook/MsMarvel'' to the cast. Other females appear in less prominent roles throughout the series, keeping the trope limited to the 8-person team in season 1.

* ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice'':