In the 1966 comic 'The Smurfette' by Belgian cartoonist Peyo, the arch-enemy of the Smurfs, Gargamel, looks for ways to create division and fights between the Smurfs, so they would be easier to trap. He creates the Smurfette by using black magic and sends her to the Smurfs' village. In the beginning, she's not very attractive. She has short, raggy black hair, big nose and a long common white dress and shoes. She drives the Smurfs crazy with her constant chattering, asking questions, butting in, being nosy, getting in the way etc. Nobody really likes her. Then Papa Smurf uses his magic to turn her into the Smurfette we now know: the one with the long blonde hair, the smaller nose, the shorter dress and the pumps. Suddenly, all Smurfs don't mind her 'bad' qualities anymore and start competing for her interest, which ultimately almost leads to catastrophy because one of them can't resist showing the Smurfette how the dam works and the village nearly floods.
The comic gives a really good insight in 1960's male attitudes toward women. The portrayal of the Smurfette obviously is very sexist. On the other hand, Peyo also shows male hypocrisy and superficiality when the Smurfs suddenly change their opinion on the Smurfette once she has become 'pretty', yet she still has all the same character traits they found annoying earlier on when she was still 'ugly'. The original comics have much more layers and are much more enjoyable for adult readers than the simplified Hannah-Barbera cartoon series which was dumbed down a lot to appeal to young kids only.
Later in the cartoon series, two other female Smurfs were added: Sassette, a little girl; and Grandma Smurf. Sasette appeared not much later in a comic in the original comic book series as well. She was created by three other little Smurfs as a companion for Smurfette. Grandma never made it into the comics.
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