# The Aerodynamics of Tinkerbell **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 18, 2020, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-aerodynamics-of-tinkerbell/849755 "2020-03-18T21:21:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2020, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-aerodynamics-of-tinkerbell/849755/21 "2020-03-19T19:42:23Z")
Are you thinking of the Wasp in the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies? In the comics, they’re totally part of her body, not part of a full bodysuit. Maybe at some point they were revealed to be cybernetic implants, but I don’t recall that. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2020, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-aerodynamics-of-tinkerbell/849755/22 "2020-03-19T20:05:47Z")
The Tinker Bell I saw as a kid had no body or wings. She was only a tiny spot of light on the stage. She got brighter when the audience said they believed, and dimmer when they didn’t. She could certainly fly, unlike the children, who required elaborate and quite visible harnesses to get off the ground, which didn’t help them to fly, only swing back and forth. {sigh – Ah, youth!} ---
**Author:** ![brossa](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/brossa/32/3040_2.png) [@brossa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brossa)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2020, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-aerodynamics-of-tinkerbell/849755/23 "2020-03-19T21:34:45Z")
Tinkerbell’s resemblance to a tiny human female is really only superficial. The upper torso is completely flight musculature, and the ‘hips’ and ‘thighs’ are where the lungs and heart are located. ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2020, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-aerodynamics-of-tinkerbell/849755/24 "2020-03-19T22:02:49Z")
> [@cmkeller](#): > > Are you thinking of the Wasp in the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies? In the comics, they’re totally part of her body, not part of a full bodysuit. Maybe at some point they were revealed to be cybernetic implants, but I don’t recall that. [Biosynthetic implants](https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Bio-Synthetic_Wings). Nuff said. ---
**Author:** ![Triskadecamus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b19c9b/32.png) [@Triskadecamus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Triskadecamus)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2020, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-aerodynamics-of-tinkerbell/849755/25 "2020-03-19T23:40:45Z")
So, we’re suspending disbelief on the human body design, with insect design wings which flutter rather than move like actual insect wings, but we want hard science on the musculature of flight? The resemblance to Marilyn Monroe is an evolutionary development? Call me a killjoy, but, No, she can’t even breathe. If she produces pixie dust at the rates in the Disney flicks, she needs to eat the kids who don’t believe. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2020, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-aerodynamics-of-tinkerbell/849755/26 "2020-03-20T13:05:48Z")
Breathing likely isn’t a problem. Most creatures that size don’t even need lungs; they’re small enough that they can meet their oxygen needs just by absorbing it through their skin, or maybe deep pores. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2020, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-aerodynamics-of-tinkerbell/849755/27 "2020-03-20T18:59:36Z")
> [@Quercus](#): > > On the other hand, if we leave out ‘humanoid’ and insect-like wings, and slightly relax ‘mammalian’ lungs to ‘tetrapod lungs’ we’ve got: > 3-8 inches, > tetrapod, > brightly colored, green body, > wings, > flying, able to hover in place or move fairly quickly, > doesn’t eat real food, just lives off of flowers I think you just described a hummingbird. But you probably knew that. ---
**Author:** ![Quercus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/7ab992/32.png) [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2020, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-aerodynamics-of-tinkerbell/849755/28 "2020-03-20T20:15:10Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > I think you just described a hummingbird. Maybe one of these? [Colibri\_(bird)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colibri_(bird)) ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2020, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-aerodynamics-of-tinkerbell/849755/29 "2020-03-21T16:26:22Z")
> [@brossa](#): > > Tinkerbell’s resemblance to a tiny human female is really only superficial. The upper torso is completely flight musculature, and the ‘hips’ and ‘thighs’ are where the lungs and heart are located. I assumed in this case the lungs were still on the upper torso, just outside the ribcage. As the ol joke… “Big breaths.” “Yeth. And I’m only Thixthteen.” ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2020, 10:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-aerodynamics-of-tinkerbell/849755/30 "2020-06-18T10:42:59Z")
> [@brossa](#): > > Tinkerbell’s resemblance to a tiny human female is really only superficial. The upper torso is completely flight musculature, and the ‘hips’ and ‘thighs’ are where the lungs and heart are located. Would this account for the scene with Tink in front of the mirror? [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/f0y76gV2LL4/maxresdefault.jpg "Tinkerbell & The Mirror") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0y76gV2LL4) ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2020, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-aerodynamics-of-tinkerbell/849755/31 "2020-06-18T12:01:24Z")
> [@bob\_2](#): > > As usual, Disney bowdlerised Peter Pan and turned the spiteful fairy Tinkerbell, into a ‘nice’ fantasy character. Barrie was a strange character and his earlier story about Peter Pan, The Little White Bird, is quite disturbing. A.S Byatt writes in The Guardian - \* "It is a strange mixture of saccharine and soulless. Barrie’s chilling portrayal of Peter’s inhumanity almost gets out of hand - the narrator sweetly describes the little graves Peter makes in the gardens for babies who fall out of the perambulators and die, but he then insinuates that Peter may sometimes have buried them alive. “I do hope that Peter is not too ready with his spade. It is all rather sad.”\* > > The original illustrations show Tinker Bell as a much more child-like figure. Disney didn’t completely bowdlerize her – watch the film again, if you can. She is definitely spiteful, her aura glowing red when she’s crossed (and even causing a leaf to burn up, when flies through it while mad). She plots to get rid of Wendy, even going so far as to betray Pan’s hideout to Hook. “Nice” she ain’t. There’s a lot of such casual cruelty among the Neverland characters. Peter himself banishes Tinkerbell forever, and only relents when Wendy objects. The mermaids sat outright that they wanted to drown Wendy – and there’s not any indication that they’re joking about it. You can argue that it’s all done with the thoughtlessness of the Young, but Barrie’s Pan is a complex character. His name derives, after all, from the Greek God Pan, whose “panpipes” he carries and plays, and he carries some of that god’s terrible side as well as his friendly side. Incidentally, some critics objected that Disney artists were the first to portray Tink as a tiny human, rather than a spot of light, as depicted onstage. They weren’t – the silent film version had already done that, years earlier. nor did they base her appearance on Marilyn Monroe. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2020, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-aerodynamics-of-tinkerbell/849755/32 "2020-06-18T12:14:23Z")
> [@Quercus](#): > > That’s not clear to me. Insect wings have in the past supported animals with a wingspan of 70 cm > [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meganeura](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meganeura) > So not sure about ‘gauzy’ but it seems like insect-like wings are a possibility. Has anyone ever checked the oxygen levels in Neverland? Maybe they’re at Carboniferous levels, meaning 35% or more, which would allow much higher metabolic rates and thus easier flight. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2020, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-aerodynamics-of-tinkerbell/849755/33 "2020-06-18T20:27:08Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > Has anyone ever checked the oxygen levels in Neverland? Maybe they’re at Carboniferous levels, meaning 35% or more, which would allow much higher metabolic rates and thus easier flight. Wouldn’t Neverland be plagued by horrible wildfires in that case? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-aerodynamics-of-tinkerbell/849755.md?page=1)