The representation of women within The Adventure of Tintin by Herge can be said that there were really little, to none in some albums, it is a big gap with the representation of men. According to Fem (2012) “there are no real female characters except for a couple women who make barely a dent in the storyline.”
If there were any women within the story, “the portrait is hardly flattering” (Mountfort, 2020). Most female characters can only be seen in the background, such as passerby or within the crowd. They often can be seen carrying their children or are doing activities associate with markets or preparing the food. They do not have any dialogue and voice or real role within the story, if the reader did not pay any attention to the background they will never notice any of the women within the background of the setting.
Some female characters who had any dialogue will either be a maid, a wife and/or a mother, who only talked about their husband or children, they never talked about themselves. They also almost always being portray as emotional and weak, they will often than not be seen panicking, crying or fainting and needing help from the protagonist or other male characters. Barely a handful of female characters “have any real agency or if they do, as with diva Madame Bianca Castafiore and, to a lesser extent, General Alcazar’s wife, Peggy, they are often depicted as irritants at best and at worst nags.” (Mountfort, 2020).
According to Mountfort (2020) in some albums there are “even complete omission of women”, meaning that in some album there were no appearance of female character at all. Such as within Tintin’s seventh volum, ‘On a marché sur la Lune’ or Explorers on the Moon (1954/1959), there were 62 pages without a single female character being seen. And within Tintin’s tenth volum, ‘L’Étoile mystérieuse’ or The Shooting Star (1942/1961) the only time female character are seen “are at the docks where a where a ship is berthed” (Mountfort, 2020), in page 20 and 22.
In conclusion they are very little representation of women within the The Adventure of Tintin. According to Fem (2020) there need to be “more strong female characters in children’s books.” This is because children’s books can play an important role in “changing the way we as a society treat masculinity as though it’s the norm.” (Fem, 2020).
References:
Fem. (2012). “The Adventures of Tintin,” Gender and the Power of Nostalgia. Femmagazine. https://femmagazine.com/the-adventures-of-tintin-gender-and-the-power-of-nostalgia/
Mountfort, P. (2020). ‘Tintin, Gender and Desire’ Journal of Graphic Novels and comics. Routledge Taylor & Francis Group. DOI: 10.1080/21504857.2020.1729829
Mountfort, P. (2020, August 4). Tintin and Gender_Part 1. [Powerpoint slides]. Retrieved from https://blackboard.aut.ac.nz/bbcswebdav/pid-5314289-dt-content-rid-12497028_4/xid-12497028_4
Mountfort, P. (2020, August 4). Tintin and Gender_Part 2. [Powerpoint slides]. Retrieved from https://blackboard.aut.ac.nz/bbcswebdav/pid-5314289-dt-content-rid-12497029_4/xid-12497029_4
Pop Genres 2020 