What is Castafiore’s role in the Adventures?
Tintin has become an increasingly popular comic series from its inception to today’s era. One of the most notable things about Tintin, besides the loud racism, is the disappearance of femininity and females in general. Rather interestingly though, the main protagonist (Tintin) seems to scream androgynous, but he also has been referred to as appearing more feminine by many theorists.
Madame Bianca Castafiore is a character within the Tintin universe that seems to be the only proper woman ever introduced to the young boy. Throughout time this has sparked both curiosity and annoyance within the community of popular genres because of the blatant misuse and slander towards women. Mountfort (2020), explains that the character of Castafirore may be female, but she is definitely not portrayed as the nice typical feminine beauty or even as a normal woman. In fact, she often gets in the way of Tintin and whenever she does make an appearance it is either at bad unwanted times, or she is invading the space of others around her.
Mountfort (2020), discusses that women in the Tintin universe are more often either non-existent or far off background characters. This relates to the ideologies of Herge and his opinions on women. Herge once said that women strictly do not belong in Tintin’s world and that they are hardly ever characters in comics anyway (Mountfort, 2020). Taking all of this in, it is hard to digest that Herge blatantly refuses to draw women within his comics, but even harder to understand is when he does decide to depict a female they are bigheaded divas.
The eighteenth volume of Tintin, The Calculus Affair, shows a softer side to Madame Castafiore as she actually helps Tintin by distracting the character Colonel Sponsz which aids the escape of both Tintin and Captain Haddock (Herge, 1992). This is, however, one of the only times she is presented as useful within the series. Any other times of representation, Castafiore’s personality is the dramatic diva that ruins the masculine atmosphere surrounding Tintin. Her physical appearance is no better. Herge has drawn Castafiore in such a way that quite resembles the boarish depiction of Viking woman. Undoubtedly she stands taller than most male characters, with a monstrous bust, large eagle nose, and a bigger body mass.
Another point that has readers rather choked up with the portrayal of women is the blatant sexualization of Madame Castafiore with the twenty-first volume titled The Castafiore Emerald. If the title was not revealing enough, the comic goes on to correlate the emerald with Madame Castafiore’s clit and the idea of her “removing it from her box-” and “touching it” whilst singing “Ah, ahhhh”. (Mountfort, 2020).
Herge. (1992). The Calculus Affair [Cartoon]. Spain: Methuen Children’s Books.
Mountfort, P. (2020) ‘Tintin, gender and desire’, Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics. doi: 10.1080/21504857.2020.1729829
Mountfort, P. (2020). ENGL602 Tintin and Gender Part 1 [PowerPoint slides]. Blackboard. https://blackboard.aut.ac.nz/
Mountfort, P. (2020). ENGL602 Tintin and Gender Part 2 [PowerPoint slides]. Blackboard. https://blackboard.aut.ac.nz/
Pop Genres 2020 