blog three

How and why have Tintin’s gender and sexuality been question?

The gender issues are controversial in the Tintin universe, even the author of the Tintin collections, Hergé, had been argued that he tried to hid his femininity behind the character of Tintin (Bremner, 2017). There are two main issues in the Tintin universe been identified. That are, rare female characters’ existences in the Tintin universe and asexuality of Tintin. Hergé once admitted that he liked women whereas he did not want to caricature them and he also considered and acknowledged that women were rare existences in comic books and cultures. More importantly, Hergé believed that women were not capable to fit in the Tintin universe and thus women characters appeared hardly flattering in the Tintin collection. Furthermore, there is another issue that appeared in Tintin collections, that is, the characters in the collections are often commented and considered genderless. This perspective was firstly from a French philosopher, Vincent Cespedes. Vincent Cespedes (O’Connor, 2017) even argue and doubt that Tintin is a girl and her (Tintin) female features are not obvious due to Herugé tries to represent and build Tintin’s image as a tomboy. More importantly, Hergé tried to hide his femininity behind the Tintin. One of the key factor that Hergé built this tomboy character is that male appearance and disguised as a man can help Tintin to travel the world easier (O’Connor, 2017). Several things indicate that Tintin is a girl. Firstly, Tintin showed several traits that directly connected with femininity. For instance, in The Crab With The Golden Claws collection, Tintin’s attitudes and actions toward drunk captain were easily interpreted as a stereotype of femininity in that century (O’Connor, 2017). Secondly, Tintin wore female clothes whereas it was not necessary in those contexts (O’Connor, 2017). The aforementioned two key factors lead people to question Tintin’s gender.

References

Bremner, C. (2017). Great snakes! Is Tintin actually an asexual girl? THE TIMES. https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/great-snakes-is-tintin-actuallyan-asexual-girl-v56jxxd25

O’Connor, R. (2017). Tintin is a girl and ‘probably asexual’, French philosopher claims. INDEPENDENT. https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/tintin-woman-girl-femme-asexual-comic-character-herge-vincent-cespedes-philospher-theory-a7960561.html