Week 3: Sia Caldwell

What gaps are there in Hergé’s representations of women?

Throughout the adventures of Tintin there are very few female characters. One of the woman characters that seems to have some sort of a character is Biana Castafiore. However, she is represented as an oblivious and foolish woman. Herge supposedly created The adventures of Tintin with a masculine dominance but was not intentionally trying to bring any disrespect to woman by creating mostly men characters. (Ideology of Tintin, n.d.). Herge insisted that ‘for him, women had nothing to do in a world like Tintin’s, which is the realm of male friendship….’ (Ideology of Tintin, n.d.).

However, by creating this setting with a male dominance it presents a disturbance to modern day readers. Tintin was written in 1929 so it’s understandable that the time and opinions of woman were different then, but it was a comic written for children and it displays a majority of the female characters ranging from mothers, caregivers, wives, nurses, maids or housekeepers. “In many of Hergé’s albums there is an almost total absence of female characters, and the only women we do see are background characters who do not speak” (Mountfort, 2020). Unfortunately, these characters don’t actually have very much development physically, mentally and emotionally. By creating prejudice female characters in his comics, Herge appears as ignorant towards feminism and woman rights.

Herge’s representation of women in his comics inforce the idea that men are dominant, that women are inferior. It leads us to believe that his perspectives are prejudice and that woman are not capable of that of man and they have roles in society they must fulfill. This would seem ridiculous in today’s society and if comics presenting such ideals, prejudice and opinions were printed for children they would not be tolerated.

References:

Ideology of Tintin. (n.d.). Retrieved August 20, 2020, from        

https://tintin.fandom.com/wiki/Ideology_of_Tintin

Mountfort, P. (2020). Tintin, gender and desire. Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics.