Author: robynvisser

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

Throughout Hergé’s albums, there are notable gaps in his representation of women, specifically in how little they feature throughout the series, and the limited character development they are given when they do feature.

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). For example, in Tintin in the Land of the Soviets, women are only seen as figures in the crowd rather than fully realised characters who interact in the storyline. In Tintin in the Congo, while we do see a few female characters speaking, they are just one-liners served to move the plot along, such as the woman who is upset over her husband being sick, or the woman who bemoans Tintin for running into her (Mountfort, 2020). Hergé justified his erasure of women in his albums when he said, ‘[w]omen have nothing to do in a world like Tintin’s. I like women far too much to caricature them. And, besides, pretty or not, young or not, women are rarely comic characters’ (Mountfort, 2020, p. 2). This is problematic in the sense that under the guise of liking women, Hergé’s lack of female representation is really doing more harm by relegating them to background characters with no agency. This attitude is known as benevolent sexism, which are views towards women that may appear positive but actually do more harm (Glick & Fiske, 1996). This is because these ‘positive’ views, such as idolising women in the domestic sphere or romanticising them to the point of objectification, still imply that women are inferior and need protecting, and that men have a duty to protect them (Glick & Fiske, 1996). While Hergé’s justification for his near erasure of women may appear to have positive intentions, they are still rooted in misogyny.

Another gap in Hergé’s representation is that when women are featured they are given little to no character development and are relegated to the domestic sphere. For example, female characters are often portrayed as wives, mothers, housekeepers, nurses, maids and flight attendants, all roles that are serving others, particularly men (Mountfort, 2020). It could be argued that this is in keeping with roles women were able to do at the time, however, this argument holds little weight when we see that the first woman to have flown in space, Valentina Tereshkova, embarked on this mission in 1963, during the same time that female characters in Tintin are given less exciting domestic roles (Mountfort, 2020). This limits the amount of development and fulfilment female characters can enjoy. While the men in Tintin get to go on fabulous adventures and enjoy varied careers, women are portrayed as extensions of their husbands with no agency of their own (Mountfort, 2020). They are not well-rounded, fleshed out characters that help Tintin on his adventures, but are confined to the ‘ordinary’ world while Tintin gets to experience the ‘extraordinary’ world (Mountfort, 2020).

When women are given more fleshed out characters, their character portrayal is hardly flattering. In Tintin and the Picaros, Peggy Alcazar is portrayed as a domineering shrew who bosses around her intimidated husband (Mountfort, 2020). This trope reinforces the idea that women who are assertive and in control are dismissed as being bossy, and that the men in their lives are meek and only listen to them out of fear, rather than because they want to be an equal partner. Arguably Tintin’s most developed female character, Bianca Castafiore, is given much more depth than other female characters. She extends beyond the domestic sphere by being a self-made celebrity opera singer, and appears in multiple Tintin albums (Mountfort, 2020). While it’s positive to see a female character given more depth and exposure, one problematic element is that she is portrayed as annoying, shrill and intolerable. Her singing voice is so high-pitched that it shatters glass, much to the annoyance of Tintin and Captain Haddock (Mountfort, 2020). While not every female character needs to be well-liked and without flaws, it seems particularly problematic that one of Tintin’s only developed female character is found to be a nuisance to the male protagonists, further reinforcing Hergé’s statement that women have no place in the world of Tintin.

References

Glick, P. & Fiske, S. (1996). The Ambivalent Sexism Inventory: Differentiating hostile and benevolent sexism. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 70(3), 491-512. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.70.3.491

Mountfort, P. (2020). Tintin, gender and desire. Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics. https://doi-org.ezproxy.aut.ac.nz/10.1080/21504857.2020.1729829

What issues do Herge’s albums raise in terms of representation of ‘race’, and particularly ethnic and cultural stereotyping? 

Herge’s albums present several issues of ethnic and cultural stereotyping, particularly in his portrayal of Congolese people in Tintin in the Congo, and of Japanese people in The Blue Lotus. These portrayals serve to reinforce harmful colonial beliefs in the former, and as anti-Japanese propaganda in the latter.  

Several negative stereotypes of Africans are used in Tintin in the Congo. In addition to the visual codes such as the ‘juju-lips’ that are often used to caricature Africans, there is also the use of pidgin that is utilised to portray the Congolese as servile, unintelligent and childlike (Mountfort, 2012). For example, when Tintin settles an argument with a pair of Africans by cutting the hat they are arguing about in two, they say to him: ‘White master very fair! Him give half-hat top each one.’ (Hergé, 1931). This serves to infantilise the two Africans by implying that only a European would be able to solve their problems, and that they would be pleased with Tintin’s not particularly useful solution (Mountfort, 2012). The use of pidgin also reinforces a childlike and unintelligent stereotype that is often employed with non-white cultures.  

Continuing with this theme, Hergé’s portrayal of Congolese people is through a very white, imperial lens. This can be seen when Tintin is in a classroom filled with African schoolchildren, and points to a map saying, ‘Today I’m going to talk to you about your country: Belgium!’ (Hergé, 1931). Belgium’s occupation and colonisation of the Congo saw the Congolese population halve from twenty million to ten million – a genocide carried out through torturing and executing civilians (Mountfort, 2012). The fact that Tintin wants to teach Congolese schoolchildren about a country that has systematically murdered their own countrymen, and then claim that it is now their country, is indicative of the white saviorism and ownership that colonists hold towards countries they have invaded. Mountfort (2016) describes Tintin in the Congo as a, “sustained valorisation of the appalling Belgian colonial enterprise,” (p. 42). Even Hergé himself justified his portrayal of the Congolese as being through the eyes of the paternalism that existed in Belgium, meaning they viewed their colonisation as an act of saviorism rather than invasion (Farr, 2001, as cited in Mountfort, 2012).   

While colonial superiority is the theme of Tintin in the Congo, the ethnic and cultural stereotypes used in The Blue Lotus tell a different story. The Blue Lotus is often attributed to being a turning point in Hergé’s work, largely because he collaborated with Chinese art student Chang Chong-chen and so employed a more sympathetic and understanding portrayal of China during the Japanese invasion of Manchuria (Mountfort, 2012). However, this has come at the expense of the Japanese, who are portrayed in a much more negative light. In addition to being the villains in the story, reductive iconography is used in the drawings of all the Japanese characters, giving them ‘slit’ eyes and other exaggerated and stereotypical Asian features (Mountfort, 2012). This becomes particularly problematic when the Chinese characters are given more ‘neutral’ features so that they look more European, and therefore less foreign and intimidating to Western audiences (Mountfort, 2012). Royal (2007) describes the practice of reductive iconography as stripping away a person’s unique identity and dehumanising them until they are ‘the Other’. This is perhaps why it was employed for the Japanese characters, as the villains of the story, and not for the Chinese, who audiences are meant to sympathise with. 

Negative cultural stereotypes are often used in Hergé’s albums, particularly for non-European ethnicities, and this could reflect Hergé’s own beliefs around these cultures. In Tintin in the Congo, it reflects the colonial superiority Belgium held over the Congo and its people, while in The Blue Lotus, it reflects the anti-Japanese sentiment felt by the Chinese, who Hergé was sympathising with. 

References 

Farr, M. (2001). Tintin: The Complete Companion. John Murray. 

Hergé (1931). Tintin in the Congo. Le Petit Vingtième. 

Mountfort, P. (2012). ‘Yellow skin, black hair… Careful, Tintin’: Hergé and Orientalism. Australasian Journal of Popular Culture, 1(1), 33-49. https://doi.org/10.1386/ajpc.1.1.33_1  

Mountfort, P. (2016). Tintin as Spectacle: The Backstory of a Popular Franchise and Late Capital. Journal of Asia-Pacific Pop Culture, 1(1), 37-56. https://doi.org/10.5325/jasiapacipopcult.1.1.0037  

Royal, D. P. (2007). Coloring America: Multi-Ethnic Engagements with Graphic Narrative. MELUS, 32(3), 7-22.