Category: Week 3 Questions – Tintin

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

Hergé’s representations of women are not mocking, sexualized or offensive by any means, they are simply not there at all. In an article by Europe Comics, studies highlighted how women were notably pushed to the background, discarded or side-lined in favour for male dominated representation in Tintin wherein between the years 1946 and 1963, 134 women made an appearance, comparative to 998 men (“Women in Belgian comics” 2020).

Women are almost completely absent in Tintin’s world (Joseph, S., 2013) portraying most in his earlier volumes with single panel dialogues, if they had dialogue at all, wailing inconsolably fainting or presented as faces in a crowd (Mountford, P., 2020). The only two notable and recurring female characters with any agency at all consist of poorly demonstrative annoyances and “irritants” (Mountford, P., 2020). Bianca Castafiore, a domineering, jewel-obsessed opera star who drives Captain Haddock mad with her demanding self-centered nature and irritating affections. Alcazar’s wife, Peggy, was apparently inspired by a Ku Klux Klanswoman that Hergé saw on television (Marion, J., & Syrotinski, M., 2017) in which Peggy is a bullying gold-digger while any other minor female characters are domestic workers, caretakers and housewives (Mountford, P., 2020).

Hergé has a history of defending his poor representation of minorities, or his lack thereof, as being a “product of the time” (Benoît-Jeannin, M., 2001), but while in later additions he attempted to rectify the offensive caricatures of his racist stereotypes, he made no such efforts to address or correct his representations of women. Rather, Hergé continued to portray women as invisible, subservient, domestic caretakers when they were visible, and when they weren’t, as desexed silhouettes, faceless in a crowd. Hergé himself denied being a misogynist, saying that “for me, women have nothing to do in a world like Tintin’s, which is the realm of male friendship”. Something reiterated in a conversation between Hergé and Roger Leloup following the success of Yoko Tsuno, an unlikely female protagonist and Japanese adventurer in The Curious Trio, to which Hergé said “Women don’t belong in comics!” (“Women in Belgian comics” 2020).

Something which Hergé has reiterated throughout his life whenever the representation of women in his comics is addressed by either colleagues, friends or interviewers.

Curtly, the “gaps” in Hergé’s representation of women, is that there is none.

References

Benoît-Jeannin, M., 2001. Tintin and the World of Hergé. Little Brown & Co.

Joseph, Sarah, A Human Rights Reading of Tintin (August 6, 2013).

Marion, J., & Syrotinski, M. (2017). Terrifying, Wondrous Tintin. Yale French Studies.

Paul Mountfort (2020): ‘Tintin, gender and desire’, Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics, DOI: 10.1080/21504857.2020.1729829

Women in Belgian comics P1: Invisibility to objectification. (2020). Europe Comics. http://www.europecomics.com/women-belgian-comics-invisibility-objectification-pt1/

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

Herge’s representation of Women within his works display significant gaps that need to be addressed, in order to understand his stance on Women. The absence of Women within many of his works are painfully noticeable. In the rare occasion that Women are featured, their portrayal is unfavourable, and they are provided with little to no character development.

Female characters within Herge’s works are merely background ornaments, passerbys’ amongst the crowds. Women are often seen carrying out domestic duties such as preparing foods and managing their children. They are wiped off any rights to dialogue or contributions to the storylines. Herge makes Women seem unsubstantial, diminishing and failing to acknowledge their necessity within the setting. Mountfort’s supports the claim by stating “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).” He further states ‘If Women were present within the story, the portrait was hardly flattering’. (Mountford,2020). This can be seen in Tintin in the Congo, in which a couple of female characters are surprisingly given dialogue yet limiting it to simple hostile phrases. For example, poor Mrs. Wang’ first appears in Lotus weeping over the fate of her mad son and is given three lines of dialogue ([1946] 1983, 29) and a woman is seen upset over her husband being sick within Tintin in the Congo (Mountford, 2012). Herge’s portrayal of Women is misleading, often domesticating them to stereotypical roles with no room for development. Women are portrayed as extensions of their husbands with no agency of their own (Mountfort, 2020).

Although Herge does not directly bash Women, he associates them with inferiority by portraying them as the weaker class whose emotional needs are accommodated by the superior class, Men. This shows a dangerous gap within his representation of Women, as he fails to acknowledge the rise of second wave feminism along with the many social movements  during the time of publishing his works. Herge, ignorantly so,  failed to understand the struggle and plight for  freedom of Women; failing to change his notion of thinking by including more female characters  or by representing Women in an equivalent manner to Males. Accordingly, Herge chose matters that he thought were worthy of publishing while completely disregarding the second wave feminist movement (1960’s-1980’s)- his orthodox views on Women being the home maker while Men were portrayed as the saviour, suggests that his primary ideologies were both mysogynistic and chavinistic.

Another gap in Herge’s representation of Women is his need to hypersexualise and display overprotectiveness over Women, within his works. Herge explains his need to eradicate Women from his works through claiming that  ‘[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). Herge’s justification of alienating Women from his works derives from his love towards Women, making it seem as though he is intentionally trying to keep them away from the limelight, in order to savor their innocence from comedic adventures. While Herge may have positive interests, he discloses benevolent sexism rooting from mysogynistic values, which essentially causes more harm than good to the female sex. Herge perpetuates stereotypes that once again reinforce the idea that Women are inferior to Men, drawing a bold line of distinction between the two by shunning one gender, and raising the status of the latter through including them within his works. 

 It is blatantly obvious that Herge’s representations of Women were prejudiced, he constantly reinforced the statement that Women have no place in the world of Tintin by subjecting them to sexist stereotypes or by completely wiping off their mere existence.

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 gaps are there in Hergé’s representations of women?

The Adventures have been criticised for not only the notable absence of women but the lack of positive or liberating representation of the female figures that do appear throughout the albums. Even where there are some exceptions, such as Bianca Castafiore and Peggy Alcazar, the overarching this-is-a-man’s-world mindset still prevails passively in their depiction.

Hergé’s claim to “like women far too much to caricature them” can also be read as not liking women enough to support their liberation. Women shown throughout the Adventures are consistently depicted as silent and domicile, and exclusively assigned roles in the domestic and maternal sphere: mother, maid, homemakers, caregivers – “[they] are visually and narratively backgrounded…mere figures in the crowd” (Mountfort, 2020). It is also blatant that there are no female speaking characters in Tintin in the Land of the Soviets, and in Tintin in the Congo where a few women did have dialogue, they were only brief expressions of anger or annoyance, further instilling the image of women as irritants (Mountfort, 2020). Although some may regard Tintin as a product of prominent ideologies of the time – as this is how he justified his crude representations of Congolese in Tintin in the Congo – it remains problematic because he ignored challenges to women’s subordination despite the waves of feminism that occurred throughout his life (Mountfort, 2020). The resistance of female liberation does not completely if at all excuse this, especially in considering the many ‘barrier breakers’ that emerged during this period – female aviators, intellectuals, writers and artists to name some (Mountfort, 2020). It is also ironic in understanding that the second wave of feminism focused on issues of equality and discrimination, with an emphasis on dismantling the role of women in the family and home (Burkett & Brunell, 2020). The issue here is not the expectation that Hergé should have feminist leanings, but with an awareness of the second wave of feminism being well underway in the 60s and 70s, we can see this prevailing, reductive depiction of women as Hergé “passively reinscribing gender dominants” (Mountfort, 2020).

There are a handful of female characters who appear to be deviations from these representations, which may signify Hergé finally waking up to women’s liberation. Hergé’s acknowledgement however is expressed in a parodied way (Mountfort, 2020). For example, Peggy Alcazar is depicted as the bossy woman of the house, often depicted barking orders, with curlers in her hair (ibid., 2020). We also have Castafiore who surpasses the female servitude motif but although she is the most developed female in the albums for extending beyond the maternal, domestic sphere, it is problematic that her she is portrayed as a nuisance. It is worth noting that the feature of the medium Madame Yamilah and other female roles we see that are outside of the realm of the home and family such as flight attendants and nurses, are problematic because they are nameless for the most part, and these are commonly hypersexualized and hyperfeminized “fantasy fixtures of the male gaze” – Madame Yamilah represents the mystical oriental trope, and roles such as the flight attendant and nurse are still constricted to the idea of servitude.

References

Burkett, E., & Brunell, L. (2020). Feminism. Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/topic/feminism

Mountfort, P. (2020). ‘Tintin, gender and desire’, Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics. DOI: 10.1080/21504857.2020.1729829

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

Throughout The Adventures of Tintin, there persist numerous issues with Hergé’s representation of women and the roles that they occupy within each respective story. Hergé often relegates female characters to either extremely simplistic or inactive roles, with little to no character depth or development. Mountfort (2020) elaborates that throughout the Tintin series, women are almost solely confined to either background, domestic or quotidian roles. Evidence of which has been present within the Tintin series since the very first volume, Tintin in the Land of the Soviets (1930).

In this adventure, there is a distinct absence of meaningful female characters. The only females present are demoted to merely background props in crowds with no lines of dialogue. This nonexistence of female characters continues in later volumes of Tintin. Throughout both Explorers on the Moon (1954) and The Shooting Star (1942), females make exceptionally few appearances and contribute very little to each respective adventure.

In addition to the few appearances female characters do make in the Tintin series, they are also very limited in the roles which they play. Most of the female characters are assigned stereotypical domestic or maternalistic roles, evident in the numerous housewife and nursing characters spread throughout the series. Furthermore, in later volumes of Tintin, while more impactful female characters are introduced, such as Peggy Alcazar in Tintin and the Picaros (1975), they typically tend to serve as either comedic relief or a nuisance to the main characters.

This poor representation of women in Tintin suggests to the reader that such adventures are not suitable for women. Which is a dangerous message to send, considering the global success and influence of the Tintin series.

Hergé has attempted to justify his poor representation of women by stating that ‘women 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’ (Sadoul, 1989, p. 93, as cited in Mountfort, 2020). Despite being aware of his poor representation of women within the Tintin series, Hergé does very little to remedy these issues in later volumes.

References.

Hergé (1930). Tintin in the Land of the Soviets.

Hergé (1942). The Shooting Star.

Hergé (1954). Explorers on the Moon.

Hergé (1975). Tintin and the Picaros.

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

Mountfort, P. (2020). Tintin and gender part 1 [PowerPoint Slides]. Blackboard. https://blackboard.aut.ac.nz/

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

Tintin’s gender and sexuality have heavily always been questioned, one of the reasons for this being is that: all through The Adventures of Tintin there are strikingly scarcely any female characters, less despite everything having significant jobs. This is a rundown of the female characters included in the arrangement. Hergé had been blamed for sexism, however he adamantly denied being a misogynist, saying that, as quoted “…for me, women have nothing to do in a world like Tintin‘s, which is the realm of male friendship” (“Female characters,” n.d.) The absence of females in his undertakings is likewise undermined to be of a suspicious nature and what not – just eight out of nearly 350 characters are recognizable as female.That being said and further fueling onto potential theories there have been much speculations that Tintin is gay. In 2016, a two-page spread broadcasted this hypothesis in The Times. This case around Tintin’s sexual direction depended on the accompanying perception: the ginger-haired journalist is once in a while found in the organization of individuals from the more attractive sex. While we can’t generally question this present, there’s a clarification for it, one that reveals a fairly unflattering insight into a specific time of Belgian comic book history; Up until the finish of the 1960s, a proposal of a lower leg, a trace of a lady’s knee or even a brief look at cleavage were viewed as absolute means of taboo, that being the ideology of the French in terms of such matter (“Women in Belgian comics P1: Invisibility to objectification,” 2020). 

Mr Parris, a previous British MP who is transparently gay, said Tintin’s sexuality was clear to any individual who peruses the animation books intently and reads between the lines.His (TinTin’s) family foundation provides a first insight.”Tintin never discusses his friends or family, like attempting to shut out the very presence of the idea of a dad or mother. As psychologists will affirm, this is normal among young gay men,” Mr Parris composed (“Tintin was gay, times journalist claims,” 2009). Tintin himself has been scrutinized as unequivocally feminized, especially similar to Haddock, and one could even battle that he is of in every practical sense unsure of sexual direction. Identified with this is the issue of perhaps his internal need and despite the fact that these particular adventures being plainly revolved around kids, utilizing the means of psychoanalytic assessment have coaxed out proof of both a sublimated Oedipal family sensation and frustrated sexual subtexts. By strategies for conversation of solicitations of Tintin as a gay picture and basic questions wrapping both hetero-and homoerotic subtexts, It can be found that his queering, in the broadest notion of the term  is essential to a central comprehension of Tintin (Mountfort, 2020), thus then maybe perhaps Tintin’s social recovery.

References

Female characters. (n.d.). Tintin Wiki. Retrieved August 20, 2020, from 

https://tintin.fandom.com/wiki/Category:Female_Characters

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

Comics, 1-17. https://doi.org/10.1080/21504857.2020.1729829

Tintin was gay, times journalist claims. (2009, January 12). ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation). https://www.abc.net.au/news/2009-01-12/tintin-was-gay-times-journalist-claims/263208

Women in Belgian comics P1: Invisibility to objectification. (2020, May 28). Europe Comics. 

Women in Belgian Comics P1: Invisibility to Objectification

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

Why might the queering of Tintin offer new life to the series?

Tintin is an iconic comic book series, however it has been subject to much controversy regarding representation of woman (depicted as irritating and naggy), race (depicted as native and unintelligent in earlier comics) and the queer community (non-existent).  In recent years, there have been multiple fans as well as critics such as Lichtenstein (1993) who claim that he has queer tendencies and is supposedly in a closeted relationship with the Captain (p.1). However, I believe that the queering of Tintin could have serious negative results, rather than breathing new life into the series.

Matthew Parris is an openly gay British journalist for The Times who published an article regarding Tintin’s sexuality which led to much controversy. One of his more infamous quotes was when Parris (2009) stated that Tintin is obviously gay because he was “a callow, androgynous blonde-quiffed youth in funny trousers and a scarf moving into the country mansion of his best friend, a middle-aged sailor?”. These sorts of comments immediately create stereotypes. If he was in the LGBTQIA+ community, the reasoning should not be due to attributes such as his clothing and accommodation, but due to the writing and characterisation.

Labelling a character as gay for the sake of representation comes across as insincere. This insincerity could potentially lose existing fans. Herge had made it clear in interviews that he does not view Tintin as a queer character. France Info, the French public news radio network, stated in 2009 that when studies in the 1970s claimed this, Herge scoffed at the theory. In theory, it depends on whether you believe in death of the author or authorial intent. Authorial intent is the simple idea that what the author tells us regarding their work is fact. On the other hand, the ‘death of the author’ is the concept that “regardless of what the author intends to say with a book, the true meaning of a book can only be determined by the reader” (Barthes, 1967). Personally, I think both have a part to play, however with Herge’s obviously negative opinion towards this theory does indicate that officially queering Tintin could come across as insincere, and there’s no guarantee of gained fans.

Tintin’s character is neutral and open to interpretation. He does not seem romantically interested in woman, however representation of woman in Tintin generally is minimalistic. Critics claim there is homo-erotic subtext, but other critics do not agree. Mountford (2020) even stated that “envisaging Tintin as a girl or young woman would make little material difference to his depiction in the series, other than perhaps to raise eyebrows at his living arrangements” (p. 13). In conclusion, I do not believe an official queering of Tintin would breathe new life into the series, due to the potential creation of negative stereotypes and the author’s intent being completely dismissed. If people see him as a queer icon however, they have the right to view him as such. There are plenty of queer icons that do not identify as homosexual, such as Judy Garland or Beyoncé. However, he does not need an official label.

 

References

 

Baker, F (12^th January, 2009) Tintin ‘outing’ enrages fans who insist he is so macho. Retrieved from https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2009/01/12/tintin-outing-enrages-fans-who-insist-he-is-so-macho/

 

King, R (10^th January, 2009) French furious that Brits say Tintin was gay. Retrieved from https://www.businessinsider.com/2009/1/french-furious-that-brits-called-tintin-gay?r=AU&IR=T

 

 

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

 

 

Ramsey, R (7^th June, 2017) Authorial intent and the “Death Of The Author’. Retrieved from https://duelinglibrarians.net/blog/authorial-intent/#:~:text=In%20other%20words%2C%20authorial%20intent%20means%20very%20little.&text=%E2%80%9CThe%20Death%20of%20the%20Author%E2%80%9D%20or%20authorial%20intent%20still%20creates,be%20up%20for%20new%20interpretations.

 

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

There has been much debate over the course of Tintin’s adventures, about his gender and sexuality by many different readers and critics alike. In Mountfort’s (2020) article on topics of gender and desire in relation to Tintin, many critics have proposed several considerations on Tintin’s supposed gender and sexuality, including psychoanalytic criticisms to point out oedipal subtexts from different Tintin stories.

Objectively, Tintin’s sexuality has remained ambiguous, but has been criticized to exist somewhere outside of the heteronormative contexts. For example, one critic Mountfort (2020) cites, compares Tintin to Joan of Arc, as he exhibits feminine-like qualities of tenderness, being silent, as well as observant, and especially after meeting Haddock which, results in Tintin taking on a more passive role. These inferences consider whether Tintin is in a closeted relationship with Haddock, proposing ideas for Tintin’s sexuality. Furthermore, there is little to no female roles in Tintin’s stories, and women are visually scene as part of the background as bystanders, or part of a crowd, which leaves little romantic interests for Tintin in the heteronormative perspective.

Another point that is considered among Tintin’s ambiguous identity is that his stories are primarily fictional adventures for children, with Tintin supposedly being between 14 to 15 years of age. Although, his design was based on an actual journalist, Albert Londres, who was an adult rather than an adolescent. Overall, as Tintin is a fictional cartoon character, he does not have an actual biological age, which leaves many arguments about his gender and sexuality still up for debate.

In terms of sexuality, an example of Tintin’s homoerotic subtext can be found in Tintin’s The Crab with the Golden Claws, where Tintin and Haddock are both suffering from dehydration in the Sahara. Tintin has a hallucination of being stuck in a bottle of Burgundy with his head sticking out, signifying a cork. Then, Haddock bends over him with a raised corkscrew and the allotted speech bubble reads, “I’ll uncork it…”. Critics read this as Haddock symbolically penetrating and screwing Tintin in this scene, questioning the interchangeable gender roles, and whether Tintin could symbolically be bi- or pansexual. These criticisms along with many others show that Tintin is a more feminized character in comparison to Haddock. Mountfort (2020) also suggests that the term ‘male’ seems incidental to Tintin’s identity, as envisioning him as either a boy or a girl in his canon would make little difference to his depiction in the adventures.

Ultimately, Tintin’s gender and sexuality are quite enigmatic as he can be read as a boy or a girl, or as bi- or pansexual. Most of these criticisms come from the observations made on Tintin’s lack of ‘normative desires.’ His feminine qualities, and interesting relationship with Haddock also raise questions to Tintin’s persona.

References

Mountfort, P. (2020). Tintin, gender and desire. Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics. Doi: 10.1080/21504857.2020.1729829  

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

In The Adventures of Tintin, it is clear that much has been addressed and corrected on the issue of representations of race. Still, not much has been addressed on the topic of representations of women. Hergé explains why women are not expressed by saying that “Women 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). But this lack of representations of women causes problems as it is read to many public.

 First of all, in every adventure series, the woman faces come out almost invisible. Unlike men, women not only don’t get a chance to speak, but they are just used as a background. Women, for example, are visually behind the status of simple figures in the crowd in Tintin in the Land of the Soviets. Also, in Tintin in America, women remain background figures, limiting women’s agency by being divided into the domain of someone’s guardian and mother.

 Women are also divided into the realm of labour. Housekeepers, housewives and mothers are mostly portrayed as characters representing female labor. Furthermore, “Wives may or may not double as housekeepers, depending on their station, but they are depicted almost exclusively as homemakers, care-givers or otherwise domiciled”(Mountfort,2020). It limits the role of women in families and prevents women from entering the daily lives of a wide variety of men. Of course, it does not rule out women in providing them with career options, but by limiting the jobs they can have to nurses, flight attendants and assistants, this is also feminized labor. These factors, when viewed in the context of the times, were understandable in that the status of women was low, but were sufficient to create a reactionary and wave of feminism in modern times.

Reference

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 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