Evil, Sophisticated, British: The British Accent in Animated Films

"So a disturbing pattern begins to emerge. In the casting of big budget Hollywood movies the rule is clear: bad guys British, good guys anything but. (...) British actors have turned up regularly, predictably, even inevitably, as sophisticated bad guys in Hollywood movies" (Barry Norman), symbolising an "evil genius that can charm your mother over dinner then blow up the world after dessert" (Arwa Mahdawi).

It is a depiction or representation of language, not a sample of it. It is a depiction of what the director/write/producer ‘thinks' about language use in the real world, Hollywood view of the linguistic world.
Schiffman (1998)

Accents establish settings and convey elements of characterisation. They are, in fact, a tool for constructing characters (Azad, 2009), stereotypical characters:

Accent is a potent cue to social categorization and stereotyping. An important agent of accent-based stereotype socialization is the media. (...) Results provide clear evidence that American media’s portrayals of different accents are biased, reflecting pervasive societal stereotypes.
Dragojevic, Giles & Sink (2016)

According to Lippi-Green, "animated features teach children to ethnocentrically discriminate by portraying bad characters with foreign accents" (Wenke, 1998). More than in live-action, animated films show the tendency to use language "as a quick way to build character and reaffirm stereotype" (Lippi-Green, 1997). In children's animated television, villains consistently use non-American accents (Dobrow & Gidney, 1998); there has been an "explosion" in the use of British accents in a stereotypcial way (Wenke, 1998).

It is first observably true that somehow, children learn not only how to use variation in their own language, but also how to interpret social variation in their own language, but also how to interpret social variation in the language of others. They do this with or without exposure to television and film, but in the current day, few children grow up without this exposure.
Lippi-Green (1997)

A specific example of a Disney character who portrays an accent obvious to the viewing public through the use of markers and stereotypes is Scar in the movie The Lion King. Scar is the brother to Mufasa, the strong and noble Lion King. Scar's character stands in direct contrast to that of Mufasa's noble character as he is an envious, scheming lion who plans the murder of his brother and exile of his nephew Simba, the heir to the throne. Scar is drawn to be skinnier and darker than his brother. Differences in animation are thus our first clue into the nature of the two characters. The story takes place in Africa, and the lions are brothers. It would appear then that both brothers should speak with the same accent, and that it should be derived from some African dialect, but this is distinctly not the case. The voice over for Mufasa is provided by James Earl Jones, who speaks with what Lippi-Green calls a mainstream US English (MUSE) accent. In contrast, Jeremy Irons voice over for Scar character speaks with a distinctly British accent. This British accent is very different from the standard English accents of the other characters in the movies, and helps children to distinguish his character.
Wenke (1998)

Based on Lippi-Green's analysis of 24 animated Disney films (i.e. all availabe full-length films available at the time) and their 371 characters, general/standardised American has increased at the expense of British accents, and Received Pronunciation has decreased clearly (from 22% to 14.2%), so has regional British accent (from 11% to 3.5%). In other words, "General American has gained a significantly (sic) amount of ground, whereas the other accent groups have decreased accordingly" leading to a reduction of diversity of accents and enhancing US-American standardisation. Correlations between the traits of the characters and the accents they speak can be observed. Heroes speak general American (even Robin Hood spoke American English in Disney's animated film), Received Pronunciation - which as "a long history of being used with sinister characters" -  is used by characters playing a peripheral role, a villain, an aide to a villain or an unsympathetic character. The very reason may be that Received Pronunciation is associated with posh, cold, distant persons and hence seen as "suitable to sophisticated villainous characters". Interestingly, Americans at the same time see British English positively (Sønnesyn, 2011).

Since early as 1959, sociolinguists have tended to regard as almost a truism the notion that speaker of a perceived prestige dialect such as Received Pronunciation in Great Britain are judged by nonprestige dialect speakers to be on the one hand educated, intelligent, competent, industrious, and of a higher class socioeconomically yet on the other hand less trustworthy and kind, as well as less socially attractive, sincere, and good-humored.
Davis & Houck (1992)

Scar using a British accent, for instance, highlights "his snobbish mannerism and his feelings of intellectual superiority", representing intelligence, breeding and refinement, but also class-envy on the part of US-Americans towards the British or English. Similarly, Jaffar (in Aladdin) speaks with a British accent (Wenke, 1998).

"speakers of British English are portrayed dichotomously as either the epitome of refinement and elegance or as the embodiment of effete evil." This crystallizes the love-hate part of the two nations’ special relationship. Considering other studies have shown that American speakers might have a mild inferiority complex about their own dialects compared to British English, this is telling. (via)

- - - - - - - -
- Azad, S. B. (2009). Lights, Camera, Accent. Examining Dialect Performance in Recent Children's Animated Films. Washington: Thesis, link
- Davis, L. M. & Houch, C. (1992). Can She Be Prestigious and Nice at the Same Time? Perceptions of Female Speech in Hoosierdom. American Speech, 67(2), 115-122.
- Dobrow, J. R. & Gidney, C. L. (1998). The Good, the Bad, and the Foreign: The Use of Dialect in Children's Animated Television. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 557, Children and Television, 105-119.
- Dragojevic, M., Mastro, D., Giles, H. & Sink, A. (2016). Silencing nonstandard speakers: A content analysis of accent portrayals on American primetime television. Language in Society, 45, 59-85.
- Lippi-Green, R. (1997). English with an Accent: Language, Ideology, and Discrimination in the United States. London & New York: Routledge, link
- Reinacher, L. (2016). Discrimination in a Land Far, Far Away - Stereotyped Dialects in Animated Children's Films. Kiel: Thesis, link
- Sønnesyn, J. (2011). The use of accents in Disney's animated feature films 1995-2009: a sociolinguistic study of the good, the bad and the foreign. Thesis: University of Bergen, link
- Wenke, E. (1998). Accents in children's animated featiures (sic) as a device for teaching children to ethnocentrically discriminate. Language and Popular Culture, link
- photographs of Jeremy Irons by Michel Comte, 1990 via and via

Meet Me in Cannes

No, I won't be at the Cannes Film Festival, and I won't walk the red carpet, and tabloids won't be bothered about what I wear ... But I'll be on Campus International de Cannes where I will be talking about ethnic stereotypes in character design.



In the past years, I analysed stereotypical African and Asian characters in popular European comics and animated cartoons from the 1930s to the 21st century. One conclusion: Both African and Asian characters still represent "the Other", uncivilised, black monkey-like, and yellow buck-toothed people.

15 November 2019
Campus International de Cannes

- - - - - - - - - -
photograph of Annie Girardot in Cannes (1972) via

Oh Sheep!

"Two flocks of sheep are searching for companionship. But their shepherds, being at odds with each other, do everything to keep them separated." A really nice short film produced by Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg with a clear message.



Script: Gottfried Mentor, Max Lang Direction: Gottfried Mentor
Music: Matthias Klein
Sound Design: Roman Volkholz, Christian Heck
Animation: Harry Fast, Cordula Langhans, Paul Cichon, Bin Han To, Annie Habermehl, Gottfried Mentor
Technical Direction: Marcel Reinhard
Executive Producer: Leonid Godik, Gottfried Mentor
Production: Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg GmbH



image via

Dale Messick

"Featuring a worthy female counterpart to male heroes in adventure strips, Brenda Starr marked a milestone among strips by women."
Martha Kennedy



Before Dale Messick (1906-2005) created "Brenda Starr" - which first appeared in June 1940 -, women drawing comics were restricted to subjects such as cute children and animals (via) as the comics industry was a masculine domain (via). Messick became the most important female cartoonist of the 20th century (via). Her strip "Brenda Starr" ran for 71 years (via) and became a US-American icon (via).

"(...) comic historians will hopefully revisit Dale Messick's massive output and recognize how it spoke to many female - and male - readers." Alisia Grace Chase (2008)

Dale Messick was born Dalia Messick and changed her name into a male pseudonym after encountering discrimination against women in the newspaper cartooning business (Hinton 2016 and via). Messick was influenced by Nell Brinkley (1886-1944) who "chronicled in her daily columns the new American woman of the twentieth century, a woman who went to work, played an important part in the First World War, got the vote, removed her corsets, and became a flapper, smoking and drinking with the boys" (Robbins 2004).

- - - - - - -
- Chase, A. G. (2008). "Draw Like a Girl". The Necessity of Old-School Feminist Interventions in the World of Comics and Graphic Novels. In A. M. Kokoli (ed.) Feminism Reframed. Reflections on Art and Difference (61-84). Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
- Hinton, L. (2016). "Wondering about the Wonder Women of Contemporary American Poetry". In L. Hinton (ed.) Jayne Cortez, Adrienne Rich, and the Feminist Superhero. Voice, Vision, Politics, and Performance in U.S. Contemporary Women's Poetics (1-44). Lanham, Boulder, New York & London: Lexington Books.
- Robbins, T. The day of the girl. Nell Brinkley and the New Woman. In A. Heilmann & M. Beetham (2004) New Woman Hybridities. Femininity, feminism and international consumer culture, 1880-1930 (179-189). London & New York: Routledge.
- photograph via

The Story of O.J.

"The song starts off with JAY-Z rapping, "Light n****, dark n****, faux n****, real n**** Rich n****, poor n****, house n****, field n**** Still n****, still n****." This line (and the first line in the first verse) is seemingly intended as a callout to black people who attempt to distance themselves from the black community. JAY-Z uses O.J. Simpson as a prime example of this by starting off the first verse of the song by saying, "O.J. like, 'I'm not black, I'm O.J.' …OK."



This is a reference to a quote ESPN Robert Lipsyte said (...). Lipsyte revealed in the special that Simpson once said he was happy a white woman apparently thought he "wasn't black." Lipsyte said,

He overheard a white woman at the next table saying, 'Look, there's O.J. sitting with all those n***ers.' I remember in my naiveté, saying to O.J., 'Gee, wow, that must have been terrible for you.' And he said, 'No. it was great don't you understand? She knew that I wasn't black. She saw me as O.J.'"  (literally via)

His video shows the derogatory style used in the "Censored Eleven" cartoons and has Nina Simone playing and singing "Four Women" in the background. It was ranked best music video by Rolling Stone Magazine.

In a Heartbeat

"In a Heartbeat" is an animated short film that went viral in summer 2017. It had about 12 million views in just 72 hours and has more than 32 million now. The film was produced by Esteban Bravo and Beth David, two computer animation majors at Ringling College of Art and Design in Florida. It tells the story of a boy named Sherwin who has fallen in love with his classmate Jonathan and his risk of being outed by his own heart (via).



"From a business standpoint, it makes sense why studios are afraid to portray LGBT characters, just because there’s still part of the population that’s not accepting. But as leaders of children’s content, it’s really important for them to represent these people because not showing LGBT characters leads to a lot of internalized confusion as kids grow up."
Esteban David

"There was a part of us that was aware this could potentially be a baby-step towards normalizing LGBT romance and, hopefully, toward larger productions and studios doing something like this. I do think this kind of entertainment is wanted on a pretty broad scale."
Beth David



image via

Superman and the Undocumented Workers

In Actions Comics #987 - "The Oz Effect" - Superman protects undocumented immigrants from an angry white man who wants to shoot them for taking his job. Superman, once an undocumented immigrant himself, has always stood up for justice. The issue was released a few days ago, at a time Superman's protection is very much needed again.



image via

Stan's Soapbox: As true today as it was in 1968. Pax et Justitia.

Stan Lee, born Stanley Martin Lieber in 1922, is a US-American comic-book writer, editor, film executive producer, and publisher. The son of Romanian-born Jewish immigrant parents was the former editor-in-chief, executive vice president, publisher, and figurehead of Marvel Comics (via).
Stan Lee created superheroes who fight hate (via). In 2010, he founded the "Stan Lee Foundation" striving "to provide equal access to literacy and education" and to promote "diversity, national literacy, culture and the arts" (via).



"Stan's Soapbox" was a monthly column written by Stan Lee. It was part of the "Marvel Bullpen Bulletins" (also created by Stan Lee) that ran from 1965 to 2001 and first appeared in June 1967 (via and via).
In 1968, Lee wrote about racism and bigotry. He tweeted his words again on 15 August 2017 commenting "As true today as it was in 1968. Pax et Justitia - Stan" (via).



Stan's Soapbox

Let's lay it right on the line. Bigotry and racism are among the deadliest social ills plaguing the world today. But, unlike a team of costumed supervillains, they can't be halted with a punch in the snoot, or a zap from a ray gun. The only way to destroy them is to expose them - to reveal them for the insidious evils they really are. The bigot is an unreasoning hater - one who hates blindly, fanatically, indiscriminately. If his hang-up is black men, he hates ALL black men. If a redhead once offended him, he hates ALL redheads. If some foreigner beat him to a job, he's down on ALL foreigners. He hates people he's never seen - people he's never known - with equal intensitiy - with equal venom. Now, we're not trying to say it's unreasonable for one human being to bug another. But, although anyone has the right to dislike another individual, it's totally irrational, patently insane to condemn an entire race - to despise an entire nation - to vilify an entire religion. Sooner or later, we must learn to judge each other on our own merits. Sooner or later, if man is ever to be worthy of his destiny, we must fill our hearts with tolerance. For then, and only then, will we be truly worthy of the concept that man was created in the image of God - a God who calls ALL - His children.
Pax et Justitia,
Stan.



"I always felt the X-Men, in a subtle way, often touched upon the subject of racism and inequality, and I believe that subject has come up in other titles, too, but we would never pound hard on the subject, which must be handled with care and intelligence."
Stan Lee

"America is made of different races and different religions, but we’re all co-travelers on the spaceship Earth and must respect and help each other along the way."
Stan Lee



images via and via and via and via

"Answer me that, Mr. Green Lantern!"

- "I been readin' about you... how you work for the blue skins... and how on a planet someplace you helped out the orange skins... and you done considerable for the purple skins! Only there's skins you never bothered with!... the black skins! I want to know... how come?! Answer me that, Mr. Green Lantern!"
- "I... can't..."
(Green Lantern, 1970, #76)

"We would dramatize [contemporary social] issues. We would not resolve them. We were not in the polemic business. I was smart enough to know enormously complex problems couldn’t be dissected within the limitations of a 25-page comic book and humble enough to know that I didn’t have solutions anyway. Still, I cherished the notion that the stories might be socially useful: I could hope they might awaken youngsters, eight- or nine-year-olds, to the world’s dilemmas and these children, given such an early start, might be able to find solutions in their maturity. My generation, and my father’s, had grown up ignorant; my son’s didn’t have to. Maybe I could help, a little." Denny O'Neil

"The reality of the situation as America entered the decade of the 1960s and the messages contained in comics differed markedly. Bob Dylan pointed out that ‘‘The Times They [were] A’Changing.’’ Why so this change? The cultural hegemony that had dominated America began to erode. People’s ideas on the concept of reality underwent a profound change. Youth in particular neither internalized nor supported norms that had, for decades, enabled the dominant class to impose its value system on society. More and more, out-groups and minorities believed that a ruling elite of white, middle-aged males controlled American society. (...)
O’Neil, Adams, and editor Julius Schwartz teamed up to revitalize Green Lantern (Goulart 157). The new Green Lantern co-stars in a comic book in which social issues are dramatized. (...)
The Green Lantern character is the classic example of how it is possible for people to ‘‘ignore the social and political realities that have separated blacks from whites . . . the upholders of the established order from the poor and powerless, precisely because they would not, or could not, look below the surface and distinguish between form and substance’’ (Sherman 160). O’Neil condemns individuals who are guided by a ‘‘set of beliefs and/or aims (including interests, preferences, desires, etc.) that functions to promote and secure privileges for certain individuals or groups over other individuals or groups’’ (Hogan 28). (...)
The elderly black tenant’s remarks force Green Lantern to think about the ugly faces of racism, poverty, and oppression in American society. He responds to the black man, saying, ‘‘I can’t’’ (6). Green Lantern searches his own soul. Back in his hotel room, he recounts the vow he made: ‘‘No evil shall escape my sight.’’ He sees evil all around him disguised in familiar everyday persons and places. Self-liberation occurs, but he is unable to shed his liberalism."
(Moore, 2003)

- - - - - -

- Moore, J. T. (2003). The Education of Green Lantern: Culture and Ideology. The Journal of American Culture, 26(2), 263-278. (pdf)
- image via

Applying for a job at Disney in the Golden Age of Animation

"He [Walt Disney] didn't trust women or cats."
Ward Kimball

In 1938, Walt Disney Productions wrote a letter to a female applicant and turned down her request to enroll in the training programme because she was a woman. This letter received some attention in the past years. Meryl Streep, for instance, held a "nine-minute tour-de-force" speech at the National Board of Review dinner in 2014. In her speech, she read the letter and called Disney a "gender bigot" (via and via).



The same year, The Walt Disney Family Museum reacted by putting the letter into historical context and stating that the limited role of women in the workplace in the 1930s was culturally accepted, i.e. "normal".

"At that time, most companies in America were mostly male-dominated with women providing smaller support roles. There were several prominent women within Walt Disney Productions, well before WWII made women the backbone of the American workforce. In speeches made to his employees on February 10 and 11, 1941, Walt observed that women artists could fully equal their male counterparts, and were being included in his studio animation training program. (...) Hazel Sewell served as an art director on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, which was released in 1937—a year before the letter mentioned above was dated." (The Walt Disney Family Museum)

In the 1930s and 1940s, "men and women were relegated to very specific roles in the animated film process". Creative men worked in the Animation Department while creative women worked in the Ink and Paint Department. About 100 women mostly under the age of 25 worked in this department, the inkers were called the "queens" of the department (via).



"The extent of Walt’s narrow casting—and prejudices—from political beliefs to religion to gender has been the subject of much conjecture. Rae, an outstanding high-school artist, like many of the girls, heard that “each time they were beginning to get good they’ve quit to get married or something. So now he’s thumbs down on girl animators.” “The consensus was that a man has a better feel for action, personality and caricature,” said a later story about Disney female employees in a Hollywood newspaper. But Ruthie knew better. “It was a man’s world all over the place,” she said with typically wry candor. “The stars were the beauties who sang and wiggled their fannies around—that’s all girls were useful for.”"
Patricia Zohn, Vanity Fair



June 7, 1938

Miss Mary V. Ford
Searcy,
Arkansas

Dear Miss Ford:

Your letter of recent date has been received in the Inking and Painting Department for reply.

Women do not do any of the creative work in connection with preparing the cartoons for the screen, as that work is performed entirely by young men. For this reason girls are not considered for the training school.

The only work open to women consists of tracing the characters on clear celluloid sheets with India ink and filling in the tracings on the reverse side with paint according to directions.

In order to apply for a position as "Inker" or "Painter" it is necessary that one appear at the Studio, bringing samples of pen and ink and water color work. It would not be advisable to come to Hollywood with the above specifically in view, as there are really very few openings in comparison with the number of girls who apply.

Yours very truly,
Walt Disney Productions, Ltd.
Mary Cleave

Here is another rejection letter from 1939: LINK

“If a woman can do the work as well, she is worth as much as a man. The girl artists have the right to expect the same chances for advancement as men, and I honestly believe they may eventually contribute something to this business that men never would or could.”
Walt Disney

Today, the Walt Disney Company is one of DiversityInc Top 50 companies for diversity (via). The company has launched a great many diversity and inclusion initiatives (e.g. the annual Women's Leadership Conference), has 32 Diversity & Inclusion full time staff members (via) and earned 100% on the Diversity Index a few years ago (via).

:: Related posting: Mickey Mouse & Jim Crow

- - - - - - - - - - -
images via and via and via and via

Honorary Ambassador for the Empowerment of Women and Girls

"Women's strong qualities have become despised because of their weakness. The obvious remedy is to create a feminine character with all the strength of Superman plus all the allure of a good and beautiful woman."
William Moulton Marston

Wonder Woman - the comic character, not actress Lynda Carter - will be honoured at her 75th birthday by becoming the United Nations' new Honorary Ambassador for the Empowerment of Women and Girls. The US Postal Service marks her birthday with the issue of four Wonder Woman stamps.



"Not even girls want to be girls so long as our feminine archetype lacks force, strength, and power."
William Moulton Marston

Wonder Woman was created by William Moulton Marston (1893-1947) and had her debut on 21 October 1941. According to DC, the story was "meant to test her appeal at a time when female superheroes were rare”, but the character “quickly broke out and headlined her own title by the next year".



On 21 October 2016, Wonder Woman will officially be designated for the position at a ceremony at the UN headquarters in New York City. Diane Nelson, DC Entertainment President, will accept the designation on behalf of Wonder Woman; Ban Ki-moon will attend the announcement.
Wonder Woman's 75th birthday will also be the day, the UN's global campaign achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls will be launched (via).



"Seventy-five years ago, while most comic book damsels in distress helplessly awaited rescue by their male protectors, Wonder Woman confidently brushed aside this established gender barrier. In groundbreaking tales, Wonder Woman continues to defuse the havoc of a male-dominated world—always with justice, equality, and peace. The U.S. Postal Service® celebrates her diamond anniversary by chronicling her evolution in comics, from her World War II origins to today.
In the wake of Superman’s phenomenal launch in 1938, hordes of copycat Super Heroes appeared in the pages of comic books. Most were short-lived, some endured, and virtually all were male characters. Then, in 1941, came Wonder Woman. With her peaceful ways and fearlessness, Wonder Woman stood out from the pack.
Creator William Moulton Marston was a psychologist who contributed toward the development of the polygraph—“lie detector”—and whose theories about women’s potential were atypical of his era. The middle-aged Ivy Leaguer was unlike most creators of Super Heroes in the genre’s early days: typically scrappy young sons of immigrants, seeking opportunity during the Depression. In comic books Marston recognized a powerful medium for his message. For this mission he assumed a secret identity: Charles Moulton.
Marston’s Wonder Woman was unique in its throwback visual style and its fast-forward intentions for society. He expressed a view that women’s power lies in their superior capacity to love and believed that women should rule the world—and would do a better job of it than men.
Although Wonder Woman was preceded by a handful of female characters who could be deemed Super Heroes, she quickly eclipsed them all. (...)"
USPS



Images via and via and via and via

Superman says...

"And remember, boys and girls, your school - like our country - is made up of Americans of many different races, religions and national origins. So...
... if YOU hear anybody talk against a schoolmate or anyone else because of his religion, race or national origin - don't wait: tell him THAT KIND OF TALK IS UN-AMERICAN."



The origin of this poster in not known; the fine print on it says that it is from 1956, according to an auction listing the copyright date is 1949. The poster was distributed by the Institute For American Democracy, an offshoot of the Anti-Defamation League and other organisations, such as the Council Against Intolerance (via).

- - - - - -
Image via

I'm glad I'm a boy! I'm glad I'm a girl!

US-American "witty, gently satiric" cartoonist Whitney Darrow, Jr. (1909-1999) worked most of his career for The New Yorker and printed about 1.500 cartoons in his 50-year-long The-New-Yorker-career (via and via). In 1970, he published what at first glance appeared to be one of the most sexist books ever printed. A great many people are convinced that it was not sexism but satire that inspired Darrow (via). Darrow, in fact, never stated his intentions. Let's sincerely hope that this book was intended to be satirical.



"I'm glad I'm a boy. I'm glad I'm a girl" is based on clear gender binarism and illustrates what makes boys happy versus girls. The examples range from eating habits to career choices ("Boys are doctors." "Girls are nurses."). While today this book is mostly regarded as satire, there is also the criticism that regardless of Darrow's intentions, the book was read by children narrowing the option of who they think they can be (Gazda, 2015).



"According to one coworker, Lee Lorenz, former art director of The New Yorker, “Mr. Darrow was known for his sense of humor and for being shrewdly observant of the contradictions of human behavior (Gussow, 1999).” Whitney Darrow Jr., the author of “I’m Glad I’m a Boy, I’m Glad I’m a Girl,” was a satiric cartoonist from The New Yorker, meaning that he used humor to ridicule people’s stupidity or vices (Satire). So, that being said, in light of the social changes that were taking place during the time of the books creation and release, I conclude that the author wrote the book as a satire on gender roles." (via)

Boys have trucks. Girls have dolls.


Boys are Cub Scouts. Girls are Brownies.


Boys are strong. Girls are graceful.


Boys are handsome. Girls are beautiful.


Boys are doctors. Girls are nurses.
Boys are policemen. Girls are metermaids.


Boys are football players. Girls are cheerleaders.
Boys are pilots. Girls are stewardesses.


Boys are heroes.
Girls are heroines.


Boys are Presidents. Girls are First Ladies.
Boys fix things. Girls need things fixed.


Boys can eat. Girls can cook.
Boys invent things. Girls use what boys invent.


Boys build houses. Girls keep houses.
Boys are grooms. Girls are brides.


Boys are fathers. Girls are mothers.
I'm glad you're a girl. I'm glad you're a boy.


We need each other.


- Gazda, C. a. (2015). Once Upon A Time: Exposing Sexism in Children's Literature. Senior Honors Theses, Paper 112
- Images via and via and via and via and via and via and via and via and via and via and via and via and via and via

Tintin in the Congo

"I portrayed these Africans according to ... this purely paternalistic spirit of the time."
Hergé



Georges Prosper Remi (1907-1983), known by the pen name Hergé, was a Belgian cartoonist who became famous for creating "Tintin". His first Tintin adventures were published in the conservative Catholic newspaper "Le Petit Vingtième" whose editor-in-chief was Norbert Wallez (1882-1952), a great admirer of Mussolini whose signed portrait he had on his office wall, supporter of the far-right Catholic, nationalist political Rexist Party, a man who was sentenced to four years prison for having collaborated with Germany (via), and who had advised Hergé to create "The Adventures of Tintin" (via). Later, Hergé regretted his early work that was very much influenced by his editor-in-chief's nationalist and racist attitudes.

“The fact is that while I was growing up, I was being fed the prejudices of the bourgeois society that surrounded me. It’s true that Soviets and Congo were youthful sins. I’m not rejecting them. However, if I were to do it again, they would be different.” Hergé

Tintin in the Congo shows blackface Africans resembling monkeys, people who were savage before the arrival of white men, hence grateful for being colonialised.

Colonialism, by the way,  knows no limits. The 1939 Portuguese version of "Tintin in the Congo" was turned into "Tintin in Angola" (Tim-Tim em Angola) as the "Portuguese publisher clearly felt that their country's superiority over its colony Angola was identical to Belgium's superiority over the Congo" (via). Angola was decolonised and became an autonomous state only in 1972 (via).



The following geography lesson was later changed into a maths class. In the original version (Hergé made several changes before publishing a colour version of the album in 1946), Tintin said:
"My dear friends, today I'm going to talk to you about your fatherland: Belgium!"




"I do not want to risk...losing a fine chance to secure for ourselves a slice of this magnificent African cake."
Leopold II

The glorification of colonisation becomes extremely bizarre when considering the greed-induced atrocities and genocide in Congo. Leopold II of Belgium (1835-1909) was the founder and sole owner of the Congo Free State (1885-1908) and its people. The Belgian government lent him money to acquire a colony as a private citizen and after failing to acquire the Philippines, he shifted his aspirations of colonisation to Africa. Leopold II organised "a private holding company disguised as an international scientific and philanthropic association, which he called the International African Society, or the International Association for the Exploration and Civilization of the Congo". Fourteen European nations and the United States recognised him as sovereign of an area 76 times larger than Belgium and Leopold II "promised to bring civilisation to the so-called dark continent". What he did, in fact, was to extract an enormous personal fortune (a fortune he left to Caroline Lacroix who was a 16 year-old sex worker when he started a liaison with her aged 65) by the collection of ivory and rubber and the unfree labour from the natives enforced by two thousand white agents. Beatings, mutilations, enforced public incest and widespread killing were methods to ensure production quotas were met. Estimates of death toll are up to fifteen million, about half the population was killed directly via shootings or indirectly via imported epidemics and starvation. Public pressure and diplomatic manoeuvres led to the end of his rule and to the annexation of the Congo as a colony of Belgium in 1908 (via and via and via and via). When Leopold II died, the king's funeral cortege was booed (via).

"The rubber question is accountable for most of the horrors perpetrated in the Congo. It has reduced the people to a state of utter despair. Each town in the district is forced to bring a certain quantity to the headquarters of the Commissary every Sunday. It is collected by force; the soldiers drive the people into the bush, if they will not go they are shot down, their left hands being cut off and taken as trophies to the Commissary. The soldiers do not care whom they shoot down, and they most often shoot poor helpless women and harmless children. These hands -- the hands of men, women and children -- are placed in rows before the Commissary, who counts them to see the soldiers have not wasted the cartridges. The Commissary is paid a commission of about a penny per pound upon all the rubber he gets; it is, therefore, to his interest to get as much as he can."
Mr. Murphy

"If the rubber does not reach the full amount required, the sentinels attack the natives. They kill some and bring the hands to the Commissary. Others are brought to the Commissary as prisoners. At the beginning they came with their smoked hands. The sentinels, or else the boys in attendance on them, put these hands on a little kiln, and after they had been smoked, they by and by put them on the top of the rubber baskets. I have on many occasions seen this done."
Mr. Sjoblom 

"The former white man (I feel ashamed of my colour every time I think of him) would stand at the door of the store to receive the rubber from the poor trembling wretches who after, in some cases, weeks of privation in the forest, had ventured in with what they had been able to collect. A man bringing rather under the proper amount, the white man flies into a rage, and seizing a rifle from one of the guards, shoots him dead on the spot. Very rarely did rubber come in but one or more were shot in that way at the door of the store -- 'to make the survivors bring more next time.' Men who had tried to run from the country and had been caught, were brought to the station and made to stand one behind the other, and an Albini bullet sent through them. 'A pity to waste cartridges on such wretches.'"
Mr. Scrivener

"I was shown round the place, and the sites of former big chiefs' settlements were pointed out. A careful estimate made the population, of say, seven years ago, to be 2,000 people in and about the post, within a radius of, say, a quarter of a mile. All told, they would not muster 200 now, and there is so much sadness and gloom that they are fast decreasing..... Lying about in the grass, within a few yards of the house I was occupying, were numbers of human bones, in some cases complete skeletons. I counted thirty-six skulls, and saw many sets of bones from which the skulls were missing. I called one of the men, and asked the meaning of it. 'When the rubber palaver began,' said he, 'the soldiers shot so many we grew tired of burying, and very often we were not allowed to bury, and so just dragged the bodies out into the grass and left them. There are hundreds all round if you would like to see them.' But I had seen more than enough, and was sickened by the stories that came from men and women alike of the awful time they had passed through. The Bulgarian atrocities might be considered as mildness itself when compared with what has been done here....
Mr. Scrivener

"Having claimed, as I have shown, the whole of the land, and therefore the whole of its products, the State -- that is, the King -- proceeded to construct a system by which these products could be gathered most rapidly and at least cost. The essence of this system was that the people who had been dispossessed (ironically called "citizens") were to be forced to gather, for the profit of the State, those very products which had been taken from them. This was to be effected by two means; the one, taxation, by which an arbitrary amount, ever growing larger until it consumed almost their whole lives in the gathering, should be claimed for nothing. The other, so-called barter, by which the natives were paid for the stuff exactly what the State chose to give, and in the form the State chose to give it, there being no competition allowed from any other purchaser. This remuneration, ridiculous in value, took the most absurd shape, the natives being compelled to take it, whatever the amount, and however little they might desire it. Consul Thesiger, in 1908, describing their so-called barter, says: 'The goods he proceeds to distribute, giving a hat to one man, or an iron hoe-head to another, and so on. Each recipient is then at the end of a month responsible for so many balls of rubber. No choice of the objects is given, no refusal is allowed. If any one makes any objection, the stuff is thrown down at his door, and whether it is taken or left, the man is responsible for so many balls at the end of the month. The total amounts are fixed by the agents at the maximum which the inhabitants are capable of producing.'"
Arthur Conan Doyle

More:
::: King Leopold's Soliloquy, by Mark Twain, 1918: DOWNLOAD
::: The Crime of the Congo, by Arthur Conan Doyle, 1909: DOWNLOAD
::: Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad, 1899: LINK
::: Leopold II of Belgium: Racism, Slavery, and Genocide in Congo, BBC: WATCH
::: Nsala of Wala in Congo looks at the severed hand and foot of his five-year old daughter, 1904: LINK



Due to the racist depictions, in 2007, the Borders chain of bookshops moved "Tintin in the Congo" to the adult graphic novels areas, Waterstones followed their example. Other retailers sell the album with a label saying that it is unsuitable for readers under the age of 16. The book's publisher Egmont UK placed a protective band around the book with a warning about the content and included an introduction explaining the historical content. The album was not published in English until 1991 and is the only Tintin album that has never been published in the United States. Some libraries have restricted public access to the album and render it available only upon request and appointment (via and via). After complaints, the South African publisher of "Tintin in the Congo" said it would cancel plans to release an Afrikaans translation of it (via).

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
images via and via and via and via and via and via

Franklin

"I did get one letter from one southern editor who said something about 'I don't mind you having a black character, but please don't show them in school together.' Because I had shown Franklin sitting in front of Peppermint Patty. But I didn't even answer him."
Charles M. Schulz

"I always refer to Franklin as my fourth child."
Harriet Glickman

April 15, 1968

Dear Mr. Schulz,

Since the death of Martin Luther King, I've been asking myself what I can do to help change those conditions in our society which led to the assassination and which contribute to the vast sea of misunderstanding, fear, hate and violence.
As a suburban housewife, the mother of three children and a deeply concerned and active citizen, I am well aware of the very long and tortuous road ahead. (...)
It occurred to me today that the introduction of Negro children into the group of Schulz characters could happen with a minimum of impact. the gentleness of the kids...even Lucy, is a perfect setting. The baseball game, kite-flying...yes, even the Psychiatric Service cum Lemonade Stand would accomodate the idea smoothly.
Sitting alone in California suburbia makes it all seem so easy and logical. I'm sure one doesn't make radical changes in so important an institution without a lot of shock waves from syndicates, clients, etc. You have, however, a stature and reputation which can withstand a great deal.
Lastly; should you consider this suggestion, I hope that the result will be more than one black child...Let them be as adorable as the others...but please...allow them a Lucy!

Sincerely,
Harriet Glickman
(full letter: link)

April 27, 1968

Dear Mr Schulz,

I appreciate your taking the time to answer my letter about Negro children in Peanuts.
You present an interesting dilemma. I would like your permission to use your letter to show some Negro friends. Their response as parents may prove useful to you in your thinking on this subject.

Sincerely,
Harriet Glickman
(original letter: link)



On 15th of April 1958, suburban school teacher Harriet Glickman and "father of the Peanuts" Charles Monroe Schulz (1922-2000) started exchanging letters expressing their concerns about the world of Peanuts lacking a black character and how to best introduce one. Glickman contacted her black US-American friends for advice, one of the mothers wrote:

"At this time in history, when Negro youths need a feeling of identity; the inclusion of a Negro character even occasionally in your comics would help these young people to feel it is a natural thing for Caucasian and Negro children to engage in dialogue." (via)

Glickman wanted to send more letters but two "had won the cartoonist over". On 1st of July, Schulz wrote Glickman that he had taken "the first step" (via) and asked her to check the paper during the week of 29th of July: "I have drawn an episode which I think will please you." (via). And there he was: Franklin. Franklin made his debut in the comic strip on 31st of July 1968 (via), "without fanfare" and without any comment on his ethnicity. "He and Charlie Brown struck up a friendship just like any two kids who meet on the beach might do." (via). Franklin appeared for three days in a row and became a regular character. In general, response from readers were positive. Objection came mostly from southern US-states; some papers refused to run the series (via). On 12th of November 1969, the United Feature Syndicate sent a letter writing (via):

Gentlemen:
In today's "Peanuts" comic strip Negro and white children are portrayed together in school.
School integration is a sensitive subject here, particularly at this time when our city and county schools are under court order for massive compulsory race mixing.
We would appreciate it if future "Peanuts" strips did not have this type of content.
Thank you.

"Franklin is thoughtful and can quote the Old Testament as effectively as Linus. In contrast with other characters, Franklin has the fewest anxieties and obsessions."
Charles Schulz

"Franklin’s introduction was part of a five-day sequence featuring Sally tossing away Charlie Brown’s beach ball and Franklin rescuing it. In some ways, this seems an aggressive bit of integration - many American public beaches, while no longer legally segregated, were still de facto segregated at the time. In other ways, the strips suggest what might be seen today as an excess of caution; of the twenty panels of the series, Franklin is in ten panels and Sally is in eight, but never is Franklin in the same panel as the white girl. Franklin would not reappear for another two and a half months, when he came for a visit to Charlie Brown’s neighborhood. He was somewhat lighter skinned here, which seems to be less a matter of trying to make him acceptable to the readers and more a matter of cutting back on shading lines which were overpowering his facial features. Franklin’s job in this series was to react to the oddness of the neighborhood kids, and that was a precursor to what would be his primary role in the strip as a whole. Perhaps due to excessive caution, Franklin was never granted any of the sort of usual quirks that define a Peanuts character, the very sort of mistake that Glickman was warning about when she called for one of the black kids to be “a Lucy.” Schulz may have had more to work with if he had listened to Bishop James P. Shannon, who had marched beside Martin Luther King in Selma; Shannon was quoted in the Los Angeles Times as wondering if the new Peanuts character would be “a believable human being who has some evident personal failing,” versus being “a perfect little black man.” But whatever failings (or problematic lack of failings) Franklin may have had, his appearance drew national media coverage, and made local comics page editors flinch." (literally via)



"Schulz understood the tightrope he had to walk because of earlier offensive portrayals of blacks in the media. So he made a deliberate choice not to give Franklin any of the negative traits that plagued the other Peanuts characters." Well, nobody said that it would be easy. Clarence Page, Chicago Tribune columnist put it this way (via):

"Let's face it: His perfection hampered Franklin's character development… But considering the hyper-sensitivities so many people feel about any matters involving race, I did not blame Schulz for treating Franklin with a light and special touch. Can you imagine Franklin as, say, a fussbudget like Lucy? Or a thumb-sucking, security-blanket hugger like Linus? Or an idle dancer and dreamer like Snoopy? Or a walking dust storm like Pig Pen? Mercy. Self-declared image police would call for a boycott. If Schulz's instincts told him his audience was not ready for a black child with the same complications his other characters endured, he probably was right."

Excerpt from an interview by Michael Barrier (via):

BARRIER: Have there been occasions when United Features has sent back a strip, or said, "We're really worried about this one?"

SCHULZ: Yeah. There were only two occasions. One was a long time ago; Linus's blanket suddenly took on a life [of its own] and began to attack Lucy. Larry Rutman called; this scared him to death. He thought for sure that it would frighten children, that the blanket doing this would frighten the child reader. Which was ridiculous, when you think of the things that they see in other places. I remember I finished up the little series and let it go at that. Later on, when Franklin was introduced into the strip, the little black kid - I could have put him in long before that, but for other reasons, I didn't. I didn't want to intrude upon the work of others, so I held off on that. But I finally put Franklin in, and there was one strip where Charlie Brown and Franklin had been playing on the beach, and Franklin said, "Well, it's been nice being with you, come on over to my house some time." Again, they didn't like that. Another editor protested once when Franklin was sitting in the same row of school desks with Peppermint Patty, and said, "We have enough trouble here in the South without you showing the kids together in school." But I never paid any attention to those things, and I remember telling Larry (comment: Larry Rutman, president of the United Features syndicate) at the time about Franklin—he wanted me to change it, and we talked about it for a long while on the phone, and I finally sighed and said, "Well, Larry, let's put it this way: Either you print it just the way I draw it or I quit. How's that?" So that's the way that ended. But I've never done much with Franklin, because I don't do race things. I'm not an expert on race, I don't know what it's like to grow up as a little black boy, and I don't think you should draw things unless you really understand them, unless you're just out to stir things up or to try to teach people different things. I'm not in this business to instruct; I'm just in it to be funny. Now and then I may instruct a few things, but I'm not out to grind a lot of axes. Let somebody else do it who's an expert on that, not me.



images via and via and via and via and via and via and via and via and via
PEANUTS © Peanuts Worldwide LLC. All rights reserved.