Fictional characters have secrets too. After Dumbledore was outed as gay by his creator, J K Rowling, here is Tintin going pssst at us. Vincent Cespedes—a French philosopher, painter and pianist—has created waves in the comic-book world by saying that Tintin is actually a girl. That red mop could be a fringe and those looks are unisex, not to mention the tendency to slip into girlie clothes now and then even when the plot doesn’t demand it. Rip off the blue decor, readers, paint this room pink.
The ‘how’ of this will be dissected to bits by tintinophilies (as Tintin fans are called) for a long, long time—his fans all over the world will now pore over the comics to prove or disprove this. The ‘why’ though surely does not need too much thinking. When women even today hesitate to take off for faraway places—with women-only holidays doing good business—it must have been difficult during Tintin times to even dream of being a reporter and zoom off left, right and centre to places with unpronounceable names and godknows- what dressing norms for womenfolk.
Tintin would have known what melodrama her family and well-meaning friends would have put up to stop her dashing off here and there. Best to don boyish clothes, trim hair and never date. Cespedes says the male disguise allowed Tintin to roam “without fear of the misogyny of other cultures, modesty, manners, or the stupidity of prejudices”. He adds, “Tintin was always a young girl.
A redheaded redhead with blue eyes, and probably asexual. Her eyes don’t have colours or eyelashes, she doesn’t have breasts and wears male outfi ts.” As a boy if Tintin was physically nondescript, as a girl he is supermodel material. With that one-inch breadth top to bottom and gangly limbs, s/he was size zero in every frame. S/he doesn’t fl irt with man or woman, which is probably why Cespedes terms Tintin asexual—a bonafide state of sexual being in this day and age, but unthinkable during Tintin’s era.
In The Temple of the Sun, Tintin can only say ‘sorry’ as a baddie’s fi st goes through a wall. That politeness and calm chasing of clues can all be termed stereotypically feminine, can’t it? One can imagine Tintin surreptitiously slipping his passport across myriad counters and trying to look nonchalant as the clerk goes ‘hmmm’. Of course, this latest ‘discovery’ puts Tintin in another category—not only that of a sleuth, but of a master of deceptions, of hiding, of extraordinary voice modulation (‘keep it low’, she must have told herself before opening her mouth to speak at every turn, even when startled).
Also, which washroom was Tintin using? Smart single women have always had to be resourceful. Down the ages women have drawn moustaches across their peaches and cream skin to do exactly what they want. So if Mr Tintin was really Ms Tintin, let Herge, his creator, take a feminist bow. But has anyone told Captain Haddock this? We will know when the cry of ‘Blistering barnacles’ rings out deafeningly.
Shinie Antony
@shinieantony