Tintin Forums

I also disagree that Hergé would never have thought of putting a homoerotic subtext in the books; in fact, many people disagree, because so many people believe there is one!

I never said he didn't think of it. I'm sure that he must have at one time or another. What I said is that even if he wanted to bring subtext into the comics, he would be running very high risks. Also, I have read all the Tintin books and I see no evidence of a homoerotic subtext... all I can see is an intrepid boy reporter who is a devoted friend and humanitarian, going off on adventures around the world and solving mysteries.

With its concentration on political intrigue, "Tintin" was far more sophisticated than the average comic strip. Hergé himself said that the strip was written for children and adults.

Yes, I can understand that, but I think the majority of the audience were children or teenagers.

I disagree that there's no mention of overt sexual/ love interests in the Tintin books.

Weeeeelllll.... yes, you are right about all that, but point was that it only went so far as mentioning it and showing it so that it could pass through the censors and not offend anyone. Think about the times when Herge wrote these books: a time when things like homosexuality or just sex in literature was generally frowned upon by international society. The most he could show were love interests, in a humorous tone such as in the Castafiore Emerald.

In any case, as I have said before, even if Herge wanted to put those kinds of things into his books, there wasn't much he could do because of censorship.

What I think we can agree on is that there's no explicit reference to homosexual relationships in the Tintin books. We agree that there couldn't have been, given the overwhelmingly homophobic attitudes prevalent in the 1930s and '40s. Where we disagree is that you see no hint of homosexual attachment in the characterizations, and I do. This doesn't surprise me. The majority of heterosexual folk wouldn't detect such hints. They experience the world in a strictly heterosexual context, and have little reason to suspect the existence of homoerotic subtexts in media. Therefore, they would see nothing unusual about Tintin and Haddock's living arrangement, they'd never guess that Haddock's hallucination of Tintin as a champagne bottle might be symbolic, and they'd never question the intensity of Tintin's feelings for Chang. When they think of homosexuality, they imagine something bordering on the pornographic, but as quiet as it's kept, homosexual men and women need not be portrayed in that way. We know that Hergé was ahead of his time in certain respects, but there's a very real possibility that he was more progressive in his thinking than we ever suspected.

You've just made an excellent point, adonis1960. You possess a perspective that I can never have, and in light of that I defer to you in your assessment that there is a subtext. We could explore in what ways it manifests itself in your opinion, since I can't see it. Knock yourself out!
Cheers!
Signed,
Tintin Is The Greatest!

adonis1960, I would like to just point out that Tintin and Hddock living together is not unusual in that subtext...think of Morcambe(sp?) and Wise sketches when they are in bed together, I'm sure there was nothing homophobic about that.

Tintin and Chang were just very good friends, kinda like brothers I guess..it is possible for men to have deep friendships with it meaning nothing more then they are just friends.

If that's the way you want to view these relationships, it's fine with me. Like I said, before, I'm not bent on proving anything. If there are people who prefer to think of Tintin and Haddock as heterosexual or "asexual" (a very rare condition in the male species, let me assure you), I'm not going to try to change their minds. By the same token, I'm not going to pretend that a different perception of the characters' sexuality isn't possible just because you aren't comfortable with that perception.

One concept that escapes me is this; why would a straight man (Herge) write books about a gay character if he was running such a risk by doing so? If anyone had, at the time the some of earlier books were written, suspected that Herge meant Tintin to be gay, the outcry would have been enormous.

Captain Chester

why would a straight man (Herge) write books about a gay character if he was running such a risk by doing so?

Why would you assume that just because a man is heterosexual he couldn't possibly have any interest in writing about homosexual characters? Why would you assume that artists (who are on average more liberal and open-minded than other people) wouldn't seek to depict the world in all its diversity? The only risk here would've been in Hergé explicitly labeling characters' relationships as homosexual, and clearly, that's not what he did.

In the past, when ignorant attitudes were prevalent, artists and writers conveyed same-gender themes with subtlety. The late Elizabeth Montgomery admitted, shortly before her death, that her popular 1960s TV series "Bewitched" contained homosexual subtexts. Straight people, I'm sure, didn't see them unless they were looking for them, and why would they look for them? Such subtexts exist for the benefit of those who can recognize them, and for no one else.

It feels like I'm running in circles here, trying to explain something (or more accurately, the possibility of something) to people whose minds are completely closed to the concept. Let's put an end to this foot race. For the last time, I'm going to say this: I'm fine with anyone believing there's no hint of homosexuality in the Tintin stories. I have no problem with that. What I have a problem with is the insistence that everyone perceive the Tintin stories in the same way.

Why are certain folk here so loath to accept that others perceive the Tintin/Haddock/Chang interaction differently? Why are they working so hard to change the minds of others? Could it be that certain folk are struggling with issues that have nothing to do with Tintin, but have everything to do with bias about sexual orientation?

If you're going to try and analyse this, you may go on talking about Piglet and Poohs sexual orientation. Come on people, its a comic, not real. Just because Tintin doesn't try to jump into bed with every woman he meeet, doesn't mean he's gay. And asexual may be rare, but it does exist.

<<If you're going to try and analyse this you may go on talking about Piglet and Poohs sexual orientation. Come on people, its a comic, not real.>>

To my knowledge, Winnie The Pooh was never a comic strip, it was a children's book series. If it ever did appear in comic strip form, it certainly wouldn't have been the same kind of strip as Tintin. Tintin was never marketed exclusively to children.

<<Just because Tintin doesn't try to jump into bed with every woman he meeet, doesn't mean he's gay. And asexual may be rare, but it does exist.>>

What happened to your assessment that comics aren't real and we shouldn't be talking about the characters' sexual orientation? It seems to have evaporated into thin air. My, what opportunistic arguments you make, Grandma, and how very desperate you are to dismiss the possibility of homosexual undertones in The Adventures of Tintin.

A couple of points:
Herge was very interested in psychiatric analysis, and has been quoted as saying that Tintin in Tibet was an attempt to deal with his own dreams. So a Freudian analysis of the wine-bottle scene may not be so far fetched--at least as a literary analysis.*

Keep in mind, also, that gays (men mostly) were portrayed in movies and cartoons--usually tragically or humorously--during the decades that Herge was writing. (See, for example, The Celluloid Closet.)