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Tintin: his sexuality

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Karaboudjan
Member
#31 · Posted: 13 May 2005 11:59
I mean, I'm gay. That doesn't mean I go projecting it on literary figures... and least of all Tintin. It was written with children in mind.
edcharlesadams
Trivia Challenge Score Keeper
#32 · Posted: 13 May 2005 12:17
There was also a thread started on this topic (alebit from a slightly different angle) here. You can read my view in that thread rather than me repeating it in this one.

Ed
Clopin
Member
#33 · Posted: 20 May 2005 05:30
*Watches thread in morbid fascination* Why is it everyone think that wondering if Tintin is gay make it dirty? Why not... romantic? How is it no one think it is possible to write a sweet love story that happens to be slash? Besides, children need to learn what gay is and that it is not a perverse choice like foot fetishes, but a way to be born. Not that our boy reporter should be the one to teach them, obviously, but this is just something I notice. Who is to say he could not be sweetly in love with, say, handsome and charming Basko-gypsy with rippling muscle and bad English? *Whistles innocently* ^^
Karaboudjan
Member
#34 · Posted: 20 May 2005 11:39
I've never said it would make it dirty. I just think you shouldn't go reading things which a) aren't really suitable for a kid's story and b) not there in the first place.

Yes, children should be told what 'gay' means, and assured by their parents/school that it's a perfectly acceptable lifestyle choice (I wish mine had; it would have saved me a lot of bother). And people can write slash fiction if they want, nothing's stopping them. But seeing as this is the 'official' thread, where we look at what Herge gave us, we shouldn't go veering off to the side to speculate about characters' sex lives. Tintin may not show interest in women but that doesn't necessarily mean he's interested in men.

If you want a lecherous adventurer on the move there's always Flashman- a strong part of Tintin's appeal is his wholesomeness. This may have led some to think there are skeletons in his closet ("no one could be that squeaky clean!" they protest), but in this instance I think that's exactly how he was meant to be. He functions partly as Herge's better self (this is a man, after all, who had at least two affairs we know of), and unless Herge's better self had gay tendencies, I very strongly doubt Tintin does.

There endeth the rant...
corosive_frog
Member
#35 · Posted: 25 May 2005 19:45
Just asking the question confusing a character and a human being. A human being is complete, it has all the aspects that a human being normally has,but a craracter is uncomplete, he has only the aspects that are necessary to the story. so, s Sexual side to Tintin would be absolutely useless to the kind of story Herge wanted, so he just doesn't have any
Danagasta
Member
#36 · Posted: 23 Jun 2005 20:36
Basically he's not at all feminine, just doesn't spend all hit time groping women in his adventures.

See, that's why I LIKE Tintin. A smart guy with class who doesn't sell out. If he groped women all the time, this woman wouldn't bother with it.
Courtney

--
EDIT Posted: Jun 23, 2005 12:39:45
By the way, June is Gay and Lesbian Month here in the States. I think it's cool that the forum's open-minded---it's a Tintin thing ^_^ It really is.
I'm a straight female, but ever since I was in high school, I've been a supporter of gay rights. You know, it's a lot like in the Castafiore Emerald, where Tintin chides the Thom(p)son Twins for accusing the Roma of stealing. "You've no right to suspect them just because they're gypsies." Accepting others for who they are is a Tintin thing.
Courtney

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[Edited by Admin. Combined 2 consecutive posts. Note to poster: Courtney, where possible, please use the 'edit' function to add to your post instead of creating consecutive posts.]
eFBee
Member
#37 · Posted: 20 Sep 2006 12:56
Sorry to jump into this conversation a year late, but Karaboudjan, I support the theory that Tintin loved Chang. Hergé himself makes this very clear in the devotion between the two. However, if I imbue a little more into this love than Hergé perhaps intended, what is the harm in that? I'm not saying that the comic contained "fading to black" moments of torrid passion between the two, but that their relationship (to me) allows for a certain kind of development (outside of the explicitly-stated context of the comics) that is in its own way romantic. Two young men who would risk their lives for each other, and who care deeply -- why couldn't that be a fine, romantic ideal? The love of comrades is one of the purest things in the world, and I am tired of hearing that homoeroticism taints it. It's a puritannical view of sexuality in general that ought to be banished to the Victorian Age.
Tintinrulz
Member
#38 · Posted: 21 Sep 2006 01:15
Yes, its platonic love, nothing else. The sort shared by Tintin and Chang, Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, Frodo and Samwise...
SiHunt
Member
#39 · Posted: 21 Sep 2006 14:47
If one were to argue that Tintin was gay, the proof would be in what is not seen or said. People have always concluded that Tintin is not gay or asexual because he isn't seen to have relationships or crushes; but we don't draw the conclusion that he doesn't ever wee just because we don't see it in a book. Within the realism of the books, we assume that he possesses such bodily functions, but that they arn't seen. Or else we have a hero who can drink, but not pass water and therefore has an abnormal, perhaps alien physiology. If your answer is "we don't see it, therefore it doesn't happen" then you are fielding an invalid argument, as we don't see him wee either yet this has to happen for the character to make sense.

Otherwise, it's as valid to discuss Tintin's sexuality as his toiletry habits, and just as never seeing him wee is not likely proof he never does it, never having seen him romance another individual is very flawed proof that he is asexual.

Tintin is a young man, by all respects, and you would therefore expect him to have sexual urges or desires, albeit perhaps mild ones (his life is very full and fulfilled with travelling and solving crimes). Therefore the fact that we see no evidence of heterosexual desires is further evidence that he is either gay or asexual. In the world in which Tintin lives, it is likely that no sexual opinion at all would suggest closetted urges.

So he might be gay. It doesn't really have any bearing on anything, except to note that if he is, then the world in which he lives doesn't allow him to express it. His relationship with Haddock doesn't suggest any intimate involvement (just because he's gay doesn't mean he must be seeing the most likely male friend, even if he does live with him). It would be tempting to suggest Chang, and Tintin does clearly love his friend but... I don't know, something tells me Chang is just a friend. Apart from anything, he seems in the books to be a boy, and far too young for Tintin. That's what prompts me to think the concern is love for a friend, not a lover. If it wern't, then perhaps I might consider it. Tintin frets over Chang in "Tibet" in a way far beyond any friendship. How old is Chang supposed to be?

Si.
Tintinrulz
Member
#40 · Posted: 21 Sep 2006 15:27
Chang's 16 I think. And Tintin may be anything from 16-20 years old.

Tintin frets over Chang in "Tibet" in a way far beyond any friendship.


Yes, but they are incredibly close friends and its only natural. Besides Tintin's always been a bit of sensitive soul.

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