Ideology of Tintin - Alleged Sexism

Alleged Sexism

Hergé has also been accused of sexism, due to the almost complete lack of female characters in his books. The only woman character of importance is Bianca Castafiore, who is portrayed to be foolish and nearly oblivious to all negative reactions to her behaviour – though she does show loyalty, presence of mind and quick wit when hiding Tintin and Haddock from Colonel Sponsz in The Calculus Affair.

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".

Other reasons were because he believed that sentimentality had little to do in Tintin's stories, which are mainly about men getting into all sorts of "misadventures rather than adventures", and wherein "mocking women would not be nice". He also felt that a man slipping on a banana skin, providing he does not break a leg, is much funnier than if it happened to a woman. As a female interviewer put it, "It has nothing to do with the misogynist world of the boy scout," referring to the fact that Hergé was a scout in his youth.