Betty Boop
Betty Boop’s name is notoriously synonymous with a phrase that pervades the mind of any cartoon fan, “Boop-Oop-a-Doop!” She is the creation of Max Fleisher and his associates, a dazzling, surreal image of their ideal woman: curvy, sexy, scantily clad, and, yet, childlike. Fleisher created Betty Boop as an image to be looked at, not so much to be watched, for her cartoons consist of shaky story lines, dehumanized women, and domineering men. Through an analysis of Betty’s physical appearance, her flaky story lines, and demoralizing image in her early years (1930-1932), Fleisher’s apparent distaste and disregard for women becomes all too clear.
Betty Boop didn’t start out as the sex symbol that she would become; she developed slowly into her more popular persona over a two-year period, from 1930 to 1932. Originally sketched by Fleisher artist Grim Natwick, Betty’s first appearance was in 1930’s “Dizzy Dishes.” Natwick intentionally modeled Betty after Paramount contract actress Helen Kane (though, when Kane takes Fleisher to court over her plagiarized image, she will lose distastefully)—short dark hair, crispy, coiled curls, large innocent eyes, and a coy, small smile would be her characteristics found within Betty. Still, Betty started with some traits that Kane would have been highly offended to have been associated with her: a circular black nose, loose, floppy ears and a whine that mimics that of a small Pomeranian. Natwick claims that because Betty (who is not yet coined as “Betty” at this point) was appearing with Bimbo, a dog character that Fleisher’s artists had created to rival Disney’s Mickey Mouse, she needed to have those canine characteristics as well. A poodle, more specifically, would be Natwick...
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... be redrawn (post-censorship in 1934) to look far less risqué, and she leads to her own demise in 1939 (she featured Popeye in one of her cartoons, stamping out her success for his). Yet, thanks to Fleisher, she continued to be remembered as a sexy starlet with the keenly adorable voice and sprightly attitude caught in constantly challenging, sexually provoking situations.
Works Cited
“Barnacle Bill.” Dir Dave Fleisher and Prdr Max Fleisher. 1930. videocassette.
Republic, 1996.
Cabarga, Leslie. The Fleisher Story. New York: DaCapo. 1988.
Cohen, Karl F. Forbidden Animation: Censored Cartoons and Blacklisted Animators in
America. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company. 1997.
Kanfer, Stefan. Serious Business. New York: Scribner. 1997.
“Mask-A-Raid.” Dir Dave Fleisher and Prdr Max Fleisher. 1931. videocassette.
Republic, 1996.
Alison Bechdel's graphic memoir, Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic, documents the author's discovery of her own and her father's homosexuality. The book touches upon many themes, including, but not limited to, the following: sexual orientation, family relationships, and suicide. Unlike most autobiographical works, Bechdel uses the comics graphic medium to tell her story. By close-reading or carefully analyzing pages fourteen through seventeen in Fun Home one can get a better understanding of how a Bechdel employs words and graphic devices to render specific events. One can also see how the specific content of the pages thematically connects to the book as a whole. As we will see, this portion of the book echoes the strained relationship between Bruce Bechdel and his family and his attempts to disguise his homosexuality by creating the image of an ideal family, themes which are prevalent throughout the rest of the nook.
Mary MacKillop was born in Fitzroy, Melbourne on January the 15th 1842. She was the first child to Alexander MacKillop and Flora MacDonald. Mary was one child out of 8 and spent most of her childhood years looking after and acting like a second mother to her siblings. The MacKillop family were quite poor so at the young age of 14, Mary got herself a job as a governess and as teacher at a Portland school. All the money Mary earned went towards her families everyday living. While working as a governess, Mary met Father Julian Tension Woods. By the time Mary had reached the age of 15 she had decided that she wanted to be a nun. She also wanted to devote her life to the poor and less fortunate. So upon meeting Father Julian Tension Woods she told him her hopes and dreams, and together they decided to set up a school. In 1861, they worked together and opened Australia's first free Catholic school. At the time only the rich could afford schooling. But at the school Mary opened anyone was welcome. Mary was a great teacher and became very popular within the community. Although Mary was very pleased with her work she still felt a religious calling. So Mary and Father Woods started their own order, 'The Sisters of St. Joseph.' In 1867 Mary then moved to Adelaide where she opened another school. Before long there were 17 schools open across Australia. Mary's followers grew and by 1909 she had followers all over Australia. Mary later died on the 8th of August 1909.
The reading by Barbara Creed titled “Horror and the Monstrous-Feminine: An Imaginary Abjection”, is an in-depth examination on the role of women in horror films. Creed challenges the commanding patriarchal view, which frequently puts the woman in the position of the helpless victim. She argues that when the feminine is constructed as monstrous, it is frequently done in conjunction with its mothering role and function. Creed’s main thesis supports that the prototype of all cinematic definitions of monstrosity related to the feminine is linked to the woman’s reproductive body. Creed elects to use the term “monstrous feminine” instead of female monster, because for Creed it is the “femininity itself that is monstrous” (41). It has been unfairly
“Battle of the Sexists” begins with the boys reading a Playboy magazine and forming judgements of the women based on their bodies. They focus on the breasts in particular, and claim they can tell how annoying a woman is based on her body. Although this is a brief scene, it clearly depicts the objectification of
“What can be gained by ‘acting like’ an exalted group or reifying the stereotypes attributed to a subordinate group. These are two strategies an FCP uses to deal with her femaleness: either acting like a cartoon man – who drools over strippers, says things like ‘check out that ass,’ and brags about having the ‘biggest cock in the building’ – or acting like a cartoon woman, who has big cartoon breasts, wears little cartoon outfits, and can only express her sexuality by spinning around a pole” (Levy
...he same time the show is providing sensualist appearances of it's female characters outside the help of it's derogatory comments of it's male characters, which almost insinuates that they 'cant help' but sexualise them, as they always look so great in their perfectly fitted dresses. As exampled in the episode Hands on Knees (4:10) we meet the Playboy Bunny in her satin ‘bunny suit’ with collar and bow tie, cuffs and cufflinks, satin bunny ears, black fishnet stockings and her name on a rosette attached ton one hip. Such scenes position the sixties as seductive in ways, yet another triumph of the image happily congruent with nostalgia.” (Black & Driscoll, 2012, 196) The show can at times counteract it's own message, as it is trying to tell us how bad 'the old days' actually where, sometimes it full-fills the nostalgia it is trying so hard to deny to it's audience.
Women’s roles in movies have changed dramatically throughout the years. As a result of the changing societal norms, women have experienced more transition in their roles than any other class. During the period of classical Hollywood cinema, both society and the film industry preached that women should be dependent on men and remain in home in order to guarantee stability in the community and the family. Women did not have predominated roles in movies such as being the heroin. The 1940’s film Gilda wasn’t an exception. In Gilda, the female character mainly had two different stereotypes. The female character was first stereotyped as a sex object and the second stereotyped as a scorned woman who has to be punished.
One of the main ideas acknowledged in this cartoon is that a woman’s job is cooking, cleaning, taking care of her husband and kids. It reveals Western gender ideologies at that period and demonstrates how society idealized gender roles. Feminist critiques by Gifford-Gonzales, explain that the perspective on women and men in the society and how women’s place is at home is cumulative. In other words, she demonstrated how women’s stereotypical image concerning their role in societies is spreading even in cartoons. Moreover, the cartoons represent two different ages so we have a combination of the past and the present. For example, people did not exist at the time of dinosaurs and telephones weren’t created until the nineteenth century. In addition, some fictional elements are added such as the elephant vacuum cleaner. Therefore, confusion between eras but also between fiction and reality is created. That affects how children apprehend issues represented in this cartoon. Growing up watching this animated series, youngsters develop the idea of gender stereotypes until the belief of women as background objects. Especially that these simple characters, with whom children identify, have a great impact on them and make it easier to convey a certain message
In the beginning of “Barbie Doll”, pleasurable and unpleasurable imagery is given so that the reader can see the extremes girls go through to be considered perfect.
In chapter one, “Old Father, Old Artificer”, of her graphic novel Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic, the young Bechdel generated her identity through the tensions and mysteries that engulfed her family the home. Masculinity, physical strength and a modern outlook were her personality traits as she grew, becoming the “Butch to [her father’s] Nelly” (269) and his opposite in several aspects. A conscious effort was made on her part to set her own pace from what her father expected of her. He was a strong, influential figure within her life. Expressing emotions towards her father was strictly not allowed in the home. Bechdel was left “rushing from the room in embarrassment” (273) on the one unforgettable occasion that she went to kiss him goodnight. She...
Noted in Yvonne Tasker’s Working Girls: Gender and Sexuality in Popular Cinema, Goldie Hawn says this about women's role in the film business “There are only thee ages for women in Hollywood: Babe, District Attorney and Driving Miss Daisy” (1998, p. 3). While Haw...
Stone, Tanya Lee. The Good, the Bad, and the Barbie: A Doll's History and Her Impact on Us. New York: Penguin Group, 2010. Print.
For hundreds of years, women argue that they have made an effort to gain equivalent equality with men. They bicker that don’t get the same opportunities as men do. Women believed they are being held back just because they are women. I, as a college student, do not see these issues in my everyday life. In Katha Pollitt’s article, The Smurfette Principle, she argues that in cartoons, the directors favor men over women as the lead roles in their cartoon series’. I believe that in society, there are no feminism, or Smurfette principle, attributes involved in any cartoons, nor is it entangled into the everyday world.
Saenger, G. "Male and female relation in the American comic strips" in The funnies: An American idiom M. White & R.H. Abel editors, The Free Press, Glencoe IL, 1963, p. 219-223
The collaboration between Walt Disney Productions and International Cellucotton Products Company Inc.(Kotex) may have been a result of financial trouble, but nonetheless purports rather unrealistic expectations for adolescent girls. I came to discover The Story of Menstruation as part of a desire to understand the various complexities of girl culture in American society. In doing so, I noticed that the dichotomous media texts marketed toward girls during the mid-century were as difficult a terrain to navigate as much of the media presentations are today. Such materials perpetuate Judith Butler’s theory of gendered performance which underline society’s construction of femininity in order to define what it means to be a “girl.” The primary sources throughout this study often created conflicting messages for adolescent female viewers. For example, Kotex attempted to market a modern woman and was influential in the beginning of a menstrual hygiene education curricula, yet the company simultaneously was also perpetuating quintessential American ideals. Similarly, sex education curricula of the 1940s point to the importance of educating female students about their bodies, yet sexual desire, masturbation, and infidelity were only typically discussed regarding the male