I’m not usually a fan of Berke Breathed’s Sunday-only strip Opus, but yesterday’s installment brought up an interesting point. Breathed has decided not to post most of his Opus strips online until it runs in a sizeable number of papers. I agree with his descision and will thus semi-describe the strip as follows:
The titular penguin and a young child are reading the Sunday funnies, and the child points out that there has never been a single female animal character in cartoons or comics. Opus is quick to point out Minnie Mouse and Daisy Duck, but the child remarks that adjunct girlfriends don’t count. This then leads to the child encouraging us to “take a look,” which introduces a large panel of famous cartoon characters- Mickey Mouse, Bugs Bunny, Snoopy, Pogo, SpongeBob, Felix, and others, all male. What keeps the gals away, he wonders? Opus, clad in a fruit hat and tighty-whities, gives his opinion: “That’s it! It’s the awful clothes!”
Regardless of what Opus thinks, it’s a good question: Has there ever been a stand-alone female animal cartoon character (again, adjunct girlfriends don’t count- after all, Minnie Mouse is basically Mickey in a dress)?
And regarding the child’s comment that girls also shy away from political punditry: What about Ann Coulter?
This was a topic in our household a long time ago. Apart from modern additions to the comic world, like Jessica Rabbit and the aforementioned Dot Warner and such, and subsidiary female characters like Minnie Mouse, Daisy Duck, and Petunia Pig, the only major female character in cartoons seems to have been Betty Boop. And before you start saying that she wasn’t an animal, allow me to point out that she started out as a dog. See Leslie Cabarga’s book The Fleischer Story for details. Or a Betty Boop website.
I hasten to point out that there were strong female characters in comic strips – Blondie was as important or more so than Dagwood (and gave her name to the strip), Olive Oyl was actually the lead character in E.C. Segar’s Thimble Theater (along with her family) until Popeye came along and eclipsed everyone. In Britain Jane starred in her own strip , even before she developed her penchant for losing her clothes. Betty Boop had her own strip, too (even if it was awful).
I can make the case that Lois Lane wasn’t exactly a minor character in the Superman cartoons, nor Olive Oyl in the Popeye ones, but they never did carry cartoons on their own.
So, yeah, cartoons have been pretty sexist, but females weren’t completely absent, and the strips were less sexually polarized than the cartoons.
Come on guys – the problem isn’t lead female characters, it is female animal characters – Along with Betty Boop, there’s
Little Audry
Lil Lotta
Dot
Wendy the good little witch
Sabrina the Teenaged witch
There are probably a few animal female characters that have led books, but it is rare – and usually icky sex-oriented stuff, to use the technical description.
See my above notes on Betty Boop regarding the anima character thing.
You note Little Audrey, but you should also know that Audrey was probably invented to get around the copyright for another female character they tried out – Little Lulu, who’s obviously much older (and is still around today). Again, not a female animal character, but hey…
I think Clarabelle Cow falls into the same pit as Daisy Duck and the other female animal characters of that era – not really a major character with her own cartoons. Betty Boop was surrounded by a stable of female (and male) animal characters that similarly never made the grade.
If you don’t restrict yourself to recurring characters, there were female cartoon characters that were major characters in their own cartoons. Again, there were more human than animal characters, like Ub Iwerks’ Little Match Girl.
Gertie the Dinosaur and Krazy Kat . Two of the earliest. Gertie’s not particularly feminine and Krazy is sometimes referred to as a “he,” but I think they belong in the canon.
Mam’selle Hepzibah --I guess she’s a derivative of Pogo, but damn she’s cute!
Lady in Lady and the Tramp was the lead - unlike the others mentioned. But I think Kwazy is the best counterexample. I can’t believe Brethed forgot about her. (Or him )
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