![]() ![]() ![]() Ever since then, the first illustrated sex symbol has maintained a constant space in culture, from small screen to big, from fashion to beauty, and beyond. By 1939, Betty was out of a job, no longer in production.īut Betty Boop has never been too far from cultural memory, especially with her syndicated cartoons making their way to small screens in 1955. But the Motion Picture Production Code deemed Betty’s swish and shape too provocative for audiences, so by the mid-1930s the Fleischers traded her decolletage-and-thigh bearing dresses for more modest ensembles and “wholesome” activities like babysitting. Betty wasn’t punished for her sexuality: she was celebrated for it.īetty thrived in the days before the Hays Code, the censorship guidelines that began governing Hollywood in 1934. And she was always victorious in bouts with male pursuers who tried to have their way with her against her will. In the short “Minnie the Moocher,” for example, she strives for a life outside of the tenements into which she was born. Yet her coquettish coo belied her strength, and she was as much a product of Depression-era toughness as she was a creation of the male gaze. But there wasn’t a standalone female human character yet, much less an unmarried one with purposely heightened sex appeal. Female cartoon characters at the time were predominantly animals, merely the feminized version of their male counterparts-think Minnie Mouse’s eyelashes and flower hat to Mickey’s buttoned shorts. ![]()
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