I'm doing an essay for history class and i want to relate betty boop to it

[Cute Pudgy]

I am doing an essay on the women's suffragette movement, and i was wondering if anyone agreed with me.

I think that Betty Boop cartoons may have been a look into the future. The rights that women would have later on in history than the cartoons were made. Like a women for president- to my knowledge that hasn't happened yet but there is a higher probability than there was 60 years ago.

Or was it just a reflection of the era- what was happening at that point in time?

If you could give feed back and examples to support your ideas it would help if not- i would just like to hear what you guy's think

[Cute Pudgy]

are they truly insight to what roles women could have? or was it just thought of as amusing- not that we could know what they were thinking when the cartoons were created but for speculation sake- did the cartoons forshadow the roles that women could take on later? Did it help inspire the women's suffragist movement or was it a product of what was happening while they were created?

[bboop480]

your best bet in my opinion would be to ask "The Mooch"

[The Moocher]

Betty post-dated the suffragette movement. Votes for women were well established when she came on the scene.

She was not particulary representative of her time (1930 -1939). She is much more a figure from the 1920s. Historically, during a major war in an industrilized society, women took on traditional male roles and kept industry functioning. When the boys came back from the front in 1918, the girls had taken over a lot of jobs that ladies in 1910 would never have considered attempting, and were doing them rather well. During the Depression of the late 1920s and 1930s, women were often the family breadwinners, again a traditional male role.

So in the 1920s women were more assertive and were often in positions of authority. Betty Boop is often shown in her earlier cartoons as the boss (Admission Free, Betty Boop Limited, The Dancing Fool, Betty Boop's Bizzy Bee). In Betty Boop For President she got elected President of the USA.

1920s women were, or at least appeared to be, more sexually liberated than their 1910 (or 1940) sisters. The flappers wore revealing clothes, and were quite open about their interest in the opposite gender. That's not to say Betty was immoral - she was always a lady with standards - but if she liked a male character she would end up kissing him.

The Hays Commissioners, and some senior Paramount executives, disliked Betty's independant, fiesty personna as much as they disliked her short skirts. She did not have a regular boyfriend (although she was originally created to be Bimbo's love interest). She got into scrapes, being the adventurous sort, but usually coped with them herself (although she welcomed a male rescuer when one appeared).

After mid 1934, Betty changed to the more traditional female. She took on feminine roles - housewife or nursery nurse rather than racing car driver. Her hemline dropped, and she became taller and less curvaceous. She might kiss Pudgy on the forehead and Grampy on the cheek, but that was about it. Society had changed, and Betty was forced to conform.

In modern times, with female equality, very much on the agenda, Betty is back to dressing the way she wants to dress. However, she is no longer mainly a cartoon character, but instead a model and marketing icon - still a mainly feminine role.

In some ways the Betty of 1931 is more "modern" than the Betty of 2005.

I've discussed this topic in the History of Betty Boop thread in the Betty Boop Cartoons forum.

Mooch