Ugg boots

An icon of Anglophone culture

Story behind the ugg boots

Most of you probably know the Ugg boots, created by the UGG Australia brand. But are you aware of the long history behind these popular boots? 

There is a theory that says that these unisex, sheepskin boots were already worn by Australian shepherds in the 1800s, but in a different way: they took the sheepskin and wound it around their feet and ankles. Later, in the 1960’s, the ugg boots were worn by surfers to keep their feet warm after they got out of the sea. They were introduced in California for the first time in 1978, by the Australian surfer Brian Smith. He was the one who founded the UGG Australia company.  In 1995, Smith sold the company to Deckers Outdoor Corporation, which already sold Teva sandals. They later expanded to New York City.  

Success and international spreading of UGG Australia

The UGG boots became a huge success and, therefore, Deckers Outdoor Corporation opened several new stores in Japan, China, London and Paris. A lot of American actresses wore these shoes on set or just because they were so comfortable. 

One other reason for the large success of UGG is their collaborations with designer brands. They launched a collection with Jimmy Choo, an iconic luxury brand. And later they collaborated with Swarovski. They constantly adapt and renew themselves to the needs of their customers. For example, they created a collection for men and change the colours and the design of the boots according to the seasons. 

UGG boots from the Swarovski collaboration

Jimmy Choo collection

Classic boots of the brand UGG Australia

Imitations and competition for the monopoly

A lot of websites, such as eBay, sell fake Ugg boots. Deckers' brand-protection unit has already blocked lots of them. 60 000 pairs of those imitation boots were confiscated by customs agents. UGG Australia is the best-known brand of sheepskin boots but there are others, such as EMU. These brands are legitimate companies and their names also sound very Australian. They weaken the profits and success of UGG Australia.

Left: UGG Australia boots
Right: imitations of the brand

       

Animal welfare and ethical values

As they indicate it on their official website, UGG Australia only uses sheepskin from sheep that were raised to produce food. They prefer to collaborate with farmers whose aim is to sell their livestock’s meat, which represents 90% of these farmers’ business. The 10 remaining percents represent the sheepskin that can be sold to companies such as UGG. This is not the only criterion that is required by the brand when it comes to buying raw material. They only work with suppliers who stand for the same ethical values and sourcing. They want to protect the animals from any possible violence and abuse. Because of that they are not afraid to say that the company never used sheepskin from sheep that have suffered from mulesing. This is a procedure intended to remove folds of skin from the sheeps’ tails to reduce fly strike. 

In regards to the traceability, they find their sheepskin in tanneries after having checked its country of origin. In fact, they only accept products from countries which apply regulated standards concerning the treatment of animals: Australia, the USA, Ireland, the UK and Spain. UGG has recently banned using angora. They do not agree with the way the angora rabbits were treated. These animals are known for their long, soft fur. They hand-pluck the fur at the time the animals moult while they are still alive. This painful process takes place every four months for up to five years.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyFUJBxG5GU

Ugg Boots are probably one of the most popular, well-known boots in not only Australia but also in America, the United Kingdom and the whole rest of Europe. The street scene without these fluffy boots seems unthinkable. This product, originally from Australia is therefore a perfect symbol of the Anglo-Saxon culture.

Astrid Cleeren, Claire Collignon and Daphné Dessilly

Sources:

• http://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-41464142

• https://www.ugg.com/uk/world-of-ugg-story.html

• http://fashion.telegraph.co.uk/news-features/TMG8283572/The-story-of-Ugg.html

• http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2510641/Cruel-truths-angora-fur-trade-revealed-shocking-video.html

• http://www.ourendangeredworld.com/truth-behind-angora-faux-fur-production/ 

• https://www.google.be/imghp?hl=fr&tab=wi

• https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/mulesing

Tim Hortons

Introduction

When you mention Tim Hortons, people only think about a simple fast-food chain but, to Canadians, it has become a part of their culture and their way of life. Whether it is in Canadian politics, the Canadian army or the dictionary, the brand is everywhere.

History

The brand was founded in 1964 in Ontario by Tim Horton, a famous hockey player in the National Canadian League. He created a partnership with Jim Charade, who remained unknown till now. In reality, he is the one who got the idea to create a doughnut and coffee chain in the first place.

How did Tim Hortons become a way of life?

It came into Canadians' lives in many ways. First of all, Tim Hortons is now the most famous fast-food chain in Canada with almost 4000 locations in which you can find all sorts of hamburgers, sandwiches, wraps, doughnuts,... No tourist can ever visit Canada without stopping by a Tim Hortons restaurant and without being tempted by their food.
However, Tim Hortons are not to be found on Canadian soil only: you can find some in the United Kingdom, in Spain, in Ireland, in the USA of course, and in some Eastern European countries.
Moreover, the brand is mostly famous for "double-double" coffee, which is a coffee with two creams and two sugars. It became so popular that the word entered the Canadian Oxford Dictionary in 2004.

Another reason why Tim Hortons became so popular is because it is connected to hockey, which is Canada's national sport. This connection is maintained through adverts or through the Timbits Minor Sports Program, whose aim is to encourage young children to play sports. Once the children begin learning to play sports with this program, the brand enters their lives. ‘Timbits’ also refers to the famous doughnut holes that the brand offers.

Then, Hortons is also a part of the political game that is being played between the conservatives and the liberals. The members of the conservative party identify themselves as the Tim Hortons party and, according to them, the liberals are the Starbucks party because the customers are from the upper class. The conservative party indeed sees Tim Hortons' customers as belonging to the middle class and tries to attract them through different campaigns. Tim Hortons represents the diversity of the country.

When Canadian soldiers were deployed in Afghanistan during the war, the Canadian Chief of Defence Staff, General Rick Hillier, insisted that the soldiers should have access to a Tim Hortons to boost their morale. As a result of this request, a Tim Hortons outlet opened in Kandahar Airfield.
Finally, Tim Hortons is also very famous on the Internet, whether it is in the meme culture with a lot of memes going around or with the amount of Youtubers taking on challenges or making reviews about the brand. All this reinforces the visibility of the fast-food chain and embeds it even more in Canadian pop culture.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Tim Hortons is more than a simple fast-food chain. It has become a way of life throughout the entire country thanks to its visibility in the media, politics, the Internet and its connection with sports. It has been popular since its creation and it will no doubt remain so for a long time to come.

Victoria D'Agosta, Juliette Heenan, and Samantha Rega

Sources

• https://www.timhortons.com/ca/en/corporate/our-story.php (last accessed on 25 March 2018)
• http://v1.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20090813.OBCHARADE13ART2152/BDAStory/BDA/deaths (last accessed on 22 March 2018)
• https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/tim-hortons-how-a-brand-became-part-of-our-national-identity/article20217349/ (last accessed on &ç March 2018)
• https://beta.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/tim-hortons-how-a-brand-became-part-of-our-national-identity/article20217349/?ref=http://www.theglobeandmail.com& (last accessed on 27 March 2018)
• http://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/double-double-now-you-can-look-it-up-1.511522 (last accessed on 20 March 2018)
• https://blogs.ubc.ca/kateph/2017/09/26/how-does-tim-horton-represent-canadian-identity-in-its-marketing-strategy/ (last accessed on 25 March 2018)
• https://www.quora.com/What-makes-Tim-Hortons-so-iconic-in-Canada (last accessed on 23 March 2018)

The Partridge Family

The opening-song of the episode

The Crowsills

The Partridge Family is a TV series that was broadcast from September 25, 1970 until March 23, 1974 on the ABC network channel that is well known for its series like Greys Anatomy, and its reality shows like amreican’s got talent.

The creator is Bernard Slade, a Canadian dramatic author. He is famous because he has partricipate to the production of bewitched. The series tells the story of a well-known American music group from the 1970s, the Crowsills, a beautiful family made up of the mother and her 5 children. 

They all live in South California, are crazy about music and would like to make a living of their passion. In the first episode, they compose a song in their garage that becomes a hit. 10-year-old Danny finds them a manager, renovates a colourful 1957 Chevrolet school bus with which they went to Las Vegas. That is how their musical career begins; we follow them during their trip. It is the same kind of series as The Little House on the Prairie or The Police Women.

The bus of the family

                                                      

The whole family

At first, it was the original family that was meant to play in the show, but the producer thought that the children were not good enough actors and that they were too old to play the characters as written in the script. But it may be the children that declined the proposition because the producer would replace the real-life mother of the family in the cast.

As a result, Shirley Jones was cast to play the mother of the family, Shirley Renfrew Partridge. She is now 83 years old. Chris Partridge was played by Jeremy Gelbwaks, who left the series after the first season. Brian Forster played Christopher Partridge, nicknamed “Chris”, who replaced Jeremy for the rest of the series. He is now 56. Suzanne Crough impersonated Tracy Partridge when she was 10, the little girl of the family. Crough died at age 59. Susan Dey played Laurie Partridge, when she was 17. She is the eldest girl. Danny Bonaduce played Danny Partridge, one of the kids, from the age of 11 to the age of 14. David Cassidy played Keith Douglas Partridge, Shirley’s eldest son. He unfortunately left us on November 21, 2017. Dave Madden played Reuben Kincaid, a friend and manager of the family.The family also had a pet dog called Simone.

The series also welcomed many guest starts such as Morey Amsterdam ( a well known American actor and also a scriptwriter) or John Astin ( participate to the production of “ Addams family”) …

One of the albums

The channel decided to sell albums with the music records of the family but most of the cast members did not appear on the recordings; it is another group that sings and plays. However, Shirley Jones and David Cassidy as the lead singers did appear. In the episodes, the other members lip-synced. Later, Dany built a solo career thanks to those songs.

The Partridge family was so successful that they recorded ten studio albums. They were a “bubble-gum pop” group ( a type of music that targets the teeners) . One of their songs was a hit in the billboard hot 100, “I think I love you”. They won a NRAM (National Association of Recording Merchandisers) for the best-selling single in 1970 with the same song. They sold millions of records as a music group.

The complete series in DVD

After the end of the serie, several new versions of “The Partridge family” were launched, but the most successful one is that of Nickelodeon in the 1990s. The digitial subchannel Antenna TV also signed an agreement with Sony Pictures Television to distribute the series. In 2013, Sony Picture Home Entertainment released the whole series on DVD.

To conclude, the partridge family can be considered as an icon of anglophone culture because they were very famous, and they make some people grow. They are sometimes compared to The Beatles for us. We encouraged you to discover their songs and the series, it’s worth it!

Ludwig Brennenstuhl, Anaëlle Mabille and Margot Lempereur.

Sources:

Pictures:

• https://www.google.be/url?sa=i&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwiR6LjGxI3bAhWNL1AKHbXnCnoQjRx6BAgBEAU&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.pinterest.com%2Fpin%2F191473421627010913%2F&psig=AOvVaw1aaBCwjqWNHZkR3ynZ7LQh&ust=1526673596405872
• https://www.google.be/url?sa=i&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwj6kZrmxI3bAhWNL1AKHbXnCnoQjRx6BAgBEAU&url=https%3A%2F%2Far.pinterest.com%2Fpin%2F477170523009075729%2F&psig=AOvVaw3vqmPxHsMTBo8H3phC-JaK&ust=1526673670282062
• https://www.google.be/url?sa=i&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwi-rJGFxY3bAhUDPVAKHek0DM8QjRx6BAgBEAU&url=https%3A%2F%2Funrememberedhistory.com%2F2017%2F11%2F22%2Fthere-is-an-artist-behind-the-iconic-partridge-family-bus%2F&psig=AOvVaw3vqmPxHsMTBo8H3phC-JaK&ust=1526673670282062
• https://www.google.be/url?sa=i&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjx_OOmxY3bAhWRmLQKHVrWAQwQjRx6BAgBEAU&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FUp-Date-Partridge-Family%2Fdp%2FB00004VW4R&psig=AOvVaw0c5D3Ny4GfDvVHoYsc-WAm&ust=1526673817404836
• https://www.google.be/url?sa=i&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjP3qO_xY3bAhXJmLQKHVfeClsQjRx6BAgBEAU&url=http%3A%2F%2Ftvshowsondvd.com%2Fnews%2FPartridge-Family-The-Complete-Series%2F21287&psig=AOvVaw1M8os6Wt8rzep7MHRZz6Zl&ust=152667385794846Website:

Website:

• https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Partridge_Family
• https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Slade
• https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shirley_Jones
• https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Cassidy
• https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danny_Bonaduce
• https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_Dey
• https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suzanne_Crough
• https://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-partridge-family-mn0000484145/biography
• http://www.museum.tv/eotv/partridgefam.htm
• https://www.billboard.com/music/the-partridge-family

Horlicks

Presentation of the product :

Horlicks is a malted milk drink developed by James (1844-1921) and William Horlick (1846-1936). These two people are two brothers and British-born men. James was a chemist, he worked for London pharmacist Gustav Mellin, in a company that produced dried baby food. William Horlick was a well-known philanthropist in the Racine area. He was also a major sponsor of the Racine Legion, which played in the National Football League from 1922 until 1924.
The two brothers lived apart from each other, James was living in London while William was living in Racine, a city in Wisconsin. Malted milk balls were developed in Racine. The younger brother, had emigrated to America in 1869 and James decided to join him in Chicago in 1873 and they started their own company named J&W Horlicks. They wanted to make a malted milk drink , powdered made from malted barley (orge maltée).
Fabrication of the product :
From 1906 to 1908, Slough was the first place that they chose to built their first factory. Slough is a town in Berkshire and it’s not far away from London. Nowadays, it’s the biggest market town in south Buckinghamshire and an important commercial center which includes large industrial as well as residential areas. The construction of the factory cost 28 000 £. By the way, the building is still standing and it’s an historical place.

In 1982, they created instant Horlicks which is instant malted drink in a sachet format.
From 1985 to 1986, they launched they chocolate malt flavours.

There were 3 different flavours : classic flavour, light flavour and chocolate flavour. In 2003, the brand introduced new flavours such as vanilla, toffee, chocolate, honey, and elaichi (cardamom).
Some other Horlicks productes were launched. In 1993, Horlicks biscuits and an energy bar in 2009, named Horlicks NutriBar. Also in late 2009, it was the Foodles, a brand of instant noodles. After that, in 2011, a premium variant of the malt drink, and Horlicks Oats, the breakfast cereal product.

Users :

At first, it was a drink given to all children, infants and invalids. Then, the producers used to give it to people who went on expeditions and to people who were in emergency situations.
Thanks to this product, they were able to live and even survive in the cold-weather in the mountains. It gave to them all the nutriments they needed.
During the two World Wars (1914-1918, 1940-1945), soldiers were starting to drink it too, at home as well as on the front lines.
In 1948, during the London Olympics, the popular drink “Horlicks” was given to all the competitors as a bedtime drink.
This company used to help children at the first place. Nowadays, everyone is drinking it just because of the taste.

Horlicks around the world :

Horlicks is also used in different country such as Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, and India. It is used in many different way with many different recipes, for instance : in India they use buffalo milk instead of cows milk to adapt to their beliefs.

Advantages:

There are a lot of advantages of drinking horlicks milk, such as : it is a lightweight drink, it is also non-perishables, it has high-calorie qualities, it is basically a very good food supplement because it has all the nutriments that a human needs, it is also energising, refreshes, relaxes and a sleeping aid

Conclusion :

To conclude, we found a video which sum up very well all the important information we had talked about in this presentation. We had thought that it could be a good conclusion.

Rosie The Riveter

The mechanical fastener, the rivet

The so-called Rosie The Riveter is an American cultural icon of the Second World War.
Her name comes from the verb 'to rivet' and it means 'to fix with rivets’, which are mechanical fasteners, and it was a job in the arms industry. Nowadays she is still as famous as in the 1940s.

Rosie first appeared in a song written by 'The Four Vagabonds' during the war to motivate women to go and work in the industry. 

 

A bit later, in 1943, John Howard-Miller painted the well-known poster 'We can do it!', which also aimed to increase women’s motivation. Rosie therefore symbolizes all the brave women who worked in arms factories. John Howard Miller was inspired by a picture of a woman working in a factory; a young lady with a red headband. He painted the portrait of a strong woman showing her muscles like a man would.

The woman who inspired the poster

Naomi Parker Fraley

The famous poster

The real woman, that of the picture, was Naomi Parker Fraley, a native American born in August 1921 and who died very recently, in January 2018. She worked in the Naval Air Station of Alameda, in California.

The Smithsomian magazine

However, for many years it was believed that another woman, Geraldine Hoff Doyle, was the model for Rosie. When Doyle saw the ‘We can do it!’ poster and the original photograph Miller had used in the ‘Smithsonian Magazine’ in 1944, she thought she could recognize herself on it. She later told a historian about her suspicions and the news spread across the media.
Many years later however, in 2011, the real Rosie, Naomi Parker Fraley, discovered that she was the one on the picture, but nobody believed her.
 Nevertheless, Professor Kimble, associate professor of communication and the arts at Seton Hall university in New Jersey,
investigated and arrived at the conclusion that Naomi Parker was the real Rosie. They met in 2015 and, in 2016, Kimble finally shared her story through the media. So the real person behind Rosie the Riveter was only discovered 73 years after the poster was painted! Some pieces of evidence were obvious: for example, it was proved that Doyle was still at school when the real original picture was taken.

  
  The poster also testifies to the fact that the 1940s were an important time for women. In
fact, during the two World Wars they had to replace men at work in industries and garages,
while men were away fighting for the country. During the First World War, women replaced men in industries, but once it ended men took up their jobs again, and women were left jobless. They obviously did not feel very happy with that because they wanted to keep on working and to feel useful. When the Second World War began, they did not want to repeat the experience but were obliged to work. After this second war, women did a lot of propaganda and demonstrations to keep their work and to have a role in society. They did not want to stay at home waiting for their husbands to come back. Rosie The Riveter has been used as the symbol of female emancipation. This was a big step for feminism and women's power, and their employment rate
even increased by about 55 percent.


  Nowadays Rosie remains in the collective mind. She is a really important icon in America
and a lot of famous people such as Beyoncé and Pink have re-used her picture to show their
support to the feminist cause. But it is also sometimes used to advertise their products. Anyway, this shows that Rosie continues to be famous.

Pink

Marge Simpsons

    

Beyoncé

Ambre Ansel, Léna Collin, Emilie Zimmermann









SOURCES
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geraldine_Doyle
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosie_the_Riveter
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aPT1q7ROX0
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naomi_Parker_Fraley
• https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/waitress-naomi-parker-fraley-who-inspired-rosie-theriveter-
dies-aged-96-6nkg5xb8n
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rivet
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2E613J9m0I
• https://www.history.com/news/rosie-the-riveter-inspiration
• http://alamedanavalairmuseum.org
• https://www.shu.edu/communication-arts/news/people-and-npr-feature-rosie-research.cfm
• https://www.ouest-france.fr/leditiondusoir/data/17839/reader/reader.html#!preferred/1/

package/17839/pub/25572/page/8

Ratana

 Ratana, the man

Ratana is a political and religious movement present in New Zealand which was created by Tahupōtiki Wiremu Rātana. He was a man from the Northern Island of New Zealand who belonged to the “Iwi” (“nation” in the Maori language), and more precisely to the “Ngati Apa” tribe. He was born in 1873 and in 1918, he claimed that he had received a message from the Holy Spirit, asking him to unify the Maori under the true God, Ihoa o ngā Mano, also called Jehovah, and to set the people free from the fake gods and spirits of the Maori tradition. He died in 1939.

Political and religious context

Maori land was still under British authority at the time, and had been so since the Treaty of Waitangi, which had established New Zealand as a Crown colony in 1840 to prevent the sale of Maori territory. In 1924, feeling neglected and forgotten by the British, Ratana and some supporters went to London to meet King George V: they wanted the Crown to do their job and keep protecting Maori land – but they eventually could not meet him. Although this movement was not endorsed by the New Zealand government, it surely helped the Maori people to enforce the treaty.

Ratana's movement was supported by the Anglicans and the Catholics because Catholicism was the religion of strength in New Zealand. Although he was influenced by the Christian religions, Ratana wanted to go his own way and declared in 1925 the existence of a new separate Church: Te Haahi Ratana, staying close to the other Christian churches and expressing tolerance towards other religious movements.

Religious movement

Te Haahi Ratana (or the Ratana Church) uses the Bible as its central book, and believes in the Christian trinity –  te Matua, te Tama and te Wairua Tapu (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) – as well as in ngā Anahera Pono (the faithful angels) and Te Māngai (the Mouthpiece, or God’s Word and Wisdom). In addition to the Bible, it also uses the Blue Book in every church service, in which you can find hymns and prayers, many composed by Ratana and written in Maori only.

Te Haahi Ratana has got the five-pointed star and crescent moon as a tohu (symbol). The star is multi-coloured and each colour represents the Maori trinity: blue is te Matua (the Father), white is te Tama (the Son), red is te Wairua Tapu (Holy Spirit) and purple is ngā Anahera Pono. The golden moon stands for a shining star, or the kingdom of light against darkness. The first temple, Te Temepara Tapu o Ihoa (the Holy Temple of Jehovah), was opened in January 1928.

Political movement

In addition to its religious purpose, the Ratana movement had a political aim: the defence of the Maori people. The first Ratana MP was elected in 1932 and the second one, Ratana's son himself, joined him in 1935. One year later, they decided to forge an alliance with the Labour Party and by 1943, Ratana members occupied all of the Maori seats. Nowadays, the party does not hold its dominant position anymore.



Current state

The Ratana church was the most popular Maori church in the early 2000s, counting more or less 40,000 members even though it suffered a 25%-drop in 2006. In 2016, the familial link is still unbroken because the seventh leader of the church, Harerangi Meihana, is no less than Ratana's grandson. The Kōmiti Haahi Matua (head church committee) is the governing body of the Ratana church. The movement extended to Australia and counts several thousand members.

In conclusion, we will say that Ratana deserves to belong to the keywords and icons of the English culture thanks, on the one hand, to the scale of the religious movement in New Zealand and, on the other hand, to the political actions which permitted to the Maori to protect and preserve their traditions and cultural identity.

Kilian Demey, Victor Duqué, and Noah Hocquet

SOURCES
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T._W._Ratana
- https://teara.govt.nz/en/1966/maori-religious-movements/page-3
- https://teara.govt.nz/en/ratana-church-te-haahi-ratana/page-2
- http://www.theratanachurch.org.nz/twratana.html
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Waitangi#Treaty_text,_meaning_and_interpretation   https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1c/Tahup%C5%8Dtiki_Wiremu_R%C4%81tana.jpg/250px-Tahup%C5%8Dtiki_Wiremu_R%C4%81tana.jpg
- https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/42/Ratana_symbol.svg/2000px-Ratana_symbol.svg.png

Betty Boop

Betty Boop was born in the Fleischer Studios and voiced by Mae Questel. We meet her for the first time as a club singer in 1930 in “Dizzy Dishes” where she became Bimbo’s girlfriend, the main character. From 1932 onwards, her popularity grew to such an extent that she became the main character of her own animated cartoons. But why?

Mae Questel

                 

Bimbo

           

It is especially thanks to her original voice, singing style, physical appearance, and because of cultural reasons.  During the thirties, Americans had to face an economic crisis that made life very harsh for them: the Great Depression. Thanks to Betty, they could forget their problems for a while and think about the good old days of the twenties. Betty was indeed a flapper jazz singer, that is, a woman exploring her sexuality and willing to obtain gender equality in the twenties. But it is also  – and perhaps mostly – because of her sensuality that she got really popular. Before her, female characters were all animals, which is obviously not that attractive. So, Betty was the first and only female human character with generous curves on the screen at the time. Therefore, she soon became a sex symbol and a feminine ideal. That is why she was also one of Disney’s main rivals, since female characters never got the lead role in Disney productions. Betty is thus an originator and one of the first feminists of the small screen.

                 

Helen Kane

Betty Boop’s main source of inspiration was jazz singer Helen Kane. She looked like her and borrowed her singing style with her famous “boop-boop-a-doop”. Kane felt threatened by the character for her popularity was in decline and she considered Betty Boop as unfair competition. Thus, in 1932, she filled a lawsuit against Betty’s creators. But  evidence showed that Helen’s so-called unique singing style was actually stolen from Afro-American flapper Baby Esther. Thanks to that, Betty’s creators won the case and Baby Esther’s legacy was restored.

    

Betty Boop first appeared as an anthropomorphic French poodle. However, she became fully human within a year. Back then, she represented a sweet and attractive girl with an innocent sexuality. As a result, she was often victim of sexual harassment: male characters were constantly trying to coerce her into sexual acts, as in “Boop-Oop-a-Doop” where there is almost a rape scene. Her only being 16 makes this even more horrendous. Reassuringly, the evil characters usually get punished in the end. It is also important to note that her cartoons were actually aimed at adults at the time. But it changed in 1934: a censure made her quickly lose her decadent personality:  the Hays Code, which demanded wholesome pictures. 

 Boop Oop  A Doop: from 6:00, she is victim of sexual harassment



Thus, Betty Boop underwent changes. For instance, she could not do suggestive gestures and had to cover her arms and legs. Due to this, her popularity went slightly down.

evolution of her physical appearance

   
She would also be accompanied by a dog named Pudgy and a savant whose name is Grampy. Thanks to these changes, children started to watch her show as well.
          

For your information, thanks to merchandising in the eighties, we still find products and advertisement with her effigy. 

mug with the effigy of Betty Boop

mascara inspired by Betty Boop

In conclusion, Betty Boop is a symbol of the Depression era, the Jazz Age flappers and feminism. She also personifies candor and was the first sexy icon of cartoon history that pleased everyone.

Eva-Marie Franck, Clémence Hooreman, Mélanie Lemaire. 

Sources:

-http://www.artsreformation.com/a001/hays-code.html 
-https://sandyshore2.wordpress.com/2010/02/21/4-betty-boop-evolution-and-censorship/ -http://www.films-sans-frontieres.fr/bettyboop/histoire_bettyboop.htm -https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=93301189 -https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betty_Boop -https://books.google.be/books?id=M20EDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA18&lpg=PA18&dq=betty+boop+cartoons&source=bl&ots=_dmXUDKLgc&sig=JyxFC4Dx4TYz_X4VuuROtPAzjfM&hl=fr&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjKwL3L4srZAhUH3SwKHYPqDpU4FBDoAQg8MAM#v=onepage&q=betty%20boop%20cartoons&f=false -http://bettyboop.wikia.com/wiki/Betty_Boop's_Ups_and_Downs -https://letterboxd.com/film/betty-boops-ups-and-downs/
-http://theroaringtwentieshistory.blogspot.be/2010/06/betty-boop_12.html -https://medium.com/collective-rage-a-play-in-five-boops/betty-boop-throughout-history-eb5d17dd8a75 -https://vmagazine.com/article/heroes-betty-boop/
-http://www.throughouthistory.com/?p=777
-https://www.allure.com/story/true-story-of-betty-boop - https://www.britannica.com/biography/Fleischer-brothers -https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fleischer_Studios
-https://www.fleischerstudios.com/betty1.html
-http://www.films-sans-frontieres.fr/bettyboop/histoire_bettyboop.htm
-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betty_Boop -https://books.google.be/books?id=M20EDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA18&lpg=PA18&dq=betty+boop+cartoons&source=bl&ots=_dmXUDKLgc&sig=JyxFC4Dx4TYz_X4VuuROtPAzjfM&hl=fr&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjKwL3L4srZAhUH3SwKHYPqDpU4FBDoAQg8MAM#v=onepage&q=betty%20boop%20cartoons&f=false
-https://www.revolvy.com/main/index.php?s=Betty+Boop&uid=1575
-http://www.zewebanim.com/bettyboop.htm