a DIACHRONIC study of the IMAGE of the POWERFUL FEMALE in POPULAR (and maybe other) CULTURES
Saturday, June 8, 2013
YEAR 1929: THE SEA HAG
It feels appropriate that 1929-- the year in which I found one of the first major *heroic* femmes formidables-- also sports a great villainess; the Sea Hag, introduced the same year as her nemesis Popeye for Elzie Segar's comic strip THIMBLE THEATER.
I've only read a handful of the Sea Hag's adventures in her original medium, so I'm not able to comment extensively about the nature of her witchly powers. In the stories I have seen, she's frequently served by various hulks like the Goon above, as well as ordinary mortal bruisers. In keeping with Segar's comic tone, the Hag's evil doesn't seem to be too extreme. In one of the sequences I have read, Wimpy draws her into a card game and she ends up gambling away her corset!
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