Cultural Heritage Research Journal

Nataliia Tomenko

Representation of Roma Female as Fortuneteller in Mass Culture

Shoot from the Bremen Musicians

During the observation of visual sources, I was surprised how antigypsyist some animated cartoons produced for children around the 1970s both to the USSR and US are. The Bremen Musicians produced in the Soviet Union (here and after, SU; movies were filmed in 1969 and 1973) and Robin Hood (1973) created in the United States provide a very similar depiction based on sexualization, sexual objectification, gender discrimination and orientalization, also offering very strong racial discrimination and oppression towards Roma. Even though the political regimes in the two countries were different, capitalism in the US and communism in the USSR, the treatment of Roma was the same with a range of stereotypical messages.

The first cartoon, Bremen Musicians has video clip with depiction of “Gypsies” performing dances and singing songs. It begins with a general view of the hut in the forest which looks in the medieval way. The heroes, who look like robbers, sing about their dangerous life style (activities). The gang consists of 3 men with appearance of robbers (with knives and daggers) and one woman who looks like the gang leader. She performs fortune telling with the use of a regular pack of cards (which you can buy on each corner), which seems slightly  unconvincing, because normally the prediction of the future happens by virtue of Tarot cards. This aspect shows a criminal reference, as far as in the USSR, prisoners entertained themselves playing games with regular cards. The sequence shows contemporary prisoner’s culture framed into the atmosphere of the Middle Ages. The woman is depicted with particular attributes of a stereotypical “Gypsy” female person (with golden rings, bracelet, necklace). The sexualization in the depiction presence as (big bulk of female “Gypsy” body, big breasts and bulky bottom body part, red lipstick, stereotypical clothes (long, tight skirt)). 

Shoot from the Robin Hood

The second animated cartoon, Robin Hood (1973), created in the United States, has a sequence depicting Gypsies which starts from background of forest with heroes in clothes from the Middle Ages. The cartoon in general shows Robin Hood as a criminal figure with good image who robs from the rich to help poor people, there is a difference compared to the Soviet cartoon where criminals are displayed as a negative force. In the Medieval setting of the Robin Hood, the King’s convoy goes through the forest, and the Fox (Robin Hood) together with the Bear (Friar Tuck) intend to rob the King.. The King’s counselor snake is depicted as a negative hero with magic (hypnotic) skills. The shoot continues with an image of “Gypsies” (disguised Robin Hood and Friar Tuck) offering the King to predict his future, greeting him and simultaneously stealing precious stones from his jewelry successfully. They perform a magic ritual for the King pronouncing unknown, randomly created words using crystal ball. During the ritual “Gypsy” female figure tries to steal the gold but the snake interrupts it. Just when the king closes the snake in the basket, immediately the Wise women steal all the goods and leave the King’s shelter. On their way “Gypsies” steal everything valuable they see, even the golden caps on the wheels of the coach (there is the similarities with the Soviet cartoon, where a “gypsy” also carries the stolen wheels). The appearance of two “Gypsy” females shows the bulky body shapes, stereotypical clothes (long skirt), accessories, and dark skin, which can be because of animal origin of figures. 

As far as culture is an essential part of nationalism it was also affected by the Cold War. As both countries asserted, motion image was as a form of strategic weapon. During that time cinema and cartoon productions were controlled and shaped in US by the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals and FBI, in the same time in Soviet Union that role executed government. The FBI put efforts to create in Cinema the image of America as the protector of the American people and to blacklist Communists, the same Soviet government facilitated to produce movies to spread negative propaganda towards US. Some of movies even were banned for being insufficiently patriotic. Many of SU films were focused on spreading a positive image of Soviet life with the goal to prove that Soviet life was better than American one.

The outcome shows that both countries oppressed Roma for being the other, and this “otherness” is very much intersectional. The explanation is that this kind of stereotypes  lies on a deeper level, as psychologists say, on a stage of “first desires”. It is there where, from the point on view of a White European Male (dominant gaze), the representational intersectionality of “Gypsy” females as fortunetellers was established, and it explains how pop culture portraits non-white women. 

Also, Medievalist stylization of depictions would add another degree of oppression to this representational intersectionality, because being a fortune teller in the Middle Ages very often meant a risk of being accused in witchcraft. To some extent, it gives the modern people an illusion that Roma do fit somewhere, at least the Medieval period with its relative tolerance to harmless magic. So, antygypsyist stereotypes have to be observed, analyzed and removed from Mass Culture with aim to promote the real image of Roma culture.