(cw: rape, lynching, slavery)
I remember watching The Hunchback of Notre-Dame as a child, and for the first time, seeing another Gypsy on my television screen. She looked like my cousins; like my family. She was kind, but strong willed. More importantly, she was the only representation of a Romani woman that I saw as a young child.
All right, gypsy, where’d you get that money?
For your information, I earned it.
Gypsies don’t earn money.
They steal it.
No one ever told me that this movie was poor representation. I was just allowed to have my moment with my only Romani character.
It wasn’t until later in life that I had wished that my parents, aunts.. anyone would have used this movie as a teachable moment for me.
But y-y-you’re not like other Gypsies; they are… evil.
Esmeralda, in the book, was a French girl, Agnes, who was stolen by Gypsies, the Roma, us. The Roma leave Quasimodo in her place and the birth parents believe that Anges was eaten by her Romani kidnappers. The very premise of the book relies heavily on blatant stereotypes about Romani people. Stereotypes so pervasive and vile that they actually result in our own children being taken from us if they are light skinned. [x] [x] [x]
You mistreat this poor boy the same way you mistreat my people. You speak of justice, yet you are cruel to those most in need of your help!
That is only the tip of the racial trope iceberg. Esmeralda has a pet goat and dances with a tambourine in order to earn money, both of which are pretty blatant stereotypes. And, let’s not forget that the other defining moment of the story comes when Esmeralda is accused of witchcraft, another very damaging stereotype. Don’t forget that, ultimately, she is hanged for her crime.. something that actually happened, and continues to happen to Romani people. [x][x][x]
In front marched Egypt. The Duke of Egypt at their head, on horseback, with his counts on foot, holding his bridle and stirrups; behind them the Egyptians, men and women, in any order, with their young children yelling on their shoulders; all of them, duke, counts, common people, in rags and tinsel. Then came the kingdom of the argot, that is to say, every thief in France, graded in order of rank, the lowest going in front.
Another very important fact about Esmeralda is that she is supposed to be just sixteen years old. At sixteen, she is very much portrayed as a temptress and extremely hypersexualized. This would be problematic if the character was supposed to be thirty, but the fact that she is sixteen makes it much, much worse. Keep in mind that two grown men are fighting for her love. Two grown men who would have a great deal of power over a sixteen year old Romani girl. It is quite nauseating when I think about it.
Maybe, a miniature history lesson is needed here in order to point out why these stereotypes are so harmful:
We, the Romani people, came from India. We migrated through Persia, West Asia and into modern day Turkey. We were, essentially, wards of the Ottoman military and when the Ottoman Turks began invading the Balkans, they also began selling us as slaves throughout the Balkans and what is modern-day Romania, Moldova, and Hungary. We remained enslaved for 500 years.
It was during this time that the abuses of our people truly began. We were property and our slavery was not too dissimilar to the slavery of African Americans in the United States. In fact, Romani slave owners even shared “tips” with Black slave owners. Young Romani girls, and by young I mean young children, were often used as “entertainment” at parties. They were given as gifts to wealthy men who would repeatedly rape them. Thus was born the stereotype of Romani women being seductive temptresses. This stereotype is just as alive now as it was then. Romani women and girls are far more likely to experience sexual violence or be victims of human trafficking than European women of other ethnicities.
The frequent sexual violence against Romani women led to numerous mixed-race children who sometimes had light complexions. Rather than acknowledge the blatant abuse of Romani women, local villagers would accuse the Roma of stealing their children. This stereotype is also very much alive and well.
Many wealthy Europeans were thoroughly amused by Romani culture; we were entertainment. Some of the entertainment we provided was through fortune telling, which was most often palm reading. As some Roma began to become the muses of wealthy Europeans, the Catholic church felt increasingly threatened. They deemed most aspects of our indigenous religious beliefs as “witchcraft” and “satanism”, and sought to forcibly convert us.. even though it was illegal for us to enter churches in most of Europe.
Roma, today, are still experiencing the effects of these stereotypes. In the past, our ears were cut off for entering certain villages and territories, but today we are forcibly repatriated, violently attacked, and even murdered for simply being Roma. The notion that we are thieves, kidnappers, witches, and seductresses continues to have a profound impact on our people.
All of these stereotypes are embodied by the “Gypsies” in The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, some even by Esmeralda herself. Victor Hugo pointed that out in his book; he very blatantly pointed out that we face a great deal of injustice. In that respect, he was quite revolutionary. However, he could not ditch the stereotypes. He could not distance the Roma from these awful stereotypes. No, he actually reinforced many of them. In that respect, he did us a great disservice. Victor Hugo was racist. He never intended for Esmeralda to be anything, but a stereotype.
I was just imagining a rope around that beautiful neck.
I know what you were “imagining.”
It’s really very easy to see Esmeralda as an intelligent, beautiful, and independent young woman. It is very easy for non-Roma to see Esmeralda as a great character, and she would be.. had she not been a Romani woman.
You see, Romani women can’t simply take off an Esmeralda costume and live our lives without these stereotypes. That is impossible. Our ethnicity is not a costume; it’s not something we can cosplay, or wear on Halloween.. it is something that we live with every single day. And, we live with the damaging stereotypes found in The Hunchback of Notre-Dame. We live with the trope that is Esmeralda.
Esmeralda is a stereotype. She is a white person’s idea of what a gypsy should be. The original author of the story, Victor Hugo, published the book in 1831 and was strongly rooted in romanticism. So, it is therefore quite clear why he would (unconsciously even perhaps) romanticize the position and personality of Esmeralda. However, Disney also does several other key things which bring problems to the movie - the main one being overly-sexualize her character and play into the idea of ‘gypsy’ women as dangerous and cunning, who use their sexuality to get what they want without care. While her strength could perhaps be seen as a good thing, when seen in the larger context of the movie and book it becomes less centered and perhaps more dangerous. [x]
We can’t separate Esmeralda from her Romaniness. It is essential to her story. We can’t separate her from her Gypsyness, and Esmeralda’s Gypsyness is a racist one.
areudirty
titsay
prguitarman
