Last week, we talked about silent film auteur Buster Keaton vogueing—this week, we bring you good tidings of Betty Boop’s transmasc boyfriend Fearless Fred.
I know what you’re thinking: “who?” Let’s start from the very beginning. In 1930, cartoonist Max Fleischer commissioned one of his illustrators, Grim Natwick, to design a flapper character. Natwick seems to have drawn heavily from Black jazz age stars of the time in creating the character who would be known as Betty Boop. Her style, catchphrase (Boop-oop-a-doop) seemed drawn from Black performer Esther Jones, also billed as “Baby Esther” at the legendary Harlem night spot The Cotton Club.
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Vogue! Vogue! Vogue!
After Boop’s first film appearance in 1930, she soon became a household name and one of the first bonafide cartoon s*x symbols of the Great Depression. Boop’s growing popularity meant she needed a boyfriend (for some reason), and she was given one in the form of Bimbo the Dog. But then the Hays Code came around the Protestants had some serious issues with the bestial relationship between Betty and Bimbo. This set the stage for an individual we know as Freddy, or Fearless Fred. He’s a lifeguard who shows up in a comic strip in 1934, and he looks…well…quite familiar to modern audiences.
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The lipstick, the eyeliner, the twinning…Freddy is either a transmasc or a butch lesbian. There are no other options!
She broke out of comp het to find her a trans man, and we love that for her.
Freddy’s levels of swag could be attributed to the fact that he’s a professional lifeguard. But they could also be attributed to tboy swag, that well-known elixir that puts pep in your step.
Sadly Fearless Fred’s tenure didn’t last long, but we’ll never forget this iconic queer relationship that was decades before its time.
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