Disturbing reason cartoon characters wear white gloves

Whether you're an avid lover of cartoons, or just like to take the odd trip down memory lane, you might have noticed something odd.

Most cartoon characters have a signature outfit or costume to make them easily identifiable, but have you ever realised how many of them are drawn with a particular accessory? We guarantee you'll never unsee this now (even as a bona fide Disney adult here, I'd never realised how common it was!).

An Instagram creator has shared a video talking about the history of the cartoons, and the disturbing reason they wear the gloves.

Posting as Treehousedetective, he said: "Everybody's familiar with this very specific style of white glove that a ton of classic cartoon characters wear, but not many people really question why they're wearing the gloves, it's just how it always has been!"

Many cartoon characters wear white gloves (Warner Brothers)

He pointed out one Disney movie that made an exception: "Unless you're the character Bobby, from An Extremely Goofy Movie, who jokingly asked this exact question," and then cuts to the character saying "Do you ever wonder why we're always wearing gloves?"

One of the reasons is so that 'the character's hands can stand out from their darker bodies, which made it easier for animators to make them more expressive and to better convey the things that they were doing with their hands'.

So far, so understandable, you might think.

He adds: "While that's technically true, it's only half of the story and it leaves out a very important and very disturbing detail."

It turns out that some of your most-loved characters were inspired by a shameful part of history: blackface minstrels.

The creator explained that 'blackface minstrel actors from the 1920s and 30s wore white gloves so that their hands would stand out against the black paint on their faces.'

"Many early cartoon characters like Mickey Mouse, Felix the Cat, Bimbo the Dog, and Bosko, were blackface minstrel characters," he revealed.

It turns out that many of your favourites started life as a tribute to the 'vaudeville blackface actors you would see in the early days of cartoon animation'.

The popularity of the travelling shows featuring the minstrels made animators want some of that popularity.

A Krazy Kat poster from 1932 (Photo by LMPC via Getty Images)

He said animators would 'pattern their characters off of those blackface actors'.

This included adopting physical traits many people associated with the minstrels, such as 'dark black skin with the white or red mouth and eyes' as well as the tropes of the characters.

Commenters reacted to the news, but many weren't surprised.

"Raise your hand if you immediately knew the answer was racism", wrote one, which has had nearly 50,000 likes.

"So whenever you hear someone ask another person 'why do always have to make it about race?' The answer is because it almost always is, you just didn’t realize it," said another.

One person added: "I have an animation degree. In your first semester in animation school you take an 'animation perspectives' class that teaches you that the entire industry is based on racism and minstrelsy. It’s horrifying."

Did you know this?