Minal Sukumar
A race of people still fighting for equality and justice are the scattered and diminished Native Americans. People in countries across the world have built ideas and notions about Native Americans based on narrow yet popular representations provided to them right from childhood. Children internalize discriminatory stereotypes based on race and gender through various media and this is especially true of Disney movies. In several children’s movies made by Disney, there are gender, race and class stereotypes, encouraging children to form ideas and opinions based on these notions. In the case of female Native American characters, Disney films have long been facilitating an acute ‘double oppression’ by strengthening and promulgating gender and race stereotypes around them. The aim of this paper is to explore these stereotypes surrounding the Native American woman as seen in children’s movies made by Walt Disney Pictures, with a focus on the films ‘Peter Pan’ and Pocahontas’.
In the 1920s, American animators and film makers Walt and Roy Disney set up the Disney Brothers Studio in Hollywood, California. Now in the 21st century, ‘Disney’ is a name known and loved in all corners of the world and even succeeded in creating the most popular theme park so that the fantasy may come to life. The Walt Disney Company has become a part of homes across the world and has dominated the mass media and entertainment industries, especially those targeted at children, for close to a century. Walt Disney’s first character ‘Mickey Mouse’ was created in the year 1928 and still remains an extremely popular character in the television and film industry for children while standing for all things Disney even today. With such a universal fan following, Disney films often sneak under the radar when it comes to stereotypes and discrimination in art. The reach this great company has is incomparable and thus so much more significant in the battle against discrimination at the root level. In a study on the effect of cartoons on children, Khaled Habib and Tarek Soliman note that children are always seeking new experiences making television and film the most educative tool available (Habib, Soliman 250). Ideas about the world are formed and established in the mind of a child through these mediums and this is reflected in their lifestyle and behaviour right from a young age (Habib, Soliman 254).
In 1953, Disney made the popular film ‘Peter Pan’, based on a story and character by J.M. Barrie. The plot follows the adventures of English children Wendy Darling and her brothers as they meet Peter Pan and travel to the magical Neverland, where they can stay young forever. The movie has been adapted and remade several times, the 2015 ‘Pan’ being the most recent. In the original story and in almost all adaptations, ‘Neverland’ is inhabited by a Native American tribe known as the ‘Picaninnies’. J.M Barrie attempted to create the Native American for ‘eyes of children’ thus making them seem like a realistic caricature (Laskow N.A.). Though this caused little controversy when it was written, the stereotypes of ‘the savage’ and the ‘uneducated’, especially as portrayed by Disney, has been met with great protest recently (Laskow N.A). While the Picaninnies are all presented in a harsh and discriminatory light, the Chief’s daughter, Tiger Lily acts as a complete foil to the British character, Wendy Darling. She speaks in broken English which is humorous at best and is portrayed as a rather flirtatious female character. When Captain Hook kidnaps Tiger Lily, the Picaninnies think the Lost Boys have her and do little about it other than making empty, violent threats. The completely helpless Tiger Lily is almost drowned at the hands of Captain Hook before she is rescued by Peter Pan.
The colonial connotations of the ‘exotic’ and ‘helpless’ Native American woman needing the British man to come save her from trouble are strong (Laskow N.A). The strength and courage of the Native American woman has been discounted in history and in this movie as well. Later on, Tiger Lily flirts and kisses Peter, immediately establishing the ‘sensual and exotic’ (Laskow, N.A) foreign woman with loose morals and principles. Throughout the story, she is devoted to Peter Pan as much as he is devoted to Wendy Darling (Laskow N.A) but can never be the epitome of perfection that is the British woman and thus is always sidelined as a minor and insignificant character, a mere plot twist, which is an unfortunate parallel to the reality of the Native American woman.
More than forty years after ‘Peter Pan’ was first made by Disney, they released the movie ‘Pocahontas’ in 1995. The story is based on the historic figure of Amonute (nicknamed Pocahontas), the daughter of the Chief of the Powhatan tribe in the Jamestown colony. In a popular legend, it is said Pocahontas laid her head down on the head of English soldier and explorer John Smith just as he was about to be executed by her father (Rountree 58). The same is portrayed in Disney’s animated movie ‘Pocahontas’, however that is where the similarity between fantasy and reality ends. Though Pocahontas did succeed in bridging the gap between her tribe and the English settlers, as shown in the movie, this peace she fought for did not last long. Records show that the Powhatan tribe ended their ties with the British once the violence against the Native Americans increased. Pocahontas went on to marry a man from her tribe and as he was not a Chief or a man of much political importance, it appears she married for love (Rountree 102). Her happiness was apparently short-lived though, as she was later kidnapped and taken to England where she was forced to adopt the practices of the English woman and convert to Christianity. She changed her name to Rebecca when in 1615 she married Englishman John Rolfe (Pewewardy N.A). Along with her husband and their son, she became the face of the campaign launched in England to revive support for the Virginia Colony (Pewewardy N.A). She died in Kent, United Kingdom and was buried there (Pewewardy N.A) leagues away from her homeland.
The Disney movie and later published picture book for children, ends at the juncture of peace between the Native Americans and the British settlers, achieved through the love shared between Pocahontas and John Smith. However, no records show that there was any sort of romantic relationship between the two. Disney has romanticized a historic tale of friendship gone wrong that is an example of the psychological and physical devastation caused by the colonisation of America. The company took one legend of Pocahontas’ history and built an entirely false life around her. The movie only showcases the Native American woman as a character in history who would do anything for the love of the white man (Pewewardy N.A). Pocahontas’ bravery and honour are diminished in the face of a fabricated romance and the rest of her story is swept under the rug. Though Disney did make a sequel to the popular movie, ‘Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World’ is even more of a fabricated myth than the first movie. The only two elements of reality present are Pocahontas’ journey to England and the character of John Rolfe.
In the movie, John Smith is arrested after being framed by Governor Ratcliffe who wants to wage war against the Powhatan tribe in Jamestown. In an attempt to save his life, another sailor John Rolfe travels to the colony and brings Pocahontas back as a witness to save Smith’s life. There follows a series of events including a ball where Pocahontas has to prove to the King and Queen that she can be ‘civilized’, and ends with John Rolfe agreeing to go back with her to her homeland. The movie rewrites the history of Pocahontas completely and her struggles as a Native American woman are dismissed. Nothing of her kidnapping, forced conversion or internalization of ‘inferiority’ is present in the Disney story. Both movies are made to be a romantic narrative, enjoyable for children around the world to watch and internalize. The Native American woman is put in the position of the ‘other’, as seen when Pocahontas arrives in England in her tribal wear and is greeted with disdain. She is romanticised, sexualised and stereotyped in a child-friendly manner so that the very essence of her existence is warped and distorted. Disney took a true story that represents the injustice faced by an entire race and erased the Native American voice entirely thus writing over the truth of Native American history in one fell blockbuster swoop.
Upon study of the two Disney animated movies discussed above, it is clear that the Native American woman is marginalized and stereotyped even today. Both characters of Tiger Lily and Pocahontas are introduced to the audience as foreign women of colour, easily dependent on the ‘white saviour’. The portrayal of the Native Americans in Walt Disney Pictures promulgates surviving discriminatory notions of the colonies even long after colonisation has come to an end and the portrayal of the Native American women takes this a step forward by serving to firmly establish in the mind of a child false race and gender connotations together.
Works Cited
Habib, Khaled, and Tarek Soliman. “Cartoons’ Effect in Changing Childrens Mental Response and Behaviour.” Open Journal of Social Sciences 3 (2015): 248-64. Scientific Reasearch Publishing. Web. 01 Sept. 2016.
Laskow, Sarah. “The Racist History of Peter Pan’s Indian Tribe.” Smithsonian Magazine. Smithsonian, 02 Dec. 2014. Web. 05 Sept. 2016.
Pan. Dir. Joe Wright. Prod. Greg Berlanti. Screenplay by Jason Fuchs. Perf. Hugh Jackman, Garrett Hedlund. Warner Bros. Pictures, 2015. Television.
Peter Pan. Dir. Clyde Geronimi. Prod. Walt Disney. Perf. Bobby Driscoll, Kathryn Beaumont. By J.M Barrie. Walt Disney Pictures, 1953. DVD.
Pewewardy, Cornel. “The Pocahontas Paradox: A Cautionary Tale for Educators.” Journal of Navajo Education (1997): n. pag. University of Kansas. Web. 01 Sept. 2016.
Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World. Dir. Tom Ellery. Prod. Walt Disney Perf. Irene Bedard, Billy Zane. Walt Disney Pictures, 1998. DVD.
Pocahontas. Dir. Mike Gabriel. Prod. Walt Disney. Perf. Irene Bedard, Mel Gibson. Walt Disney Pictures, 1995. DVD.
Roundtree, H. Pocahontas’s People: The Powhatan Indians of Virginia Through Four Centuries Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1990. PDF.
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