Dominant Culture

            Movies like Peter Pan and Pocahontas represent many of the stereotypical views of Native Americans.  Showing children these images engrain certain views of Native Americans in their minds.  In both of these movies, Indians are often shown dancing around a fire, chanting, or talking to nature.  Native Americans are almost never portrayed as “normal”, and they are always shown as different from the dominant society, the whites.  Often Indians are portrayed as inferiors to the whites who are most often the main characters.  One exception to this trend would be Pocahontas.  She is the main character who is also a Native American, something Disney has never done before.  Unfortunately, being the main character doesn’t completely eliminate stereotypes and she encompasses many of them in the movie, such as talking to animals and nature, and being very spiritual.  These stereotypes are extra powerful especially when children learn a lot about other cultures through the media, especially movies.

            The dance in Just Dance 3 also reinforces many stereotypes of Native Americans.  Just Dance 3 is a game that is popular among all ages, but especially younger children.  This dance not only shows an Indian in the traditional clothes, headdress, and feathers, but the music and the dance are also very stereotypical.  Many of the lyrics in the song also connect to stereotypes associated with Native Americans.  These images from movies and the dance create a picture of the typical Native American and they come to expect that from all Native Americans.  For example, that cartoon in class where the boy was saying the girl didn’t look like an Indian is just one example of these stereotypes clouding the minds of children and reinforcing the stereotypes.  This shows that the people dominating the media are mostly whites and they have the most control over what is shown in the movies and how Indians are perceived.