Two Sides of Stereotypes

Pocahontas displayed an immense amount of native Indian stereotypes. The film also accurately portrayed the European attitudes about native Indians. The governor as a main character represented the greed and bigotry that created a general belief within the crew exploring the new world. The governor’s power over the crew made it difficult for the rest of the crew to develop their own beliefs about what to do with the Indians. The crew refers to the native Indians as ‘savages’ without having any confrontation or idea of what they represent. The native Indians know their land and lives are in danger so they are always shown with bows and an arrow which is a common belief about what people think Indians represent in battle. Although the native Indian stereotypes are obvious in the film, so are the stereotypes of Brits. The first thing the governor does when the crew hits land is stick a British flag in the ground claiming the land as “theirs”. I believe this represents how important wealth is to the crew as well as their ignorance towards the native Indian culture. 

Disney

Pocahontas, the Disney version, is a good example of culture clashing between reality and the fiction of the indigenous people. Pocahontas is portrayed as a beautiful young woman who sings to the trees  and nature and her best friend is a raccoon and a humming bird. Her lifestyle seems really great and is only made better when the handsome John Smith waltzes into her life. She is portrayed as a care-free girl who turns heroine when she protects Smith, her love, from being killed. However, we know this is a false representation of what her life was actually like, it greatly romanticizes her life and the other people of her tribe.

However, I will have to say something that I actually applaud Disney for, they showed the animosity that the Europeans felt towards the Native Americans. They should they weren’t favored and that not everything was Thanksgiving like between them. They showed something real, maybe not in the best way, but they attempted to especially during the song ‘Savages’.  

I’d like to add one more point children do look up and see Pocahontas and her tribe as the stereotypical Native Americans and maybe this is their first impression of them. However, I think that’s a little bit farfetched, to blame Disney for a child’s first impression of a culture, especially when it’s in cartoon form. Most children know that cartoons aren’t real and sure children pretend to act like what they see, but they know it’s pretend…that’s why it’s called make believe.  I highly doubt that children run around believing Sebastian, from The Little Mermaid, is an actual representation of a crab. I don’t think they will believe that a real crab has a Jamaican accent, leads a choir essentially, sings great and talks…it just doesn’t seem likely to me. 

Sterotypes

Many young children grow up watching Disney movies, and the Indian cultures in their films do not portray a positive message.  While watching either Peter Pan or Pocahontas children will receive a negative portrayal of the Indian’s.   Many times in films Indians are looked at as the savages.  A majority of the time they are shown around fires, chanting, banging drums, and even smoking.  In Peter Pan, a story about never growing up, the song “What Makes a Red Man Red?” shows these things.  The children in the film are learning from the Indian’s themselves the answer to the question, the Indians are once again seen in the beginning smoking, banging on drums, and even are chanting and dancing throughout the entire song.  Even though Pocahontas was one the first Disney movies to have Indians as the main characters, and even a Disney Princess an Indian, they were not seen in a positive light.  They were still shown as savages by the whites in the film, which then can lead the views to still hold the same idea.

Not only are children viewing Native Americans in a negative way, but there are many music videos that adults and young adults are viewing too.  In many of the videos like; Cher "Half-Breed", SugarHill Gang "Apache", Tommy Seebach "Apache", and Tim McGraw "Indian Outlaw".  All of these singers and groups, excluding Cher, are not even from a Native American background but are representing the culture.  They are all singing about Indians, and many of the views they are shown dressed up in feathers, with tee pees, and many other things commonly thought to associated with Native Americans.  All of these things are not truly what the culture has to show, but is what we are all used to seeing.  The wrong message through music and music videos has even come up in the new dancing game Just Dance.  The SugarHill Gang’s song “Apache” is featured in the game and while playing it users get to see a person dressed in full Indian “gear”, even a full feather headdress.  The way Indian culture is displayed in the game shows that still today it is simply thought of as headdresses, feathers, and the way we have seen them dance in movies.

               

Pocahontas

When we were younger, we never causght the full meaning that disney movies actually portray.  The meaning behind the movie Pocahontas goes much farther than the love story of John Smith and Pocahontas.  The songs, scenes, and Images of the characters help create an image of their role in history.  Throughout the movie, it was clear the colonists were the real savages.  The song "savages" was sung to show how each culture viewed each other.  Through the many other aspects of the film, it became clear that the filmmakers really wanted to show the colonists and the real savages. They were purposefully ugly and fat to make the audience recognize them as the bad guys.  The scene where the dog is in a bubbly bath with a jar full of cherries is a way to show how they are power hungry concieted people. On the contrast, the Indians were buff and attractive to clearly make them known as the good guys.  They were shown to work hard for all they have and they never lost there temper.  Pocahontas's father showed sympathy and was able to put trust in John Smith.  In addition to images the movie presents, there are many stereotypes shown relating to Indians.  The idea that they believe so heavily on spirits is expressed through many scenes in the movie.  There is the grandmother willow tree who always has the answer.  The Indians are thought to always be in conjuction with nature.  The raccoon Meeko, and Flit the hummingbird, are always following around Pocahontas.  She talked to them and seen them just as if they were human.  It's clearly meant to be a children's movie.  Even though there are important things in the movie and real history involved with it, it can't be taken as a true representation of what that moment in history was like

Native American Stereotypes in Film & Culture

I believe that in the Disney movie, Pocahontas, we can point out numerous stereotypes of Native American Indians. The first being how Pocahontas herself is dressed. Pocahontas wears a signature necklace, that looks like an arrowhead. Also, she is dressed in fringed leather clothing and is running around barefoot. Also, the wardrobe of her tribe is also a giant stereotype with all the headdresses, war paint, spears, bows and arrows, long-flowing black hair and feathers everywhere you look. With all the musical numbers about "being one with nature" it's clear Disney is trying to convey that Indians treasure their land, which may be true. But when everyone is talking to animals and trees it almost seems a bit over the top and hard to believe that is what Native Americans are actually doing. 

However, I am having a bit of trouble arguing that Native Americans are the only ones being offended here. The "milky skinned" white man is only concerned about greed and killing off anyone that has a different mindset than him. I also noticed that all the Indians are very, um.....ripped. Whereas all the white men are dirty and overweight. It's kind of offending to know that is how "we" are being portrayed (even if it's true after all). That's probably why I didn't find the song, "Savages" to be as offending to Native Americans as everyone else did. Sure, the explorers were calling the Indians "evil" and what not, but during the song the Indians also had their share of digs towards the explorers calling them "demons". 

Nonetheless, I believe that the movie Pocahontas is still a bit offending to Native Americans. Especially because the only reason Disney made a movie about Pocahontas is because she is a free-spirit and isn't a  postcard member of the tribe. It might have been a boring movie if we followed the life of her friend who might represent the actual life of a Native American Indian a bit better. 

Indian outlaw

Indian Outlaw is a song about how the main singer is a mixture of two different types of Native Americans.  While he doesn’t look anything like a Native American (the video isn’t the best quality), and it’s also really convenient that everything rhymes.

 First it’s really wrong for him to lie about not being Native American and then he connects the idea of being Indian to being an outlaw.  He doesn’t once say why he’s an “Indian Outlaw” he just talks about some stereotypical things that Indians might do.

The things he says could really make Native Americans angry because it gives people the idea that all native people are outlaws just because of their race, even though they most likely are law abiding citizens.  

Red man Red

Personally, I love the movie Peter Pan, and I used to watch the movie with my little brother all the time.  The one scene that never made a lot of sense to me was the Indian scene.  Tiger Lilly was the stereotypical Indian princess.  She is beautiful, and inviting of outsiders.  Most Indians of the time were not very happy when an outsider came in, and they wouldn’t offer a pipe to share around the campfire.  The whole Indian tribe was very stereotypical.  The chief had a big headdress with feathers; he was the biggest Indian and was very ugly.  The other Indians were just shadows and headdresses. 

All the Indians were helping Peter Pan and his clan, answer some simple questions.  What makes a red man red, and when did they first say ugh.  Since Indian girls are pretty it only makes sense for, “ugh” to come from an ugly mother-in-law.  This goes along with Pocahontas, because she was a beautiful Indian princess who was very accepting.  Disney movies don’t show how Indians really live, they don’t show what the white man did to the tribes, and they don’t show Indians giving tobacco to the English.  I don’t think the Disney movies give Indians justice because they were not all nice and kind and the English were not willing to learn from them.  Peter Pan and Pocahontas make Indians look stereotypical, and it is part of the reason to blame for children thinking that’s really what an Indian is.