#anti pocahontas

[moonliightings]

indigenous rep in modern media sucks and we really need to talk about it.

trigger warnings include: rape, violence, abuse, slurs, and general bigotry against native people

let’s start with the most (in)famous example of indigenous rep in modern film: pocahontas.

pocahontas is the most prominent modern native character and she is terrible, terrible representation. if you’re a part of the native community, i’m sure you’ve already heard of this. but in case you’re not aware, pocahontas is based on a real girl named montauke who was only 11-12 when she was taken from her home, raped. abused, and later forced into marriage with john rofle who she even had a child with. pocahontas was not even her real name, it was a nickname. disney took this story and turned it into a love story between a native girl and her colonizer. even if it wasn’t based on a true story, it’s still incredibly disrespectful and set many terrible stereotypes for native peoples and characters that are still present in modern media.

here is an article on the historical inaccuracies of pocahontas - https://www.theindigenousfoundation.org/articles/the-true-story-behind-disneys-pocahontas

now let’s move onto the general problems pocahontas created for not only native characters, but native people in real life.

pocahontas sends a bad message to not only young native girls, but all people of color by romanticizing a relationship between a woman of color and her oppressor. i’m aware this trope was around before pocahontas, but it was popularized by this movie, and the effects of it are still around to this day. popular examples of this trope are —

the second big problem with this movie is it’s portrayal of natives. the character of pocahontas is basically a walking “magical native” stereotype who talks to animals and communicates with spirits. it’s also important to note how the designs were clearly designed by a bunch of white men who probably did little to no research on natives. sadly i’m not surprised because this isn’t the first time disney has done natives wrong. i’ll save that for another post though.

now let’s get to the sexualization of pocahontas. as i said in my last point, pocahontas was clearly drawn by white men. pocahontas is hardly 18 in this movie yet she’s drawn as a typical white mans fantasy. she has big lips, curves, and long flowing hair. she has next to no native features of the time. of course natives features can vary, but her design makes absolutely no sense considering the conditions and living state of natives in the 1600’s. this is already bad enough on it’s own, but it’s especially bad considering the true story of montauke. a girl who was raped was romanticized and turned into a sex symbol centuries later…

one of the other effects of pocahontas i don’t see many people talk about is how it popularized halloween costumes of native culture (where the sexualization continues). do i even have to explain why this is terrible? OUR CULTURE IS NOT HALLOWEEN COSTUMES AND WE ARE NOT ITEMS FOR YOU TO JERK OFF TO.

last but not least, let’s talk about how it affects natives in general. as a native person, i have been compared to pocahontas my whole life. it’s easy to write it off as harmless jokes or remarks, but i believe we should call this behavior out. these “jokes” are not only in horrible taste, but they’re deeply harmful to the indigenous community. the name “pocahontas” is one of the most common insults for native people.

all this stems from one film, a glamorized & romanticized adaptation of a real girl’s story. to even call it an “adaptation” is a stretch. this film is an insult to the indigenous community and everything our ancestors went through.

[gritsandbrits]

//Pocahontas Slander, disney neg

Who did this I just want to talk?

[ecoterrorist-katara]

“It’s gross if Katara marries Zuko since he’s her colonizer” she overthrew the last Fire Lord to put Zuko on the throne. If anything the Fire Nation would be worried that he’s Katara’s puppet

[elvisqueso]

Pocahontas (1995)

[hereathemoment]

If Mor and Emerie end up together… I have no words

[antinativefaves]

Please don't send asks/messages about whether or not it's okay for you to enjoy Disney's Pocahontas. It's not. Make peace with that or don't. I'd rather you put more energy into talking about the actual harm the film did as opposed to how "important" it was to you.

[fancylala4]

I don’t know, what is it with Disney stans and defending the harmful stuff in their favorite trash ass movie like Pocahontas and tangled. Also, Aladdin (though I like the movie and characters, it had a negative impact on how people view people from South and west Asia as well as North Africa) and the hunchback of Notre Dame (I like this movie but the Antiziganism is so bad in the movie. Also, constant use of a slur).

Is it so hard for them to admit that their fav movies can be problematic, and they can acknowledge that? Why jump people for being critical of these movies when they have a point?

[queerism1969]

[fortressofserenity]

A typology of indigenous character stereotypical roles

This may not always be the case for every fictional indigenous character in North American stories, not even consistently so, but it's kind of evident in the way they're portrayed. It's kind of evident in the way they're written in comparison to the white characters and non-indigenous characters in general, while it's getting better these days, it's still far from perfect.

Stuck in the past: While this is changing for the better, some North Americans (irrespective of ethnicity, unless if they're indigenous themselves) think that indigenous people only exist in the past. To the point where they kind of appropriate indigenous cultures, yet show no real interest in indigenous cultures and peoples themselves, due to this mentality that comes off as performative.

This is evident whenever there's a cowboy or colonialism themed story, oftentimes perpetuated by stories like almost any fictionalised take on Matoaka's story, The Road To El Dorado and possibly a few more. Like I said before, this is changing for the better. We're starting to have more stories featuring indigenous characters living in the present and even in the future like everybody else. These include Marvel's Dani Moonstar and DC's Dawnstar.

This is also evident in some romance novels featuring indigenous heroes at all, where it's almost always set in the past. They are unfortunately also sexualised and fetishised but that's for another topic.

The Sidekick: It seems until now, indigenous characters are only good if they are sidekicks to their white counterparts. I guess this is because if they ever show a backbone and stand up to white colonialism, they'll be immediately villainised if they do. This is the case with the earlier cowboy stories, most notably the Lone Ranger and its character Tonto. His real life female counterpart would be Sacagawea, especially in relation to Lewis and Clark.

This is unmistakably not a very threatening role, given the nature of settler colonialism where it seems indigenous people are only good if they kowtow to the settlers. This is beginning to decline in some later stories, though I'm afraid others still default to this portrayal. Like I said before that if Tonto's the preeminent fictional example of an indigenous sidekick to white people, Sacagawea could be seen as the real world indigenous sidekick to Lewis and Clark.

Even fictionalised portrayals of Matoaka fall into this in a way, where she's portrayed as being not too confrontational towards white settler colonialism. No wonder why she persists in the popular imagination and not Weetamoo.

The Enemy: The exact opposite of the sidekick where indigenous people are demonised if they don't kowtow to settler colonialism, it's also kind of demeaning because indigenous people are tired of racist mistreatment. It's kind of like this in some cowboy stories where if indigenous people do stand up to settler colonialism, they'll be maligned right away if they do. Not a good look when it comes to how Black Bison's portrayed in the Flash.

But this is not an isolated incident, since it kind of reflects white unease with indigenous people standing up to settler colonialism. It's not surprising how and why white cowboys are portrayed as getting rid of indigenous people, as if they don't deserve to live here even if they got there first. L Frank Baum, the creator of the Oz stories, has this mindset especially in nonfiction, where he demanded that Lakota people be killed. Terrible isn't it?

The Sex Object: One early encounter with this was in a short story anthology where this white female character makes out with an indigenous man, but this isn't an isolated case. It's like that with a number of romance novels featuring indigenous men at all, or more infamously their female counterparts in other stories. I remember somebody saying that white women fetishise indigenous men in a braves story of way.

Or for another another matter, Bernardo Spotted-Horse in the Anita Blake stories as pointed out by somebody else. It isn't just that they're scantily clad or whatever, but how they're fetishised for looking indigenous. This is the case in that story I mentioned, where the indigenous man is hot with his long hair down. This has unfortunately led to a lot of rape for many indigenous women and girls, including two that I know of online, which means this isn't good at all.

The way indigenous characters are fetishised for being indigenous is kind of disgusting, since this is one of the leading causes of MMIW. Another, better known, example is how Chel is portrayed in The Road To El Dorado where she's something of a sexualised accomplice to white colonisers. But you could also find this in romance novels featuring indigenous men at all.

The Plot Device: Cultural appropriation in action whenever somebody wants to either do pilgrims, cowboys or in the case with The Sentinel, get their powers from. It's a persistent problem that carries out in the real world where non-indigenous people appropriate bits and pieces of indigenous cultures and peoples, yet show no real interest in them themselves. Kind of performative, considering how indigenous people feel about this.

The Sentinel is one such example of this in speculative fiction, though one that also went largely unnoticed. The story involves some police officer who gains enhanced senses from an undisclosed indigenous community in South America, along with totem animals or something, but it's shocking how and why so little people talk about this. One would only wonder if this furthers the dehumanisation of indigenous cultures.

In the sense of their cultures being reduced to props for non-indigenous people to use, instead of something belonging to a living and breathing culture. This ties up with the stuck in the past meme, in the sense of treating indigenous people as artefacts. Rather than those who persist to the present day.

[sunshinebarbie95]

Pocahontas dumping John smith for John Rolfe is literally the Disney equivalent of Elizabeth Bennett dumping Mr.Darcy for Mr.Collins

[alinahdee]

My stance on non-Natives criticizing Avatar is the same stance I have when non-Natives criticize Elizabeth Warren: You can (and should!) criticize them because there are a million valid reasons to do so, but you can do it without being racist.

[fandom-rants]

yet another reminder that the movie Pocahontas would have been an Actually Acceptable Movie if the writer had just not pretended to be a budding historian and had used fake names for his obviously fake characters instead of pretending he was making a 'historical documentary with some creative liberties' because he preferred the white man's version of events

and maybe if he had we could all talk about how wonderfully a native woman and her father and culture were portrayed for once without having a bunch of teenagers start screaming about the history we are all already fully fucking aware of and we could focus on the actual racist problems with the film like the slurs and the 'Great Spirit' references which are in fact incorrect to original native beliefs before white people came and ruined them and how 'both sides were equally wrong' (I get what they were trying to teach children but no, fam) and the fact that the natives resorted to violence and war first instead of the white people which are the actual things I would like to talk about if these teenage animals would stop barking for ten minutes

[azural83]

I always thought that it was odd how disney still promotes pocahontas

Disney has a history of censoring or straight up ignoring their old problematic media but pocahontas? A true story about a girl who went through horrifying events that they romanticised and profit of it is still considered one of their memorable movies, she's still one of the official disney princesses despite the fact that how disrespectful the movie was towards matoaka

[elvisqueso]

Pocahontas (1995)

why did he say this.

[creepykuroneko]

Whenever I see asian, brown, and/or black Americans reinforcing, supporting, and upholding racism, colonization, imperialism, colorism, and any other belief system that not only harms them directly but other non-white communities as well and they still want to claim that they themselves are POC and face discrimination I feel bitter disgust towards them.

[antinativefaves]

An annual reminder that Disney knew that Pocahontas was a CHILD when she met John Smith and decided to age her up and go with a love story because they thought it would win them an Oscar.

Glen Keane insisted in an interview that "she has to be sexy."