White directors have often steered clear of representing Native American women in film. They prefer to focus on the savage Indian man who battles the brave white man. Simply being a Native American woman, from the perspective of the white spectator, have been seen as contradictions. Motherhood and the care and responsibilities that the role entails humanizes Native Americans and makes their varied histories too complex. Instead, the focus is on young, often prepubescent, Indian maidens. In any event, telling the story of Native American women from the white male perspective is problematic. Native Americans have, throughout the history of film, been tragically depicted within a white male frame. To add to this frame the dimension of gender often means forcing Native American women into roles as white male fetish. The Native American woman is presented as the antithesis of what is white and male. She is forced to become the embodiment or not only what white Americans do not see, or wish to see, in themselves, but also a fetish of “otherness” that, having rejected, white Americans now long for. It is no wonder that the narrative and physical appearance of Pocahontas is sexually charged. Pocahontas is the embodiment of the repressed desires of white men. (Georgakas, 301; Good Housekeeping, 411)
The Term Paper on Study Of Women Male Men Societies
In this essay I will look at whether the inequality between men and women is a human universal, or whether there are or have been societies in which women shared power equally with men, or even exercised power over them. In order to do so, I will look at the writings of a number of anthropologists. In "The Subordinance of Women: A Problematic Universal", author Ruth Bleier indicates that a central ...
It is without question that Disney’s depiction of Pocahontas is a flagrant misrepresentation of both the woman and her life story. However, even if the spectator expects and accepts that much of the account will be fictitious, the image of Pocahontas is so imbued in stereotypes that it would take a truly educated spectator to leave the film without having regressed in his thinking of Native American women. Whereas a white spectator could easily understand that, say, Ariel from The Little Mermaid is an anomaly, the same can not be so easily deciphered from Pocahontas. Pocahontas does something truly frightening by presenting a truly authentic “otherness.” Unfortunately, this otherness is just that, otherness and in no way representative of any Native American culture. Pocahontas is in every way a white male fantasy. She is perfectly beautiful in the western sense of the term: she has long legs, long hair, and an hourglass figure. She is scantily clad in western clothing with an “Indian look”, and she is at the complete disposal of John Smith. To further her allure, Pocahontas is truly an amazing singer who sings western songs with stereotypically “Indian themes” of nature.
Of course, Pocahontas is completely docile, perhaps to overcompensate for her potential “savagery” It is baffling that Russel Means, who battled at Wounded Knee, described the film as, “the finest film ever done in Hollywood on the Native American experience” when it is clear that Disney had little regard at all for the reality of any of the multitude of Native American experiences. Here is a perfect example of the oppressor rewriting history to suit his own needs. Or perhaps Disney recognized that the true story Pocahontas being taken prisoner aboard an English ship and later dying of a disease she contracted after being exposed to white people would not have made for a very fun cartoon. The reality is that very little about the history of America’s relationship with indigenous women would lend itself to fairy tales. (Journal Bulletin 411; Corliss, 415)
In The Vanishing American Native American women are virtually a non-entity. The central character of the film, a Native American man named Nophaie, is understood to be a “good Indian” because he lives on white men’s terms. This includes accepting Christian religion, caring about and protecting his American identity, and perhaps most importantly, fighting to protect a white woman. In many ways, Nophaie is the “Pocahontas” of the film, the attractive Indian hero who fights to protect white people and white ideals. What role, then, is left for Native American women? In The Vanishing American Native American women are relegated to very minor roles as signifiers of the “otherness” of native people. One of the few depictions of Native American women is in the pupils at Marian Warner’s school. Marian Warner is a white school teacher and the female lead. The spectator is to understand that because Marian teaches Indian children, she is free of prejudice toward them. These students are the embodiment of Armando Prats’ idea that Indians have no view until the conqueror accords them one. Marian’s students are allotted no voice or perspective, but the spectator is to understand that Marian is helping them to “progress.” At one point she even comments on the progress that the students are making. There could only be one “Pocahontas” in the Vanishing American, a role that had already been filled by Nophaie. To develop other characters in the film would have been a contradiction of one of the central themes of the film; it would have challenged the idea that Native Americans are indeed vanishing. (Noley, 219; Lecture, 5.29.07; )
The Term Paper on The Evolution of Black Actresses in American Film
There is a rich history in American film. There is one group of people that were many times overlooked for their great attributes to American film: the Black actors. There were many aspiring black actors. Unfortunately, as in most things in the past, they did not have the same opportunities as other mainstream Hollywood actors. They were only allowed to be coons, tragic mulattos, mammies, and the ...
Many of the stereotypes about women that exists in other films are also present in The Fast Runner. However, the women are given voice and complex depictions. Women in The Fast Runner are not supermodels nor do they live within a white framework. In fact, these women do not interact with the white world at all and yet non-native spectators are able to engage with the film, if as an outsider. Certainly the women of The Fast Runner are something other than what it is to be white, but they are not defined by this. Through this film it is possible to understand how a film about indigenous people can shed a light on a culture without relegating those people to a role as the antithesis of what it means to be white. This is not only possible, but makes for a far more complex and interesting film that challenges not only expectations of what the “other” might be, but also the very framework in which we should understand indigenous people. Gone are the false binaries of “white woman vs. non-white woman” and in their place is a more nuanced image of a life that does not consider itself with regard to white structure. Ironically, the lead female character of the film faces many of the challenges that one would expect a white female heroin to face.
The Essay on The Forced Assimilation of Native Americans
One of the more horrible and lesser known aspects of the Europeans colonization of the United States is the destruction of numerous Native American societies and cultures. With whites feeling that Native Americans were on “their” land, the United States tried to force the Native Americans to assimilate to white people in the United States. Native Americans were forced into becoming new ...
She struggles with familial acceptance, her role in society(if more extreme than one might expect in a white context), love, and loss. As earlier stated, The Fast Runner is not without its flaws. Women, while occasionally empowered by the presence of the female elder, are generally portrayed in stereotypical female roles. One woman is the jezebel who commits devious sexual acts. Most of the other women are docile and beholden to their husbands. However, within the context of this particular society in which men must hunt to keep their women alive, these stereotypes are at least related to truth. Still, The Fast Runner is clearly forcing women into two extremes of the moral spectrum. Also, the film notably and accurately depicts an elderly woman as the true head of the society. (Lecture, 6.27.07; Prats, 357)
While white directors have avoided representing Native American woman, indigenous directors can hardly resist doing so. They recognize the centrality of Native American women within their own cultures and recognize that these powerful women cannot be ignored. Nor can they be relegated to diminutive roles as sexual objects, for this is simply not the role that they play in society. When white directors are willing to recognize that to be Native American is not simply to be non-white they too find it important to represent Native American women as the powerful people that they are. Unfortunately, non-Native American directors are often too concerned with fulfilling their own fantasies than with presenting the truth.
The Essay on Native American Women
... statuses and roles for men and women varied considerably among Native Americans, depending on each tribe's cultural orientations. In matrilineal and matrilocal societies, women had considerable ... the village while the women went about their many tasks. Seeing only female busyness in these native encampments, White observers misinterpreted what they ...
