Pocahontas and the Western World

In Kiyomi Kutsuzawa’s essay “Disney’s Pocahontas: Reproduction of Gender, Orientalism, and the Strategic Construction of Racial Harmony in the Disney Empire”, she seeks to bring to light the racial and gender issues present in Westernized thinking.  She draws parallels between the European need to reconstruct what it is to be successful as a person of colour in a Western world, dependent upon the European male and the desire for control over the Orient in particular, and gender/race roles in Disney’s Pocahontas.  Through reading her Kutsuzawa’s essay and watching Pocahontas, a movie from my childhood, I discovered more of the underlying issues I’d only before noticed partially.  The main themes are the Orient as a political construct paralleled to Disney’s  Pocahontas and It’s a Small World, the determinants of a coloured woman’s success or lack thereof in a Western world, and racism in the guise of children’s entertainment.

Western Europe has a history of seeking out and conquering territory new to them in the name of expansion and wealth.  Sadly, that history stretches into the now…being a constant theme in some of the world’s power companies, such as Disney.  I’ve never been to a Disneyworld or Disneyland.  As a child, it was my fantasy to go because I thought they really were the worlds of my favourite movies come to life.  The older I got, the wiser I became.  First, I realized the “worlds” were just amusement rides meant to keep people entertained only for a moment.  Then, when I began to take classes in college, I realized Disney had dark secrets cleverly hidden behind smiling cartoon faces.  Disney, as per Kutsuzawa’s essay, spent several years creating films featuring mainly Western European characters.  Any characters not of these origins tended to have stereotyped sidekick roles or were seen as villains.  Once Disney decided to take their market overseas and to the doors of America’s non-Western European population, becoming transcultural, they began to incorporate ethnic people into Disney films as main protagonists.  This idea is something I noticed when watching Pocahontas.  In the film, Governor Radcliffe and associates mention more than once that their goal is to obtain gold from the land of the “savages” at any cost to the Natives.  Disney has also sought to obtain profit at large costs to societal well-being.  Stereotypes and generalizations surrounding a culture are formed from the first day a child watches a Disney film, whether it is Mulan or The Lion King.

It’s a Small World-Disney ride: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJFGAX77zw4

Throughout the US in particular there is this idea of assimilation.  If you assimilate into a Western way of thinking, looking, and interacting then you have a higher chance of being successful.  That success also depends on how brown your skin is and how well you’re able to speak English, among other factors.  This idea is reflective in Disney’s projected values.  I can’t speak to the rides at Disneyland but I did watch the video (link posted above) for It’s a Small World.  This ride displays a multitude of characters from different ethnicities singing the same songs, with the incorporation of instruments representative of their region to make it appear more cultural yet homogeneous.  The only reason any of the cultures are represented is because it allows for Disney to appeal to a wider market.  The same can be seen in Frontierland and Adventureland.  The actual histories of people are glazed over with brief mentioning of the bright side…no conquest between nations and no struggles.  In American society it is the same way. Don’t talk about the past, just act the way you’re told is best and move on to the next thing on your path.

I can say that I am grateful for the way I was raised because I escaped the corruption that a company like Disney can spread in the minds of children.  My father introduced me to many Disney films and we never really had dialogue about what they meant. However, he also raised me as a strong woman with little mention of gender or racial differences.  So, I grew up learning about these differences in the outside world instead of in the home.  I believe it made things a bit easier for me to choose my own identity void of Disney and often societal influence.  When I think about the Disney film Pocahontas, I think about how her life is portrayed as being similar to that of many people in the US.  She is raised to accept what her father has planned for her although she is given freedom to explore herself if she so chooses.  However, her life is also reflective of the Western concept that her discovery of who she is is dependent upon a European man’s interference.

I realized that the more I watched Pocahontas the more infuriated I became because, although I have an identity separate from Western standards, the portrayal of her life is similar to the experiences I’ve heard from others.  Unfortunately, the dependence on Western Europeans for success is a theme that crosses gender boundaries.  I’ve heard more than once from African American male friends that they date European American women because they feel it will help them get ahead in the corporate world.  Also, Pocahontas is portrayed as having features belonging mainly to a European physique but also that of Asians.  She does not look entirely Native American, save for her skin tone being brown.  The contrast between her people and the English is even mentioned by the medicine man when he says, “They are not like us…[they have] bodies that shine like the Sun.”  This promotes the idea of beauty, which is also tied into social success in a lot of ways.  If you want to be appealing and have the “sympathy” and/or “help” from those on the Western frontier, you have to look as close to European as possible.  This is why skin bleaching is a common and global phenomenon.

It is both sad and a blessing that children are born relatively innocent.  Corporations like Disney use this as an opportunity to seed ideas into their minds before they know what’s happening.  This is often before even their parents know what’s happening.  I’ve often gone on rants with friends about how Disney is causing a social regression right now.  In the past, it was common to see things like a racist portrayal of African Americans as a sunflower (Fantasia) or have the darker race portrayed as evil lions of hyenas (The Lion King).  Now, under the guise of racial acceptance, a new form of racism is emerging that is more clever and potentially pushing people back into a dark way of thinking.  Movies like “The Princess and the Frog” and “Mulan” present an aggressive or cold aspect of the cultures upon which they focus.  For example, the practice of Voodoo in “The Princess and the Frog” pulls on the strings of what is seen as evil and taboo in the Western world.  These thoughts creep into the minds of children who then share their thoughts unknowingly with peers.  It spreads like wildfire.  I still remember a documentary I watched a while back where a kid listened to African American teenagers laughing and said they were the hyenas from The Lion King.  The child was afraid of them.

I don’t believe a corporation like Disney is ever going to truly become both culturally aware and accepting.  I think they will continue to wear a mask in order to obtain a fortune.  At least that’s one thing that doesn’t parallel Pocahontas.  In Pocahontas, the English came in blazing with their greed and disdain for Natives written on their faces. Also, many people are afraid of change.  It is a safer bet to continue promoting the idea of the nuclear family, what it is to be a woman (especially an ethnic woman), and what it is to be a specific race than to suddenly adopt true understanding and acceptance.

References

http://jaguaro.deviantart.com/art/Disney-Demotivator-Pocahontas-192020833

http://www.viralnova.com/disney-urban-legends/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6v8R4jUliI https://www.flickr.com/photos/peterpanfan1953/4018227924/

https://www.tumblr.com/popthirdworld/30952729869/pop-culture-and-the-voodoo-religion