A Thing For Pocahontas

I have seen Disney's easy-on-the-eye Pocahontas about a million times because I have children. As an Indigenous Australian and anti-colonial thinker I have a lot of problems with the text.

Among these is the lovely way the western "divine right of kings" ideology is mapped onto the Indigenous worldview. Pocahontas is royalty, and therefore naturally more intelligent and more in tune with the "nature" that makes ruling classes "naturally" superior. As she is more intelligent, of course she must question, "What's around the river bend" (great song!) and challenge the apparently narrow and parochial views of her apparently savage and unsophisticated peers.

Of course, she is now too good for a man of her own people, and almost qualifies to be with a white man instead (but not quite). John Smith is happy to oblige. Her native fiance is then depicted as violently overreacting to this, and ignorantly sparking conflict with the invaders.

Lots of nice, smarmy, let's all be one, let's all be white imagery, with the dog and raccoon becoming friends, and lots of red and white hands coming together (white on top, of course).

Absolutely gag-worthy, but I put up with it all because I am a man, and therefore find it hard not to have a bit of a thing for Disney's glossy, sexy portrayal of Pocahontas.

The historical reality, however, is a bit more uncomfortable and disturbing. Not many people are aware that Pocahontas was only eleven years old at the time. Suddenly Disney's sexy imagery seems as inappropriate as John Smith's legendary seduction of the child.