The Pocahontas Perplex: the Image of Indian Women in American Culture

In the essay 'The Pocahontas Perplex: The image of Indian women in American culture,' Rayna Green outlines various issues relating to the way Native women were viewed and categorized by European men. They are often portrayed as sex symbols, and these stereotypical notions stem from white European male perspective. Green states that for the Native woman to be depicted as 'good Indian,' she always has to help, rescue, or heal European men. Green emphasizes that the Indian women are classified into three categories: The Queen, the Princess, and the Squaw. Even though the three groups are slightly different from one another, they are all derived based on Indigenous women's' relationship with white men. Furthermore, Green declares that the hostile images and descriptions of Indigenous women arose from European perceptions and fabricated story tales. Moreover, these categories are derived from a sense of control by the European invaders over the Native women, and the perfect way to achieve control over them and impose their patriarchal and heteronormative dichotomies is by Christianize and educate the 'uncivilized sinners.'

Evidence

Green uses different historical poems, songs, and articles which all discuss or describe the Pocahontas/ Native American women depictions. She uses several popular collections of popular tales and quotes from authors which had written about the images of Indian women.

Method

Throughout the essay, Green looks at nine gallery images, where Indian women are portrayed in advertising of a variety of products and in most pictures they are depicted as objects who are only benefiting the European colonizers.

Argument Structure

The main component of the essay starts with the idea that the Indian woman was always portrayed as “good Indian” only if she helps, save, or heal European male travelers. To be depicted in a positive picture, she has to become an ally to the Europeans and 'she must defy her own people, exile herself from them, become white, and perhaps suffer death' (p. 704). The Europeans assigned stereotypes to Indian women for the whole purpose of colonization, where Indigenous women had to be controlled and brought down in status. The three categories that Indigenous women are put into being the Queen, the Princess, and the Squaw are connotations derived by the Europeans based on their relationships with them. Therefore, the image of the Indigenous women only presented by White people perspective confine the Indian women, and they are unable to express their autonomies and reclaim their identities based on their own self-determination.

Keywords

The first keyword that stood out for me is Pocahontas, which is typically a determination of white man’s standards. Indian women were displayed based on the way Europeans want them to look like. European whites controlled the identity of this demographic, and the standards of the white men determine the virtue of the Indian princess.

According to Green, the Pocahontas Perplex came out of the controlling metaphor in America, and this explains the use of women in the advertisement field. The words patriarchy, heteronormativity, and Christianity are driving forces in the colonization process of Indigenous people by the European invaders which tend to bring about how Indian women are portrayed to have nothing important than their relationships with men. The Squaw, which is the dark side of the Queen being outlined to possess more of Indian men features, is another keyword which emphasizes the negative characteristics of Indian women. The Squaw becomes a representation of all the inaccurate and culture biased perceptions of the Indigenous society as evident by the Europeans.

Connections

The Chapter of the book “Proud, Disobedient and Ill-Tempered” written by Karen Anderson is relevant to be compared with the essay by Rayna Green 'The Pocahontas Perplex: The image of Indian women in American culture' because it outlines various issues, some of which were common in the past when Europeans first encountered the Indigenous population of North America. One of the topics that connect the two writings is the perception of women and how they were presented in a negative image as being evil, disobedient, unfaithful, and were driving their men to hell. The two articles emphasize the fact that prior their encounters with the Europeans, Indigenous societies were egalitarian- their gender roles were equally distributed but after colonization, Europeans imposed this notion of control over the women by the men and the need of subjugating and subdue the women because of their ill-temper. In the case of the Pocahontas Perplex, women were considered as a symbol of sex, something that shows their domination by men and the same issue of domination is seen in the case of “Proud, Disobedient and Ill-Tempered” and the drastic degradation of women’s status in Indigenous communities after the contact with the Europeans. In addition to this, both of the articles use historical analysis as the evidence of making their arguments.

Response

This essay outlines various issues starting from the point of gender to that of past events, and all these issues have great significance. Despite the many things which are highlighted and considered appropriate within the paper, there are equally other things which will possibly not help much and hence do not concur with. For instance, the notion that women are a symbol of sex within American society is something that I disagree with. I realize that this might be the case in the past, but in contemporary times, women are capable of earning the same as men, and they are equally capable of being independent, educated and are on the same level as men.

I also think that the issue of identity about women is unconvincing, especially taking into consideration some of the approaches taken in explaining their status. Employing the Princess and the Squaw ancient images in disclosing the status of women do not perceive the real picture of the women within the current society. Portraying the Indigenous women to benefit the American culture is something that I found striking in this essay. Using Native women images to promote and attract male buyers because they were seen as exotic and seductive is something which reveals how Native women cannot escape from the stereotypical pictures as sexual objects stripping away their autonomy and voice. The other image, 'The Queen- the Mother-Goddess,' is also problematic because she is illustrated as savage, crude, uncivilized, and aggressive, just like their men. Therefore, the identity that White people constructed for Indigenous women is the only material we can obtain if we want to learn about Indian women, but at the same time, we realize that these depictions are inaccurate, problematic and these images are elusive and entirely derived from culturally biased subjective notions.