Pocahontas
Pocahontas, produced by Walt Disney Studios in 1995, is an independent and adventuresome American Indian young woman. This story is a romantic fantasy and the plot remains true to the established Disney’s formula for heroines that ‘dreams can come true’.
Pocahontas Chief Powhatan, her father, has plans for Pocahontas to marry Kocoum, a worthy brave from their tribe. Yet the Chief laments that Pocahontas is too wild and independent to find stability in marriage. Issues of race and gender stereotyping abound as Pocahontas falls in love with the first white man she meets, Captain John Smith.
Pocahontas represents an idealized femininity that is more a ‘Barbie-like’ physique (that is, exaggerated breast size, small waist, extended neck and leg length) than typically Native American of that era. However, Pocahontas is athletic - she dives the waterfall and climbs trees, revealing a physical confidence in her environment. Her statuesque body shape may conform to a conventional super model stereotype of attractiveness, yet her tallness can also be read as power! Her height symbolises she is an equal to both male heroes; Captain John Smith and her father Chief Powhatan.
Disney’s Pocahontas, 1995 @ Internet Movie Database
Disney’s Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World, 1998 @ Internet Movie Database
Posted on February 6th, 2007 by animatingwomen
Filed under: Disney Women
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