Pocahontas synopsis

Negative stereotypes about Indigenous people are everywhere, and until recently formed the basis of Netflix’s synopsis of the Disney film Pocahontas.

“An American Indian woman is supposed to marry the village’s best warrior, but she yearns for something more–and soon meets Capt. John Smith,” the description read.

Blogger Dr. Adrienne Keene saw the description and couldn’t let it stand. She wrote about the inherent problems with that synopsis in her blog Native Appropriations.

“The use of ‘woman’ and 'yearns' is so…gross. Shudder. The problem? It overly sexualizes the film, and only positions Pocahontas in relation to her romantic options, not as a human being, you know, doing things.”

The nearly overt colonial message from the description, too — yearning for "more," aka a white man — is pretty problematic.

And Netflix listened.

“Thanks for bringing attention to this synopsis,” said an email from someone employed by the company.

“We do our best to accurately portray the plot and tone of the content we’re presenting, and in this case you were right to point out that we could do better. The synopsis has been updated to better reflect Pocahontas’ active role and to remove the suggestion that John Smith was her ultimate goal.”

What’s the synopsis now and why might Keene be celebrating?

This is how it reads: “A young American Indian girl tries to follow her heart and protect her tribe when settlers arrive and threaten the land she loves.”

Not too shabby, eh?

“Look at that," Keene said. "From an angry tweet to an actual change in the description. Sometimes I’m still amazed by the power of the internet.”