Peter Pan is a 1953 American animated fantasy-adventure film and one of Walt Disney' s original classics. It is based on the play Peter Pan or The Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up by J.M. Barrie. One of Walt Disney’s greatest financial successes, the film has often been criticized due to its unfavorable depiction of Native Americans. The film and the play upon which it is based, reflect American Societal norms at the time. The film has a lot to say about the psychology of the American male and female gender roles during the first half of the 20th century. Both of these concepts have a long history of portrayal in Hollywood, including live-action, animation and on television. Peter Pan reflects American society in the 1950s and many of its character and how they are developed and portrayed create an insightful window into not only the racism of the era but also the gender role models and what we term today the Peter Pan and the Wendy syndromes.
Hollywood, Animation, Disney, and Racism
Racism has a long history in Hollywood. One of the most blatantly racist films ever made was one of the first blockbuster move, Birth of a Nation, that debuted in 1915 (Dirks, “Birth of a Nation”) The depiction of Blacks and glorification of the Klu Klux Klan, caused a public outcry at the time. Riots broke out in several major U.S. cities including Boston and Philadelphia. Some cities banned the movie entirely (Dirks, “Birth of a Nation”). The newly formed at the time NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) condemned the film. Despite this, the film made more money than any film before had made (Dirks, “Birth of a Nation”) and while the controversy never went away, the majority White society at the time made no effort to change the way actors portrayed minorities.
Animation and cartoons also never shirked from racist content in the early days of Hollywood. Blacks and Native Americans were most often the victims, though any non-Caucasian group suffered. Bugs Bunny, one of the most popular cartoon characters of all time, appeared in many racist cartoons with such titles as All this and Rabbit Stew stereotyping blacks, and Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips stereotyping Japanese (“Banned, Censored and Racist Cartoons”). All this and Rabbit Stew had a black hunter called “Texas Coon” (Busis, “Peter Pan and 13 More”). Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips had Japanese characters with buck teeth and thick glasses (“Banned, Censored, and Racist Cartoons”).
The Disney studio followed the Hollywood style of the day. Many of the studio’s feature length animated films and the cartoons depicted racists stereotypes of any non-White. Peter Pan, Dumbo, The Lady and the Tramp, and Song of the South are just some of the films that had very racist overtones (Busis, “Peter Pan and 13 More”). For example, in Dumbo, the language used by the black crows is stereotypical southern Black English. In The Lady and the Tramp the twin Siamese cats were sly, menacing, and had slanted eyes (Busis, “Peter Pan and 13 More”).
The racist caricatures of Black Americans persisted for throughout the first half of the 20th-century (many would argue that it persists today). The Japanese, Siamese, and Asian stereotypes were not as vicious prior to World War II, with films such as the Mr. Moto and Charlie Chan series using Asian characters as heroes. However, the stereotypes of the sly, specific sort of Chinese/Japanese English accent continued the overt racism trend in Hollywood (Kuchikomo, “Japan Today”).
NATIVE AMERICANS IN FILM
Hollywood discovered the public’s love for movies about the Wild West and Native Americans very early. William “Buffalo Bill” Cody, in addition to his famous Wild West Show, had his own film company in the early 1900s. Bill Cody’s Wild West Show, as well as his films, depicted Native Americans as always scowling, bloodthirsty and seemingly ready to attack at any time (Upton, “Stereotyping Indians in Film”). One of his most successful films at the time, Indian Wars, was about battles that Cody himself fought. The soldiers and Cody were the heroes and the Indians, “were shown as typical for Indians of the day: bloodthirsty and crazy” (Upton, “Stereotyping Indians in Film”). This was further perpetrated during the silent movie era during the 1920s. Native Americans had only a few expressions, usually grim, savage, and menacing (Upton, “Stereotyping Indians in Film”).
Indian women had two main roles in movies in the first half of the 20th century: a squaw or a princess. The squaw was the savage version of the male Native American. She carried her papoose and did the cooking and gathered nuts and berries. The white man often fell in love with the Native American princess who usually died either at the hands of the “bad guy” or through some sort of tragic event (“Redface! in Film and TV”).
Native Americans did not even get to act other than as extras in most films of the time. White Hollywood actors would assume the role of any prominent Native American character, just like white female actresses would assume the roles of the Indian princesses. The Native Americans in the background of the films were usually Navajos who lived near Malibu and paid by the studios to be in the background of the movies and speak their native tongue to add some authenticity to what viewers could hear being spoken in the Native American camps on film (“Redface! in Film and TV’).
This portrayal of Native Americans became a standard in film until the 1950s when things changed. The film Sitting Bull, made in 1954 and directed by Sidney Salkow, is one of the first that depicts Native Americans, in this instance Sitting Bull, in a favorable light. Even the dialogue was more respectful of Native American culture than in most previous films (Upton, “Stereotyping Indians in Film). Until this time too, most Indian parts were played by whites. Gradually, producers and directors started using Native American Actors.
PETER PAN AND RACISM
The Disney Film Peter Pan has generated a lot of controversies today, though not when first released, due to its racist portrayal of Native Americans. The play on which the film is based first opened in 1904 received excellent reviews (Laskow, “The Racist History of Peter Pan’s Indian Tribe”). The portrayal of Native Americans in the film was how Native Americans were seen by the public.
One could easily say that, ironically, this film continues just about every stereotype of a Native American that the American Public had and had been portrayed in film and on TV at the time:
Barrie's tribespeople communicate in pidgin; the braves have lines like "Ugh, ugh, wah!" Tiger Lily is slightly more loquacious; she'll say things like "Peter Pan save me, me his velly nice friend. Me no let pirates hurt him." They call Peter "the great white father"—the name that Barrie had originally chosen for the entire play. A tom-tom pounded in victory is a key plot point. (Laskow, “The Racist History of Peter Pan’s Indian Tribe”).
The characters in the movie view the Indians as savages. Peter tells the lost boys to fight the “injuns” in his follow-the-leader song. Captain Hook calls them “redskins. Other stereotypes include tying the teddy bear to the stake, war paint, talking about how you don’t want to grow up like savages, and smoking the pipe. All the Native Americans carry tomahawks and draped themselves in scalps (Barrie “Peter Pan” and “Peter Pan (1953) IMDb”).
Wendy in the film perpetuates a racist myth that Indians treat their women poorly and relegate them to subservient roles:
At one point an older Native woman demands that Wendy go retrieve firewood. Wendy’s indignant final refusal to perform these “womanly” chores is portrayed as her protesting the Indians’ uncivilized treatment of women and infers that Native Americans do not treat their women with respect. (Callen “Reservations about Books”).
One of the most famous, or infamous, part of the movie is the song “What Makes the Redman Red” which exaggerates and perpetuates racist myths about Native Americans. Lines too about “why does he ask you how” and one of the most discussed lines, “Let's go back a million years to the very first Injun prince. He kissed a maid and start to blush and we’ve all been blushin’ since” (“Peter Pan (1953) IMDb”).
1950s AMERICAN SOCIETY AND NATIVE AMERICANS
American society in the 1950s was, and had been since the Revolutionary War, mostly white. Whites comprised almost 90% of the population (“Infoplease”). White Europeans, for the most part, had fought wars, displaced, and marginalized Native Americans. Most American citizens likely only knew anything at all about Native Americans through the TV and movies. The portrayals revolved around Native Americans supposed savagery and ignobility. At the time Peter Pan became a hit, the racist portrayal of the original Americans fit the common conception of what Indians were like. The same was true of the portrayal of American Blacks, in movies and in the blatantly racist Television shows like Amos and Andy or characters in other shows like Rochester in The Jack Benny Show. Native Americans, though, did not have the then-budding civil rights movement to assist and since they were mostly isolated on reservations, there few White Americans every came into contact with Native Americans. The movie and TV stereotypes became ingrained in people’s minds.
After Peter Pan, though, things started the change slightly. The movie Sitting Bull came out the following year in 1954. In the Television show The Lone Ranger a few years earlier, Jay Silverheels, a Canadian First Nations actor (“Biography IMBd”), had begun to change the public’s perception slightly. While still portraying an unrealistic Native American in many ways, he did bring to the role (and subsequent movies made in the late 1950s) a certain dignity and style that was unusual then.
It was not, however, until movies such as Little Big Man and Dances with Wolves came out that Hollywood began to show Native Americans and their culture in a more positive and realistic fashion. In the movie Little Big Man, the portrayal of Native Americans for the first time was realistic and natural. The film depicted Native Americans as human:
native Americans are actually shown laughing and crying, like real human beings rather than the stereotypical stoic and unemotional Indians normally seen in Hollywood features. The Indians were depicted just like any other people -- some good, some not so good (“Redface! in Film and TV”).
Chief Dan George became the first Native American to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in the film Little Big Man (“Award Winning Native American Actors”).
Gender Role Models, the 1950s, and Peter Pan
The film Peter Pan and the way the characters were portrayed on film and on stage have created a lot of controversies and even had psychological conditions named after the film and its characters. Peter Pan and not wanted to grow up, effectively abrogating the responsibilities of adulthood, was a lesson that in the 1950s and before was something all parents wanted their children to understand and avoid.
Men in the 1950s were considered the head of the household. Gender roles followed the “traditional” model whereby “Women focused on housekeeping, childcare, and children's education. Male participation in domestic activity would be only partially desired and socially acceptable” (“Gender Roles in the U.S.”).
Men in the immediate post World War II era had a very defined role according to the stereotypes of the times. Men had to grow up. They could not be like Peter Pan. A male in the 1950s had to put on a suit, go to work everyday, and perpetuate this model to their children (“Masculinity, Gender Roles, and T.V. Shows from the 1950s”). A child like Peter Pan would have been an anathema. The movie struck a chord with the public Peter Pan did not want to follow convention and grow up and conform to the stereotype that had stood as something to emulate since the founding of the United States.
Women had their role to fulfill in 1950s America too. The American public expected women to be wives and mothers under the “benign” rule of the male. As Juliette Gardiner states:
Many teachers and parents had narrow expectations for girls whose destiny was to be marriage, a home and a family, with work just an interim measure between leaving school and walking down the aisle, rather than a career. Just 1.2 per cent of women went to university in the 1950s (Gardiner, “The Story of Women in the 1950s”).
THE PETER PAN SYNDROME
Someone like Peter Pan did not fit the ideal or the concept of what a male in the 1950s, and indeed for hundreds of years previous to then, should be. In one way, Peter epitomized a young adolescent of the times. He was carefree and had no responsibilities. He could go on adventures, live in a fantasy world, and frolic all day. In other words, Peter Pan enjoyed life as a youth and, contrary to what was expected of him, did not want to grow up.
This is the antithesis of what was expected of a male in the 1950s. Society expected male adolescents to be serious about their work and/or studies as they grew older. This was something to fear and something that children, especially male children, should avoid.
Post-1950s, with the change in the ways society views gender roles, psychiatrists have seen a rise in what they term the Peter Pan Syndrome. Unlike the 1950s, where men had little choice but to conform to the way American and Western culture established their roles, the rise of feminism and gender neutral movements have made more men becoming afflicted with Peter Pan Syndrome:
Maybe because of the shift in societal dynamics, women making their own money and having excellent careers and not having to be dependent on anyone else, the rise of the manolescent has become more easily facilitated (Houghton, “Peter Pan Syndrome”).
Even though society today as in the 1950s wants men to grow up and mature, ironically one can argue that gender equality has increased the number of Peter Pans in our society who shun growing up and allow themselves to continue to enjoy the pleasures of adolescence and avoid the responsibilities of growing up.
WENDY SYNDROME
Psychologists today have used another character in the Peter Pan book whose characteristics now define a certain type of female. In the movie, Wendy had many traits that a woman in the 1950s could not only relate to but were considered by society acceptable and expected. Wendy was not quite grown up but already was learning how to become an acceptable female adult in American society of the times. She cared for her brothers and took more of a maternal role toward Peter:
used the term ‘Wendy Syndrome’ to describe women who act like mothers with their partners or people close to them. Wendy is the woman behind Peter Pan. She is that someone who deals with the things Peter Pan doesn’t do, in order for him to ‘survive’Wendy Syndrome is about women who are very dependent upon their mates in a special way. They mother their mates, treating them like immature children (“Are You in a Relationship with Peter Pan”).
During the 1950s, no one would have necessarily considered afflicted with Wendy Syndrome a bad thing. Women were expected in some ways to mother their husbands. Not all women did, but those who had Peter Pans for husbands were not considered abnormal.
There is a lot of discussions in the media and books about “helicopter parenting.” Many psychologists link helicopter parenting as the root cause of Peter Pan Syndrome. When mothers and fathers inculcate themselves into the daily life of their child, they can risk creating children who are emotionally immature and who do not or cannot grow up.
Conclusion
The movie Peter Pan has delighted audiences for over sixty years. One of the most popular Disney movies of all time, its characters and characterizations struck a chord in the hearts of movie goers in the 1950s. The appeal of the movie, and the stage production remains almost as strong today. Audiences in the 1950s did not see anything racist in the portrayal of Native Americans. Nor did movie-goers realize how gender stereotypes and identities were perpetrated by the roles of Peter and Wendy.
Today, audiences may be as entertained as they were in the past. However, today more and more people, and Hollywood, have begun to recognize the racially insensitive and stereotypical portrayal of Native Americans as being wrong. Remakes and stage production directors have revised, cut out, and updated the story to avoid offending Native Americans and others. The gender roles too have been criticized and recognized as something that does not reflect the reality of the equality of the sexes and how men and women should react.
However, taken in the context of the times, despite the racism and gender issues, Peter Pan remains a classic of the American cinema.
Works Cited
Are You in a Relation with Peter Pan? The Wendy Syndrome. The Power Within Women RSS. N.p., 11 Feb. 2015. Web. 24 July 2016.
Award-winning Native American Actors - Firstamericans.org. Firstamericansorg. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 July 2016.
Banned, Censored and Racist Cartoons. Banned Censored and Racist Cartoons. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 July 2016.
Barrie, J. M. Peter Pan. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 July 2016.
Biography. IMDb. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 24 July 2016.
Bliss, Kellie. Challenging Stereotypes in 'Peter Pan' Teaching Tolerance. N.p., 14 Oct. 2011. Web. 24 July 2016.
Boyle, Aimee. Wendy Syndrome. EmpowHER. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 July 2016.
Busis, Hillary. Peter Pan' and 13 More Kids' Classics Marred by Racism. Entertainment Weekly's EW.com. N.p., 4 Dec. 2014. Web. 24 July 2016.
Callan, Maggie. Reservations About Books: Disney’s Peter Pan. Lakota Childrens Enrichment. N.p., 28 Aug. 2013. Web. 24 July 2016.
Cheung, Kylie. 5 Totally Racist Portrayals of Native Americans in Hollywood. ATTN:. N.p., 17 Jan. 2016. Web. 24 July 2016.
Dirks, Tim. The Birth of a Nation (1915). The Birth of a Nation (1915). N.p., n.d. Web. 24 July 2016.
Gardiner, Juliette. The Story of Women in the 1950s. History Today. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 July 2016.
Gender Roles in the U.S. - Boundless Open Textbook. Boundless. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 July 2016.
Infoplease. Infoplease, n.d. Web. 24 July 2016.
Houghton, Kristen. "Peter Pan Syndrome." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, n.d. Web. 24 July 2016.
Kuchikomo. "JapanToday." Japan Today RSS. N.p., 13 Aug. 2015. Web. 24 July 2016.
Laskow, Sarah. The Racist History of Peter Pan's Indian Tribe. Smithsonian. N.p., 2 Dec. 2014. Web. 24 July 2016.
Masculinity, Gender Roles, and T.V. Shows from the 1950s. The Artifice. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 July 2016.
Peter Pan (1953). IMDb. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 24 July 2016.
Racist Cartoons. Racist Cartoons. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 July 2016.
Redface! in Film and TV. Redface! in Film and TV. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 July 2016.
ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, n.d. Web. 24 July 2016.
Upton, Clay. Stereotyping Indians in Film. Clio's Eye Main Article. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 July 2016.
