Indigenous Women In Popular Culture

Violence on the Indigenous Women Through the Lens of Popular Culture

On a worldwide scale, two pressing issues amongst Indigenous women are that of self governance and gendered violence. In the case of Indigenous women, perceptions of gendered and racial violence intertwine and serve as a form of patriarchy and colonialism. Although mainstream violence movements against women have been rallied against, violence against Indigenous women in particular continues to be a crucial issue. In popular culture, Indigenous women have been marginalized, portrayed with a lack of self autonomy, as sexual objects, and their overall bodily experience has been limited as a result. Such portrayals have been made with popular culture through Halloween costumes,

By looking at concealed statistics on violence rates perpetrated against indigenous women and by looking at the different cultural and gendered portrayals through popular media, we can see that this issue is not adequately described and addressed. The lack of proper justice and the rate of violence among indigenous women and girls is at an alarmingly high rate, which has not been adequately talked about or addressed. The rate of violent crimes executed against women is described as, “ 2.5 times the rate for all females” and further research estimates that “one of three women will be raped, three of four will be physically assaulted, and that Native women are stalked at a rate more than double of any other population” (Deer 3-4). Although these statistics are incredibly high, these crimes may also be underestimated, and most may not even be reported which is why most people do not know about this issue. The lack of agency to report

Delia’s character is presented as a super hero figure which we know is fictionalized. However, films such as “A Red Girl’s Reasoning” present a shift in consciousness because of their rejection of violence as a counterproductive motive which present more motivation for women when compared to other forms of popular media. Other popular culture disregards Indigenous violence against women as issue, and presents it as a commodity and for entertainment purposes instead. Overall, Indigenous representations in historical and popular media is vital in the way that Native women see themselves and in the way that society sees them as well; if more people in society were presented with more accurate/more information regarding this issue, more justice towards these women and change in the society would be