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Saturday, March 15, 2014
Rooney Mara as Tiger Lily in the upcoming Pan perpetuates stereotypes, underrepresentation of Native Americans
On March 12, Variety.com
announced that actress Rooney Mara has been cast as Tiger Lily from the
Peter Pan story in Joe Wright’s retelling called Pan set by Warner Bros. to come out July 2015.
The trouble is that Tiger Lily is explicitly stated in
the novel and play as being a Native American. Rooney Mara is clearly white
and pale-skinned. As far as sources such as
Flavorwire, Imdb, and Entertainment
Weekly can tell, there has been no change to Tiger Lily’s identity as
Native American.
This
issue has two major parts to it: the blatant whitewashing of a role clearly
intended for a Native American woman and the inclusion of a Tiger Lily at all
in this retelling considering her racist portrayal in the original story.
The inappropriate casting decision
The
problem is relatively simple: a white woman should not be cast in a role for a
character who is stated as specifically Native American in the source material.
It is just as inappropriate if Channing Tatum played Malcolm X or if Selena
Gomez played Mulan.
Certainly,
ignorant “equality”-minded internet folk will attempt inaccurate comparisons of
the backlash of this issue to Michael B. Jordan’s casting as the Human Torch or
Quvenzhané Wallis’ casting as Annie in other upcoming films crying, “Why is it
okay for black actors to take white roles if a white person can’t take a Native
American role? That’s racist!”
What this fails to acknowledge is
that stories such as Annie’s are universal, yet that of a Native American is
not. Annie’s race plays no part in her story. On
the other hand, in Tiger Lily’s case her racial identity is core to her
character’s role in the story. Most Peter Pan adaptations consider her an
important character for her extensive knowledge of Neverland, having been
exposed to her tribe’s deep history with the island. She is unique to Neverland
and her personality traits such as her bravery and pride also stem from her
association with her, albeit stereotypical, tribe.
Furthermore, Mara does not display the physical characteristics remotely related to those of a Native American. This provides a disturbing opportunity for the usage of redface, or makeup to represent a Native American based on a stereotyped caricature. It will also allow for the perpetuation of harmful, one-dimensional stereotypes of a large, diverse group of people.
Mara’s
signing on for this role shuts out the opportunity for a relatively unknown
Native American actress to gain exposure in Hollywood, opportunities that are
very scarce for such a marginalized community in show business. Whitewashing
Tiger Lily’s character means that Native Americans are further erased from
society’s consciousness. Native Americans are vastly underrepresented in
today’s American society, and seeing a white person onscreen where a Native
American should be affirms to viewers everywhere that they are unimportant and
even nonexistent.
The problem with Tiger Lily
The
original Peter Pan was written by J.M.
Barrie in 1902 as a tale of innocence and adventure. However, the author’s
worldview was extremely Eurocentric and thus Tiger Lily represented English
fascination with Native Americans. As a result, the author’s depiction of
Native Americans was limited, flawed, and ultimately racist in nature. The
author wrote them into the story as a fantastical version of a real, large
group of people. This carried over into even Disney’s 1953 film adaptation in
which Tiger Lily’s people were referred to as “redskins” consistently. Tiger Lily has no spoken lines except for an attempt to say “Help!” while her
father and his tribesmen speak primarily in guttural grunts. This conveys the
voicelessness of Native Americans and the erasure of their collective identity.
A further
common misconception of Native Americans is that of the “Indian princess.” In
the play she is described as follows:
The concept of an "Indian princess" was the projection of European explorers' social structures onto the Native Americans they encountered. There is no such thing as an Indian princess. The fact that this aspect is still embedded into Mara’s role strongly suggests this
racist stereotype will be perpetuated in this role.
Adaptations
such as Hook and Peter and the Starcatchers tactfully chose not to include
Tiger Lily at all, recognizing the controversy of her depiction in earlier
retellings. Indeed, neither she nor the Chieftain made an appearance in the
sequel of Disney’s film version. It would have been wise for Pan to follow suit.
This is
why Mara as Tiger Lily is problematic. Not only is a white woman set to play a
Native American’s role, but a white woman is set to play a Native American
woman’s role that has been historically racist in nature.
The
filmmakers have an opportunity to follow through with their “multicultural”
retelling, which admittedly has not been off to a good start with Hugh Jackman
(white actor) as Blackbeard and Garret Hedlund (white) as Hook. If Mara is
playing Tiger Lily, her backstory should be changed to fit that of a white
individual rather than that of a Native American in order to avoid
inappropriate redface. Revamping Tiger Lily’s story as one that better
correlates with the more sensitive and politically correct ideals of modern
society would be intriguing and make for a much more compelling film. It would
also undoubtedly be a very constructive way for the filmmakers to distance
themselves from the source material in the way they seem to intend. For now, as
further developments in casting and production are announced, I’ll be keeping
my fingers crossed for a Latino Peter and an Asian Tinkerbell.
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