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Amy Scarbrough
Emm Simpson
Writing 2
5 November 2015
Feminist and Historical Education Disciplinary Writing on Pocahontas
Pocahontas is one of Disneys first films that showed relation to United States history
and feminist ideas. Dominique Padurano, author of "Isn't That a Dude?", and Lauren Dundes,
author of Disney's modern heroine Pocahontas, take Pocahontas and analyze it from a history
educator and feminist point of view. Padurano uses the movie to compare the medias depiction
of Pocahontas with drawings of the real Powhatan princess. The article is from an academic US
history database because her approach is interdisciplinary between history and education
focusing on the differences between the images of the two women. Dundes looks into the whole
movie and how Pocahontas breaks and conforms to gender roles. She is published in a social
sciences database and analyzes Pocahontas through a feminist point of view focusing on its
issues and advancements as a childrens movie. The authors use a historical education and
feminist studies lens to argue and teach their points on the issues with Disneys Pocahontas.
They share conventions of writing like organizing their articles with sub-headings, but use
sources and paragraph lengths differently. This allows readers to see how authors from two
different interdisciplinary domains argue and write about the same overarching topic.
The authors both have arguments they are trying to get across to the audience, which they
present in different ways. The history teacher is arguing her point about the Powhatan princess
being misrepresented through images of Disneys Pocahontas. The scholar does this by pointing
out the clothing differences to her students. Pocahontas wears a revealing, short dress, while the
Powhatan princess wears more masculine clothing as her students identify as a high collar,
stiff hat, and armor-like dress (Paduarno). By pointing out the physical differences in the
pictures, she argues her point. Referencing historical pictures and examples of her students

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responses during the lesson is how the author convinces her readers of her argument. Padurano
writes to educate the audience on the differences between Disneys depiction of Pocahontas and
historical drawings of the Powhatan princess. She also gives tips and resources on culture in the
Chesapeake. For Padurano, the goal is to teach educators how argue her point that students can
be taught about a different culture using Pocahontas.
Pocahontas in the eyes of Dundes, however, is completely different. Dundes argument is
focused on her character in the movie and how she is and is not a role model for young girls. She
writes about Pocahontass decisions regarding motherhood, romance, and self-esteem. The
reader is convinced that Pocahontas is a step in the right direction for young girls, but in the end
Pocahontas conforms to altruistic values. Pocahontas decides to stay with her villagers who
"need" her providing evidence for the authors argument that any leadership role she might be
expected to assume is left unsaid, and is certainly secondary to the painful self-sacrifice she
experiences, thus showing her conformity to altruism (Dundes). She convinces the audience to
believe that Pocahontas still shows gender stereotypes through her use of sources. She references
books, newspaper articles, websites, and journal entries to provide back up support for her
argument. The article is written to present a new way of looking at Pocahontas. Moreover, the
author writes to convince the reader that the movie shows young girls some feminist, but
ultimately, altruistic values. The two authors argue for different purposes, but want to convince
their audience of something. Dundess goal is to convince the audience that Pocahontas both
adheres to and rejects feminist ideals.
The authors use a multitude of sources to back up their argument and provide textual
evidence for the topic. Padurano organizes her sources by topic and adds them for more
information than actually cited in her article. She uses a range of references from books and

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websites to journals and blog posts. Moreover, not only does she reference texts, but she also
uses pictures to animate her argument. The evidence provided in the article were figures
illustrating the two women to allow the reader to understand the context of the article. The
sources effectively prove the arguments accuracy. Dundes uses sources mainly to provide
support for her argument. She uses quotes and paraphrases authors from books, websites, and
scholarly journals. The only organization she provides with sources is alphabetical by authors
last name. The article often incorporates quotes illuminating others opinions of the topic that
agree with the authors argument. The sources are used to prove the authors point and to provide
information to the reader. Both authors use copious amounts of sources to provide context and
support for their arguments.
Academic writing disciplines write to and for different communities. The article by
Padurano is a history educational discipline of writing, while the other article by Dundes is a
feminist interdisciplinary writing. Paduranos article is written for mainly for teachers, but also
those looking into Pocahontas and the physical similarities to the Powhatan princess. The writer
assumes some knowledge about the Disney movie, teaching, and this history behind the movie is
known. She uses sources to help teachers plan their lesson and historical jargon and references to
address the topic. However, the author also adds resources for clarification and to present new
information to the audience. Dundes writes for an audience in the womens studies, gender
studies, and feminist studies disciplines. The author assumes the audience knows vocabulary like
role confusion and role discontinuity, therefore showing their expected audience (Dundes).
The authors audience is feminists and the academic world studying feminism and the media.
However, the feminist article does not use sources to clarify or explain terms and concepts the
way the alternate article does. The audience for the feminist discipline article seems to be

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assumed to have an extended knowledge of the topics presented, compared to the historical
discipline article, which spells out the argument more.
The general conventions of the two articles differ because of the different disciplinary
approaches. They also have similarities because they are referring to the same topic, Pocahontas.
General conventions of academic writing include organization, introduction and conclusions,
citations, and tone. The educational history discipline article only includes what is necessary to
help organize and shorten the paper; this keeps it organized by order of events and thought
process. It introduces the research, explains the case study, then adds guidelines for educators
and concludes the paper. Moreover, the body paragraphs are explanatory and full of information.
The author adds citations and resources at the bottom of the text for support, instead of inside the
text. By using this technique, the writer avoids adding unnecessary information for some of her
audience. The introduction and conclusion describe and analyze the experiment with the authors
students. The tone of the article is informative, yet casual. The author also achieves an educated
tone varying sentence structure and providing additional resources.
The conventions for a feminist discipline article are slightly different. Instead of using
chronological order to organize the paper, subtopics and themes from the movie are how she
organizes the paper. The some of the paragraphs are shorter, however the overall article is
longer. The introduction and conclusion sum up the entire article in a few paragraphs and act as
the first and final arguments of the article. The citations are listed in references with last names
and parenthetical citations throughout the article. The author directly references many sources
rather than using them as additional resources, as seen in the historical article. The tone of the
feminist article is strong and argumentative. The author also presents a higher educational tone
through a multitude of sub-topics regarding the movie related to feminist issues. She also

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achieves this by using common vocabulary, but also adding some jargon like altruism and
authentic [and] idealized relationships specific to the discipline (Dundes). The overall
conventions of the two disciplines are similar, but how they are addressed and written show the
differences in the writings.
The Disney classic Pocahontas is analyzed and written about from two different
perspectives and academic disciplines. The history education approach focuses on information
and guiding it audience, whereas the feminist approach writes at the audience and presents new
ideas about the movie itself. Many sources are used in both articles, however the article by
Paduarno presents articles and documents as additional resources rather than as direct support
like the article by Dundes. Both articles make assumptions about their audience and cater to the
assumed knowledge of the reader. Moreover, both articles present the information with
introductions, paragraphs with subtitles, and conclusions. The arguments of both articles are
presented in the introduction and proved through use of additional sources. The two articles
however arguing different aspects of Disneys Pocahontas, both prove their points through
similar and differing academic discipline conventions.

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Works Cited
Dundes, Lauren. "Disney's Modern Heroine Pocahontas: Revealing Age-Old Gender Stereotypes
And Role Discontinuity Under A Facade Of Liberation." Social Science Journal 38.3 (2001):
353. Academic Search Complete. Web. 21 Oct. 2015.
Padurano, Dominique. "Isn't That A Dude?": Using Images To Teach Gender And Ethnic
Diversity In The U.S. History Classroom--Pocahontas: A Case Study." History Teacher 44.2
(2011): 191-208. America: History & Life. Web. 21 Oct. 2015.

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