“The Revenant’s” Representation of the Sexually Oppressed in Colonial America

(Disclaimer: This blog has been whittled down due to the illicit nature of the subject matter. Secondly, the subject matter is considered a hard pill to swallow for many, I tried my best to give as much I could while still being appropriate and this was the outcome, there is no promise that it will still be an easy read. With that being said: Proceed at your own caution.)

Dr. Block’s humanities core lectures have been heavily focused on the concepts of sex/sexuality relationships of Colonial America (most specifically between the colonizers and Native Americans/Africans whom they oppressed). Dr. Block well notes the white race’s distaste, obsession, and ironic sexual participation with the African and Native American’s sexuality (mostly through rape or discriminatory commentary). The motives behind the colonizer’s sexual intrigue with the oppressed are less tangible in comparison to the action and reactions to the actual rape and sexploitation of oppressed races in Colonial America that are still felt today (of which its piece will mostly focus on).

Blocks subject matter reminds heavily of “The Revenant (2016)”. During the movie, the main character, Glass, reaches a French settler camp. Upon entering he’s greeted with the sound of festive drunks and their cries for someone to “bring them the girl” as Glass walks over a traumatized indigenous woman. As if the audience needed the scene to get any less “stomach-able”, another indigenous is dragged into frame and raped on screen (1:44:00).

Sparing the audience of the even grittier details (the gist is there)– the scene is very explicit and unfortunately realistic to the accounts of peoples who have experienced this type of horror. and while the time for this type of colonial behavior is “over”, it’s ramifications are still felt today. Reactions to scene prove the sexual exploitation of natives by settlers still holds effects in audiences today. In her essay on the movie (also titled “Bring Me the Girl”, a Native American, named Sasha LaPointe (with morbid irony– a french last name), recounts a triggered episode by the movies content and realism in terms of the settlers treatment towards natives (specifically native women). This strong reaction to the movie shows how well Director Innaritu encapsulates the harsh reality of Colonial America and its one-sided power relationships, this time in the form of sexual exploitation. The colonists were all about power and land, these portrayed acts are a form of expressing this mongering over the natives for both land and power.

One of a few Pictures taken of Sasha LaPointe and friends in reaction to their viewing of “The Revenant”

This instance is not the only way in which “The Revenant” highlights the Native American experience in colonial America, it simply is the one that relates the most to Block’s source material (sex/ sexuality) in the overall theme of “empire and it’s ruins”: people go about their lives, and in swings “civilization.”