February 14, 2011

Bogle's romanticized Indian paintings

Adrienne Keene writes about a non-Native artist known for his romanticized paintings of Indians:

Lee Bogle and "Native American Love"So where to even start with these ridiculous romance-novel-esqe images? I mean, clearly, they eroticize and sexualize Native peoples, but they also rely on the ubiquitous stereotypes dark skin, long hair, images of nature, feathers, fur, buckskin, headbands, etc. I picked out the ones that are supposed to represent "love", but there are many others that highly sexualize Native women alone.

Most people can look at these and see them for their ridiculousness, but the problem is that they are reproduced millions of times all over the internet, with "Native American Blessings" or "Native American Love Poems" emblazoned across them. There are entire websites dedicated to e-cards, desktop backgrounds, cards, and t-shirts of these images.
Comment:  For more on the subject, see Painting Natives in Ceremonial Garb and Oxborough Paintings Infantilize Indians.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Not to mention the guy's clearly roided up. Happens a lot on romance novel covers for some reason.