"I'll Glitter"

In Walt Disney’s 1995 animated motion picture “Pocahontas” Governor Radcliffe was constructed and intended to embody everyone one could ask for in a villain, blood thirsty, greedy, self-absorbed, and queer. He is colonialism, and all the oppression and destruction that comes with it. Not unlike Jafar in Aladdin (1992), Radcliffe is also constructed as blatantly queer. Failing to embody traditional masculinity, we observe the braids in his hair are fastened with pink bows; he also does not partake in the physical work of “digging up Virginia”. In his musical number where he is singing about the gold that will be discovered in the “new world” he is dressed flamboyantly and sings “I’ll glitter” positioning him far outside of the norms of acceptable heterosexual masculinity. This is particularly true as men who are performing physical labor, thus displaying stereotypical heterosexual actions surround him. Positioning these hard working “good” men next to Radcliffe serves to further alienate audiences from him, and showcase his deviance.

Wiggings, Radcliffe’s confidant/servant/lover is without a doubt intended to be read as a queer character. Constructed as flamboyant and effeminate he embodies nearly all attributes and mannerisms, which are culturally attached to stereotypically gay males. Over the course of the film we watch as he cares for Percy Radcliffe’s pampered and very faggy pooch, which one can also read as queer not only in his mannerisms but also through his eventual romantic relationship with Meeko the presumably male raccoon. While all the sailors are constructed as embodying a culturally appropriate masculinity as they begin to build the fort and dig for gold, Wiggings is shown sculpting topiaries which serves to remove him further from appropriate masculinity. When the violence starts, unlike the other men who begin shooting guns, Wiggings is shown hiding behind his topiary art. In American culture where bearing arms is synonymous with appropriate heterosexual masculinity Wiggins is again culturally being coded as a deviant queer outsider.

Even prior to the ships arrival in the “new world” Wiggins has already been coded as queer, and his “inappropriate” masculinity has become a comic factor. Aboard the ship Radcliffe is discussing what the first meeting with the “savages” will be like. Saying “we shall have to give them a proper English welcome” to this Wiggings responds very excitedly “ohhhh gift baskets.” Although Wiggins primarily fulfills a comic role in the film, his queerness and potentially “inappropriately” close/possibly queer association with Radcliffe place him in the realm of the evil by association, thus again linking queerness with evil.