As time goes on, we’re all waking up to some important political issues in the world. We’re becoming more acutely aware of social injustice and societal problems that have long been ignored. However, there’s also a downside to “woke” culture: we can’t have anything nice, to the point that people are calling for the classic claymation Christmas movie Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer to be banned for its “seriously problematic” nature. Oh, come on!
The holiday TV classic "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer" is seriously problematic. 😳 https://t.co/dOgqPF3bAP
— HuffPost (@HuffPost) November 29, 2018
- The Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer special first aired in 1964. However, the Christmas movie has become a holiday classic and tends to be played on network TV every year without fail. It was the 2018 viewing that caused an uproar, with Huffington Post tweeting out a video soon after it aired naming all the reasons it was problematic.
- Wait, so what’s the problem here? Some of the more problematic aspects of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer included the bullying Rudolph receives about his nose as well as the fact that his own father tells him to cover it up. Awful? Obviously. “Highly problematic”? I mean, I don’t think so. It sucks that Santa “aids in marginalizing” Rudolph and that the coach kinda encourages the other kids to bully him, but it’s not like anyone is praising that behavior.
- A lot of people thought the critique was ridiculous. After all, we’re talking about a Christmas movie that kids and adults watch for a little holiday spirit, not moral guidance. No one is developing their moral compass based on Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, and no one is going to think it’s okay to encourage someone to put a clown nose on to cover their blinking nose because they did it in the movie. That’s just ridiculous.
- The issue even made it all the way to The View. Whoopi Goldberg addressed the controversy on the show, saying, “People accused Santa of being a bully. Don’t they know the song?” After quoting the lyrics and receiving wild applause from the audience, she adds, “Where is the problem? He’s a kid that nobody believed in and suddenly they realized he is special, he is who he is for a reason. And he becomes the hero. Where’s the problem?” I couldn’t agree more!
