Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer

Have you seen the news today about an author and special ed teacher that claims Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer promotes bullying?  Here’s an article that discusses the claims made by this “professor”.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/05/rudolph-the-red-nosed-reindeer-bullying-fox_n_1129731.html

I’ve been watching this Christmas Special for my entire existence.  Every Christmas for the past 30 years I have watched this movie at the very least once a year, now that I have a child, probably closer to two times a year.  Not once have I every thought, wow, Comet and Santa are really giving it to Rudolph.  Not once have I ever said shame on you Comet for bullying poor old Rudolph and damn you Santa for not reprimanding him.

I’ve realized that the Comet and the other reindeers were making fun of Rudolph because he was different but they weren’t bullying.  No one punched Rudolph in the gut and said he wanted his lunch money.  No one flushed his head down a toilet.  Not once did I say to myself, holy shit Comet is setting a bad example for my child by picking on Rudolph.

You know why I never thought of those things?  It’s because the whole story is about Rudolph over coming the mocking and ridiculing to become “the greatest reindeer of all.”  I guess I always so it as an underdog story and how despite not looking the same, he overcame that and became the hero. To take out the other reindeers picking on Rudolph and not accepting him would be to RUIN the story of the underdog against all odds.

Lastly, I think we are going a little too crazy with the whole censorship of children materials.  Kids aren’t as gullible or stupid as the media claims them to be.  My child isn’t going to go to school and become a bully because he wants to be like Comet from Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.  What’s next editing out Charlie Brown’s Christmas so they don’t mock Charlie Brown at the end saying his tree is stupid?  Really, this author/professor has a problem with Rudolph?  God help us if he re-watches Charlie Brown Christmas.  I just watched that two nights ago and the children mock, ridicule and call Charlie Brown names pretty much the duration of the special.

Maybe it’s me but we need to leave Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer alone.  Keep it as the underdog story that it is.  We need to stop pretending our children are so stupid that a Christmas special from 1964 is influencing them into a world of bullying.  Our kids are listening to the story of how it’s ok to be different and rooting for Rudolph, not sad because Comet is mean to him.